TEA MAKING CULTURE INSPIRED
BY THE HISTORY

HISTORY OF GURIELI

From the beginning it was back in 1809, two-hundred years ago, Prince Mamia V Gurieli (1809-1826), last ruler of Guria principality in Western Georgia, took great interest in transforming and developing the agricultural sector.
Following the advice given by the French botanists Andre Michaux and his son Francois Andre Michaux, who were the first to bring the tea plant to the United States in 1799, the Prince ordered the first Tea - Camellia Sinensis samples. These were brought to his botanical garden by the Scotsman Jacob Montague Marr, together with other exotic plants. Cultivation of this once unknown plant has laid the grounds for the development of what in the following decades became one of the biggest agricultural industries in Georgia.