🌱 Foundation
Lazika was born in Ardeşen, Rize — at the heart of Türkiye’s tea-growing highlands — as a small-batch startup with a bold vision: to revive and reimagine artisanal tea culture.
Rooted in the traditions of hand-picking and slow crafting, we set out to create high-quality teas that reflect the purity of nature and the wisdom of Anatolian heritage.
From our first handcrafted black, green, and oolong teas to our growing range of purposeful blends, every cup we create is an invitation to taste our region — sustainably sourced, ethically made, and always with intention.
🌿 Sustainability at the Core
At Lazika, sustainability isn’t a trend — it’s the heart of who we are.
Since day one, we’ve committed to impact-driven tea making, using every blend as a platform for responsible farming, fair labor, and local empowerment.
We proudly partner with small-scale farmers and women’s cooperatives, and we prioritize pesticide-free, organically grown tea leaves from the lush gardens of Rize. Our dedication to doing things right goes beyond what’s in the cup — it shapes how we source, how we package, and how we protect the future we believe in.
In 2018, we became one of the first tea brands in Türkiye to launch biodegradable PLA pyramid tea bags — a step toward clean, compostable, and safe brewing experiences that honor both your health and the planet.
Because for us, sustainability isn’t an extra — it’s the starting point.
🍵2021 — Mediterranean alchemy leads our Functional Teas.
2023 marked a defining chapter for Lazika — where innovation met tradition in every cup. Inspired by Mediterranean alchemy, we crafted functional teas that blend ancient herbal wisdom with modern wellness science.
This year saw the launch of our Super Green Teas and Sentimental Blends, designed not just to taste good, but to do good:
- Collagen Green Tea – infused with 237 mg of collagen peptides per bag
- Prebiotic Green Tea – delivering 301 mg of natural prebiotic fiber per cup — the world’s first prebiotic tea in this format
We also took part in the Tea Passion Project, a cultural celebration of tea as an artistic and emotional experience.
This milestone year coincided with UNESCO’s recognition of Turkish tea culture as Intangible Cultural Heritage — a global acknowledgment of what Lazika has always believed: that tea is a vessel for care, connection, and culture.
Today
Lazika is no longer just a tea brand — it’s a living ecosystem with real roots, real spaces, and real community impact.
In 2025, our own tea plantation reached 20,000 m², reinforcing our hands-on commitment to sustainable, locally grown tea in the Black Sea region.
This year also marked the launch of Café Lazika — a space where we brew our signature teas and serve them alongside freshly prepared foods. More than a café, it’s a meeting point for culture, connection, and community-building in our hometown.
We’ve set bold, measurable goals for regional impact:
– 500 full-time rural jobs within 5 years
– 1,000 within 10 years
And we remain focused on:
– Empowering women in agriculture and leadership
– Expanding our wellness tea lines and global exports
– Creating spaces — from fields to cafés — that nourish both people and
purpose
Because for Lazika, tea is never just a product. It’s a way of life, rooted in the soil and shared at the table.
💛 At Lazika, Tea Is a Way to Build a Better Future
At Lazika, tea isn’t just a beverage — it’s a way to keep people rooted, livelihoods alive, and traditions evolving.
For nearly 85 years, our region in Türkiye’s Eastern Black Sea has been the heart of Turkish tea farming. Generations of families have depended on tea for survival, meaning, and connection. But today, that value is under threat. Industrialization, overreliance on a single crop variety, and the slow disappearance of family-run gardens have made sustainable farming harder than ever.
And it’s not just tea that’s struggling — it's entire communities.
As factories centralize in big cities, rural jobs disappear. Tea work becomes seasonal. Families leave. Villages grow quiet. Cities overflow.
We’re here to change that.
Lazika designs and produces its teas right where tea grows — in the villages of Rize. 98% of the value we create stays in our hometown. Our team works year-round — not just during the harvest. Ardeşen isn’t just our headquarters.
It’s our home.
Our goal is bold but clear:
Create 500 full-time rural jobs in five years, and 1,000 in ten.
Give young people a reason to stay.
Make rural life viable — and even desirable — again.
We pay our growers up to 4x more for hand-picked, high-quality leaves — because it’s better for the tea and better for the people who grow it.
Today, over 380 women — our aunts, sisters, and neighbors — harvest our tea by hand. And each year, more families join them.
Even our fabric packaging is sewn by women entrepreneurs in nearby villages. What began as a small, experimental idea has become one of our most meaningful projects — made possible by your support.
This is how we’re redefining tea — not just by how it tastes, but by what it changes.