When I started out looking for tea to sell I thought I'd be sourcing from the usual heavyweight countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan and India. Georgian tea and tisanes wasn't an option I had considered until I was sent some samples when I was working as an influencer. At first I thought them unusual, unlike regular herbal drinks I'd had before. Mulberry leaves, blueberry leaves and black berry leaves that had been picked and processed like a black tea. I kept going back to drink them each evening. Their profiles were so intriguing, soon, they became a staple post-dinner digestif. By the end of 2022 black berry leaves had made it into my top 5 teas of the year, the first time a tisane had made it onto that list.
When I began planning my tea selling business, I knew that I had to sell them. Soon, pear, apple and vine leaves would join their ranks along with a shou mei and a black tea. I thought Georgian teas might be an add on, not a main focus of my tea brand. But now I am steering more and more to focusing on teas from lesser-known tea producing countries. Sure, I love Chinese puEhs, Taiwanese oolongs and full bodied Indian black teas. But there are a decent number of sellers located in the UK and abroad who ship world wide. How many people are offering Georgian tea? They are rarely talked about in the tea community, despite having much to offer. They were once a huge tea supplying country, supplying a great deal of tea to the Soviet Union before its collapse, so had few fans outside of these countries. And when that collapse happened, the tea industry went with it. Tea plantations were abandoned, and in the decades since, tea bushes and tisanes have been left to grow freely. Many have been covered by trees and various other plant life, earning themselves a 'wild' status. The teas made from these bushes are being produced in smaller batches, picked and processed by hand, and have produced some amazing results. Now is the time of high-quality Georgian loose leaf tea.
I know a lot of my tea followers and friends love to drink oologs, puErhs, white, red and green teas from the big tea producing countries which have a rich 5000 year or so history starting in China. Indeed, these were the teas I was championing and posting about during my days as a tea influencer on IG and Tiktok. There are many reputable sellers of said teas who are well established and have fresh new teas to add to their line up each year. It can be hard to convince seasoned tea drinkers, along with everyday tea bag drinkers, to spend up to £8.00 on 40g on the leaf of a plant which is not from the camelia sinesis family, especially when they could get 20g of a high grade tea from a favoured seller. Likewise, anyone new coming into the world of loose leaf tea may be wandering why it's worth so much when they could be buying 50 or more teabags instead.
My mission here is to prove that it is worth the cost. There's no less care and attention given to these leaves just because they're not from the tea plant. Blackberry, blueberry, mulberry, apple, pear and vine leaves. They're not an accessory to tea or a second option. These are exceptional herbal drinks that stand on their own merits. They are a regular, indepensible evening drink that follows every meal I have. They've become as important to me in my daily routine as that first pot of black tea is in the morning. They also offer people a naturally caffeine free option that is still full of flavour. Finding a decaffeinated, loose leaf tea that still holds decent flavour is rare.
Of course, I still look for exceptional and unique teas to sell, which is why I am selling a range of Japanese green teas (more blogs to come on those later!) and two Georgian teas, but this whole experience opened me up more to just how great a tisanes can get.