This page gathers the stones in our collection whose origin is Kenya. At present that means a single variety: Tsavorite Garnet, the vivid green grossular garnet that takes its name from Kenya's Tsavo region. Its colour comes from traces of vanadium and, in some material, chromium — the same colouring elements that give emerald its character, expressed here through a different mineral species with markedly higher brilliance.
Garnet does not respond to the conventional heat treatments used on many other coloured stones, so tsavorite is generally encountered as nature formed it. What distinguishes one specimen from another is therefore almost entirely natural: the saturation and tone of the green, the transparency, and the precision of the cut. Tsavorite's high refractive index rewards well-proportioned cutting with exceptional light return, while overly deep or shallow stones can look either dark or flat.
When choosing, weigh colour against size. Clean tsavorite is more commonly found in smaller weights, so a smaller stone of open, lively green will often present better than a larger one of subdued colour. With a hardness in the region of 7 to 7.5 and no cleavage, it is well suited to rings as well as earrings and pendants.
