Caucasus Tea

"Caucasus Tea" is a brand created of herbs and tea by Azerbaijani, Armenian, Georgian, Abkhaz, Ossetian and Nagorno-Karabakhi producers and experts. It offers flavours from all corners of the Caucasus and symbolises commonalities across the region.

Today the Caucasian tea sector is only a shadow of its former importance during the Soviet era, when  tea alone covered over 95% of Soviet tea consumption. Since then the tea sector has suffered from structural underfunding and was heavily damaged by the many conflicts in the region, which undermined development and cooperation amongst tea producers. With the collapse of the Soviet Union Caucasian tea lost its domestic market, which was then taken over by cheaper teas.

To support the revival of the tea traditions in the region, local associations together with producers and with the support of  the CBDN started "Caucasus Tea" initiative.

Caucasus Tea

The first ever Caucasian Tea Producers' Congress took place in Baku on 11-13 July, 2008. It brought together all main tea sector actors from former Soviet Union countries (excluding Central Asia).

To get a flavour, among the participants were Ustim Shteiman (President of Roschaikofe, Hero of the SU and former Minister of the Soviet Tea Industry), Ramaz Pantsava (Honorary President of the Georgian Tea Association and former Minister of the Georgian Tea Industry), Lilia Meleshina (a leading tea-taster from Russia) and Georgi Basaria (Abkhazia’s foremost tea grower and specialist) – all leading figures in the sector and some of the most respected figures in their field.

A main aim of the Congress was to evaluate the status of the tea sector in the Caucasus - and develop ways to promote tea sector development and cooperation in the region. The participants agreed that while there is no going back to Soviet style production and supply-chain models,  the key for tea sector development lies in cooperation. As a result of the proceedings, the participants agreed to establish The Caucasian Tea Producers’ Association - an advocacy platform open for all parties interested in tea sector development and cooperation in the region.

The event received a wide and positive media coverage as it was the first time that the main names  and actors from the sector got together on such a level and in such format since the early -90s.

CBDN's work on promoting tea sector cooperation in the Caucasus continued with the organisation of Caucasus Tea Festival on 25 October 2008 in Tbilisi. The event marked the launch of a new joint tea brand - “The CaucasusTea." CBDN partners and tea producers treated the hundreds of guests with their teas andat the same time promoted the newly created “Caucasus Tea” brand, which proved to be a major attraction and focus of the visitors’ interest.

On October 23-24, 2009 with the support from GTZ (The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) and CPP (UK Conflict Prevention Pool) CBDN organized 2nd Caucasian Tea Producers' Congress  to further promote regional cooperation in the tea sector and to promote the Caucasus Tea brand. The Congress, this time in Tbilisi, brought together around 60 producers and experts from the private sectors,  state committees, tea associations, etc.  Tea-experts from Sri Lanka were invited to participate in the proceedings and share their expertise. Additionally, there was a British tea-sector expert who specialising in specialty-teas and niche marketing - something that many consider to be the future of the Caucasian tea sector. The Congress was followed by now traditional Caucasus Tea Festival that had producers from all corners of the region show-casing Caucasus Tea along with their own produce to hundreds of visitors.

On October 23, 2010, CBDN together with the Caucasian Tea Producers’ Association organized the third Caucasus Tea Festival. Caucasus Tea was presented among many other assortments of premium teas brands and attracted special attention with its regional format.

Today, CBDN is developing a region-wide strategy on popularising the Caucasus Tea across the Caucasus. It entails introducing the Tea commercially where possible and other methods of raising awareness and reaching out to new audiences in other areas.