Dato Tenieshvili grew up in a small village nearby and had worked in the tea industry like everyone else there. But then, the 1990s happened. Civil war eruptine, mafia groups ruled and fought, and industry was crippled.
Electricity was an intermittent luxury, tea factories were looted and sold for scrap, uncared for plantations were overrun with weeds, and from being ubiquitous, tea became expensive and imported. One day, Dato was seized with the desire to drink a cup of tea. Finding none in the house, he decided he would make it himself – a decision that would change his life.
At first, he plucked tea and rolled it by hand, but soon enough he'd cobbled together a tea roller from an old barrel and some roofing sheets, getting round the electricity issue with a homemade waterwheel to dunk in the river. Word soon got out that Dato was making some really great tea, and the business snowballed from there. While the factory now uses state-of-the-art Chinese machinery, the personal, caring, and handmade touch remains present in every gram of product.
Dato and his son Gabriel are firm believers in natural methods and the path to their tea factory winds through their kitchen
garden and orchard which drips with fresh pears and kiwis. As their enterprise grew, so too did the Georgian Organic Producers’ Association, of which they were founding members. This scheme focuses heavily on soil health, and the Tenieshvili's plantation shows the benefits: rich, healthy and productive bushes fed only by a system of composting.
Dato's uncompromising principles are evident in the lovely shape of the bushes which helps give light to all leaves.
These days, the Tenieshvili family manages three fields containing heritage 80-year-old bushes. They use organic methods to produce fine Chinese-style green, white and black tea.make some really excellent teas, including some wild teas from a nearby rewilded tea forest, also Gurian style wild blueberry leaf tisane from the slopes of nearby Gomismta mountain.
Most of the pickers are local women who used to work on the collective farms. Dato’s son, Gabriel, now heads up the operation.
