Available in more than 110 countries worldwide, Lipton brand enjoys the widest popularity in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. The largest selling variety, Lipton Yellow Label with its Quality Number One strap line is enjoyed worldwide. Sold through a partnership with Pepsi is Lipton Original Iced Tea that has seen explosion in popularity shortly after its launching.
The origins of Lipton tea brand can be traced back to 1893, when it was established by Scottish-born entrepreneur Thomas Lipton, who decided to make tea accessible at acceptable prices without sacrificing the quality. He acquired tea estates in Sri Lanka and organized transportation and packaging at low cost.
Over the years Lipton teas have enjoyed wide popularity in Canada, and in 1898 Thomas Lipton was knighted by Queen Victoria who made him Sir Thomas Lipton. Today Lipton is recognized as the leading tea brand of the world, available in over 80 countries. Interestingly enough, 52 billion Lipton tea cups are consumed annually, with 1,649 cups being drunk every second. One of the most successful Lipton productions, Lipton Ice Tea enjoys great success all over the world, with more than 156 cans of this drink consumed every second. Together with iced tea, Lipton Tea sold in a year is quite enough to fill 4,435 Olympic swimming pools.
Due to tea blending, a single tea bag of Lipton contains as many as 40 different types of tea. It is from blending that their diverse subtle
flavors and tones are drawn. As a result, a tea garden is able to produce teas of different qualities during a single season. For tea blending, the
company draws on talents of Unilever's Brooke Bond Ltd - a group of experts ensuring that you get the best Lipton tea taste. The task of highly skilled expert Tea Tasters is to sample teas and ensure they are blended to the highest standards of Lipton.
Regarded as one of the greatest refreshing brands in the world, Lipton makes a large splash in the market of global beverages by offering a number of tea-based drinks, including infusions, leaf tea and ready-to-drink tea among other refreshing and healthy alternatives to soft drinks. In addition to encouraging consumers to Drink Better and Live Better, which is the current slogan of the company, Lipton is good for the environment. Some of the examples include a number of ethical and environmental measures taken, like the Trees 2000 Program in Kenya that sees the company planting 40,000 trees annually to curb deforestation.
Currently Lipton brand rates highest for a number of ready-to-drink tea innovations, including such international favorite as Lipton Ice Tea range, a range of Lipton teas in Asia and Lipton Brisk range in North America. All recent innovations introduced by the company cater to constantly changing tastes, like exotic fruit juice varieties and the Lipton Fusion blends of iced tea. A favorite in a number of tea markets, leaf tea is tasty and easy to make with Lipton, due to such innovations as Lipton Pyramid tea bags and Lipton Cold Brew tea bags.
Recently Lipton has entered the green tea market by launching leaf and ready-to-drink varieties.