Hotel near Buckingham Palace serves $ 200 cup of Ceylon tea by P.M. David Silva & Sons

The rare tea is weighed with scales and brewed in a silver tea pot. It’s served to customers using gold tweezers – Courtesy The Rubens At The Palace

CNN: It’s no secret that the British are very serious about their tea.

Now a London hotel has taken this dedication to new heights by offering what’s been dubbed the UK’s most expensive cuppa. The Rubens at The Palace is now serving a rare tea blend for £ 500 ($ 620) per pot, which works out to around $ 200 a cup.

Produced in the highlands of Sri Lanka, Golden Tips is hand-picked by expert tea-pluckers and sundried on a velvet cloth, which turns the buds from silver to gold.

The pricey tea is only available at The Rubens, where diners can sip it while overlooking The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace.

Described as “an extraordinary liquor and a smooth, light and mellow texture, with hints of fruity notes”, Golden Tips was sourced in collaboration with specialist tea merchants PMD Tea.

A pot can be bought alongside the hotel’s Royal Afternoon Tea menu, which costs around $55 per person.

Once ordered, the serving process involves something of a regal ceremony, which is perhaps just as well giving its staggering price tag.

First gold tweezers are used to pick the leaves and “weigh them with precision,” then the tea is brewed using still natural mineral water, before being poured out using a special silver tea set. 

Customers are encouraged to drink it before indulging in any sandwiches or scones, in order to savourits flavour fully.

And while $620 a pot may seem a high price to pay, Golden Tips has actually sold for a lot more in the past. Back in 1891, a pound of the tea was apparently sold for the equivalent of $1,500.

Daily Mail in its report said “If you thought you’d never need a bank loan to buy a cuppa, think again.” 

The Rubens at The Palace hotel, which is located on the doorstep of Buckingham Palace in London, is now selling the UK’s most expensive cup of tea - at £500 a pot.

The fancy Rubens Golden Tips Tea, which is produced in the highlands of Sri Lanka, is said to have a ‘smooth, light, mellow texture with hints of fruity notes’.  

Guests who order it will be given the royal treatment, with the Ceylon tea leaves plucked by a white-gloved tea server using gold tweezers and ‘weighed with precision’. 

The tea leaves can apparently be infused up to three times, with the ‘flavour profile changing each time for the drinker to enjoy a new depth of flavour’.  

Each pot of The Rubens Golden Tips Tea contains three cups and it is presented in a special silver tea set. 

The brew will be accompanied by freshly baked scones, pastries and finger sandwiches. 

Rubens recommends sipping on the tea before tucking into them in order to ‘truly savour its delicate flavour’. 

Behind the elaborate presentation, there is an elaborate harvesting process.

Skilled tea pluckers hand pick the tips of the small, succulent shoots at sunrise. 

The buds are then sun-dried ‘on a velvet cloth with the upmost care’, with the shoots turning from silver to gold. 

The costly cuppa was designed in collaboration with Berkshire-headquartered specialist tea merchants P.M.David Silva & Sons.

Dananjaya Silva, Managing Director & Tea Master at P.M.David Silva & Sons, said: ‘The exquisite Rubens Golden Tips tea leaves can be infused as many as three times, with the flavour profile changing each time so you can enjoy a new depth of flavour. On first infusion, you will notice a smooth and velvety floral note on the tip of the palate paired with flavours of melon, pear and sweet honey. 

‘After the Rubens’ staff top up the pot with special hot water, notice a dry oaky finish on the back palate. The final infusion is far drier but the sweetness is still present, mixed with a delicious citrus and oaky note.’

Etiquette expert William Hanson, though, says the bank-breaking brew is ‘absurd’.

He told MailOnline Travel: ‘Lunacy. A cup of tea that costs more than a room at the hotel is absurd. You really do have to have more money than sense to fall for this ruse.’ 

The experts, however, say that this particular type of tea has a history of exclusivity and high prices in London. 

In 1891, a pound of golden tips was sold for the equivalent of £1,260.  

The hotel’s regular Royal Afternoon Tea is priced at a more reasonable £45 per person.

The Sun in its report said that a hotel that’s just across the road from Buckingham Palace has added an astounding £500 pot of tea to its menu.

And despite paying the hefty sum, you still need to fork out for scones and sandwiches.

Five-star hotel The Rubens at The Palace is right opposite The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace.

To make the most of its regal position, the property already offers a Royal Afternoon Tea, albeit at the more reasonable £45 per person.

But now the posh hotel has added the new Ceylon Golden Tips, a special blend created for the property by specialist tea merchants PMD Tea.

The tea is so rare and expensive because it’s produced in the highlands of Sri Lanka and had historically been available only to royals.

Expert pickers would head to the hill tops at sunrise, where they only picked the small, succulent shoots of the prized tea plant by hand.

According to PMD’s website, where the merchant sells a similar tea at a fraction of the price, “The secret behind Golden Tips is the steeping of the freshly plucked bud in a cup of the highest quality Ceylon Orange Pekoe.

“The black tea stains the silvery white hairs on the bed giving the buds its unique golden colour.”

Back in 1891, the tea was sold for £10,12 s. 6d per lb - or the equivalent of £1,260 in today’s prices.

So just what might you expect from the tea?

According to the hotel: “The Rubens Golden Tips Tea has a smooth, light, mellow texture with hints of fruity notes.

“The tea leaves can be infused up to three times, with the flavour profile changing each time for the drinker to enjoy a new depth of flavour.”

With up to nine cups produced from each tea pot, it works out to be over £55 per cup.

But aside from the tea itself, the hotel has also said that it would be giving the brew a five-star treatment.

The leaves would be picked out with gold tweezers before they’re weighed on scapes.

They’re then brewed with natural mineral water in a silver tea pot.

But as the £500 price tag only includes the tea, you’d have to fork out another £45 per person to enjoy the sandwiches and scones.