The morning silence, broken only by the faint singing of birds and the soft dance of the breeze in the garden, envelops you. The quietly unfolding spring, despite the other season outside the window, this mood is evoked by the Merelani mint pomegranate.
Like a sparkling drop of dew, the icy green of Merelani mint impresses with its understated yet lovely shade of green.
The green of the Merelani mint stone is distinguished by the fact that it is permeated with a hint of blue, the brightness of which seems to shine from within.
Merelani mint is a green form of grossular from a very light to medium-light tone of the garnet mineral group and gemstone (Ca3Al2Si3O12).
The common name is ugrandite - a compound abbreviation of the words U-varovite, G-rossular and And-radite.
Sharing the same gemstone classification as its brother the tsavorite garnet, Merelani's minty tones combined with its high refractive index elevate it into a category of its own.
The journey of a garnet from a rough piece to a cut, shining gem:
It gets its fresh color from traces of vanadium and rare traces of chromium, and its greens can vary from yellowish-green to slightly bluish-green.
Named for the minty hue and origin of its finest examples, the glacial green of the Merelani minty pomegranate has earned it fame around the world. Although the pistachio-colored garnet was originally discovered alongside tsavorite in 1967, it lacked the subtle combination of factors that would warrant the names.
The Merelani Hills of Tanzania became a remarkable site that warranted attention after nearly luminous cucumber-green garnet was discovered in pockets of tanzanite mines in the late 1980s.
Green grossulars of varying quality can also be found outside Tanzania, especially in Kenya and Madagascar.
The garnet is rare, there are few decorations with it:
Merelani mint pomegranate scores 7,25-7,5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Merelani mint is a rare beauty that is virtually unprocessed. Metamorphic in shape, finished gemstones weighing over two carats are rare and highly collectible.
