Shota Kopaliani (Takveri Tea)
Location
Chalistavi village, Lechkhumi region
Contact Information
Shota can be contacted directly via email at shotakop@gmail.com. Shota speaks Georgian and Russian, so people who are in Georgia and speak one of those languages can also visit him directly at his factory in Chalistavi village.
Types of Tea
Shota creates specially produced, caffeine free, single ingredient, single origin, wild foraged tisanes. Using unique methods of his own invention, he rolls and oxidises various fruit leaves to give them enhanced, rich flavors, with profiles more aligned with black and oolong teas than with the herbal world.
Some of Shota's most popular creations are listed below. Besides these, Shota gathers and processes a wide
variety of different herbs, including but not limited to linden, savory,
rose, and mints. He also dries different fruits, and prepares blends of
his different products. He can also create any blend to order.
Wild white mulberry leaf tisane, oolong method
Roasted hazelnut flavours and warm cocoa aroma, this calming brew is an instant classic.
Wild pear leaf tisane, red tea method
Rolled and oxidised to the level of a light black tea, but caffeine free. Almond and fruit flavours and a light amber colour.
Wild apple leaf tisane, red tea method
Rich, earthy and lightly tannic. Floral blossom flavour with almondy base notes. Excellent alone or well suited to blending.
Wild quince leaf tisane, red tea method
Similar in style to an oolong, this gentle yellow brew has a good body and silky texture with deep and floral flavours. It is harvested from the downy fresh leaves of spring, rolled and lightly oxidised.
Grape vine leaf tisane, red tea method
This is a really special tea: two leaves and a bud from the legendary ‘Usakhelauri’ grape vines in early spring. This variety grows only in the Khvamli microclimate, so production is limited. These pearl-rolled leaves resemble a gunpowder green, and the brew is reminiscent: a spicy, acidic green with strong raspberry and orange overtones makes this a very palatable drink.
Wild acacia flowers
A taste of summer! As you would expect, floral and slightly sweet from acacia nectar. Pale yellow, smooth infusion is delicious alone, or in a blend.
Wild blackberry leaf tisane
Young blackberry leaves foraged from mountain slopes. Shota spends the summer after the rest of his spring teas are made going higher and higher up the mountains in chase of the youngest blackberry leaves. Rolled and briskly oxidised, it makes a full-bodied brew reminiscent of a breakfast tea, with fruit and floral overtones.
Snowrose (rhododendron) flowers and leaves
Gathered from Rhododendrum caucasicum bushes high in remote alpine valleys of Khvamli and Akhalchala. This unique tisane has a broad, sweet flavour, with woody and buttery notes, and is reputed amongst local highlanders as an elixir of health.
Shota's Story
Due to the climate in his mountainous region, Shota does not work with Camellia sinensis teas; rather, he spends his spring in a dizzying pursuit of the youngest and tenderest fruit leaves, chasing down each variety in the short window of time when they have the optimum flavors and characteristics. Once harvested, he rolls and oxidises the young leaves in a similar process to green, oolong or black teas, which extracts much richer, deeper flavours than are typical for herbal tisanes.
What's even more fascinating is how Shota sources his leaves; plucking lots of young leaves from a fruit tree will affect its fruit-bearing later that year, so Shota travels to places in the forests and mountains where villages stood decades ago, but have since been swallowed up by nature. Groves of hardy fruit trees form the only survivors of the settlement, and it is these that he wild-harvests to get the raw materials for his creations.
In summers, Shota moves on to truly wild plants, such as blackberry and snowrose, gathering them from remote alpine areas including the ancient Mount Khvamli where Prometheus was said to have been chained. He also collects and dries fruits as a material for blends.
The one exception to wild harvesting is a new experimental tea: vine leaf tea. This is harvested from the legendary Usakhelouri grape variety which is grown only in the microclimate of two villages at Khvamli’s base. Shota harvests two leaves and a bud – as in tea making – and puts them through a black tea process to make a tangy tisane reminiscent of green tea, raspberry and hibiscus.
Above: Shota and his wife Ia, at home, in the factory, and while gathering herbs in the mountain. Images 2-5 courtesy of Shota Kopaliani.
Pricing and shipping
For detailed information about pricing and shipping, contact the teamaker directly for more information.
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