Manohari Gold Tea
An ultra-premium, small-batch orthodox tea from one Assam garden, hand-plucked 25 to 50 grams a day and sold at record prices. What it is, how it is made, and the full auction record.
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Manohari Gold Tea is an ultra-premium, small-batch orthodox black tea made from the golden-tipped buds of one Assam garden, Manohari Tea Estate in Dibrugarh district, in quantities of 25 to 50 grams a day. It is the most expensive tea India has sold at auction, and it has broken its own record four times.
How it is made
The tea is plucked only from the tender, golden-tipped buds of the estate's P-126 clone bushes, by hand, in the early morning2, between 4am and 6am, to keep the sun from altering its aroma and flavour5. The buds are then processed using traditional techniques2.
The output of all that is 25 to 50 grams a day.
The record book
Here is the record, in order, each figure a per-kilogram auction result with an approximate US dollar equivalent at the rate of the sale's own month.
| Year | Price per kilogram | Approximately |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Rs 39,001 | $570 |
| 2019 | Rs 50,000 | $730 |
| 2020 | Rs 75,000 | $1,010 |
| 2021 | Rs 99,999 | $1,320 |
| December 2022 | Rs 115,000 | $1,390 |
The 2018 result was the first record1, and the most expensive tea sold at any Indian auction centre at that time; the buyer, Sourabh Tea Traders, took two kilograms for clients in Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata. The 2019 sale went through the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre7, as did the Rs 99,999 result in 20213, also reported at the time by Business Today4.
The ceiling, and the sale that went around it
Rs 99,9993 is one rupee under Rs 100,000. In 2022 the estate's director said the Tea Board of India capped prices at the government-run auctions at Rs 1 lakh (100,000) per kilogram5, so the 2021 record was set flush against the ceiling of the room it was sold in.
In December 2022 the tea sold for Rs 115,000 a kilogram through a Kolkata-based private portal, bought by RK Tea Sales for its clients Cafe Nilofer in Hyderabad and other locations6.
The 2026 profile
In July 2026 the Prime Minister gave Manohari Gold to the President of Indonesia, months after visiting the estate in Assam and plucking leaf there himself.