Lipton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For people named Lipton, see Lipton (surname).

Lipton is the world's best-known and best-selling brand of both hot leaf and ready-to-drink tea. It forms part of the Unilever portfolio which sells around 15.5% of the world's tea (in retail value terms),<ref name=DM>Datamonitor, 2006</ref> including other brands such as PG Tips (UK), Beseda (Russia) or Brooke Bond (India).

Today, Lipton represents around 10% of the world market for tea (in retail value terms),<ref name=DM> with the key pillar brands:<ref>http://www.lipton.com</ref>

- Lipton Yellow Label (since 1890), the emblematic Lipton brand for hot tea enjoyed in 150 countries, and
- Lipton Ice Tea (since 1972), available in more than 60 countries through a global joint-venture with Pepsi Cola Inc.

Lipton was created at the end of the 19th century by Sir Thomas Lipton. Under the slogan “direct from the tea gardens to the tea pot”, this entrepreneurial businessman wanted to make tea a popular and approachable drink for everyone- high quality but reasonably priced.

Image:Lipton Earl Grey tin.jpg

Over these 100 years, Lipton has become the world's largest tea brand. It attributes this success to its strong focus on innovation, and the expertise of its tea specialists- professionals in tea growing, tasting, buying, blending and R&D teams. Teas are selected from the many different plantations around the world, from well-known producing countries like India, Indonesia, Kenya and Sri Lanka. For instance, Lipton Yellow Label is blended from as many as 30 different teas in specialised tasting rooms in 7 regional hubs scattered all over the world.

Tea is said to be second only to water as the healthiest beverage world wide, as stated by an independent panel of scientists<ref>http://www.lipton.com/tea_health/beverage_guide/index.asp.</ref> Tea – when drunk without sugar and milk – is virtually calorie free, provides flavonoid antioxidant, theanine (an amino acid found exclusively in tea) and small levels of caffeine which help keep our body hydrated and revitalised as well as our mind alert. Therefore, Lipton claims it helps tea drinkers lead a healthier life.

Tea is a valuable crop for farmers in many parts of the tropics. Sustainable agriculture is vital not only to maintain high-quality product supply in the long-term but also to protect and improve the natural environment and livelihoods of workers and local communities. Lipton says that its own plantations in East Africa — in Kenya (Kericho) and Tanzania (Mufindi) — and third party tea estates have been working together since 2002 to ensure compliance with the Unilever sustainable agriculture guidelines and the Ethical Tea Partnership criteria.<ref>http://www.liptonforthefuture.com</ref>

[edit] Trivia

52 billion cups of Lipton tea are drunk every year — 1,649 every second.
156 cans of Lipton Ice Tea are drunk every second.
The Lipton Tea sold in one year is enough to fill 3,660 Olympic swimming pools. Including iced tea, it would fill 4,434 swimming pools.
The weight of Lipton tea leaves which goes to making all this tea is equivalent to 14,077 fully grown African elephants.
The most famous slogan of Lipton Tea in Urdu is " Chaey Chahiye, Konsi Janab? Lipton he tu hai Lajawab."