Brooke Bond facts for kids
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| Industry | Tea |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1869 |
| Founder | Arthur Brooke |
| Headquarters | United Kingdom |
| Parent | Lipton Teas and Infusions |
Brooke Bond is a well-known brand of tea. It is currently owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions. However, in some countries like India, Nepal, and Indonesia, the brand is owned by Unilever.
Brooke Bond used to be an independent company in the United Kingdom. It was famous for its tea, especially the PG Tips brand, and for the special tea cards found in its packets.
Contents
The Story of Brooke Bond
How It All Started
Brooke Bond & Company was created by Arthur Brooke. He was born in England in 1845. In 1869, he opened his very first teahouse in Manchester. Arthur Brooke chose the name "Brooke Bond" because he wanted to show his customers that he was committed to providing excellent quality teas. It was his "bond" or promise to them.
In the 1870s, his business grew. He started selling tea to other shops and businesses, not just directly to customers.
Growing the Business
In 1903, Brooke Bond introduced a new tea called Red Label in British India. This became a very popular product.
To help with its growing business, Brooke Bond started its own printing company in 1908. This company, called Berkshire Printing Company Ltd, was in Reading. It printed the packaging for their tea products. It also printed the famous tea cards that came inside the tea packets. Later, in the 1930s, they even started printing playing cards.
In 1911, the company opened a large factory in London for packing tea.
Famous Brands and Big Growth
Brooke Bond's most famous tea brand is PG Tips. It was first launched in 1930 under a different name, Pre-Gest-Tea.
By 1957, Brooke Bond had become one of the biggest tea companies in the world. It sold a huge amount of tea, holding about one-third of the tea market in both Britain and India.
In 1972, Brooke Bond launched another tea brand called Laojee in Sri Lanka.
Changes in Ownership
In 1968, Brooke Bond joined with another company called Liebig. The new company was named Brooke Bond Liebig. Later, in 1984, a very large company called Unilever bought Brooke Bond Liebig.
After Unilever took over, the Brooke Bond name was used less often. However, for its 150th anniversary in 2019, the Brooke Bond tea brand was brought back to stores in the UK for a short time. It had been missing from UK shelves for 20 years!
In November 2021, Unilever decided to sell most of its tea business. A company called CVC Capital Partners bought it for a lot of money. This sale included the Brooke Bond brand, except for where Unilever still owns it in India, Nepal, and Indonesia. The sale was completed in July 2022. The new company that now owns most of these tea brands is called Lipton Teas and Infusions.
Today, in Pakistan, Brooke Bond Supreme is the top-selling tea brand. Lipton Teas and Infusions sells it as a stronger tea than their Lipton Yellow Label.
In North America, Brooke Bond's main product was Red Rose Tea. Red Rose is still sold by Lipton Teas and Infusions in Canada. In the United States, it is sold by Redco Foods.
The Brooke Bond factory in Trafford Park, near Manchester, has been making PG Tips tea since 1930. This factory is now part of Lipton Teas and Infusions. It also produces Pukka herbal teas.
Types of Brooke Bond Teas
Brooke Bond makes different types of tea, each with its own special qualities:
- Brooke Bond Taj Mahal tea leaves come from tea farms in Upper Assam, Darjeeling, and Tripura in India. These areas have rich, humid soil because of the Brahmaputra river, which floods every year. The weather, with lots of rain and humidity, gives Assam Tea its unique "terroir." This means it has a dark red color, a strong malty flavor, and a full body.
- Brooke Bond Red Label is made in tea factories in Assam, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, and parts of Meghalaya. The tea-making process involves several steps. First, the leaves are left to dry a bit (this is called withering). Then, they are rolled or cut, which starts a chemical change called oxidation. After that, they are dried and sorted by size.
- Brooke Bond Taaza is made from fresh, high-quality green tea leaves.
- Brooke Bond Supreme is sold in Pakistan. It is made from tea leaves grown in Kenya.
- Laojee became the most popular retail tea brand in Sri Lanka.
Tea Cards: A Fun Collection
From 1954 until 1999, packets of Brooke Bond tea often included small, illustrated cards. There were usually 50 cards in each series. Many children loved collecting these cards!
One of the most famous artists who drew these cards was Charles Tunnicliffe. He was known for his amazing bird paintings. Many of the first card series were about wildlife, like 'British Wild Animals' and 'African Wild Life'. Later, in the 1960s, they started including historical topics, such as 'British Costume' and 'History of the Motor Car'. The last series in the 1990s featured the famous Chimps from the TV adverts.
