Ceylon Specialty Estate Tea of the Year Competition 2025 was conducted by Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) together with the Ceylon Tea Traders’ Association (CTTA) to coincide with Sri Lanka’s Participation at World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.
Main purpose of the project is to popularize and encourage the concept of marketing the main tea growing districts with emphasis on specialty straight – line single estate garden marks and to showcase the diversity of specialty tea in Ceylon Tea from Sri Lanka, in foreign markets. The scheme will also encourage and reward the estates that produce more specialty and quality teas while felicitating product excellence.
Entries for the competition were accepted only from identified tea grades from the seven recognized agro–climatic zones (Nuwara Eliya, Uda Pussellawa, Uva, Dimbula, Kandy, Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna), green tea sector, CTC as well as innovative category. SLTB received total of 430 entries from tea estates under these 10 categories for the evaluation. After many rounds of Blind Tasting Sessions for these categories by an expert tasting panel, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners were selected for each category. In addition to that, overall Gold, Silver and Bronze winners were selected from the Gold winners of the Seven Agro-Climatic Regions. Accordingly, following Garden Marks and Tea Grades were selected by the Tasting Panel as winners:
Category Winners :
Overall Winners
The above winning teas of the competition were auctioned at a Charity Auction held in Osaka, Japan in parallel to the Sri Lanka participation at World Expo 2025 with the participation of the Japanese tea buyers on 26th September 2025 at the Grand Prince Hotel Osaka Bay. The sales proceeds of the auctioned teas will be used for uplifting the education of the children of the families of the tea plantation communities in Sri Lanka. 10 kgs each of the Black Teas and the CTC Teas together with 3 kgs each of Innovative Teas, were offered for the Charity Auction. The black tea lots were made up of 10 kgs packages and the minimum lowest price was set out for Japanese Yen ¥7,500 per kg while for 3 kgs lots of Innovative Teas, the minimum bid was set out for Japanese Yen ¥10,000 per kg as per the Conditions of the Charity Auction. Altogether, 27 lots were offered for the Charity Sale and 24 lots were sold at this auction. The Charity Auction has secured a total collection of JPY 5,517,500.00 (Approximately USD 37,153/-) by selling 24 lots marking a resounding success.
At this Charity Auction, the Sri Lankan Tea Industry reached a historic milestone in the legacy of Ceylon Tea. The Bronze Medal winner in the overall category, FFExSp from New Vithanakande Selling Mark, was sold at an unprecedented price of JPY 125,000/- per kg (approximately USD 841/-) at this Charity Auction. This record-breaking achievement set a new benchmark and entered into the Guinness World Records as the World’s Most Expensive Tea Sold at an Auction. This Tea was bought by Janat International.
While appreciating the participation of the estates sending 430 entries to the competition, we take this opportunity to congratulate all the Winners of the Ceylon Specialty Estate Tea of the Year Competition 2025 and New Vithanakande of their special achievement for their craftsmanship.
At this special occasion SLTB together with the CTTA we pay our sincere gratitude to the sub-committee of the project, the expert tasting panel and the auctioneer of the Charity Auction who offered their service on voluntarily basis and the contribution offered by the 8 brokering companies to collect the sample entries played a significant role for the success of this project.
We honor the support of all the buyers who bid for the lots and bought our teas enabling our industry to invest more on Charity Projects to uplift the education of the Estate Community.
The winners of the Ceylon Specialty Estate Tea of the Year Competition 2025 were recognized for their excellence at the Networking Reception held after the Charity Auction in Osaka, Japan. In addition to that, the contribution of Japanese Tea Buyers for the Ceylon Tea Industry was also appreciated during this event.
Last but not least, we extend our gratitude to the Sri Lanka Embassy in Japan and Japan Tea Association for extending the logistical assistance to organize this event successfully in Osaka, Japan.
