🇬🇪 Traditions of Georgia

21 traditions from Georgia, best known first, across 7 cities and towns.

Georgian dining customs center on the communal supra feast, where hospitality and ritual toasts unite family and guests. Each province shapes its own table with distinct ingredients, from coastal anchovies and mountain cheeses to walnut sauces and regional wines. Longstanding trade along the Silk Road left an enduring mark on these culinary practices.

In Georgia, hospitality takes shape around the table. Historical trade along the Silk Road helped form a distinct food culture that shares elements with neighboring Caucasian, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European lands. Daily life and gatherings are anchored by shared meals, where local produce, cheeses, and seasoned meats reflect the geography of each province. Whether sharing bread with spontaneous guests or marking special occasions with ritual toasts, communal dining remains at the heart of community life.

The ritual feast

The supra, or feast, is central to Georgian social life. Hosts frequently invite friends, relatives, and unexpected guests to share food and drink. Every supra is guided by a tamada, a designated toastmaster who directs the gathering, offers formal toasts, and keeps guests entertained throughout the meal. The gathering is an expression of affection for companions and family. Afterward, diners in some regions eat khashi, a comforting dish of boiled meat served following a long evening of feasting. From spontaneous neighborhood drop-ins to large celebrations, the feast serves as a primary space for social connection.

Breads and cheeses

Baked specialties and dairy form the foundation of daily fare across the provinces. Cheese bread, known as khachapuri, takes different forms depending on local custom. In Imereti, cooks bake the standard round version, while Adjara is known for its boat-shaped variant, and Kartli makes chakhrakina filled with cheese and beet greens. In the eastern region of Kakheti, bakers make shoti, a traditional crusty bread. Cheesemaking is equally varied, including fresh, salty chkinti, creamy sulguni, and regional Imeruli kveli. In mountainous Adjara, rich dairy leads to dishes like borano, which features cheese fried in clarified butter.

Walnuts and garden fare

Walnuts are an essential seasoning throughout Georgia, particularly in western regions like Guria, Imereti, and Samegrelo. Cooks crush them into thick bazhe sauces for poultry in satsivi, or blend them with cooked vegetables to create pkhali pastes. Eggplants fried and rolled with seasoned walnut fillings, known as badrijani nigvzit, appear alongside mashed red beans called lobio. In fruit-rich Kartli, gardens yield abundant peaches, figs, and apples, alongside vegetables used in tart soups like shechamandi. Pickled produce is common across the country, with jars containing cabbage, cucumbers, beets, and pickled bladdernut buds known locally as jonjoli.

Vineyards and mountain meats

The eastern province of Kakheti is celebrated as the premier wine region, centered on the Alazani valley and areas like Tsinandali. Winemakers cultivate native grapes including Saperavi, Rkatsiteli, and Kisi. Kakhetian meals feature substantial meat dishes, such as mtsvadi cooked over an open flame, herbed khinkali dumplings, and chakapuli, a slow-simmered lamb stew flavoured with fresh tarragon. Grape juice plays an equally large part in regional confectionery. Sweets like pelamushi and churchkhela, which encases strings of walnuts in a thickened grape glaze, showcase the harvest at the end of the season.

Black Sea traditions

Along the southwestern coast and borders, regional communities maintain distinct culinary customs. In seaside Adjara and Abkhazia, cooks incorporate generous amounts of fresh herbs alongside ajika, a sharp, aromatic chili paste. In the coastal area of Sarpi, the Laz people preserve dishes shaped by the sea, including fried anchovies, anchovy pilaf, and cornbread enriched with fish and herbs. Laz sweets include paponi, a baked pastry containing milk pudding. Abkhazian tables feature corn porridge called abysta, spicy bean dishes, and honey cookies known as akuarkuar, alongside local wines such as Anakopia and Lykhny.

Where this page comes from

The facts in this overview come from the Wikipedia article "Georgian cuisine", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

The table in Georgia

Foods and drinks by the moment they belong to.

