How to Find Georgian Tea in Tbilisi
As a travel operator and guide in Georgia, I frequently get the question “where can I try Georgian tea while I’m in Tbilisi?” Not everyone has the time in their visit to head out to west Georgia and visit the plantations in person. Fortunately, there are several excellent options in Georgia’s capital for tasting high-class Georgian tea and buying small amounts to take home with you. A map of all locations mentioned is available at the bottom of the page.
Bitadze Tea Museum
The very first, and for quite a long time, the only shop in Tbilisi to sell natural Georgian tea was the Bitadze Tea Museum, a project of the pioneering tea technologist Shota Bitadze and his son, Giorgi. In the early 1990s, while the Georgian tea industry lay in ruins, Shota traveled to China to study tea making at Chinese agricultural institutes. He returned to Georgia with a wealth of knowledge, methods, and connections to machinery manufacturers, which he proceeded to share with farmers around the country looking to revive their tea plantations and start commercial production. Shota’s groundbreaking work was one of the keys to the revival of the Georgian tea industry, reinforced by his founding of the Georgian Organic Tea Producers Association for farmers with a full commitment to natural and sustainable methods. In his little basement shop just a block from Freedom Square, Shota and Giorgi maintain a collection of memorabilia from Georgia’s tea history, regale visitors with stories, and conduct near non-stop tasting sessions. Many of the tea makers profiled on this website, including all the GOTPA members, stock their teas in the Tea Museum, making it an essential stop for those interested in high quality Georgian tea.
Entrance to the Bitadze Tea Museum
Tea Republic
Another must-visit place for tea lovers in Tbilisi is Tea Republic, a newly opened cafe in the Vera district, a short walk from Rustaveli metro. Tea Republic operates as the company shop of the GreenGold factory, one of the biggest boutique producers in the Guria region, and also stocks teas from Giorgi Maisuradze’s Shemokmedi Tea. With over two dozen varieties of handcrafted tea (all certified organic), ranging from traditional blacks to innovative GABA oolongs fermented in qvevris (traditional Georgian clay amphorae usually used for wine production) to Asian styles like sheng, da hong pao, and puerh not typically attempted for Georgian tea, to wild forest teas and alpine-foraged bilberry tisanes, Tea Republic is sure to have a brew to satisfy any kind of tea lover. Teas are served Chinese-style in precisely measured cup-sized pots with a thermos of hot water for rebrewing, another innovative touch rarely found in Georgia, and all teas can be bought packaged by weight as well.
Cafes
It’s sometimes surprising how few cafes and restaurants in Georgia actually serve Georgian tea, when such a rich heritage exists in the country, not to mention so many world-class producers. Fortunately, I’ve started to notice more and more cafes who are proud to exclusively serve Georgian teas. Pulp, a project by a team from St. Petersburg who relocated to Georgia in 2022, has been a strong supporter of the Georgian tea industry from the beginning, stocking teas from great masters such as Nargiza Ghvinjilia and Shota Kopaliani at their cafe in Vera. Giraffe Home, a new Chughureti startup by a Ukrainian musician and curator, pairs fine Gurian black and green tea with ramen offerings from a Japanese chef, sweet buns from an award-winning Georgian pastry chef, and a tape deck playing a vast collection of old cassettes. And Dopamine Concept, a slick Scandinavian-style spot in the warrens of Sololaki’s back streets, not only serves up excellent black and green tea alongside their sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches and homemade granola, but is also one of the few places in town where you can try blueberry leaf tea.
Shops and Bazaars
For those who want to skip the sit-down cafes and get straight to buying tea, there are plenty of good options besides the Bitadze Tea Museum and Tea Republic. Khurjini is an essential stop for souvenir hunters in Tbilisi’s old town looking for delicious tastes of Georgia to take home with them. They stock a wide range of handcrafted teas from Guria and Imereti – both blacks and greens as well as herbal selections such as Javakhetian wild thyme and blueberry leaf tea. Besides their range of teas, Khurjini also sells Georgian spices, sweets, jams, liquors, honeys, and other treats.
Kona Tea, a prominent herbal tea brand, also has their own company shop in the Bazaar Orbeliani shopping center. Offering twelve different special blends of herbs wild-foraged from the Caucasus mountains and artisanal Georgian teas, Kona aims to provide consumers with healthy, relaxing drinks for any mood or time of day.
Finally, for the truly adventurous, wholesale quantities of loose Georgian tea can be purchased at the Station Square bazaar, including blacks, greens, and fermented blueberry leaf. While it can be difficult to establish the exact provenance or quality of Station Square teas, they are mostly made by small-time producers in western villages who simply don’t make more than a few dozen kilograms per year and, as such, sell their product off at the bazaar instead of in a larger-scale business. For those with a discerning eye, Station Square can offer an excellent chance to pick up interesting Georgian teas at bargain-basement prices.
We hope this guide has been helpful for anyone looking to try or pick up Georgian tea in Tbilisi! As Georgian tea continues to grow in popularity, both in and out of Georgia, we will continue to update this guide if we find any other places representing excellent Georgian tea in town. Please get in contact with us if you are a location serving or selling Georgian tea in Tbilisi and would like to be listed here!
A curious relic of the past spotted at Station Square: a brick of roughly processed tea from Tkibuli. Some Georgian factories continue to produce tea with this Soviet method, largely for export to Mongolia, which is the biggest importer of Georgian tea. Don't worry, you can find much better teas at the bazaar – for example, like the ones directly to the side of the brick!
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