Origin: Hawaii Island, Hawaii, USA

Flavor Profile: Thanks to the emerging terroir of Hawaii, this black tea’s flavor profile is completely different from that of any other tea. It is tremendously clean, smooth and refined, with no astringency or bitterness even when brewed for long periods.
High-quality leaves brew into a crystalline amber infusion. A thin, crisp body yields delicate notes of mugicha (roasted barley tea), caramel, barley malt and rice syrup, with a slight taste of roasted sweet potato. Each sip warms, refreshes and reveals new dimensions of flavor.

Tea Story: Samovar is the first tea company in the world to retail Hawaii-Grown Black outside of Hawaii. A man named John Cross cultivates it from tea plants that his father planted as an agricultural experiment 15 years ago.

The plants are a Cambodian sinensis varietal, which is thought to be a hybrid of the small-leafed Chinese plants and the larger-leafed Assam varietals. John’s garden is on the slopes of the now-dormant Mauna Kea Volcano. It is located at 900 feet above sea level, and you can see the Pacific Ocean while standing amongst the tea bushes. It is locally known as “Makai Black;” the word “Makai” is Hawaiian for “toward the ocean.”

John cultivates his plants and prepares them for harvest, and then fellow tea grower and processor Eva Lee of Tea Hawaii & Company harvests them, transports them to her farm and hand-processes them overnight with her husband (a potter who creates art for tea and a practitioner of the Japanese tea ceremony) and, sometimes, her daughter (an artist who lives abroad most of the year).

Eva feels that Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. that is likely to be able to sustainably produce specialty tea. She said Hawaii’s air, soil and water are amongst the purest on earth. Tea growers in Hawaii do not face many of the environmental concerns of other tea-producing areas, such as typhoons and natural predators, so they can grow teas at lower elevations without facing the wrath of nature.

The soil is particularly suited to tea production, as it is both fertile and acidic. At Samovar, we feel this new terroir is a must-try for any tea aficionado and for those interested in buying domestically-grown tea, and are also proud to offer Hawaii-Grown Oolong.

Samovarian Poetry: Lush green islands yield a lush black tea.

Food Pairings: The warm, clean flavors of our Hawaii-grown black tea pair well with roasted, salted pecans, subdued lemon custards, British “teacakes” (treats akin to Mallomars) and milk chocolates with sea salt.

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