Complete sets of these cards and their special albums are now very popular collectors' items. Brooke Bond stopped putting these cards in tea packets in 1999.
About 85 different series of cards were released around the world. This included 59 series in the UK, 17 in Canada, 6 in what was then Rhodesia, and 3 in South Africa. Many of these cards have been reprinted since then.
List of UK Tea Card Sets
Here is a list of the tea card sets released in the UK:
- B01 British Birds (1954) - 20 cards
- B02 Wild Flowers – Series 1 (1955) - 50 cards
- B03 Out Into Space (1956) - 50 cards
- B04 Bird Portraits (1957) - 50 cards
- B05 British Wild Life (1958) - 50 cards
- B06 Wild Flowers – Series 2 (1959) - 50 cards
- B07 Freshwater Fish (1960) - 50 cards
- B08 African Wild Life (1961) - 50 cards
- B09 Tropical Birds (1961) - 50 cards
- B10 Asian Wild Life (1962) - 50 cards
- B11 British Butterflies (1963) - 50 cards
- B12 Wildlife In Danger (1963) - 50 cards
- B13 Wild Flowers – Series 3 (1964) - 50 cards
- B14 Butterflies of the World (1964) - 50 cards
- B15 Wild Birds in Britain (1965) - 50 cards
- B16 Transport Through the Ages (1966) - 50 cards
- B17 Trees in Britain (1966) - 50 cards
- B18 Flags & Emblems of the World (1967) - 50 cards
- B19 British Costume (1967) - 50 cards
- B20 History of the Motor Car (1968) - 50 cards
- B21 Famous People (1969) - 50 cards
- B22 The Saga of Ships (1970) - 50 cards
- B23 The Race into Space (1971) - 50 cards
- B24 Prehistoric Animals (1972) - 50 cards
- B25 History of Aviation (1972) - 50 cards
- B26 Adventurers and Explorers (1973) - 50 cards
- B27 The Sea – Our Other World (1974) - 50 cards
- L01 Polyfilla Modelling Cards (1974) - 10 large cards
- L02 Zena Skinner's International Cookery (1974) - 50 large cards
- B28 Inventors and Inventions (1975) - 50 cards
- B29 Wonders of Wildlife (1976) - 50 cards
- B30 Play Better Soccer (1976) - 40 cards
- B31 Police File (1977) - 40 cards
- B32 Vanishing Wildlife (1978) - 40 cards
- B33 Olympic Greats (1979) - 40 cards
- B34 Woodland Wildlife (1980) - 40 cards
- B35 Small Wonders (1981) - 40 cards
- B36 Queen Elizabeth I – Elizabeth II (1983) - 50 cards
- B37 Features of the World (1984) - 50 cards
- B38 Incredible Creatures (1985) - 40 cards (came with a wall chart)
- B39 30 Years of the Chimps – the Chimps Album (1986) - 12 cards
- B40 Unexplained Mysteries of the World (1987) - 40 cards
- B41 The Language of Tea (1988) - 12 cards (came with a wall chart)
- B42 Discovering Our Coast (1989) - 50 cards
- B43 The Magical World of Disney (1989) - 25 cards
- B44 A Journey Downstream (1990) - 25 cards
- B45 Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Dimension X Escapade (1991) - 12 cards
- B46 Olympic Challenge 1992 (1992) - 40 cards
- B47 Natural Neighbours (1993) - 40 cards
- B48 The Dinosaur Trail (1993) - 20 cards
- B49 40 Years of cards (1994) - 48 cards (mail order only)
- B50 Creatures of Legend (1994) - 24 cards
- B51 Going Wild (1994) - 40 cards
- B52 The Secret Diary of Kevin Tipps (1995) - 50 cards
- B53 PG Chimps 40th Anniversary of Television Advertising (1996) - 40 cards
- B54 Pyramid Power (1996) - 45 cards
- B55 The Wonderful World of Kevin Tipps (1997) - 30 cards
- B56 International Soccer Stars (1998) - 20 cards
- B57 Oracle Cards (1999) - 19 cards (revealed a "prediction" when held over hot tea)
- Survey Card (1999) - 1 card (asked customers if they wanted more cards)
- Thank You Card (1999) - 1 card
- Farewell to PG Tips (1999) - 3 cards
See also
