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Brooke Bond Red Label

The Red Label tea brand was launched in India in 1903 by the parent company, Brooke Bond, a brand of Hindustan Unilever Limited. Brooke Bond joined the Unilever fold in 1984 through an international acquisition.

===== Brooke Bond: A History =====

Brooke Bond's presence in India dates back to 1900, when it was an independent company. In 1900, to free itself from the capricious London market, the Brooke Bond company sent a representative to India study the feasibility of buying teas directly from the Calcutta auction and creating a ‘packet and blended’ tea trade in India. Following a positive report, the Calcutta branch was opened in 1901. Business was slow at first, but the new system began to pay off because tea was bought at good prices, and three lines of Brooke Bond packet teas were launched – Green Label, Violet Label and Red Label - along with a local brand called Kora. As early as 1907, Brooke Bond started experimenting with a fleet of horse drawn vans for distributing teas. Selling teas from these little red vans was to become a very powerful element in the continued success of Brooke Bond, as it increased demand and ensured frequent contact with clients. In 1912, Brooke Bond & Co. India Limited was formed.

In 1919, Brooke Bond acquired its first company in Ceylon, which bought, blended, packed and exported local teas. In later years, it started to acquire tea estates in India and Ceylon. By the mid-1920’s, the Indian company had come to play an increasingly important role in the success of the company as a whole. Overseas branches were also being set up in Egypt and East Africa, where the company bought its first piece of land in 1924 and planted tea.

From the early 1930’s, the Brooke Bond Company made it a policy to have its branches in India managed by Indians. In the late 1930’s, large numbers of Indian salesmen were recruited and sent into the shanties or local markets, building-up a system of hand-pushed ‘little red vans’ throughout that vast country. A ‘hotel blend’ was produced for the hot teashops and catering vans were introduced to service industrial canteens in cities and towns.

The Brooke Bond business was acquired by Unilever in 1984, the rationale being the obvious synergy of merging the world’s two leading tea businesses. Brooke Bond had a good spread and a strong presence across the Commonwealth countries notably in India, Pakistan, Canada, South Africa and Australia (through Bushells). India and the UK, both traditional Brooke Bond strongholds, represented two of the larger tea consuming markets in the world. Unilever’s acquisition of the Brooke Bond Group created significant synergies with its existing Lipton business worldwide and catapulted Unilever into position as the world’s largest tea business.

As on date the total turnover of the tea industry in India is roughly Rs.10,000 crores. Hindustan Unilever Limited is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company, touching the lives of two out of three Indians. It is also one of the largest tea producing companies in India, with its two brands of tea - Lipton and Brooke Bond. As per estimates from well-known research agency AC Nielsen – the tea category In India, is slated to grown around 6 % in volume, with sales of 1,93,076 metric tonnes in 2011 and sales of 2,05,182 metric tonnes in 2012(estimated ).

Today, Brooke Bond has the strongest foothold amongst any of the tea brands in India and touches the homes of over 500 million consumers. Recently, in 2008, Brooke Bond, India was associated alongside the Tea Board of India with an event in Indore, India where the city “replaced Nishio City, Japan, in the Guinness Book of World Records as the place where the maximum number of people gathered at one venue to drink tea.” The previous record was 14,718 people. The turnout in Indore was 32,681 people.

The Brooke Bond Red Label Brand

File:Http://www.hul.co.in/Images/rl-logo-273x210 tcm114-294492.jpg

The all new Brooke Bond Red Label Tea pack

1970 – 1980: In that decade the brand Red Label stood for a quality branded product taking on the pre-dominant loose tea market with its packaging and promise of superior taste.

1990 – 2000: In the 90’s the brand shifted focus and emphasized its 100% strength and the taste that came from its superior grains of Red Label tea. In the early part of this century, the Red Label brand began to focus on positioning itself as a ‘Family’ brand that had been trusted for years. The brand changed its positioning to being the ‘Cup of Life’, while still retaining the emotional platform of family bonding.

