Nana Melashvili & Vako Soselia (ChaniTea)
Location
Dvabzu village, Guria region
Contact Information
ChaniTea is a mother-and-son business. Vako speaks good English while Nana also speaks Russian. Their tea can be ordered online with delivery to anywhere in Georgia; contact them directly for international shipments. They can be contacted on Facebook and Instagram, and by email at chanitea2024@gmail.com.
Types of Tea
ChaniTea currently produces black and green tea at two different quality grades. They also make some blends with dried fruit, and produce a small quantity of traditional Georgian sweets (churchkhelas). Their black tea has an intense, refined flavor with a balance of sweet and slightly bitter notes, while their green tea is more delicate and smooth, layering together a slightly earthy and floral sensation; Nana says that the flavor profile is influenced by the eucalyptus trees which surround their plantations.
According to Vako, their tea making philosophy involves an adherence to tried-and-true, classical rules and methods, while still keeping the liberty to experiment and be different. They do not compromise on leaf quality, producing only from the two leaf and bud standard. The rest of the flavor profile is based on specific, precisely judged details of the time and temperature of the preparation, as well as the terroir characteristics of their plantations in lower Guria.
Story
Nana worked in tea her whole life; she "grew up in the factory", as she told me. Her 30-year career in tea brought her to the position of head tea technologist in an Ozurgeti factory, while also taking care of several hectares of family plantation. A few years ago, she and Vako decided to start their own tea production enterprise at their family homestead, choosing the name ChaniTea, or ჩანიტი in Georgian, a combination of two Gurian dialect words meaning "shining tea". After their new start, which combines the harvest from their small family estate with leaves purchased from around the region, they sell around three to four tons of tea per year, and hope to scale up from there.
Nana and Vako believe that tea making is a team effort requiring positive energy from everyone involved in the process. As a result, they place a high value on finding the right people to work with and paying them fairly for their work, and are committed that their colleagues should be enthusiastic about and well rewarded for their participation in the tea making process. At a time when there is a huge trend towards emigration from Georgia's rural areas, tea provides a rare opportunity for local villagers to make a decent wage. In addition to their family plantations in Dvabzu and Tsitelmta (of which they have ten hectares under renovation, in addition to their seven hectares in use) they also buy high quality leaf from other local growers in Nasakirali and Gurianta.
For the moment, ChaniTea sells its products mostly in Georgia, but they recently got their first international clients, supplying tea to a horeca chain in Croatia. They actively participate in international tea events, having brought their tea to exhibitions Azerbaijan and Cologne in 2025.
Pricing and Shipping
For detailed information about pricing and shipping, contact the tea makers directly using the contact methods listed above.