​Written by Kevin Gascoyne
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​At the TOTUS AWARDS in Hawaii last month, American tea had its first taste of appraisal.  Kevin Gascoyne writes about the judging process, and the major push to put US-grown tea on the map...​

In recent years we have seen a few international tea competitions held in the United States—that is competitions for teas from all over the world—but nothing specific to the teas grown by this burgeoning industry of its own soils. As part of an effort to encourage and recognize US tea, tea farmer Eva Lee, who lives on Hawaii’s Big Island, spent the last two years putting together the very first TOTUS Awards (Tea of the United States). The event was held in Volcano Village, Hawaii, at the beginning of November. It’s no small challenge for a farmer like Lee to keep business going while producing a project of national significance.

Recent years have seen an increasing number of American growers in many states approaching tea as a serious cash crop, despite the tough economics of growing and transforming tea in the States. Hawaii is currently the US region with the greatest number of tea growers, both artisanal and commercial, so holding the first TOTUS event on the islands seemed fitting. On a practical level, their collective voice now attracts a more supportive level of federal and state support, which helped not only fund the event but also put Hawaii-grown tea on the map as a viable agricultural product.
The principal goals of this showcase of American leaf were to both motivate necessary support for this growing industry on local, county, state, and federal levels and to encourage demand for these specialty teas in this rapidly growing sector. This community event also offered an ideal forum for the discussion of the many issues faced by such a young industry and the directions needed to move all its growers towards a sustainable future. Advantages of such competitions have been seen in other tea growing regions such as the well-established Luku Competition of Taiwan or the Nilgiri Specialty Auctions.

Encouraging growers from all over the States to enter their teas had been a serious challenge requiring long evenings of reassuring phone calls. But on the morning of judging, seventy-nine teas had arrived from thirty growers on the mainland as well as the islands.  A full room of tastings was set up in eight categories, each on a separate table: commercial white, green, oolong, and black and non-commercial white, green, oolong, and black.

RECENT YEARS HAVE SEEN AN INCREASING NUMBER OF AMERICAN GROWERS IN MANY STATES APPROACHING TEA AS A SERIOUS CASH CROP...

The judges joining me were a collection of tea folk, including tea-author Jane Pettigrew, tea author and publisher Bruce Richardson, tea scientist Selena Ahmed, David De Candia of the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and the tea-wise chef Stephen Rouelle. We sat down before the competition to discuss the methodology of the tasting in detail and agreed on the importance of leaving constructive comments as to the marketability of each tea to be made available to the grower of each entry. Each tea was scored on

•color of liquor
•aroma of liquor
•quality of dry leaf
•flavor
•mouth-feel

The whole process was completely blind and a side from the clinking of porcelain and some healthy slurping, the judges worked in silence until each table of entries was judged, only to discover the final results once they were released publicly. Throughout the tasting there was a constant hum of potential in the leaf material, an impressive level of expertise in manufacture, and many very original highlights. Though, we found out later, a large proportion of the teas were from Hawaiian growers, a few had been flown in from the mainland—some of those among the winners.
Following the day of judgment, various field visits had been arranged and a roundtable summit with the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Daniel K. Inouye of the US Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center, the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii Manoa, and Hawaii Farmers Union United.

Subjects discussed turned around the importance of cooperation and mutual support, the tension between relative inexperience and the costs of production, and how high-quality, specialty tea would be the essential path to justify a viable price point against teas from traditional regions. Other more Hawaii-centric issues of identity and brand-building were also examined by the panel.

A fourth day of awards and conferences was launched by a short and encouraging address from senators Mike Gabbard and Russell Ruderman of the Hawaii State Senate’s Water, Land, and Agriculture Committee. Start to finish the event atmosphere was of pleasant optimism for an industry facing many obstacles but with enormous potential to flourish and grow. Hopefully, this will add energy to the American-grown tea movement and will be the first TOTUS Awards of many.

Article source - Fresh Cup Magazine
Written by Kevin Gascoyne ​

Tea of the United States (TOTUS) Announces Winners of First Competition
(TOTUS) Announces Winners of First Competition
Monday, November 23rd 2015 @ 9:27 AM

By Si Chen – World Tea News
Volcano, Hawaii

Tea growers in eight American states put their best step forward last week at the first TOTUS (Tea of the United States) Award competition and educational conference.

The competition drew 79 entries from 30 tea gardens. A panel of six judges awarded Hawai’i growers the top prizes for commercial production but also recognized four high quality teas grown in Mississippi.

Onomea Tea was the most lauded tea garden winning six of 12 categories in the commercial category. Six tea experts representing various aspects of the tea industry evaluated the carefully prepared samples for dry leaf appearance and brewed tea aroma, flavor, mouthfeel and liquor.

Judges reviewed the origin’s characteristics independent of traditional styles of Chinese, Japanese and Indian teas. Instructions were to score the tea by its own merit with commercial and non-commercial categories separating the size of operation, not quality. Entries include white, green, oolong and black teas.

“We hope that the competition will encourage those who have pioneered U.S. tea farming to gain national recognition for their uniquely crafted teas and further educate consumers supporting domestic tea agriculture,” said Eva Lee, a local tea grower, past Hawai’i Tea Society president and TOTUS executive director. Lee devoted two years to the project which was funded in part by sponsors and the Hawaii County Office of Research and Development. The event was hosted at the Volcano Art Center in partnership with the Hawaii Tea Society, and in collaboration with the Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council, Hawaii Farmers Union United, and The Kohala Center.

