Our annual meeting will involve approval of previous Meeting Minutes, voting for new board members, officers and committee members. Board of directors will be voting on new Officials’ positions: President, Vice President, and Treasurer. General membership will be voting on nominated Board of Directors. Emails will be sent out in December listing the nominees and their bios.

Lisa Keith, Ph.D, Research Plant Pathologist from USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, will also be guest speaking. Come join us learn more about Hawaii Tea Society, and enjoy tasting locally grown tea from our various members! HTS members will also be able to e-vote through email if they cannot attend.

*Members are eligible to vote only if they have been HTS members for 30 days prior to the election.

Date: Friday, Dec 30th, 2011

Time: 4pm – 7pm (revised time)

Location: Komohana Research Extension Center, Room 201

875 Komohana Street, Hilo

Cost: FREE

CURRENT POSITIONS

Board of Directors
Bob Jacobson, Eva Lee, Mike Riley, JoAnne Aguirre, Suzanne Wang, Wayne Knapstad, Bob Schaeffer

Board Officers

President – Bob Jacobson
Vice President – Mike Riley
Secretary – Suzanne Wang
Treasurer – Wayne Knapstad
Committees

Propagation – Eva (chair), Aileen Yeh, Alex Wood, Liam Ball
Audit – Merle Wood
Education – JoAnn Aguirre (chair), Wayne Knapstad
Website – Suzanne Wang (chair), Eva Lee
Membership – JoAnn Aguirre (chair), Wayne Knapstad
Exploratory Festival – Mike Riley (chair)

If you can’t find Keemun tea, substitute another black tea such as Yunnan or English breakfast. Choose a mild honey such as wildflower or clover.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons fruity olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled
• 1 pound large sea scallops
• Juice of 1 large orange (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 tablespoon Keemun tea leaves
• 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
• Cooked Chinese noodles or linguine pasta
• Cilantro leaves or finely slivered green part of a scallion, for garnish

Cooking Preparation

Heat olive oil in large sauté pan over medium heat until hot, then add garlic and stir briefly. Add scallops and cook two minutes on each side, turning once to brown evenly. Remove scallops to small bowl and cover to keep warm.

Deglaze pan with orange juice at low to medium heat, stirring to dislodge any browned particles that adhere to pan. Add tea leaves and cook, stirring another 30 seconds. Add soy sauce, honey and any liquid from scallops that has pooled in bowl. Cook just until sauce thickens slightly.

Pour through fine-mesh sieve placed over bowl. Return sauce to pan and taste to correct seasoning with salt and pepper, if necessary. Divide noodles and scallops among 4 plates and coat with sauce. Garnish with cilantro or scallions.

Makes 4 servings

Tea-Braised Brisket with Root Vegetables, Wasabi cream sauce

This recipe was featured at the Mealani Taste of the Hawaiian Range. For the full recipe, read here…

Michelle Rose

Company name: Cloudwater Tea
Company URL: www.cloudwatertea.com
Contact Info:
Email: cloudwaterfarm@gmail.com
Address:

What is your experience with tea? / Why do you love tea?

As the first and only tea farmer on the island of Kauai, the Hawaii Tea Society was an available resource offering support, networking opportunities, useful articles and external links, and other tea-and-farming related information. As a farmer, employing responsible and sustainable farming practises, it was a collegial and simple decision to join the HTS in it’s nurturing and supportive environment that continues to represent tea farmers and associates across the Hawaiian Islands in our budding stages of a new Tea culture.

Why did you join the Hawaii Tea Society?

What do you think of the burgeoning Hawaii tea industry?

After attending the State Capitol meeting on September 12th on the Big Island, I am confident that the State will greatly support this industry. The HTS is a mutual collective of serious and responsible tea farmers, enthusiasts, and associates alike and I feel that the State recognizes the importance of the role of Hawaii’s tea industry: in that we offer a cultural, sustainable, healthy, and unique image — and product — to the community, the State, and the rest of tea-world for that matter.

As I was a decade ago and still am today, I am very excited about the direction in which the Hawaii tea industry is heading – and to be at the forefront of it!

Shane Marrs

Contact Info:
Email: shanegmarrs@gmail.com
Address: My Tea Blog: Tea Love and Care

http://tealoveandcare.wordpress.com/about/

What is your experience with tea? / Why do you love tea?

