Sunday, October 19, 2008

Hawaiian Black Tea


Onomea Tea Co. is a small and growing "boutique tea estate" in Hawaii. As I recall, their selection includes white, black, oolong, and steamed or pan-fired green tea. One can not yet purchase the tea from their website, but I hope that changes soon, as I would like some more.

It's a black tea, and the leaves smell like black tea. The aroma is a bit generic, ubiquitous, but the leaves are beautiful, like a marriage between yancha and dian hong.

I used three grams four 4 minutes, but I would recommend using more leaf, as much as five grams. In fact I think this tea yearns for gong fu for the best results.

The liquor is a honey brown, like a pale ale.

It has a malty, brisk mouthfeel paired with a thinner body, similar to a ceylon. Honey notes, a subtle sweetness, and no astringency again bring to mind dian hong. The over all flavor has similarities to bai hao oolong. It was much better than I expected. It has the potential of being one of my few favorite black teas.


An afternoon with a book, some coffee, and a walk in the park has left me feeling more relaxed, more centered, than I've been in weeks.

17 comments:

Jamus said...

Sounds like this is a very interesting tea. I've heard a bit about hawaiian teas but have yet to try one myself. I'm curious how one comes to purchase this tea if you cannot yet buy it from their site? I have a friend who, despite my best efforts, only seems to enjoy black teas. I'd be interested in sampling it to see if it's something she may enjoy drinking. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it!

jamus~

Space Samurai said...

A friend brought me a sample, but hopefully the website will be up soon.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your tea experiences!! I've just began to travel in the vast world of tea and day by day I'm discovering new lands.. maybe Hawaii is too far for me but now I know these shiny little leaves also exist over there!

directly from Italy
Sara

Anonymous said...

I haven't tried this tea out myself yet, but it looks worth giving a shot. I wonder what other Hawaiian products I've been missing out on. I often drink Oolong and since you said they sell some I might order some once the company seems more established. It's great the net exists or else I'd probably would of never heard of it.

Anonymous said...

I was in Hawaii (Big Island) just a few months ago and really researched tea there. I'm impressed you could find this--I couldn't find anyone advertising tea for sale. We were even in Hilo.

I do think there's a certain "island culture" thing in Hawaii that hides the availability of tea--there's probably more for sale than you might think.

When I was there, I was under the impression that there's a burgeoning tea industry there, but it's pretty much all in an experimental stage. E.g., lots of very teeny tiny lots of tea, grown just to test feasibility.

Anyway, it looks like beautiful tea. I'm impressed you could score some. I tried hard but couldn't find any.

Space Samurai said...

I really can't take credit for it. A friend did all the hard work and was nice enough to share a sample.

Brett said...

Hi Space Samaurai!
I just posted on this same subject and linked it to your post. You should read the article "the archipelago of tea" that i linked in my post (if you haven't already seen it.)
Peace,
Brett

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I have tried this one out..really really sweet! One of my definite favourite.

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I have never heard of this kind of tea..and from the looks of it..this sounds really promising.

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I have tasted this one in one of my trips to Cambodia - perfect!

Flavored black tea said...

I’m hoping to open a tea shop in small NV town soon – your reviews will be of great assistance when I begin buying my inventory,

Steve said...

You STILL can't buy it online from their store. However there are other Hawaiian teas popping up.

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Hawaiian Paradise Tea represents the finest tea leaves blended with true aloha. This is best tea ever. The Flavours are also very sweet.

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It is a great tea, a friend of mine managed to bring some of this tea to me, and wow it is so delicious.

ahnn said...

Hawaiian Black Tea has been my favorite. It's really a good and healthy tea.

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I must taste it in future.