 | |
| Product type | Tea |
|---|---|
| Owner | Lipton Teas and Infusions |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1930 |
PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Lipton Teas and Infusions.
| | |
| Product type | Tea |
|---|---|
| Owner | Lipton Teas and Infusions |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1930 |
PG Tips is a brand of tea in the United Kingdom manufactured by Lipton Teas and Infusions.
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." The name implied that it could be drunk as a digestive aid prior to eating food. Grocers and salesmen abbreviated it to "PG." [1]
Following the Second World War, labelling regulations ruled out describing tea as aiding digestion[ citation needed ]—a property that had been attributed to tea—and by 1950–1951 the PG name was adopted. The company added Tips referring to the fact that only the tips (the top two leaves and bud) of the tea plants are used in the blend. [2]
The Brooke Bond name has now been dropped from all packaging and the product is now known as PG Tips. PG Tips is available as loose tea, tea bags, and in vending formats. A "Special Blend" tea, which is the same as the tea blended for the brand's 75th anniversary, is available in tea bag form only. The tea used in PG Tips is imported in bulk as estate teas from around the world and blended in precise proportions set by the tea tasters to make blend 777, which can contain between 12 and 35 estate teas (depending on the season, etc.) at the Trafford Park factory in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester.
PG Tags, tea bags with a string, were launched in 1985. Tetrahedron-shaped tea bags, branded as "Pyramid Bags," launched in 1996. The tetrahedral bag was designed to help the tea leaves move more freely, as loose tea moves in a teapot, and supposedly create a better infusion. One 2011 version of the product packaging made the claim: "The PG Tips pyramid tea bag gives the tea leaves 50% more room to move around than a flat conventional tea bag. So the tea bag works more like a miniature teapot. This allows for all the freshness to be released for the best-tasting cup of PG." [3] During the T-Birds era, the tetrahedral tea bags were remade with a "freeflow" material to allow further infusion of the tea.
In Scotland, Lipton Teas and Infusions sells a specially developed blend of PG called Scottish Blend. It is marketed as being specially blended to optimise taste in the soft waters of Scotland. [4] [5]
In Ireland, Lipton Teas and Infusions sells tea under the Lyons brand.
As of 2011, a "Special Moments" range was released, initially as the "New Ones." These teas were made by pressing the leaves at different stages. In 2014, Unilever introduced a new range of fruit, herbal, and green teas under the PG Tips brand.
In 2023, PG Tips announced the creation of a quick-brew teabag that could brew a cup of tea in 60 seconds. [6] This resulted in the teabags being "the market's only square tea bags," [7] at the cost of discontinuing the pyramid bags.
Unlike the blended teas many companies were producing, Brooke’s teas were pure, high quality teas from India and China. Brooke realised the importance of advertising early on, introducing the slogan, "Good tea unites good company, exhilarates the spirits, banishes restraint from conversation and promotes the happiest purposes of social intercourse." [8]
In 1956, PG Tips began using anthropomorphic chimpanzees in their television advertisements. These were dressed in human clothes in the fashion of chimpanzees' tea party and were known as the "Tipps family." Their voices were often provided by celebrities, such as Peter Sellers, Donald Sinden and Bob Monkhouse. By 1958, PG Tips had risen from fourth to first place in the British tea market. [9] The chimpanzees were from Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire.
These advertisements were stopped in the 1970s after complaints made by animal rights organisations. However, the chimpanzees were brought back 18 months later when sales began to drop. The last 'Tipps family' advert was broadcast in January 2002. [10] The PG Tips chimpanzees spawned a spinoff in memorabilia which include trading cards and figurines. Prior to the chimpanzee-inspired cards, PG Tips had included trading cards modelled on cigarette cards, but targeted at children. Production of these ceased in 1999 for unknown reasons.
