Friday, August 15, 2008

Georgian Tea

Yes, Georgia, the country that's all over the headlines. Who knew they grew tea... until now.


The smell of the dry leaf is nice, fruity and dark. 3 minutes, the liquor comes out a deep red-brown. The smell had that fruitiness and dryness that reminds me of an assam or ceylon.


Having just ate sour rasberries, the tea seems very light in taste. There's the fruity flavor, and some soil but different from the pu-erh dirt taste. 5 minutes for another steep, similar in character.


So, it's not amazing, but I really didn't have high hopes. I would say, "surprisingly mediocre," not bad, as I expected to be. It's not a tea I would rush out to buy, but if I was offered it, I would enjoy it with a warm heart. [insert sentimental political statement here]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, bit of a throw back from the soviet days when they were trying to be entirely self sufficient. It's growing though and there are companies that specialise in it.

Anonymous said...

I normally don't post to blogs but I am bit upset by ignorance. The Georgian (Rusian) tea industry dates to the 19th cetury. The Russians imported Chinese tea masters to oversee its development. In the 20th century it was quite developed. Georgian tea had a very good reputation. Even in the Soviet period the industry produced a very fine product. The tea was a black tea very similar to a good commercial Darjeeling. I picked up some at the Canadian National Exposition in the the 1980s and I could fnd it even in my small city in upsate New York. It was the Georgian Civil War in the 1990s that destroyed the industry.