With kawakawa being in season from May to the end of September, forager and conservationist Hamiora aka Sam the Trap Man explains the key to a perfect brew.
The tikanga for harvesting kawakawa differs across the country, but he believes there are two key elements to making the herbal tea.
Boiling kawakawa leaves in a pot. Photo: Photographs by Emily Tutaki / Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand / Creative Commons License
Firstly, choose the right leaves - the ones packed with flavour tend to be closer to the stem with a slight spoon shape where it meets the stalk, Hamiora tells Jesse Mulligan.
“Interestingly enough, those leaves there are the leaves that caterpillar likes to eat and the reason they like to eat those particular leaves is because they’re much more potent in flavour.
“It’s really easy to see [these leaves] because they’ve usually have got lots and lots of holes that are made by the caterpillar.”
On the other hand, leaves at the tips of branches that have a straight stem should stay because they help the plant grow, he says.
You’ll probably only need two or three leaves for a cup of tea, he says.
“I like to pick my leaves and to drink the tea from the fresh leaves. Some people dry them, but I like to have them fresh.”
Remember to bruise the leaves a bit by squishing them and rubbing your fingers through them to release the aroma, he says.
“It breaks down the structure of the leaf which releases a lot of the flavour and then when we steep it in boiling water, that flavour releases much more quickly than if we were to not bruise the leaves.”
If you’re trying to spot kawakawa, it’s a tall shrub with slender trunks and heart shaped leaves, Hamiora says.
“In summer, it’s got these long cylindrical fruit that are green when they’re not ripe and they turn orange, they taste like a rock melon and then they have a slight peppery aftertaste, they’re absolutely delicious.”
It is often found in the Banks Peninsula region, he says, but there are plants in Omaui and in the North Island too.
“It’s a colonising species so it likes to grow on the edge of forests, on riverbanks, on slips.
“You won’t find it too much where there’s a really dense canopy. But if you look in those more broken country [parts] where there’s light, often times there’s kawakawa, particularly in the North Island, it’s growing in places like that.”
It’s commonly used in rongoā Māori (traditional Māori herbal medicine), he says.
“It’s a bit of a diuretic so if you eat too much of the fruit or drink too much of the tea, it will help you wee a lot and when you wee a lot, you’re passing water through your system and that water is containing toxins and it helps flush the toxins out of your system.”
