As the story goes, Tanzanites weren’t discovered until 1967 when Maasai herders were walking the Merelani Hills and stumbled upon a handful of intensely colored gem crystals. When they decided to return to the location to look for more of these crystals they only found crystals which were dark brown in color. Disappointment set in and after enjoying the warmth of an evening fire one of the herders tossed some of the crystals into the smouldering embers that remained before going to bed. Upon waking up the next morning amazement set in when they found out these once brown crystals had now turned vivid violetish blue due to the heat.

Tanzanites are rare in two different ways; they are both geologically rare and physically rare. They are geologically rare because they're only found in one small area, an physically rare because even in that small area production is low due to lack of availability and difficulty mining there. Some tanzanite mines reach depths of an astonishing 1400 meters below surface level!

Every now and then circumstances will be just right for a tanzanite crystal to actually turn a vivid pink or even an almost “Tsavorite” green. These are far rarer than blue tanzanites and are also considerably more valuable.

Almost all tanzanites are heated to remove undesirable secondary colors, such as yellow or brown, and turn the gemstones a vibrant blue or violet. Tanzanite is one of very few gemstones where the presence of treatment doesn’t actually affect the price as it is generally an accepted one.