After the prize teas are selected, an auction is held and the very best teas are sold to the highest bidders. The next year the competition was held in Guangzhou, China on November 9, 1996. Mr. Zhang Liang Qing, a businessman from Xiamen, set a new world record for the highest price ever paid for tea. In a packed hall filled with more than 500 tea aficionados, the room went wild with furious bidding as the pewter canister containing the top Tieguanyin was held up. One by one the bidders dropped out as the bids went through the roof and continued skyward.
Tea is taken very seriously in Asia.
Americans have only recently begun to realize there is more to tea than what typically appears on supermarket shelves. We revere wine with great esteem. Now it is time for tea. Production of the finer grades of Tieguanyin require great skill. But skill alone doesn't guarantee good tea.