Bought this while on Mauna Kea for the summit tour on the Big Island. (How is my vacation over already?!)
Anyway, I was not about to pass up tea grown on the mountain I was currently standing on – I mean, how often does that happen? Once I got it back to our rental house, I realized the parameters were pretty atypical for a green – boiling water and two minutes. The leaves were pretty atypical for a green, too – there was no uniformity, some were as long as grass shavings, others as small as mint leaves.
As is typical for a vacation brew, I guesstimated at amounts and steeping times. This didn’t suffer from the lack of precision, though. It reminded me most of an oolong, probably since it was a dark roast, but there is a notable vegetal flavor too. Mostly I’m surprised that the leaves held up to boiling water without turning into an astringent mess.
I’m rating this high for now partly because of the nostalgia factor, but I have enough left to give it a try at home and judge it a little more carefully then. It was pretty fabulous to be able to get tea so close to its source – if only that could be a permanent thing (sigh).
How cool!
awesome!