A ‘Community Tea-In’ at the Arts Center, featured inspirational talks ranging from the social or geological history of tea culture and the spirituality of tea’s influence on U.S. artists, to the effect of climate changes on tea. There was even a focused tasting pairing tea and scotch.

“This competition is quite an achievement, which marks the milestone for US tea,” said Dr. Ching-Yuan Hu, Prof of Human Nutrition and Food from the University of Hawaii – Manoa. “In Hawaii we have some of the most optimal eco-conditions for tea growing, and we want the world to know that we are sincere and hard-working in finding ways to improve tea production techniques,” he said.

At a round table following the judging participants questioned whether establishing an annual competition will lead to standardization of growing practices like those in Assam and Darjeeling which might narrowly define the character of Hawaiian and other teas grown on U.S. soil.

American terroir is expansive. The farms vary from tiny to large; tea processing varies widely a combination that introduces many variables.

Jane Pettigrew, who chaired the judging panel, noted that, “Tea growing is a very young, very new industry in the United States.  Farmers are growing different varietals and cultivars at different altitudes, in varying climates, in shade and under direct sun. A lot of growers are still experimenting, as you don’t make good teas overnight”, she observed. “You have to tweak, redo, monitor and record, and possibly bring in tea processing experts to help you. It is going to be quite a focused program of research and experimentation,” she said.

The mood at the event was friendly, collegial. Attendees were eager to make connections, discuss techniques and encourage visits to their own gardens. “China and Taiwan have regular competitions that can lead to a sharing of information,” said Pettigrew.
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Winners in the commercial categories include:

• White: Volcano Winery; grower Alex Wood; processor Volcano Winery
• Green: Onomea Tea Co; grower/processor Mike Longo & Rob Nunally
• Oolong: Volcano Tea Garden; grower/processor Mike Riley
• Black: Tea Hawaii; grower/processor Chiu Leong

​Non-commercial garden winners include:

• White: Finley; grower/processor Bai-Alla Finley (Hawaii Island)
• Green: The Great Mississippi Tea Company; grower Jason McDonald; processor Beverly Wainwright
• Oolong:  The Great Mississippi Tea Company; grower Jason McDonald; processor David Bromwich
• Black: The Great Mississippi Tea Company; grower Jason McDonald; processor Beverly Wainwright

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Article Source - World Tea News
Written by Si Chen

Written by Regan Crisp - Fresh Cup magazine associate editor

In 2013, the first meeting of the US League of Tea Growers took place at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. Growers from Hawaii, Mississippi, California, and other states joined together to discuss processing, share their knowledge of tea husbandry, and recognize each other’s work. It was a great first step for a young tea origin, and in the last few years, World Tea’s classes, seminars, and gatherings have reflected a growing desire to acknowledge the US as a tea origin. But for consumers, the questions remain: “Where do we purchase US-Grown tea?” And, almost more importantly, “What should we expect from it?” This country’s tea doesn’t have much of a reputation, yet. Its main touting point is that it’s local.
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For the first time, US-grown tea will be rated with the discernment applied to the rest of the world’s teas, but in a category all its own.

November’s Tea of the United States Awards (TOTUS), to be held in Volcano, Hawaii, hopes to change that. The first competition of its kind, it will judge teas from Hawaii and a number of mainland states, grown both commercially and non-commercially, in four categories: white, green, oolong, and black. For the first time, US-grown tea will be rated with the discernment applied to the rest of the world’s teas, but in a category all its own. The results will set a bar for consumers and growers, and ideally pave a path for a thriving local tea industry with respected origin status.

America has a lot to bring to tea, not least of which is an array of unique microclimates. In countries like Japan and China, cultivation practices and techniques have been honed over centuries, but because tea is young in the US, today’s farmers (mostly first generation growers) are writing the manuals in their particular regions. As they sow the seeds for future agriculture success, those growers also seek recognition and governmental funding. Both are goals of the TOTUS awards, and the TOTUS website.

“We hope that the website will be a resource for people to help identify these teas, and so people can stay connected to these tea-growing regions,” says Eva Lee, a tea grower in Hawaii and TOTUS’ executive director. While the winners will take home money—the top three teas submitted by commercial growers in each category will receive cash prizes—bolstering American tea’s image as a viable commercial crop could be even more valuable, encouraging the federal government and local governments to support tea agriculture the way they have in Hawaii, where federal, state, and county governments have pushed tea as a new specialty crop. TOTUS’ non-commercial winners (with yields of less than five pounds per year) will receive certificates and name recognition, a potentially valuable push towards stepping into the commercial realm.

The struggle for origin recognition is nothing new—look at coffee packaging, or tea from other countries—but its importance in getting consumer attention shouldn’t be undervalued. Though the judging could get complicated with so many appellations in the US, Lee says TOTUS (and its impressive panel of jurors) is well up to the task, and excited about the impact the awards could have on the future of US tea.

“It’s a new crop for this country and like any new crop, it takes time,” she says. “More and more, the US tea farmer understands that it is more than just farming tea, that they have to step up and communicate directly with the consumer. Demand keeps increasing; the more people that grow tea the better.”

The TOTUS awards ceremony will take place November fourth.  For more information visit totus1awards.com.
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Article source - Fresh Cup Magazine
Written by Regan Crisp - Associate Editor