On Sep 11, 1:18 am, Shen > wrote:
> Wow! Wonderful read! Hopefully we'll see more coverage of their
> product.
> Just curious - has anyone here had a Washington State grown tea?

At Teacraft we keep an eye on all the fringe tea growing projects
around the world (and advise on many of them) and I must congratulate
the Sakuma brothers for getting their new tea to market. I haven't
tasted this one yet but I visited the bushes up on Puget Sound four
years ago when, just as the article mentions Richard Sakuma couldn't
decide what to do with them as they conflicted with his berry
harvest. I am never surprised now at where tea will grow, provided it
is given its basic requirements of a well drained acid soil and plenty
of light, high humidity and temperatures between 50 and 100 degrees F,
though WA is for sure as far North as any tea growing in the world.
There must be a thousand other places in the USA where tea would grow
commercially (Lipton investigated this in the 70's) - the savvy US tea
grower faced with labor input at 100 x the African wage must automate
his harvesting and manufacture, and identify a high value market
niche.

Nigel at Teacraft