My experience of Tea is minimal; in it’s beginning, yet potent stages. Apart from drinking and learning Tea over some couple of years, I now offer my assistance as an intern and laborer on Cloudwater Tea farm in Kauai – a dream come true. Working on this farm, under the genuine guidance of very fine farmers, and very fine tea, I have found insofar that a dream, once made contact with, continues to unfold as life unfolds, like a new tea bud, unfurling to present another.

Sitting in my shadow, was the metaphor that is Tea – Tea IS my spiritual shadow; when one sits in meditation, tea is there; when one sweeps the mind of internal dialogue, tea is there; when one takes off ones shoes, weeds in the garden, or reads a book – mindfully – tea is there; and when one has friends over for tea, tea is, of course, there.

For all the reasons I love tea,
http://tealoveandcare.wordpress.com/about/

Why did you join the Hawaii Tea Society?

I joined the HTS because I’m now part of the HTS, loving life and living love on Cloudwater Tea farm in Kauai, and soon to be doing the same at Mauna Kea Tea farm on Hawaii.

What do you think of the burgeoning Hawaii tea industry?

I think that, in reading books on the history of tea, it’s going to be very exciting when such books cite Hawaiian grown tea and all that the farmers and community did to accomplish that mark on history.

Other Comments:

Defile not its purity,
For drinking it expunges dust and woe.
The taste of this thing is spiritual,
Taking it from the mountain where naturally it grew,
I planted it in my own garden.
The bushes, to my delight, flourished,
And I could invite my wonderful friends

- WEI TINGWU, “THE JOY OF GROWING TEA IN MY GARDEN,” SONG DYNASTY

“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside: candles at four o’clock, warm hearth rugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without”

- Thomas De Quincey

“As an elixir of sobriety and wakeful tranquility, tea is also a means of spiritual refreshment and the ritual of preparing and partaking of it is an occasion for spiritual conviviality.”

- New Tea Lovers Treasury

by Shannon Amidon Castille

This article was originally published last spring from UH Hilo’s College of Pharmacy’s Kawili La’au magazine.

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.  ~Chinese Proverb

If you had a little money to invest, where should you put it? Dr. Anthony D. Wright has a suggestion: how about a tea farm?

Why? Green, First Flush, White, Oolong, Black, and hundreds of other varieties of tea all come from one plant: Camellia sinensis. And billions of people drink it.

A world leader in the study of natural products drugs discovery, this Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences says he may follow his own advice.

I’m seriously thinking about buying a piece of land to farm,  he said.  Hawai`i tea is an absolutely unique product, and the potential is immense for high end quality teas.

He recently shared the results of his pilot project, Investigation of Hawaiian Green Tea, at a University of Hawai`i Hilo Women’s Center and Center for Global Education and Exchange special program.

We are interested in tea because it is a natural product that has a huge commercial value. In many ways it is more valuable than pharmaceuticals.  he said.

The study, conducted last summer at Mauna Kea Tea Plantation, examined the production of three compounds in the bud and first two leaves of tea plants.

Conducted in a bit less than three months, the pilot project group included CoP visiting scholars Ran Song from Yale University and Kimberly Johns from Sheffield Hallam University, CoP Post Doc Dovi Kelman and Dr. Wright.  The group sought a better understanding about the effect of shade on the tea plant. We looked at the specific chemical components of tea all reported to have health enhancing pharmacological effects,  explained Dr. Wright, an antioxidant (epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG), a stimulant (caffeine), and an amino-acid (theanine) reported to assist with improving memory.

And what did the study reveal?

That tea is good for you,  he said, and added,  in a more specific sense, our study showed that as leaves age in going from the bud to the first and second leaves, levels of caffeine and theanine decrease, while the level of EGCG increases — but in our study only when shade is considered as a variable.

People are not just drinking it (tea) either,  he pointed out. Tea is found in cosmetics and over-the-counter products.  I think there is an anti-viral cream available containing tea,  he added. There is much more research to be done. People are researching tea but the data are very scattered,  said Dr. Wright. In fact what tweaked my interest was a colleague of mine Joe-Ann McCoy (Director, Bent Creek Medicinal Germplasm Repository in North Carolina) told me, “You should really have a look at this.”

Dr. Wright hopes to offer assistance to Hawai`i tea farmers with future studies.  He said, “We would like to help them with some sort of chemical validation to further add value to their products. ”

Please note that RSVP to sbir@htdc.org is requested. The seminars are being offered in Manoa on June 28, Kona on June 29, and Hilo on June 30.

Products grown in Hawaii or imported and repackaged in Hawaii that are labeled “Hawaiian”, have long been adapted for the purpose of commercial marketability. This kind of branding has brought up much discussion and questions for the local tea industry, which has been growing steadily the last ten years.

