The short answer: the bread you will eat most in Georgia is shotis puri (or just shoti), a canoe-shaped white loaf baked on the inside wall of a round clay or brick oven called a tone. The sweet you will see everywhere is churchkhela: walnuts on a string, dipped again and again in thickened grape juice and dried. Add cornbread (mchadi), honey-and-walnut gozinaki and grape pudding (pelamushi) and you have the basics. Below: what each one is, how churchkhela is made, and where to try or make them yourself.
Shotis puri and the tone oven
A tone looks like a deep well sunk into the bakery floor, heated from the bottom. The baker stretches long strips of dough and slaps them onto the hot inner wall, where they stick and bake; the finished loaves are lifted out with a long iron hook or skewer [1][2]. The shape of the oven gives the bread its shape: pointed at both ends, with a crisp crust and a soft middle. The word tone shares its roots with the Indian tandoor [1].
Shoti is everyday bread, but it also appears at every celebration, from Easter and New Year to weddings [1].
How to buy it: small tone bakeries are dotted all over Tbilisi and in most towns, often just a window at street level. Buy it hot and eat it on the spot; like most fresh bread, it is at its peak within a few hours of baking [2].
Mchadi, the cornbread of the west
Mchadi are small, flat loaves of cornflour and water (sometimes milk), cooked in a pan or on a griddle [2]. They are most common in western Georgia, where maize has long been the staple grain, and they come with lobio (bean stew), cheese and pickles. Some cooks make them thin and soft, others thick and crisp. In Racha you may find mchadi stuffed with ham, and in Svaneti a cheese-filled version called chvishtari [2].
For cheese breads such as khachapuri and the bean-filled lobiani, see our guide to what to eat in Georgia.
Churchkhela: how it is made
Churchkhela is Georgia's travelling snack: light, filling, and it keeps for weeks. It is made in autumn, when fresh grape juice is available after the harvest [3].
- Thread the nuts. Halved walnuts (in the west, often hazelnuts) are threaded onto a long string.
- Make the tatara. Fresh grape juice is boiled down and thickened with flour into a smooth, glossy paste. In eastern Georgia this thickened juice is called tatara; it is traditionally made from local grapes and wheat flour [3]. Some cooks add honey [2].
- Dip and dry. The strings of nuts are dipped into the warm tatara, lifted out, allowed to set a little, then dipped again until the coating is thick. They are then hung up to dry, which is why you see them dangling in long rows at markets and roadside stalls [3].
The result looks like a knobbly candle. Red or purple churchkhela is usually made from red grapes, pale gold from white. The traditional technology of churchkhela in Kakheti was added to Georgia's national list of intangible cultural heritage in 2015 [3].
Buying tips: a good churchkhela is soft and slightly chewy, not rock-hard, and the coating should taste of grape rather than just sugar. Churchkhela packs easily in a suitcase. It contains nuts, so it is one to avoid with a nut allergy.
Other sweets to try
Pelamushi
The same thickened grape juice that coats churchkhela, poured into a bowl and left to set as a pudding [2]. It is usually topped with chopped walnuts or pomegranate seeds, and it is naturally free of dairy and eggs.
Gozinaki
Walnuts cooked in honey and set into a brittle, cut into diamonds [4]. Gozinaki is a fixture of the New Year and Christmas table [4]; you will find it in shops all year, but it is everywhere in late December and early January. More on the holiday table in our post on Georgian Christmas and New Year.
Tklapi
Thickened fruit or grape juice spread thinly and dried in the sun into a leathery sheet [2]. Sour plum tklapi is used in cooking; sweeter kinds are eaten as a snack. Look for rolled sheets at the markets.
Where to try them
- Tbilisi markets: the Dezerter Bazaar near the central station has stalls of churchkhela, dried fruit and tklapi, next to the cheese hall. Keep your bag in front of you; it gets busy.
- Tbilisi bakeries: any street-level tone bakery for shoti; the Old Town and residential streets both have them.
- Kakheti: roadside stalls on the way to Sighnaghi and Telavi sell churchkhela all year, and fresh batches appear during the autumn harvest. Many family wineries bake shoti for guests.
- Western Georgia: order mchadi with lobio in Imereti, Racha or Samegrelo.
Making them yourself
Watching a baker at the tone is fun; making churchkhela yourself is better. It is messy work, since grape juice stains, so wear clothes you don't mind. Children usually love the dipping. Most home cooks make it in autumn, after the harvest; our Kakheti hosts show you how at any time of year.
Tours for this: bread and sweets
On the private Kakheti village cooking day you spend the day with a host family: tone-oven bread, khinkali and churchkhela, with lunch together and a winery stop on the way back. In Tbilisi, the private Tbilisi food and wine walk starts at the Dezerter Bazaar with cheese and churchkhela, then stops at a tone bakery for hot shoti. The private cooking class with a market tour covers khachapuri and khinkali, with churchkhela-making as an add-on. See each tour page for the current price, or build your own food-and-wine trip. Nothing to pay now.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Shotis puri": en.wikipedia.org
- Caucasus Trekking, "Honest Guide to Georgian Cuisine": caucasus-trekking.com
- Wikipedia, "Churchkhela" (tatara; 2015 national heritage listing): en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Gozinaki": en.wikipedia.org
Last checked: September 2026.
