A hand-plucked, golden-hued tea could make for a costly cuppa after selling for $1,314 a kilogram at an auction in India.
Manohari Gold, grown in Assam, went under the hammer at the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre in the state on Tuesday.
The tea was first processed in 2018 as an experiment by the Manohari Tea Estate in eastern Dibrugarh city. It initially cost about 39,100 rupees ($511) but the price has risen and last year it sold for 75,000 rupees a kilogram.
The batch auctioned off will be sold on for the equivalent of about $24,000 a kilogram.
Estate owner Rajan Lohia said the golden brew and soothing aftertaste of the tea made it unique.
“The tea is made from the leaves … from the one-day-old tea buds which are plucked before the sunrise. It is sophisticatedly and delicately hand-rolled. It is an art,” Mr Lohia told The National.
The rolling green valleys of Kerala’s tea country - in pictures
“The tea is very rare and cannot be made as much as we want as the making procedure is tough and weather are very important. There are limited buds. It is a very costly affair,” Mr Lohia said.
The tea is the brainchild of the company’s senior planter.
Unlike a regular tea where leaves are plucked, the workers harvesting leaves for Manohari Gold painstakingly hand-pluck new buds before sunrise. The buds are then hand-rolled for 16 hours.
Occupying 400 hectares, the Manohari Tea Estate has 650 staff, but only a few have been trained to work on this variety.
Plucking takes place in June and July.
Even on a good day, the slower harvesting process means a worker can pluck only 70g to 80g of leaves, compared with 20kg of regular tea leaves within the same period.
Mr Lohia said that about 80g of buds was needed to produce about 18g of the finished product.
“The colour of the tea looks like a piece of gold. It is very rare, and we produce only 2-3 kilograms per year,” Manto Aggarwal, the the company’s legal adviser, told The National.
“We had requested them to increase the [production] cap this year as the manufacturing of our tea is very costly.”
Mr Aggarwal said the company was thrilled by the latest sale.
“We are delighted with the auction price … we manufactured this tea as an experiment in 2018 and, since then, there has been a huge demand for it.”
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
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Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
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Transmission: seven-speed auto
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- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
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Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbocharged and three electric motors
Power: Combined output 920hp
Torque: 730Nm at 4,000-7,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel consumption: 11.2L/100km
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates, Etihad and Swiss fly direct from the UAE to Zurich from Dh2,855 return, including taxes.
The chalet
Chalet N is currently open in winter only, between now and April 21. During the ski season, starting on December 11, a week’s rental costs from €210,000 (Dh898,431) per week for the whole property, which has 22 beds in total, across six suites, three double rooms and a children’s suite. The price includes all scheduled meals, a week’s ski pass, Wi-Fi, parking, transfers between Munich, Innsbruck or Zurich airports and one 50-minute massage per person. Private ski lessons cost from €360 (Dh1,541) per day. Halal food is available on request.
