For the past 5 years I have tried to have a consistent blog, filled with new content for tea lovers. . . and each year I have failed. Truth, blogging is a luxury + I'm not a natural writer. But, I decided to try again. . . so for those of you who are new here (and those who are not), welcome to Treehouse Teas.
Treehouse Teas is a boutique tea company based in Honolulu, Hawaii. We specialize in 100% Hawaii Grown Teas & Botanicals. Why 100%? Well . . . in the recent years I've seen the dilution of Hawaii Grown Tea. Hawaii used to have this problem with Kona Coffee. . . remember when people would sprinkle in Kona Coffee with imported beans so that it could be marketed and sold as "Kona Coffee". People felt misled, lied to, and farmers needed to compete with prices they couldn't beat because their superior product was more expensive than the cheaper alternative that was allowed to be marketed the same way.
This is what happens to Hawaii Tea. In the recent years I've been seeing more and more brands label themselves as "Hawaiian" or "Hawaii Grown", but a quick glance at the ingredient list proves otherwise. The ingredients are rarely grown in Hawaii, and even when they are, Hawaii Grown Tea is never at the top of the ingredient list. That's not the case with us. . . we are the only purveyor brand dedicated to using 100% Hawaii Grown ingredients.
To be honest, until 3 years ago I had little interest in only purveying Hawaii Grown products (I love teas from all over the world) - but then I saw the misleading packaging, marketing, and commodification of the place I love (Hawaii), so I decided to shift gears. I want to be a transparent about the Hawaii tea industry and educate people. I want to work with the tea farmers who are not able to compete with these diluted brands on price. So here we are today, this is currently our goal of Treehouse Teas.
We might change in the future, who knows. For now 'm pretty happy about where we are, and about the message/awareness we are putting out into the world.
xoxo
Brittnee