Alaska’s first tea farm is geothermally heated
Not what you would expect from a world-class tea connoisseur. But Tse is an international-award-winning tea expert, consulted by artisanal growers in Hawaii, India and China And she runs the leading tea manufacturing company in Alaska. Now she will be starting the only tea farm in Alaska.
“I want people to know that tea in Alaska could be grown, be sustainable — and we can have amazing products here in the state,” Tse said.
She came to the idea after 14 years as the proprietor of Sipping Streams, an artisanal tea store on the west side of Fairbanks.
“We do all our own packaging, and labeling and blending. Most people don’t realize we are the leading tea manufacturer in the state,” she said.
“Hand blending was the first international award we’ve ever won, with local fireweed and lowbush cranberries,” she said. “You might’ve seen a machine back there. I built this commercial grade dehydrator myself. So we dry the fireweed and the low-bush cranberries. And this is like a high-demand but limited amount because it’s wild-harvested and has to be hand done.”
Tse may have grown up drinking coffee in Alaska, but she does drink tea — all day, in fact. Outside her shop she pours a guest an expensive Hawaiian-grown blend.
