Rhodolite garnet is a mixture of pyrope and almandine garnet types. It has a lovely raspberry red to purplish red colour and is brighter than many of the other red garnets. It is unsurprisingly known as the ‘grape garnet’ because of its bright and luscious red colour. The name ‘rhodolite’ is derived from the Greek ‘rhodon’ meaning ‘rose coloured.’
Rhodolite garnet is a fairly new gemstone. It was discovered in the 1890s by mineralogist William Earl Hidden in North Carolina, America. Since then, deposits of rhodolite garnet have been found in Brazil, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, India, Greenland, Kenya and the USA.
