Garnet

Types and Colors of Garnet - Which Color Is Your Favorite?
There are at least 13 types of garnet, but not all garnet is suitable for use in jewelry. The types of garnet most used in jewelry are almandine (almandite), andradite, grossular, pyrope and spessartite (spessartine).

Almandine Garnet
is typically deep red to reddish-brown. It can sometimes have a violet or brown hue. The term common garnet usually refers to brownish-red, opaque almandine that is used in industrial settings. Precious garnet refers to a deep red, transparent almandine that is suitable for use in jewelry. Almandine garnet is sometimes called Oriental Garnet.

Andradite Garnet
can be yellow, green, orange, reddish-brown, brown, gray, black and sometimes (rarely) colorless or white. Demantoid garnet is the emerald green to green transparent variety of this type of garnet that is suitable for use in jewelry. Demantoid garnet is very highly prized and one of the rarest of the garnets. Demantoid was first identified in Russia in 1853. Russian mining of demantoid has essentially ceased but in 1997 there was a new find of demantoid garnet in Namibia.

Grossular Garnet
can be colorless, white, green, yellow, pink, brown, orange and orange-red in color. The member of this branch of the garnet family that is typically used in jewelry is tsavorite which is a chromium-rich emerald green variety of grossular garnet. It was first discovered in the early 1960s in Kenya and Tanzania and was named by Tiffany's. It is currently only found and mined in Kenya and Tanzania and tsavorite in carat weights over 2 carats are rare with carat weights of over 5 carats almost non-existent.

Pyrope Garnet
like almandine, has been around forever and is one of the most common garnets. It is deep red to nearly black and can occasionally be rose-red to violet in color. In the past, pyrope has also been called Bohemian garnet, Colorado ruby, California ruby, Rocky Mounty ruby, Elie ruby, Bohemian carbuncle and Cape ruby but use of these names is strongly discouraged by the Gemological Institute of America.

Spessartite (spessartine) Garnet
can be found in brown, orange, pink and brownish-red. The first deposits of orange spessartite were found in Germany in the 1990s. Spessartite garnet is currently mined in Nigeria, Ramona (California) and Namibia. One will often hear the gem trade name of Mandarin, malaia or tangerine used to refer to the best of this popular garnet.