Brooke Bond
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Brooke Bond is a brand of
tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
owned by
Ekaterra Ekaterra is a company based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands that produces tea and other herbal drinks. It was formed in 2021 as a distinct division within Unilever as part of a plan to divest the majority of its tea-making business. Unilever reta ...
, formerly an independent tea-
trading Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct excha ...
and
manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...
company in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, known for its
PG Tips PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Ekaterra. Brand name In the 1930s, Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the tea market in the United Kingdom under the name ''Pre-Gestee'' - a variant of the original name "Digestive Tea. ...
brand and its Brooke Bond tea cards.


History

Brooke Bond & Company was founded by Arthur Brooke, who was born at 6 George Street,
Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...
,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, England, in 1845. In 1869, he opened his first
tea shop A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...
at 23
Market Street, Manchester Market Street is one of the principal retail streets in Manchester, England. It runs from its junction with Piccadilly and Mosley Street, close to Piccadilly Gardens, in the east to where it meets St. Mary's Gate at the crossroads with Exch ...
. Brooke chose the business name because it was his 'bond' to his customers to provide quality teas, hence Brooke Bond. The firm expanded into wholesale tea sales in the 1870s. In 1903, Brooke Bond launched Red Label in British India. In 1908 Brooke Bond set up the Berkshire Printing Company Ltd, based in Reading, as the company’s printing division for tea packeting of its products and, notably, the tea cards which they contained. This also expanded from the 1930s to include production of playing cards by high quality lithography. The company opened a packing factory in Goulston Street,
Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, in 1911. Brooke Bond's most famous brand is
PG Tips PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Ekaterra. Brand name In the 1930s, Brooke Bond launched PG Tips in the tea market in the United Kingdom under the name ''Pre-Gestee'' - a variant of the original name "Digestive Tea. ...
, launched in 1930. By 1957, Brooke Bond was probably the largest tea company in the world, with one third share of both the British and Indian tea markets. The company merged with
Liebig Justus Freiherr von Liebig (12 May 1803 – 20 April 1873) was a German scientist who made major contributions to agricultural and biological chemistry, and is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at t ...
in 1968, becoming Brooke Bond Liebig, which was acquired by
Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
in 1984. The Brooke Bond name was significantly decreased by Unilever, however, the Brooke Bond tea brand was reintroduced on sale in 2019 in the UK after a 20 year absence. ''Gold Crown Foods Ltd'' was licensed by Unilever to use the Brooke Bond name for the Brooke Bond 'D' and Brooke Bond Choicest brands. Today, the licence for D Tea is held by
Typhoo Typhoo (sometimes stylized as Ty•Phoo) is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 1903 by John Sumner Jr. of Birmingham, England. History In 1863, William Sumner published ''A Popular Treatise on Tea'' as a by-product ...
, who used to sell it through their website – it had identical packaging to before minus the words 'Brooke Bond', although it is not currently available. It was also regularly sold across Britain in
Poundland Poundland is a British variety store chain founded in 1990. It once sold most items at the single price of £1, including clearance items and proprietary brands. The first pilot store opened in December 1990 following numerous rejections by ...
stores. The Brooke Bond brand is still used in other countries, especially in India. In
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, Brooke Bond Supreme is the number-one-selling tea brand. Unilever markets it as being stronger than its
Lipton Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
Yellow Label blend. In
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
Brooke Bond's primary product was
Red Rose Tea Red Rose Tea is a beverage company established by Theodore Harding Estabrooks in 1894 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Estabrooks began his career in trade imports and exports, and soon moved specifically to the tea trade. Realizing the inc ...
. Red Rose is still sold by Ekaterra in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, but in the United States is now marketed by Redco Foods. The Brooke Bond factory is at
Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the l ...
near
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
.


Brands and origins

''Brooke Bond Taj Mahal'' tea leaves are grown in estates of Upper
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
,
Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...
and
Tripura Tripura (, Bengali: ) is a state in Northeast India. The third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a population of 36.71 lakh ( 3.67 million). It is bordered by Assam and Mizoram to the east a ...
. It grows on the northern banks of
Brahmaputra The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. It ...
, which floods its banks every monsoon, creating a rich, humid soil. There is plentiful rain in the
monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
and
humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity depe ...
lasts through the year. The soil and weather together give Assam Tea its terroir''' – a dark red brew, a strong malty
flavor Flavor or flavour is either the sensory perception of taste or smell, or a flavoring in food that produces such perception. Flavor or flavour may also refer to: Science *Flavors (programming language), an early object-oriented extension to Lis ...
and deep body. ''Brooke Bond Red Label'', the Indian blend, is made in tea manufacturing units of Assam,
Coochbehar Cooch Behar (), or Koch Bihar, is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Cooch Behar district. It is in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas at . Cooch Behar is the only planned city in the ...
, Darjeeling and some parts of
Meghalaya Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a states and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of As ...
. The manufacturing process of tea includes the stages of withering (leaving tea leaves to dry), rolling/cutting (through which complex series of chemical changes known as oxidation are initiated), drying and then grading into sizes. ''Brooke Bond Taaza'' is made of High Quality fresh Green Tea Leaves. ''Brooke Bond Supreme'' is imported to Pakistan, made from
Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...
n tea leaves.


