Origin: Ozurgeti, Guria, Georgia
Vintage: Summer 2024
Picking standard: One bud + two to three leaves
Style: Experimental semi-fermented red tea · Oolong-style processing
Processing: Partial conventional oxidation + partial vacuum fermentation
Production: Handcrafted
Technology: Developed by Sergey Shevelev · SH experimental series
Tea cultivation in Georgia dates back to the 19th century and developed particularly strongly in the humid subtropical regions of western Georgia, including Guria. During the Soviet period, Georgia became one of the major tea-producing regions of the USSR, supplying large quantities of black tea across the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet system, much of the industry declined and many plantations were abandoned.
In recent years, Georgian tea has been undergoing a smaller-scale revival. Instead of industrial mass production, a number of producers are working with restored or surviving tea gardens, handcrafted processing and experimental approaches to oxidation and fermentation.
This tea comes from Ozurgeti in Guria, one of Georgia’s historic tea-growing regions, but its production method is distinctly contemporary.
The picking standard consists of one bud with two to three leaves. Rather than following conventional black/red tea processing, the leaves undergo an experimental combination of normal oxidation and processing under vacuum, using techniques closer to oolong and GABA tea production.
Reduced-oxygen processing changes the biochemical transformation of the leaf compared with conventional oxidation and follows the same general principle used in the production of GABA teas.
Because the material is only partially oxidized rather than processed as a conventional fully oxidized black tea, the finished tea sits somewhere between red tea and oolong-style processing: darker and sweeter than a light oolong, but more aromatic and structurally complex than a conventional Georgian black tea.
Profile: Chocolate · Dried fruit