A World First: Sparkling Māmaki Tea by Manu Brewing Co.
A former home beer brewer makes four flavors of sparkling māmaki tea.
The tea is made from a plant that’s endemic to Hawai‘i. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino. Styling: Brie Thalmann
Sparkling māmaki tea is a thing. We know this because of Kent Kurashima, whose circuitous route toward creating the world’s only fizzy māmaki craft beverage took him from the Colorado Rockies to the West Coast to Kalihi. He started, fittingly, with home brewing: Colorado and California, where the naturally curious Kurashima studied and started working as a mechanical engineer, are rich in brewing culture. At the point he was brewing 5 gallons of beer every weekend, all of it consumed with friends, he realized he needed a break.
Kurashima came home to Honolulu with an idea for hop waters, a newer trend that eliminates alcohol and fermentation. “Hop waters have no carbs, sugar or calories. Not many people know about them,” he says. “Nonalcoholics are just at the beginning of their boom.”
But at local farmers markets, hop waters didn’t take off. Hops don’t grow in Hawai‘i, giving conscientious customers no local angle to support, and intrigued beer drinkers told him they preferred beer. Kurashima was about to try adding māmaki to his fizzy hop waters when he realized that sparkling māmaki tea was good by itself. And the plant, endemic to the Islands, is 100% local.
Kent Kurashima. Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino
He hasn’t veered off course since. In the Kalihi production warehouse he shares with Zingipop, his Manu Brewing Co. makes four flavors of sparkling māmaki tea: original (herbaceous and earthy), ginger (reminiscent of the scent of candied ginger), lavender (sourced from Upcountry Maui’s Ali‘i Kula Lavender) and mint (from fellow farmers market vendors). Like hop waters, it’s all zero calories, zero caffeine, zero carbs and zero sugars with no added preservatives or colorings.
SEE ALSO: Zingipop Brings the Fizzy and Fun to Craft Soda
Photo: Aaron K. Yoshino. Styling: Brie Thalmann
If you want to find out more, like how the teas help dwindling populations of the endemic Kamehameha butterfly, stop by Manu Brewing’s booth at the Saturday Pearlridge or Sunday Kailua farmers markets. On weekends, that’s where you’ll usually find Kurashima, whose full-time job is forecasting energy usage for Hawaiian Electric Co. The sparkling teas are easier to find: They’re also at Local General Store in Kaimukī, Country Eatery in Kahuku and Down to Earth stores on O‘ahu.