Cards

From 1954 until 1999, packets of Brooke Bond tea included illustrated cards, usually 50 in a series, which were collected by many children. One of the most famous
illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicat ...
s of the cards was
Charles Tunnicliffe Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe, Order of the British Empire, OBE, Royal Academy of Arts, RA (1 December 1901 – 7 February 1979) was an internationally renowned naturalistic painter of British birds and other wildlife. He spent most of his work ...
, the internationally acclaimed bird painter. Most of the initial series were wildlife-based, including 'British Wild Animals', 'British Wild Flowers', 'African Wild Life', 'Asian Wild Life', and 'Tropical Birds'. From the late 1960s, they included historical subjects, such as 'British Costume', 'History of the Motor Car', and 'Famous Britons'. The last series in the 1990s concentrated on the Chimps of the TV adverts. Complete sets and albums in good condition are highly sought after collectors' items. The inclusion of these cards in packets of tea ceased in 1999. There were about 85 separate titles issued around the world: 59 series issued in the UK (1954–1999), 17 series in Canada (1959–1974; 7 of these were also issued in the US, 1960–66), 6 series in what was
Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
(1962–66), and 3 series in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
(1965–67). Many of them have since been reprinted. Complete list of UK sets set no / Title / year of issue / number of cards in set *B01 British Birds 1954 / 20 *B02 Wild Flowers – Series 1 1955 / 50 *B03 Out Into Space 1956 / 50 *B04 Bird Portraits 1957 / 50 *B05 British Wild Life 1958 / 50 *B06 Wild Flowers – Series 2 1959 / 50 *B07 Freshwater Fish 1960 / 50 *B08 African Wild Life 1961 / 50 *B09 Tropical Birds 1961 / 50 *B10 Asian Wild Life 1962 / 50 *B11 British Butterflies 1963 / 50 *B12 Wildlife In Danger 1963 / 50 *B13 Wild Flowers – Series 3 1964 / 50 *B14 Butterflies of the World 1964 / 50 *B15 Wild Birds in Britain 1965 / 50 *B16 Transport Through the Ages 1966 / 50 *B17 Trees in Britain 1966 / 50 *B18 Flags & Emblems of the World 1967 / 50 *B19 British Costume 1967 / 50 *B20 History of the Motor Car 1968 / 50 *B21 Famous People 1969 / 50 *B22 The Saga of Ships 1970 / 50 *B23 The Race into Space 1971 / 50 *B24 Prehistoric Animals 1972 / 50 *B25 History of Aviation 1972 / 50 *B26 Adventurers and Explorers 1973 / 50 *B27 The Sea – Our Other World 1974 / 50 *L01 Polyfilla Modelling Cards 1974 / 10 ''(no album – large cards)'' *L02 Zena Skinner's International Cookery 1974 / 50 ''(no album – large cards)'' *B28 Inventors and Inventions 1975 / 50 *B29 Wonders of Wildlife 1976 / 50 *B30 Play Better Soccer 1976 / 40 *B31 Police File 1977 / 40 *B32 Vanishing Wildlife 1978 / 40 *B33 Olympic Greats 1979 / 40 *B34 Woodland Wildlife 1980 / 40 *B35 Small Wonders 1981 / 40 *B36 Queen Elizabeth I – Elizabeth II 1983 / 50 *B37 Features of the World 1984 / 50 *B38 Incredible Creatures 1985 / 40 ''(wall chart only – no album)'' *B39 30 Years of the Chimps – the Chimps Album 1986 / 12 *B40 Unexplained Mysteries of the World 1987 / 40 *B41 The Language of Tea 1988 / 12 ''(wall chart only – no album)'' *B42 Discovering Our Coast 1989 / 50 *B43 The Magical World of Disney 1989 / 25 *B44 A Journey Downstream 1990 / 25 *B45 Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles: Dimension X Escapade 1991 / 12 *B46 Olympic Challenge 1992 1992 / 40 *B47 Natural Neighbours 1993 / 40 *B48 The Dinosaur Trail 1993 / 20 *B49 40 Years of cards 1994 / 48 ''(mail order only – not included in boxes of tea)'' *B50 Creatures of Legend 1994 / 24 *B51 Going Wild 1994 / 40 *B52 The Secret Diary of Kevin Tipps 1995 / 50 *B53 PG Chimps 40th Anniversary of Television Advertising 1996 / 40 *B54 Pyramid Power 1996 / 45 *B55 The Wonderful World of Kevin Tipps 1997 / 30 *B56 International Soccer Stars 1998 / 20 *B57 Oracle Cards 1999 / 19 ''(no album; cards were held over a hot cup of tea, the heat revealed a 'prediction')'' *- Survey Card 1999 / 1 ''(survey to ask if customers wanted Brooke Bond to keep issuing sets of cards or not)'' *- Thank You Card 1999 / 1 *- Farewell to PG Tips 1999 / 3


See also

*
Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, also known as Bettys and Taylors Group Limited, is a family company based in Yorkshire, England. The company's brands are Bettys (with no apostrophe), Taylors of Harrogate (also with no possessive apostrophe), a ...
* Brooke Bond Taj Mahal Tea House *
Lipton Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...
*
Tetley Tetley is an English beverage manufacturer founded in 1837 in Yorkshire. It is the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume. Since 2000, Tetley has been a wholly owned subsidiar ...
*
Twinings Twinings () is a British marketer of tea and other beverages, including coffee, hot chocolate and malt drinks, based in Andover, Hampshire. The brand is owned by Associated British Foods. It holds the world's oldest continually used company log ...


References


External links


Brooke Bond Collectables
* {{Ekaterra Ekaterra Tea brands in the United Kingdom Drink companies of the United Kingdom English drinks 1869 establishments in England Manufacturing companies based in Manchester English brands Former Unilever brands