Tea grown in Hawaii is following a similar path as coffee grown on the islands – that of a boutique industry that strives for quality. If tea grown in Hawaii is labeled “Hawaiian”, is this a misrepresentation because camellia sinensis tea is not native to the islands? Is it inappropriate to call an Indian black tea scented with pineapple “Hawaiian tea”? How do we convey to our supporting communities a truth in labeling that speaks of who we are and what we produce?

A trademark functions as an exclusive identification of a commercial product, can include its source of origin, and serves as a “badge”. Obtaining one gives the owner exclusive rights, and can be enforced by way of an action for trademark infringement. Name brand trademarks can also charge licensing fees for those who want to sell their products. Region-specific trademarks require farmers to prove that their farms are within the borders of that region.

How can one tell if a product is trademarked? The following symbols are usually seen on the trademarked name:

® (a federally registered trademark)
™ (an unregistered trademark, or one that is in process)

Jeri Kahana, manager of the Commodities Branch at the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (DOA), recently gave Hawaii Tea Society an overview of trademark regulations. She used the coffee industry as a comparative model, and offered some valuable insights into regulating region-specific products, along with grading criteria for coffee. The Kona Coffee scandal of the 1990s  is an excellent example of where mislabelling did a disservice to the consumer, and inflicted damage on the specialty coffee industry. (To read more about it go to: http://www.teaandcoffee.net/0401/special.htm)

After the Kona coffee dispute, the Kona Coffee Council and the Hawaii Coffee Association moved to obtain a federal trademark for Kona-grown coffee in cooperation with the DOA, who now legally own the trademark “100% Kona Coffee”. This created a new mandatory certification program that guaranteed place of origin for coffee from the Kona District. Federal trademark use now requires all packaging in Hawaii to distinguish 100% pure Kona coffee from a blend. If it contains less than 100% Kona bean, then the coffee must be labeled a “blend”, and the exact percentage by weight must be printed on the package. To be called a “Kona blend”, a 10% minimum of authentic Kona beans is required. NOTE: This only applies to the green bean prior to leaving the state of Hawaii.

The DOA act as third party inspectors for Hawaii grown coffee that leaves the state.  Agents go on site and are responsible for enforcing trademark regulations, which include certifying beans from a specific region and grade analysis. Bean samples are taken from specific lots, weighed and sized, checked for moisture content, mold and/or insects. Inspections are charged $150 per lot, so it’s no surprise large volume productions incur more costs. Some of the biggest coffee mills in the state pay up to $35,000 annually in fees. Thus, these questions are raised: Who is really profiting from protecting the product? Is a trademark a successful deterrent to unethical practices? The farmer has to weigh the benefits of quality control against the consequences of state regulation.

Trademark ownership does not necessarily require grading standards for tea. Grading standards for coffee beans were in place long before trademarks were enacted for the Hawaii coffee industry. Currently Hawaii tea grading standards have yet to be established, which is important for providing quality assurance and brand reputation. With no standardization or regulation in place, as the industry grows, local tea farmers could be vulnerable to unscrupulous competitors.

What does it entail to trademark “100% Hawaii Grown Tea”? Having a registered trademark could ultimately protect small tea farmers, but there are many steps to the process, and it could prove costly. First, a consensus of trademark standards would need to be set by the local tea industry, and brought forth in a formal written request to the department. Then the industry would need to meet and work with the DOA to establish criteria for these standards. A draft of the proposed rule would then be submitted to the Attorney General’s Office and also to the Board of Agriculture for review and approval. The initial federal filing costs a minimum of $750; work after that is charged on an hourly basis ($90-$175/hr). After the trademark is registered, the DOA would need to be trained to inspect and regulate the tea. The annual costs for set up and enforcement of regulations still have yet to be estimated.

Should “100% Hawaii Grown Tea” be trademarked and its standards enforced by the state? The Hawaii Tea Society is currently looking into researching standardizations and awaiting more information from the DOA regarding costs. Many Hawaii tea farmers are sensing the time is ripe, while others may feel it’s premature to go down that road. We welcome your comments and insights into this important topic.

REFERENCES CITED AND FURTHER READING

http://www.teaandcoffee.net/0401/special.htm

http://www.espressocoffeeguide.com/gourmet-coffee/asian-indonesian-and-pacific-coffees/hawaii-coffee/hawaii-coffee-grading
http://www.teaclass.com/lesson_0203.html

http://www.the-tea-site.com/how_tea_is_graded.php