How Microbiome Science Turned Tea into a Record-Breaking Longevity Asset

Osaka, Japan — September 26, 2025

At a tea auction held during Expo 2025 Osaka, a single lot unsettled many of the assumptions that have long governed the global tea trade. The tea, a black variety cultivated in Sri Lanka using microbiome-based agricultural methods, sold for the highest price ever recorded for tea, earning official recognition from Guinness World Records.

For decades, value in tea has been anchored to familiar markers, estate, elevation, leaf grade, harvest timing. The Osaka auction hinted at a different framework, one in which biological integrity and cultivation systems play a more central role than geography alone.

When Terroir Became Biological

The tea was grown on selected estates in Sri Lanka using a cultivation model increasingly referred to as microbiome farming. Instead of relying on conventional chemical inputs, the fields were treated with Aquabiota, a probiotic biofertilizer developed from native microbial ecosystems.

At the core of this approach is the restoration of microbial balance in the soil. By reintroducing specific beneficial microorganisms, among them Lactobacillus fermentum IL-108, the system aims to improve nutrient uptake, reduce plant stress, and enhance long-term soil vitality. The premise is simple but consequential: healthier microbial environments produce plants that express their full biochemical potential.

“What is changing is not just technique, but definition,” said Mariko Sanada, who has closely observed the Sapphire Valley project in Sri Lanka. “Terroir is no longer only about place. It is about living systems, systems that can be measured, preserved, and respected.”
This reframing challenges one of the tea world’s oldest assumptions: that terroir is fixed. In microbiome-based agriculture, it becomes something dynamic, curated, and reproducible.

Source: Janat Paris (Pomme d’Amour tea in France.)

From Crop Science to Daily Ritual

The implications extend beyond farming.

Microbiome-optimized cultivation has been shown to influence the metabolic expression of the tea plant itself, increasing concentrations of naturally occurring compounds such as L-theanine and polyphenols. These compounds are already well known for their associations with cognitive calm and antioxidant activity.

More recently, scientific attention has turned to the gut–skin axis, the feedback loop connecting intestinal microbiota, immune signaling, and skin health. Researchers are increasingly examining whether metabolites produced through microbiome-informed agriculture may support microbial balance linked to healthy aging.

In this context, tea begins to occupy a different cultural role. Not a supplement, and not medicine, but a daily practice embedded in long-term wellbeing.

“It becomes less about indulgence,” Sanada noted, “and more about continuity. Something people return to every day.”

Source: Janat Paris (Guinness World Records ceremony with Janat Representatives, Expo 2025 Osaka.)

A Market Signal at Expo 2025

The tea entered the spotlight on September 26, during the Sri Lanka Tea Board auction held at Expo 2025 Osaka. A lot opened at USD 300 and climbed steadily before setting a new world record.

The tea was presented by JANAT Paris, a French house founded in 1872 and known for periodically challenging conventions, from early experiments with oak-aged tea to its recent interest in biological cultivation systems.

Unlike previous record-breaking teas, where rarity or age often drove price, this auction tested whether agricultural science itself could command trust at the highest level of the market. The result suggested that it can, provided transparency, traceability, and credibility are present.

Why Social Impact Entered the Equation

The proceeds from the auction were directed toward education and long-term economic-independence programs for women in Sri Lankan tea-growing communities, supported through the Femmes du Monde Foundation.

The involvement of Femmes du Monde situates the auction within a wider shift taking place across global luxury and agricultural markets. Increasingly, value is being assessed not only through craftsmanship and scarcity, but through verifiable social and environmental contribution, where premium pricing is expected to reinforce, rather than extract from, the communities that sustain production.

A Signal, Not an OutlierThe Osaka auction was not a spectacle of excess. It functioned as a signal, one that tea may be entering a new phase, shaped by the same forces already transforming wine, coffee, and functional foods.As microbiome science continues to influence agriculture and nutrition, the criteria for value appear to be shifting. Tradition still matters. Geography still matters. But biology, once invisible, has begun to speak loudly in the marketplace.Whether this moment marks an exception or the beginning of a new category remains to be seen. But after Osaka, it is increasingly difficult to ignore the possibility that the future of tea will be decided underground, at the microbial level.