As long as you don't want blue, you can have garnet in any color you like. From the unique Mandarin orange of spessartine to the lush emerald green of demantoid, garnets are actually a lot more than one type of stone. Without getting too technical, here's a simple breakdown of the different types, colors and values of these beautiful gemstones.

Andradite: Besides yellow and brown, this type of garnet proudly claims the ultimate demantoid, or "lost queen of garnet" in stunning emerald green. Discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in 1868, this source delivered gem quality garnet for about thirty years. With greater color dispersion (fire) than any other gemstone, including diamond, these extremely rare garnets can command up to $5,000 per carat! A new source for demantoid was found in Namibia, Africa in the 1970's, but was only able to yield a small amount of stones large enough for gem production. Demantoid garnet is also relatively soft, so extra care must be taken in mounting as well as normal use.

Grossular: The most colorful garnet type, occurring in yellow, brown, orange and a gorgeous, vivid green variety called tsavorite, which rivals demantoid in beauty and value. Named by Tiffany and Co. in New York after the Tsavo National Park in East Africa, this garnet is almost never available over five carats. The smaller stones can sell for as low as $100 per-carat, while specimens over three carats may command $5,000 per carat.

Almandine: The most common of all garnet, these stones are typically red to brownish-red and can cost as little as $40 per carat. It's not unusual to find almandine garnet as large as 50 carats, but stones of this size don't normally have good enough color to be made into gems.

Pyrope: Another very common variety will exhibit a range of reds from blackish-red on
the low end to stones which resemble rubies at their finest. They sell from between $50 and $100 dollars per
carat.

Spessartite: From reddish-brown and yellow-orange this is a very affordable variety. However, the new, and very popular, mandarine (or tangerine) spessartite can bring as much as $1,000 per carat. Another type of spessartite is malaia, (Swahili for prostitute) a beautiful pinkish or reddish orange that can cost $500 per carat. Called malaia as it was discovered on an East Africa search for rhodolite and, apparently, didn't measure up.

Rhodolite: Is a unique purplish variety, sometimes with the rich color of grape. Originally found in North Carolina, rhodolite garnet enjoys tremendous popularity in Japan, and can fetch an impressive $400 per carat. But, most specimens don't exhibit enough red to bring over $100.

There is also a color-change variety, which is available in numerous color combinations and price ranges.