2000 – 2009: In 2007 the brand introduced its new pack. It introduced itself as the only tea that gave the consumer the perfect blend of 3 different types of leaves that give rich colour, irresistible aroma and the right strength resulting in a perfect tasting cup of tea according to the ‘Teen ka kamal’ campaign. The ‘Chuskiyan Zindagi Ki’, positioned Red Label as a tea brand that helped you bond with your family and share light hearted together moments with them.

2010 – 2012: While taste is still the base of the brand, Red Label has now also added to it, differentiating and re-positioning itself by adding health to its offering. The baseline of ‘Swasth rahein, mast rahein’ was introduced. Now, health in a cup of tea is an essential part of the brand philosophy and positioning. Red Label has launched the Health Challenge initiative in 2012 to further reinforce the brand’s health-based offering.

The Red Label Portfolio

Currently the Red Label portfolio has four offerings in the market and their positioning is based on pointing out the inherent health benefits offered by tea.

1. Red Label: Has the goodness of natural flavonoids that helps improve blood circulation and keeps you healthy. http://www.hul.co.in/Images/packshot-rl-450x450_tcm114-294504.jpg
2. Red Label Dust: Has strength, taste and comes with the Red Label promise of great quality. http://www.hul.co.in/Images/Red-Label-Dust-450X450_tcm114-302761.jpg
3. Red Label Special: Has 15% extra long leaves to give you great taste, colour and superior aroma. http://www.hul.co.in/Images/Red-Label-Special-450X450_tcm114-302767.jpg
4. Red Label Natural Care: Is a special blend where the goodness of Tea leaves is supplemented by the goodness of five carefully selected ingredients that are widely used and recommended in one of the world’s most ancient systems of holistic medicine – Ayurveda. Each of these additions – Tulsi (Basil), Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), Ginger, Cardamom and Mulethi (Licorice) - has its own repertoire of health benefits. Combining the two together provides the ultimate beverage that not only satisfies beverage craving but is also a health boost. http://www.hul.co.in/Images/Red-Label-Natural-Care-450x450_tcm114-302762.jpg

Tea

A cup of Tea is a part of the daily life of millions of people; it is the most consumed beverage in the world. This slightly bitter but aromatic brew is made by pouring boiling water on the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant, native to Asia but toady cultivated across the globe in tropical and sub-tropical regions, also called tea leaves. The resulting brew can be consumed on its own or enjoyed with additives such as milk, sugar, lemon, other herbs etc. Despite the commonality of a being the leaves of the same plant, the taste and characteristics such as flavor, aroma etc. of tea can be based upon certain geographical conditions. Thus Assam tea is distinctly different from Darjeeling tea, though both are Indian teas. However, tea is differentiated into types based not on their flavor or aroma, but on the method of processing used to treat the leaves.

Types of Tea

While there are over 3000 varieties of tea listed, it can basically be divided into five categories: Black, Green, Oolong, White, and Puerh.

Processing Tea

Tea processing is the method by which the leaves from the tea plant Camellia sinensis are transformed into the dried leaves for brewing tea.

1. Two leaves and a bud: The tea leaves were originally cultivated from seed, but nowadays it is grown from the cuttings. The bush can grow at heights of 2400m in the Himalayas or extreme cold places like Turkey. The first harvest usually takes place when the bush is between 3-5 years old, having grown to between 1 and 1.2 metres, a convenient height for plucking. Each tea estate has about 15,000 bushes per hectare. A skilled plucker can gather 30-35 kilos of green leaves in one day, sufficient to produce between 7.5-9 kilos of made tea.
2. At the Factory: After arriving in the factory, the tea leaves are dried by forced air circulation through a bed of leaves up to 22 cm deep. They are left to wither for 12 to 24 hours to reduce their moisture content by up to 30%. Withering makes the leaves soft and flaccid and facilitates subsequent rolling.
3. Break it and Blend: Withered leaves are placed in brass cylinders turned by concentric cranks over a brass table. The rolling disrupts the cells of bud, leaf and stem tissues and mixes the cell contents and juices.
4. One Hour of Magic: Once the leaves have gone through rollers, they are left to oxidize for less than one hour.
5. Fire or Else? The oxidized tea leaves are moved on a series of trays in a stream of hot air, which enters the machine at about 100% C. Firing stops oxidation at the optimum point of colour, taste and aroma development.
6. The grade of your tea: The dried tea leaves are sorted into a number of grades of uniform particle size.
7. Taste, touch, smell and feel: Tea tasters are people who help create the consistent quality flavor, strength and colour demanded by consumers of their teas. A taster simultaneously employs four of the five senses- sight, touch, smell and taste in order to judge and arrive at the optimum blend.
8. Pack up: The dried leaves are sorted into a number of grades of uniform particle size.

