May – June
Usually starts between 10 and 20 May. The finest, most aromatic leaf of the year is picked now. The gardens are busy and the village is lively.
- Home
- Tea gardens
One tea garden,
half a century.
Çeçeva's reputation rests on one thing: here the tea is beautiful on purpose, not by accident.
The story
A family that came from Harput to Rize.
The village's best-known garden belongs to Kenan Çiftçi. His family migrated years ago from the Harput area of Elazığ, in eastern Türkiye, and bought a small plot of land here. What they did afterwards was simple but rare: prune with the same care every year, keep the terraces level, never let the rows drift. After more than forty years the result is a geometry with few equals on the Black Sea coast.
The garden was never laid out for tourism. Its fame came through television commercials and then social media. Today visitors often ask “Is Uncle Kenan here?” before anything else — hearing the story of the garden from him is the best part of the trip.
Please remember: this is not a tourist facility, it is somebody's
livelihood. Walking without stepping between the rows, without pulling at the branches
and without leaving litter is the only condition on which the village keeps this door
open.
Why does it look different?
The difference is pruning and terracing.
Across Rize, tea plots generally follow the natural fall of the slope and the idea of a “row” is often vague. In Çeçeva the hillside was terraced, the rows opened parallel to the contour lines, and the tops of the bushes are pruned to a single level. Seen from a distance, the result reads like combed hair.
It is also sound agriculture: terracing reduces erosion, a level cut brings the new flush on at one time and at an even length, and the spacing between rows lets the picker work comfortably.
- Terraces follow the contour lines, so water does not race down the slope and carry the soil with it.
- Level-plane pruning both eases the harvest and evens out the yield.
- The connecting paths and stairways are built of stone; some are mossy and very old.
Harvest
Three flushes a year, sometimes four.
The fresh-leaf campaign opens in May and closes at the end of October. In those five months the same garden is picked three times — four if the season runs well.
July – August
The hottest and most humid stretch; the bush pushes fast. Right after a harvest the garden is at its tidiest — ideal for photographs.
September – October
The close of the season. Fewer visitors, softer light. Against that, rainfall is at its highest of the year; factor it into your plans.
Harvest dates shift every year. The official start of the campaign is
announced by ÇAYKUR, the state tea board, and can move by a few days with the weather. It is
worth checking current announcements before the season if you need an exact date.
Two leaves and a bud
What is actually picked is a very small piece.
Quality tea has a fixed measure: the two leaves and the bud at the tip of the shoot. Further down the stem the leaf hardens and the aroma drops. Keeping that distinction is harder with shears than by hand, which is why a skilled picker adjusts even the shears to the length of the leaf.
Fresh leaf has to reach the factory the same day. Sacks are not packed tight or stacked on top of one another — crushed leaf heats up and starts to ferment while the truck is still on the road.
Photography
The best light is at either end of the day.
Between 06:00 and 09:00 the layers emerge as the mist lifts out of the valley. From late afternoon to sunset, side light picks out the lines of the terraces. Midday sun flattens that texture.
Framing suggestions
- Use the terrace lines as leading lines; let them enter from a corner and run into depth.
- On misty mornings a long lens (70–200 mm) compresses the layers and gives you three ridges in one frame.
- Place people on the path between the rows, not inside the tea — it is both more accurate and cleaner.
- If you plan to fly a drone, ask in the village first; the gardens are private property and the houses are very close.
Garden etiquette
- Do not sit or stand on the tea bushes — that costs a whole flush.
- Do not pick shoots; ask if you want to taste one, and you will usually be handed some gladly.
- On harvest days, do not block the pickers' way; their work is measured by the hour.
- Take your rubbish back with you, tissues and bottles above all.
What comes after the garden?
Cafés looking out over the tea, a Black Sea village breakfast, and waterfalls in the nearby valleys.