The "Tipps family" were replaced in January 2002, with a house-sharing group of claymation birds called the T-Birds (which consisted of Tom the owl, Maggie the pigeon, Pete the starling, and Holly the blue tit), animated by Aardman, the company behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run . In Ireland, these commercials were still airing by the end of 2006, though advertising Lyons Tea (another Unilever brand), even though Holly was renamed as Niamh to fit in with Irish audiences. [11]
This led to PG Tips becoming a major partner with Wallace and Gromit's first film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit , launched in October 2005. PG offered Gromit mugs on pack in the supermarket. According to The Grocer magazine, Unilever reported that during the Gromit mug promotion, PG Tips sales increased 600%. Wallace and Gromit also appeared in an advert with Lady Tottington (another character from the film) around the same time.
In 2005, PG Tips celebrated its 75th anniversary with special packs, including a limited-edition Golden pack, and a one-off Diamond tea bag. The Diamond tea bag cost £7,500, and was made by Boodles jewelers and used Makaibari Silver Tips (Imperial).
 | This section needs additional citations for verification .(July 2022) |
In 2007, PG Tips reunited Johnny Vegas as Al and the ITV Digital Monkey character made by Paul Jomain, puppeteered by Nigel Plaskitt and Susan Beattie, and voiced by Ben Miller. ITV Digital had used the Monkey character in its own advertising but had entered administration in March 2002. In the end, ITV Digital’s former terrestrial multiplexes were taken over by Crown Castle and the BBC to create the Freeview free-to-air service. The Monkey character pointedly explains he's not a chimpanzee, he's a monkey, a nod to PG Tips' chimpanzee family.
One of the adverts was a spoof of the "deli scene" from the movie When Harry Met Sally... . In the advert, Monkey describes the taste of PG Tips by saying "Oh Yes" repeatedly similarly like in the movie. The advert then moves to a scene with a woman at a nearby table asking the waiter "I'll have whatever he's having". The advert ends with the tagline "How would you describe the taste?" It was first shown on 3 February 2010. [12]
Another advert, promoting the naturally occurring theanine in PG Tips, featured Monkey and Al playing the characters of Captain Mainwaring and Private Pike from the popular sitcom Dad's Army.
When PG Tips released the "Special Moments" range (initially "The New Ones"), another advert was released to advertise the "Fresh" one. It featured Monkey and Al out rambling. Monkey says to Al that they need a cup of the "Fresh" one. Al takes so long to decide how the tea tastes that before he can come to a conclusion, Monkey has been swept away by an eagle. This advert was later modified showing Monkey being dropped off in the eagle's nest with the four flavours of the Special Moments range, as well as two eagle chicks next to him.
After the US federal decision in support of same-sex marriage in 2015, PG Tips depicted its Monkey character under the rainbow flag in a message of support for gay marriage, which received some criticism for being a political statement. [13]
In 2015, as part of a rebrand, adverts featured Monkey observing absurd things and deciding to "Keep it tea." [14]
In 2017, PG tips, Unilever, and software company Ubisend worked together to bring the Monkey persona to life through a Facebook Messenger chatbot for the Red Nose Day charity. [15] For over three weeks leading up to Red Nose Day, Facebook Messenger users could message Monkey and interact with him through his chatbot. Monkey also delivered one daily joke to each of his chatbot users at tea time with the goal of raising One Million Laughs for Comic Relief.
In May 2024, PG Tips officially retired the Monkey character, stating that he was having a "well-deserved retirement". [16]
| A Tale of Two Continents | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Darren Bailes |
Release date |
|
Running time | 9 minutes (extended DVD run) 5 (cinema run) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
A short film entitled A Tale of Two Continents was released in March 2008. [17] It is an adventure film parody, starring Monkey "wanting to change the world one tea at a time". It was shown in cinemas from 21 March 2008 until 10 April, before the showings of family films such as The Spiderwick Chronicles and Horton Hears a Who!
It was also given free in special limited edition versions of PG Tips in early 2008 as an EcoDisc, a type of DVD that is thinner and more flexible due to it being made of a single layer of polycarbonate, instead of two layers. The limited edition package also featured a teatowel of the EcoDisc cover described as the "official merchandise" of the film.
