FOCUSED TASTING – Hawaii
Speaker: Eliah Halpenny, CEO, Big Island Tea
       
  Bubbling with volcanic excitement, this seminar will tell you about the next hot spot for specialty tea-Hawai`i. While tasting 6 different organically grown, hand-rolled teas, the presenter, one of Hawai`i’s pioneer tea farmers, will share her marketing vision; as unstoppable as lava. A slide show will give you a peek at Paradise, coming soon to your cup.  
       
  By the end of this session you will be able to:  
   
  1. Identify by tasting 2 green teas grown at 2 different elevations and processed by 2 different farmers.
  2. Identify by tasting 2 oolong teas grown at 2 different elevations and processed by 2 different farmers.
  3. Identify by tasting 2 black teas grown at 2 different elevations and processed by 2 different farmers.
  4. Recognize the excitement on the Big Island as farmers begin to harvest their long awaited tea crop while new farmers are joining the gold rush in tea.
  5. Feel inspired by the exuberance of an entrepreneurial tea farmer with marketing ideas that ride the current consumer trends.
     
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Eliah Halpenny
CEO, Big Island Tea
       
  Eliah Halpenny is a native of Canada who moved to Hawai`i to join her husband, Cam Muir, a professor of Genetics at the University of Hawai`i - Hilo. Her background is in marketing and advertising, before which she worked as a soil surveyor and professional gardener. In 2001, Eliah was inspired by a USDA study to begin investigating the feasibility of growing Camellia sinensis in Hawai`i. In January of 2002, Eliah planted her first 8 tea seeds, which began her love affair with the plant and the inception of Big Island Tea. The farm now has 5,000 plants in the ground and Eliah is fine-tuning her processing recipes. Eliah Halpenny and Cam Muir are part of the burgeoning tea industry in Hawai`i, living, growing and processing gourmet, whole leaf tea on their 5 acre farm on the slope of the Mauna Loa volcano.