Why Is Tea So Cheap?

Tea's auction price has gone nowhere for 20 years and now sits below what was paid a century ago, in real terms. Here is what the figures say is actually happening, and who is absorbing the squeeze.

The Priciest Tea Ever Auctioned, and Why the Market Never Saw That Price Again

Twenty grams of Da Hong Pao sold for 208,000 yuan in 2005, ten times its 1998 auction price. The figures behind the record, and why they describe a museum piece, not a market.

Why a Drought Doesn't Always Raise the Tea Price

Two Kenyan droughts, a dry Assam monsoon, and a Sri Lankan cyclone give four real, recent tests of what a weather shock does to the tea price. The answer is not the simple shortage story it looks like from outside.