Georgia was the world’s fourth-largest tea producer during the Soviet Union. Across Guria, Adjara, Samegrelo and Imereti, abandoned tea bushes blanket the subtropical hills. The industry collapsed during the 1990s, along with the Union. Nela-Nela, a new company exporting a range of unique Georgian teas worldwide, is launching in Tbilisi on Saturday.
Georgia’s tea tradition expands beyond the abandoned tea plantations. In Adjara’s mountains, families have been rolling the leaves of wild plants that grow across the hillsides since the days of the Silk Road to make delicious herbal teas. These teas are more like a black tea in taste than typical fruit or herbal teas.
Nela-Nela offers blueberry leaf tea from Imereti and blackberry and mulberry leaf tea from Lechkhumi. Georgian tea makers put the leaves through the black tea making process to create these teas which are unique to Georgia.
Amy, Tim and Tom, the three faces behind Nela-Nela, would like to invite you to try their teas and hear the story of Georgian tea and their journey to launch Nela-Nela. Check it out here.
