Tea Harvest for Eid: This Year's Features and Our Plans

Holidays are often both tiring and joyful, and that's exactly how the holiday tea harvest is for us. We get tired, but at the same time, we feel a very strange kind of happiness.

The Late Arrival of Tea

This year the tea arrived a little late. It was 4 weeks later than last year. April was very cold and rainy, so the tea sprouts developed slowly. We were only able to start harvesting on May 17th. However, this delay ultimately led to a much tastier and higher-quality harvest.

Hand-picking tea: A craft

This year we were able to harvest much more hand-picked tea. Hand-picking tea is a truly labor-intensive job. The increasing number of our producers each year is a great source of happiness for us. This is because hand-picked tea has a higher economic value and is much better for the plant. Furthermore, the producer makes their tea more valuable by carrying less weight.

More Tea Than Expected

As you can understand, we are really very happy this year. We couldn't keep up with the pace of our producers. We received more tea than our capacity allowed, but we didn't refuse anyone in order not to put anyone in a difficult situation.

Tea Quality: Green and Black Tea

As a result, we produced polyphenol-rich green teas with an extract ratio of 42.3%. We had significantly more green tea than last year. We also plan to create different blends with our green teas this year. Our black tea also turned out quite delicious; it has a very high aroma value and is getting better every year. We produced much more black tea than last year.

Plans for Next Year

Our biggest plan for next year is to significantly increase the amount of tea we harvest, especially by hand, and even spread this method throughout Rize, from village to village. We have unwavering faith that Turkish tea will achieve a good position in the world. The quality of our tea leaves is truly excellent, and our only wish is to carry out this process without damaging the tea during harvesting and transportation. We must be careful to harvest and process the best tea.

In conclusion

Tea production is not just a business for us, it's a passion. This year's harvest and our plans for the future excite us greatly. We will continue our efforts to improve the quality of tea and elevate Turkish tea to a higher level. With kind regards, Lazika.