World Tea Expo 2013 (Tea processing seminar)

We took a two day seminar on tea processing at the World Tea Expo.  We, the students, actually processed the fresh cut tea leaves and created yellow, green and black teas.  The class culminated with students drinking our own finished creations.

First, Eva Lee, co-founder of the tea estate, Tea Hawaii & Company, flew in fresh cut tea leaves for the class.  The leaves were grown within the rainforest at the summit of Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano.  Lee, prior to the class, had cut and separated the leaves as appropriate for the creation of green, yellow or black teas.

Next, we students heated the leaves only for the green and yellow teas, but not the black.

We rolled and shaped the leaves for all three tea types. 

The smell from the leaves as we crushed and pressed them was amazing.

We ended the first day of class leaving the leaves for the yellow tea sweltering in a sauna.  We also set aside the leaves for the green and black teas in the open to oxidize overnight.  The next day we roasted the tea leaves to finalize the process.  At last, we brewed and drank our delicious creations.