Hobbyists Building a Tea Industry

August 25, 2016

The security agent waited patiently as we maneuvered our bags of precious cuttings of Camellia sinensis into the x-ray machine at the Hilo International Airport. Ketsana Phitsamay and I had spent the entire day preparing and packing tea bushes from the Mealani Research Center on the Big Island of Hawaii. We were determined to preserve every one on our short flight back to Oahu. The cuttings were for a modest nursery we had started together in 2011, in a valley adjacent to the concrete jungl

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Elyse Petersen

Elyse Petersen is now the founder of Tealet, a marketplace that connects drinkers with tea growers around the world. She worked as a Global Tea Ambassador in Wazuka, Kyoto, Japan with the International Tea Farms Alliance. Through her time in Japan, she made many connections with tea farmers and was inspired by the passion farmers had for their tea.