Tea Harvest and Tasting Experience

Few visitors expect to find tea in Georgia, but the damp, mild climate of the Black Sea coast is ideal for it, and the hills around Batumi were once among the most important tea-growing areas of the Soviet Union. This experience takes you into the countryside to see how Georgian tea is grown, picked and processed, and ends with a tasting where you learn to distinguish the styles. It is a relaxing, sensory counterpoint to the beach and boulevard, and it gives a glimpse of the agricultural side of Adjara. Rows of glossy tea bushes line the slopes, often with citrus trees and mist beyond. Pickers snap the top leaves and buds by hand, a skill that looks easy until you try it. At the processing stage, leaves are withered, rolled, oxidised and dried, and the host will explain how these steps create black, green and other styles.

The tasting is the highlight. Tea is served in small cups, often with local honey, jam, fruit or sweets, and the host talks about aromas and flavours. Georgian tea tends to be gentle, with a lightly floral or malty character, and it pairs well with the sweetness of churchkhela and dried fruit. You may leave with a packet to take home, which makes a good gift.

Seasonality affects the experience. Picking happens in the warm months, with the most active period from late spring through summer, while in winter the bushes rest and there is less activity. Ask your operator whether harvesting is under way on your date. Even outside the picking period, the plantation walk and tasting remain enjoyable.

It also fits a broader day of Adjarian food and drink. Combine it with a mountain feast tour, a wine tasting or a stop at a honey producer, and you see how tea, honey, wine and cheese all belong to the same landscape. For people who like quiet, slow travel, this is a pleasing and unexpected highlight.

Bring a sense of curiosity and some patience. Tea making is a slow process, and the best moments are often small ones: the smell of freshly rolled leaves, the sound of a kettle on the stove, the first sip of a just-brewed cup. Ask the host how Georgian tea differs from tea from other countries, how the climate shapes the flavour and how families used to work on the plantations in earlier decades.

Take notes of the varieties you enjoy, buy a packet or two as gifts and ask how to brew them properly, with water just below boiling and a few minutes of steeping.

Wear a hat, sun cream and shoes that you do not mind getting dusty, and bring a bottle of water. If the host offers a try at picking, remember to take only the top two leaves and the bud, which is the traditional standard, and handle the shoots gently. Ask also about the history of tea in Ajara, which became a major crop in the twentieth century, and about how the industry has changed since then. Small producers today often focus on quality and character, and visitors help to support them.