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About This Site


The Georgian Tea Makers website is built and maintained by Timothy Merkel. This project is a spiritual successor to a business I was involved in with two partners, Amy Jones and Tom Pinnegar, for the last few years. Its name was Nela Nela, and it exported various kinds of tea from Georgia during the 2021-4 seasons. During that time, we had the honor to meet and become friends with many of the wonderful tea farmers and producers featured on this website. Nela Nela isn't directly involved in export anymore, but I decided to use the experience I gained over that period to create this knowledge database, in hopes of bringing the community of Georgian tea makers in closer contact with the international market. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with me with any questions regarding Georgian tea or traveling in Georgia.

The photography on many of these pages is also the product of the Nela Nela period and is the artistry of my talented collaborator Tom Pinnegar. You can check more of his work at https://www.tompinnegarphoto.com/. Other photos have been taken by me, my wife Sopho Pepanashvili, or provided by the tea makers themselves.

You can visit my other website, https://timothystours.ge, for more information about me, including my tour services in Georgia. You can get in contact with me using the form below, email me directly at timothy@timothystours.ge, or get in touch via phone, WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal on the number +995 598 411 778.

I also maintain a somewhat irregular presence for this project on Instagram and Facebook. Most of the content I put there is updates from this website, but there can be other bits of passing interest from the social media world of Georgian tea. Do drop a follow if you want extra updates, although I can't promise them to be extremely frequent.

Attention to tea makers:
Participation in this website is open and available to any Georgian tea maker. If you wish to have a page of your own created in the Tea Directory, please contact me or fill out the form at https://forms.gle/UWVrKaqR49FNCxG17.

მეჩაიების საყურადღებად:
ამ საიტში მონაწილეობა არის ღია და ხელმისასწვდომი ყველა ქართველი მეჩაიესთვის. თუ გსურთ თქვენი გვერდის შექმნა ამ საიტზე, გთხოვთ დამიკავშირდეთ ან შეავსეთ კითხვარი.