Reviving Georgia's Tea Legacy: From Soviet Ruins to A New Era
The collapse of the Soviet Union decimated Georgia's once-thriving tea industry in Guria. Now, locals are working to revive it for a new era. Nika Sioridze and Baaka Babunashvili's GreenGold Tea, among others, is rejuvenating abandoned plantations with a focus on quality, aiming to reclaim Georgia's tea reputation.
In the lush hills of Georgia's Guria region, a renewed effort is underway to breathe life back into a once-flourishing tea industry that crumbled with the Soviet Union's fall. The Soviet-era institute that once drove the industry lies abandoned, a relic of a bygone era.
The Soviet collapse opened the Georgian market to cheaper Asian alternatives, leading to a sharp decline in local tea production. By 2016 it had plummeted by 99% from its 1985 peak. Megreladze, whose mother worked at the now-defunct Anaseuli institute, recalls how Georgia, a young independent state, grappled to save its tea legacy.
Local entrepreneurs like Nika Sioridze and Baaka Babunashvili are restoring abandoned plantations to revitalize this heritage. Their GreenGold Tea company utilizes a repurposed Soviet silk factory to produce high-quality tea, aiming to distinguish Georgian tea in a competitive market.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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