Guwahati: There seems to be no stopping Donyi Polo with its yellow tea getting a handsome price in the New Year.

The 2.8kg yellow tea produced by Donyi Polo garden in Arunachal Pradesh was bought by Vedanta Tea Company for its client in Hyderabad on Wednesday. This is for the first time that yellow tea has been sold in the auctions.

The tea was sold by Contemporary Brokers with Vedanta Tea Company being the only bidder.

"Once we showed the yellow tea to our client, he wanted to get it anyhow. We were ready to pay Rs 7,500 a kg but as there was no bidder, we bought it at Rs 4,000 a kg," Himanshu Gupta of Vedanta Tea Company told The Telegraph. It had earlier bought white tea of Donyi Polo at Rs 12,001 a kg in September last year.

Yellow tea is a Chinese domain tea and is known as huángcha in Chinese.

A senior official from Donyi Polo said yellow tea processing is very similar to green tea but with an added step of steaming the tea. This allows the tea to oxidise at a slower rate, producing a far more mellow taste than is found in most green teas. This also gives the leaves a slightly yellow colouring during the drying process.

"This is just one of our innovative teas and we will keep on adding more this year. This is a good alternative for people who do not like green tea," the official said. The yellow liquor is mellow with caramelised fruity notes.

On small quantities being offered, a tea industry official said speciality teas cannot be made in huge volumes and that is why they are special.

A senior official from the Guwahati Tea Auction Centre said the start has been good this year as it has got the highest price for Assam tea this month.

"We are sure that buyers and producers will repose faith in us," the official said. The Guwahati Tea Auction Centre, the largest CTC auction centre in the country, broke its record by selling 186 million kg of tea in 2017.

The centre sold 186.13 million kg of tea last year at an average price of Rs 140.04 per kg, totalling Rs 2,606 crore. It had sold 161.50 million kg in 2016 at an average price of Rs 137.45 per kg.