When most people think of garnet, the color that most immediately comes to mind is a red or brown. The reality is that garnets occur in a broad range of colors including red, orange, purple, violet, yellow, and green in the case of tsavorite. This version of garnet has a deep green color and it very seriously bright...much brighter than many gems. The intensity of its green color is essentially in the sane realm of green as a really wonderful emerald would like to occur.

While emerald is relatively soft and very easily damaged, tsavorite has a hardness of 7 to 7.5 based on the Moh's Scale and is considerably more durable than emerald. If you're looking an amazingly beautiful green gem, I highly recommend tsavorite. You might also note that garnet is considered the birthstone for January. Since tsavorite is indeed a member of the garnet family, I feel certain that tsavorite would also be considered the January birthstone...that is if the color green suits you.

If you're interested in locating tsavorites or any other variation of garnet or garnets, please let me know. I have wonderful sources for garnets as well as all sorts of colored gems and diamonds.