Bahkvi Tea Estate
Ozurgeti, Guria, Georgia
Bahkvi Tea Estate
Grower: Bahkvi Tea Estate
Teamaker: Dato Tenieshivili
Origin: Ozurgeti, Guria, Georgia
Elevation: 90m (295 ft)
Cultivation: Natural (Organic – GOPTA certification)
Signature Teas: Georgian Classic Black, Georgian Orthodox Rolled Black, Georgian Orthodox Rolled Green, Georgian Forest Green (Wild Harvest Collection)
A Farming Family.
Dato Tenieshivili owns Bahkvi Tea Estate in the Ozurgeti Region of the Guria province. The Tenieshivili family has been involved in the tea industry since before he was born. When Dato was a child in the 1980s, his family worked on a Soviet-run tea plantation and lived on a collective farm. They were allowed to work a small portion of the land for their own production, where Dato’s family not only grew food, but also produced small quantities of high-quality tea.
Tough Times.
The Soviet farming model depended on mechanization and chemical fertilizers to increase production at the expense of quality. After the fall of the USSR, the tea industry collapsed, most of the machinery was sold abroad, tea plantations were abandoned, and farmers could not afford the chemicals they thought they needed to survive. The post-Soviet economy was turbulent. In the 1990s, the Tenieshivili family supported themselves with subsistence farming.
With tea in increasingly short supply, Dato realized he needed to do something to provide tea for his family and his village. So, he preserved a few hectares of nearby land for tea production. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, electricity was rare in the Georgian countryside and Dato made due with what he had available. He began to produce small amounts of tea with machines he made himself. Most notable are a wooden tea roller powered with hydro energy harnessed from a small river next to his house and wood-fired tea dryer.
Georgia probably isn’t on your short list of countries that produce world-class teas. You’ve probably never had Georgian tea—or even knew it was grown there. And we’re not talking the U.S. state of Georgia, but rather the Republic of Georgia that sits on the far-eastern boarder of Europe. nestled between Russia, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
But tea from Georgia? Here’s how it happened.
The Earth is a Gift.
With the renewed interest in Georgian tea, Dato has focused on recovering the abandoned tea bushes his family has cultivated for many years. They have been successful in reviving 80-year-old tea bushes, which now produce high-quality leaves 10 months out of the year.
When the plantations were abandoned, the land was quickly reclaimed by nature. Dato has had to balance his efforts to revive the tea bushes while respecting the environment. “The earth is a gift”, says Dato, and his farming methods are firmly rooted in this perspective. For example, he decided to not remove the various walnut and fruit trees that had taken over, but instead left them to provide shade for the tea plants and homes for birds that provide natural pest control.
The Tenieshvili farm is 100% organic and entirely self-sufficient, producing their own food and energy. It remains crucial for them to create products that are pure, clean and sustainable. In the family’s extensive garden they grow corn, a variety of fruit trees that produce at different times of the year, grape vines climbing up trees, and, of course, the two-hectare plot of tea plants. They manage the entire production from harvest to packaging, but do not have their own label at this time. Though they’ve acquired modern machinery with investments since 2012, Dato still prefers the hand-rigged tools he has develoed in the 1990s.
A Dynamic Duo.
In 2006, Dato met Shota Bitadze, who was impressed (and surprised) when he learned that Dato’s preserved tea plantation was in much better condition compared to others he had seen. The two men recognized a shared vision and determination in one another and started working together. Shota helped Dato implement new Orthodox tea technologies (developed by Shota) and provided investment capital for modern tea machinery. This collaboration would marked the beginning of a shared mission to help farmers reclaim and rehabilitate abandoned tea plantations and gardens in western Georgia. In addition, Shota and Dato have also promoted vermiculture, which is the cultivation and use of earthworms to decompose organic waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer. In 2009, Dato joined GOTPA (Georgian Organic Tea Producers Association) as its first member.
Bahkvi Tea Estate serves as the prototype for all tea farmers in Georgia and is the crown jewel of GOTPA. Dato is the most experienced association member and is recognized as one of the leading authorities in plantation and wild tea production in Georgia. He is the regional head of GOTPA for the Guria province. Dato and Shota are also leading the effort to create new tea cultivars in Georgia.
