Rejuvenating Georgian Tea with Renegade Tea Estate

Did you know that tea is grown in Georgia (the country, not the state)? At its peak, the Georgian tea industry provided 95% of the tea consumed by the Soviet Union. You might be surprised to learn that it has a subtropical climate and that tea has been grown there since 1845. Unfortunately, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought the tea industry to a grinding halt. Hundreds of plantations were left abandoned.

That is where Renegade Tea Estate comes in. A group of friends from Estonia and Lithuania joined forces to revive the abandoned tea plantations. Some of you might remember the Indiegogo campaign from when they launched. I can only imagine how much hard work it took to get the fields back into working order. Last year was their first full season growing and producing tea.

Renegade Tea Estate generously shared large bags of three of their 2019 teas with me. I’m a sucker for nice packaging and marketing materials. Everything was beautifully designed with the purpose of highlighting Georgia. The map of their tea estates and factory particularly drew my attention. I’ve tried a few Georgian teas over the years but they were all lower quality CTC so I was so excited to taste their offerings.

My backlog is quite long so unfortunately most of these teas are now no longer available (with the exception of Lazy Morning). The teas made by Renegade Tea Estate are not the same every year. That is part of what makes their project so exciting! They continue to develop, learn, and change over time and we get to experience that in the cup.

Acacia Rain

The dry leaf of this tea was absolutely beautiful. I would have thought it was a Chinese white tea! They were varied shades of green with a generous sprinkling of downy buds. The liquor was a buttery gold color. In the cup, it started out super soft and sweet with floral notes. The mouthfeel had an almost effervescent quality thanks to all of the trichomes. It was ever so slightly drying in the finish but it never became unpleasant. The second infusion brought an interesting note of lemon zest.

Lazy Morning

Lazy Morning but also pretty to look at. The leaves were slightly more broken but that is to be expected since oolong processing requires rolling. It brewed up a deep gold color. The taste was very light-bodied, reminding me of Taiwanese Baozhong. It was floral and slightly sweet with an intriguing fruity aftertaste. The name is very fitting because this tea gave super chill vibes. I often steep a cup on Saturday morning to kick off my weekend.

Spring Sting

The leaves of this tea were very long and wiry. They appeared dark but once they unfurled they looked fairly green. That made me wonder if it was made with a hard wither, like what we might see in Darjeeling. It brewed up a pale shade of amber. The taste was light-bodied and smooth with notes of malt and subtle hints of spice. I really enjoyed the mouthwatering sweetness in the finish. Renegade Tea Estate is now offering a few different black teas with varied oxidation levels. It would be interesting to compare them.

Thank you to Renegade Tea Estate for giving me the opportunity to try their teas. I was really blown away by the quality and I cannot wait to see where they go in the future.

Have you ever tried Georgian tea? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments below!

These teas were provided for review by Renegade Tea Estate. Opinions are my own.