Makaibari Tea Estates

MAKAIBARI, DARJEELING, WEST BENGAL, INDIA - 2015/03/31: Women pluck tea leaves at Makaibari tea garden. Set up in 1859 off Kurseong in the Darjeeling hills the Makaibari estate is the worlds first tea factory. Swaraj Kumar Banerjee aka Rajah Banerjee, the great-grandson of the founder (GIrish Chandra Banerjee), has taken it to an altogether new height. Organically produced tea of Makaibari fetched a record price of $1,850 (around Rs 1.12 lakh) per kg. It became the official tea partner at Beijing Olympics in 2008 and was served at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. However, a couple of years ago Rajah sold off almost 90% stake to the Luxmi Group as his sons were not interested to run the family business. But he still remains the chairman of Makaibari Tea & Trading Co Pvt Ltd and the face of the company. The Luxmi Group promises to bring in accounting expertise and develop distribution network further to help Makaibari become a much bigger brand. (Photo by Subhendu Sarkar/LightRocket via Getty Images)