Tea-time and snacking customs	Eid il-Burbara
Tea, coffee and drinking ceremonies	Supra
Sweets given and shared	Eid il-Burbara, Theodore's Saturday
Feasts and festival meals	Rtveli, Supra, Eid il-Burbara, Berikaoba
Fasting and breaking the fast	Cenobitic monasticism, Theodore's Saturday

Cities, towns and villages of Georgia

Tbilisi 8 Atsana 1 Batumi 1 Makatubani 1 Shrosha 1 Sighnaghi 1 Vardisubani 1

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, Georgia and 4 moreGeorgian polyphonic singing Several voices at once, sung without instruments at Georgian feasts and weddingsPerformance

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaGeorgian danceქართული ცეკვა Martial, courtship, and celebratory regional dances from across GeorgiaPerformance

🇬🇪 GeorgiaTamadaთამადა The toastmaster who leads the Georgian supra, guiding toasts and conversation at feasts.Etiquette

🇬🇪 GeorgiaRtveliრთველი A Georgian harvest festival marking the grape picking season with feasts and folk songs.Festival · Feasts and festival meals

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaChichilakiჩიჩილაკი A shaved hazelnut branch crafted as a Georgian Christmas tree and burned at EpiphanyFestival

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaTbilisobaთბილისობა An annual October festival celebrating the culture, harvest, and history of TbilisiFestival

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaSupraსუფრა A Georgian feast led by a toastmaster, where toasts, wine and food carry the mealTable custom · Feasts and festival meals

🇬🇪 Georgia and 5 moreChokha A high-collared wool coat of the Caucasus, worn by men for battle and ceremonyDress

🇬🇪 Georgia and 2 moreKvevriქვევრი A buried clay jar, and the Georgian way of making wine inside itCraft 🇬🇪 GeorgiaBerikaobaბერიკაობა An improvised Georgian folk theatre and masquerade of fertility, satire and dramaPerformance · Feasts and festival meals

🇱🇧 Beirut, Lebanon and 7 moreEid il-Burbaraعيد البربارة A winter feast of costumes, sweet boiled wheat, and sprouting seeds across the LevantFestival · Feasts and festival meals

🇬🇪 GeorgiaAlaverdobaალავერდობა A harvest and saint's feast celebrated at Alaverdi Cathedral in eastern GeorgiaSpiritual

🇦🇲 Yerevan, Armenia and 5 moreKhachkarխաչքար A carved stone cross raised as a memorial, a grave marker and a prayer in stoneCraft

🇹🇷 Bursa, Turkey and 5 moreKaragöz and Hacivat A Turkish shadow play of two quarrelling friends, acted on a lit screen behind a curtainPerformance

🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 5 moreSaint George's Day A saint's feast on 23 April, kept by churches and patron nations from England to GeorgiaSpiritual

🇬🇧 St Andrews, United Kingdom and 7 moreSaint Andrew's DayLà Naomh Anndrais The feast of Andrew the Apostle, kept on 30 November and Scotland's national daySpiritual 🇪🇬 Alexandria, Egypt and 5 moreCenobitic monasticism A communal way of monastic life where monks live, pray, and follow a shared ruleSpiritual · Fasting and breaking the fast

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaIndependence Dayდამოუკიდებლობის დღე Georgia's national holiday marking the 1918 declaration of sovereignty from the Russian Empire.Ceremony

🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaSoviet Occupation Dayსაბჭოთა ოკუპაციის დღე Georgia's annual day of remembrance, held on 25 February for victims of Soviet ruleCeremony

🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreDelphic Games of the modern era Global competitions and exhibitions across the arts, modelled on ancient Greek gamesPerformance 🇬🇪 GeorgiaTheodore's Saturday The first Saturday of Lent, kept with boiled wheat and visits to the gravesSpiritual · Sweets given and shared

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

Kvevri: Levan Totosashvili, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
Rtveli: Grigory Gagarin, Public domain, source
Chichilaki: Mostafameraji, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Tbilisoba: DDohler, CC BY 2.0, source
Eid il-Burbara: Durziil89, CC0, source
Alaverdoba: Grigory Gagarin, Public domain, source
Tamada: Niko Pirosmani, Public domain, source
Chokha: Pyotr Gankevich, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Supra: Public domain Public domain false false This work is in the public dom, Public domain, source
Khachkar: Arantz, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
Karagöz and Hacivat: Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
Saint George's Day: Raphael, Public domain, source
Saint Andrew's Day: Henryk Siemiradzki, Public domain, source
Independence Day: Kober, Public domain, source
Soviet Occupation Day: Jeremy Teigen, CC BY 2.0, source
Delphic Games of the modern era: Achilles Painter, Public domain, source