History of Tea in Georgia
A Brief Summary
Tea from Georgia?
Georgia probably doesn’t make your short list if asked where the world’s best teas are produced. It’s highly likely you haven’t ever had Georgian tea or even knew they grew tea there. We’re not talking sweet tea from the state north of Florida, but rather world-class tea grown and produced in the far-eastern European Republic of Georgia. The Georgia between Russia, Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Yep, that Georgia.
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.
Russia's Tea Problem.
Between 1790 and 1890, Russian tea imports grew from about 250,000 pounds annually to more than seventy-two million pounds. Duties from Russian tea imports rose to one-quarter of the total Russian customs revenue.
This put Russia in a rather precarious position. There was rapidly growing demand for tea. China was rapidly expanding tea trade in Europe, enabling widespread tea smuggling over Russia’s western border, as well as rampant tea fraud and tea adulteration. All resulting in a loss of import revenues and what Russia’s Minister of Finance, M. E. Siniukov, called Russia’s “tea problem”:
How to meet increasing Russian demand for inexpensive, authentic Chinese tea in a way that would maximize revenues while simultaneously securing a reliable supply source?
Tea Comes to Georgia.
Enter Georgia.
Tea is believed to have first arrived in Georgia during the early 19th century when Prince Mamia V Gurieli (pictured) began growing Camellia Sinensis in his botanical garden. But it was another prince, Miha Eristavi, who smuggled tea seeds from China in lengths of bamboo and established the first tea plantation in 1847. His presumption that western Georgia’s climate was ideal for the growing tea was spot on.
1847 – This important year in Georgian tea history is commemorated by Bitadze Limited with its Georgian Tea 1847 brand. Chai House is proud to be their exclusive U.S. importer.
"The King of Tea."
A Russian tea merchant, Konstantin Popov (sitting below) , made the first serious investment in 1892 and set up tea plantations on about 300 hectares in the Adjaran village of Chakvi. He enlisted Lau Dzhen Dzhau (pictured left), a Chinese tea specialist from the Zhejiang province known as the “King of Tea” to set up the foundations for modern Georgian tea production. Their tea earned a gold medal at the Paris World Expo in 1899 and became a hit with the Russian royal family.
So much so, they made an offer to Lau Dzehn Dzhau to work for them. He accepted and Popov was thrown out of the Georgian market. New factories were built, more plantations were planted, and production was expanded. As a result, the tea industry in Georgia was developed for the purposes of the Soviet Empire, who now controlled the mass cultivation of tea in Georgia.
The Georgian Tea Industry Flourishes.
The Soviet Era – a blessing & a curse.
Under the Soviets, other areas in Western Georgia like Anaseuli, Guria, Zugdidi and Imereti started growing tea.
The tea industry flourished through the 1920s, with Georgia providing Russia with 95% of its tea (an estimated 400,000 tons) and continued through the 1950s when the tea industry was extremely profitable. So profitable that, at one point, Georgia was the 4th largest tea exporter in the world. The intense industrialization of the Soviets focused on quantity, not quality. Heavily dependent on mechanization and pesticides to increase yields, the world-class flavor and quality of Georgian tea was unrecognizable under the Soviets.
Then just like that, it all came crashing down. With the 1991 collapse of the USSR, the Georgian tea industry collapsed with it. Georgia, a former Soviet Republic declared its independence, economic chaos ensued as did a myriad of political conflicts. The tea industry suffered terribly, and was essentially abandoned for 30+ years. Many family tea farms were lost forever.
Resurrecting the Georgian Tea Industry.
In 2011, Shota Bitadze (pictured on right) established the Georgian Organic Tea Producers Association (GOTPA), a group of 16 families dedicated to bringing back tea growing with quality in varieties, cultivation, technologies, and production as their main goal. In 2016, their wild black tea earned several awards at the Tea Masters Cup International in Seoul for best aroma, best taste, and best aftertaste. Today, GOTPA is a community of 25 (and counting) family tea farms who work and grow together.
Shota and his son, George (pictured on left) are betting on western Georgia’s ideal subtropical climate for tea production, where pesticides and fertilizers are not necessary, and there is enough labor for hand harvesting and production (versus mechanized methods) which they believe elevates quality.
References:
- Header painting by A. K. Kutateladze
- Tea Time in Romanov Russia, A Cultural History: 1617-1917, Audra Jo Yoder, http://www.core.ac.uk/download/pdf/210601502.pdf
- Something’s Brewing: Georgia’s Tea Renaissance, Paul Rimple, http://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/tbilisi/2018/something-brewing