In May 2007, Unilever became the first company to commit to sourcing all its tea in a sustainable manner. [18] [19] [20] To that end, the company asked the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO to start certifying tea estates in East Africa. [20] [21] Since April 2012, all of the tea used in PG Tips has been Rainforest Alliance certified. [22]
In February 2011, PG Tips stated it would stop testing its teas on animals. [23]
In February 2023, the BBC reported that an investigation had found more than 70 women had been sexually abused on tea farms in Kenya that supply PG Tips. [24]
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 northern Myanmar. Tea is also made, but rarely, from the leaves of Camellia taliensis. After plain water, tea is the most widely consumed drink in the world. There are many different types of tea; some have a cooling, slightly bitter, and astringent flavour, while others have profiles that include sweet, nutty, floral, or grassy notes. Tea has a stimulating effect in humans, primarily due to its caffeine content.
A tea bag or teabag is a small, porous, sealed bag or packet, typically containing tea leaves or the leaves of other herbs, which is immersed in water to steep and make an infusion. Originally used only for tea, they are now made with other tisanes as well.
In the tea industry, tea leaf grading is the process of evaluating products based on the quality and condition of the tea leaves themselves.
Monkey, was an animated puppet advertising character in the form of a knitted sock monkey. He was first produced by The Jim Henson Company via their UK Creature Shop, puppeteered by Nigel Plaskitt and Susan Beattie and voiced by comedian Ben Miller.
Tetley is an English beverage manufacturer founded in 1837 in Yorkshire. It is the largest company of tea in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume.
Brooke Bond is a brand of tea owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions, formerly an independent tea-trading and manufacturing company in the United Kingdom, known for its PG Tips brand and its Brooke Bond tea cards.
Tazo Tea Company is a tea and herbal tea blender and distributor founded in Portland, Oregon. It is now a Lipton Teas and Infusions division and is based in Kent, Washington.
Yorkshire Tea is a black tea blend produced by the Bettys & Taylors Group since 1977. It became the best-selling tea brand in Britain in 2019. In 1886 Charles Edward Taylor Founded CE Taylor & Co., later shortened to "Taylors", the company was purchased by 'Betty's Tea Rooms' which today forms Bettys & Taylors Group. Taylors of Harrogate is still based in Harrogate, Yorkshire, in the first 'Betty's' tea room.
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 logo, and is London's longest-standing ratepayer, having occupied the same premises on the Strand since 1706. Twinings tea varieties include black tea, green tea and herbal teas, along with fruit-based cold infusions.
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 inconsistency in loose leaf servings, Estabrooks began packaging his tea leaves into single-serving bags to ensure quality and consistency in every teacup.
Arthur Brooke (1845–1918) founder of the British tea company Brooke, Bond & Co. Ltd born in Manchester, Great Britain. Established his business in 1869 and was making £5,000 a year at the age of 30 with shops in all the major cities of Britain and warehouse in London.
Lipton is a brand of tea named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton who started the business in 1890. The brand today is owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions after CVC Capital Partners acquired the business from Unilever in 2022.
Salada tea is a Canadian brand of tea currently sold in Canada by Lipton Teas and Infusions and in the United States by Salada Foods, a division of Redco Foods, Inc.
Molly Winifred Badham MBE was a co-founder of Twycross Zoo. She trained the chimpanzees who appeared on the Brooke Bond PG Tips television advertisements in the 1960s to the 1980s.
The Lipton Institute of Tea is a dedicated tea research facility owned by consumer goods company Unilever, which also owns the Lipton tea brand. The Institute conducts studies on the mental and physical health benefits of tea. As well as research conducted directly by the Institute, it also funds and coordinates research projects at academic and research institutions around the world.
The Chimpanzee tea party was a form of public entertainment in which chimpanzees were dressed in human clothes and provided with a table of food and drink.
T2, officially registered as Tea Too, is a chain of specialty tea shops with stores in Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. The company was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1996, and was purchased by Unilever in 2013. In 2013, T2 had 40 stores across the globe and made an annual turnover of A$57 million.
Lipton Teas and Infusions is a private company based in Rotterdam, 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.