Winning bid at the Ceylon Tea Charity Auction achieves Guinness World Record
Credit: Yumi Nakatsugawa
Several Ceylon tea promotional events were organised on 25-26 September, inside and outside of the venue of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.
In the Expo venue, Ceylon Tea Master Shows and Seminars were conducted for the Expo visitors on 25 and 26 near the Sri Lanka Pavillion, jointly organised by the Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) and the Japan Tea Association (JTA).
On the afternoon of the 26th, a remarkable event, the Ceylon Tea Charity Auction, was held at the Grand Prince Hotel Osaka Bay, a few stops away by train from the Expo venue. A total of 27 lots of award-winning teas of the Ceylon Speciality Estate Tea of the Year Competition were auctioned, and 100 percent of the sales would be used to support children’s education in tea-growing regions through the Colombo Tea Traders’ Charity Trust.
The tea competition took place in Colombo in advance of the event with 430 entries, and those were evaluated by several rounds of blind tasting by a panel of expert tea tasters. Then the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners from the country’s seven agro-climatic regions (Nuwara Eliya, Dimbula, Kandy, Uva, Uda Pussellawa, Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna), as well as the CTC, green and innovative teas were selected. The green tea winners were not auctioned in Osaka.
The charity tea auction was promoted by the SLTB, the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA), the Sri Lanka Embassy in Japan, the Sri Lanka-Japan Business Council (SLJBC) and the JTA. About 60 tea buyers gathered at the venue, including the SLJBC and the JTA member companies, some Sri Lankan tea traders and others. All teas were prepared for tasting before the auction commenced so buyers could decide which tea and at what price they were going to bid. Conducted by one of the most experienced and skilled out-cry auctioneers in Colombo, Anil Cooke, the CEO of Asia Siyaka Commodities PLC, the auction began and proceeded smoothly.
Excitement arose when the New Vithanakande FF Ex Sp, the gold winner in the Sabaragamuwa category, emerged. The bidding price kept rising and then finally sold to France-based Janat International which offered JPY 125,000 (USD $840) per kg. The bid was witnessed by a Guinness World Records adjudicator at the venue, and the certificate for the “most expensive tea sold at auction” was promptly issued.
The other 26 lots concluded at prices ranging from JPY 7,500 to 65,000 per kg. Consequently, a total of 219kg of the finest Ceylon teas were sold for JPY 5,517,500 (USD $37,082) at this charity auction. The success of the event undoubtedly strengthened the ties in tea trade between Japan and Sri Lanka.
Yumi Nakatsugawa has been working as a freelance writer specialising in food and restaurant management. Based in Japan, she may be reached at: [email protected].
