Ancient Leaf Tea

We had a rare chance to spend two weeks on the Big Island this year (2024) with both sets of grandparents. We were also able to visit two tea farms. If you ever get to the Big Island be sure to go to the tea farms.
Dry Aroma: A pleasant soft woody note swirled with deep forest berries.
Dry appearance: The bag is lined with golden trichomes. The leaf is twisted tightly. A mix of dark chocolate and light, golden brown.
Initial aroma: Apples. Wood. Cream.
Flavor: Woody with fruity tones. Bits of apple mixed with bits of Nordic berries. The longer it steeps the more it reminds me of a Ceylon with a bit of an astringent punch. Though it is good sipped English style in a mug, I find that it truly shines when it is steeped gong fu style.
Liquor Color: Translucent golden amber.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Bready aroma, and caramel bits with planks of fresh cut cedar.

For a white tea, one may open the bag and wonder if they choose correctly. It is a mix of brackish yellowish brown almost like stone ground mustard with light and dark browns and a few greens. The Silver trichomes on the buds number a few more then the ginger pieces. And while you wonder why there isn’t ginger you soon discover this as you slowly bring it to your nose. Breathing in too deeply you discover that this is fresh dried ginger they’ve used. An intense ginger with a strong personality. Less is more in this case. The aroma is full of gingery notes that mostly hide the earthy or other notes of the leaves. While the appearance isn’t the most pleasing you realize that this is a fairly new tea farmer and white tea is more difficult to process than most people realize. You warm your water to 195 F. We are steeping in a gong fu this second run to see what we an pull out that western steeping can’t. While it steeps you get notes of freshly cooked artichoke, a bit of ginger, along with a pile of leaves. Our first taste reveals ginger, artichoke, and leaf compost. Second time at about a minute is very earthy with plenty of previous notes mixed in. Same notes with the third steep. Definitely different for a white. I want to mix this with mamaki and see how it tastes.

There were approximately four different tea farms I wanted to visit while on the Big Island. However, it has been a long time since I’ve been there and since it was the first time my husband and kids had been there I knew I needed to tone it down a bit. Ancient Leaf was our second and last tea farm to visit. While overlooking the lush forest of the Onomea Bay area we sipped tea (after a tour of her farm) on her back porch. We were also treated to a few whales jumping and tail splashing.