Tea & Health

The benefits of tea are dependent on the specific variety of tea used as well the method of preparation. Today tea is being researched for its wide range of health benefits. Research is being conducted to study various possible health benefits that include boosting the immune system, aid in lowering blood pressure because of its antihypertensive properties, help against cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, high blood pressure and arthritis.

A German study found that green tea extracts could help people with skin damaged from radiation therapy. Quite possibly, tea can even lower your body’s absorption of carbohydrates, prompting research into the question whether the tea extract has clinical utility for the treatment of obesity or diabetes. Another study looked at the impact of tea versus soda on human teeth and concluded that compared to soda, tea did not have a corrosive effect. According to a British study, tea drinkers tend to have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone related to increased levels of stress.

The benefits of tea are derived from the various compounds found in the tea leaves. According to Tapan Kumar Mondal, a plant molecular biologist, “Tea leaves contain more than 700 chemicals.” Amongst others these include flavonoids, amino acids, vitamins (C, E and K), caffeine and polysaccharides. All of these are related to human health. Tea has also been found to improve the beneficial intestinal microflora. The presence of fluorine in tea means that it helps against dental caries. Tea can also help with regards to blood pressure, by lowering it. By reducing the blood glucose activity tea might also help against diabetes. Because of its lipid depressing activity tea also helps in the prevention of coronary heart diseases. Plus, both green and black tea infusions contain a number of antioxidants, which have a positive health impact.

Flavonoids and Antioxidants: Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Nobel Prize winning researcher discovered flavonoids accidentally while actually making a different preparation. Tea has one of the highest contents of flavonoids, a group of natural phenols, of all the commonly consumed food and beverage products. Tea has ten times more antioxidant properties than fruits and vegetables. Research indicates the immense health benefits that may be found in Flavonoids. Antioxidants are compounds that protect cells against the damaging effects of reactive oxygen species, thus making tea anti-aeging. The consumption of flavonoids even in high amounts does not seem to cause unwanted side effects. Studies during pregnancy have also failed to show problems with high-level intake of flavonoids. In terms of the interaction with other nutrients, flavonoids and vitamin C appear to improve the antioxidant activity of the other and some functions of vitamin C actually seem to require the presence of flavonoids.

Polysaccharide: This is a type of carbohydrate that includes starch and cellulose. It is being researched as an aid in controlling diabetes. Its possible benefit for people with diabetes lies in its abilities to help retard absorption of glucose in the body. The polysaccharides in Black tea were found to be the most beneficial in terms of glucose inhibiting properties. It also had the maximum impact on free radicals. Free radicals are associated with the onset of various diseases, which includes cancer.

Caffeine: Caffeine is found naturally in Tea, Coffee and Chocolate. Pharmacologically, caffeine, a member of the xanthine family, is a naturally occurring stimulant found in some plants. Tea also contains theophylline, another member of the xanthine family of stimulants. As a natural psychoactive drug, caffeine crosses the natural blood-brain barrier to impact primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects impacts brain function, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, and cognition. The amount of caffeine in a cup of tea will depends on the variety of tea used and the method of preparation.