Samegrelo
The province north of the Rioni around Zugdidi, historically one of Georgia’s largest tea districts and among the hardest hit by the post-Soviet collapse and the conflicts of the 1990s. Recovery has been slower here than in Guria, and much of the planted area remains derelict — which makes Samegrelo the clearest illustration of what happened to Georgian tea rather than of what it is becoming.
History on this page: TeaHQ synthesis
TeaHQ's own reading of well-attested general knowledge, with no single source behind it.
This district’s description dates something — a founding, a first planting, a period of expansion. The label above says on what basis, and it applies to the historical statements rather than to the elevation, climate or soil claims below, which carry their own confidence separately.
Elevation
Recorded at 20–500 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
When it is picked
A short season with a genuine winter dormancy at either end, on the Black Sea pattern: plucking begins once the spring cold releases, runs through the summer, and stops. What makes this district different from a functioning one is that much of the planted area is not picked at all — derelict ground carries bushes that have grown out unpruned, and bringing them back into a calendar is a multi-year job before it is a seasonal one.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How production is organised
Mostly absent, which is the honest description. A district that was among Georgia's largest now holds a large area of abandoned planting, a small number of operators working recovered plots, and no continuous industry between them. Recovery here has been slower than in Guria, so Samegrelo documents what happened to Georgian tea rather than what it is becoming.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as samegrelo, mingrelia, zugdidi. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Other teas recorded from here
Other growing regions in Georgia
The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.