Brooke Bond

Brooke Bond was a brand-name tea retailer in the United Kingdom.

Brooke Bond & Company was founded by Arthur Brooke who was born at 6 George Street, Ashton under Lyne, Lancashire, England in 1845. He opened his first Tea Shop in Piccadilly, Manchester, Lancashire. There was never a "Mr Bond"; Arthur Brooke chose the name simply because it sounded pleasing to his ears.

In the 1950s and 1960s, packets of Brooke Bond tea included illustrated tea cards, usually 50 in a series, which were collected by many children. One of the most famous illustrators of these cards was Charles Tunnicliffe, 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'. Complete sets and albums in good condition are now highly sought-after collectors' items.

The most famous brand of Brooke Bond is PG Tips, launched in 1930. PG Tips is currently the bestselling tea in the UK.

Brooke Bond is a part of Unilever. The Brooke Bond name has been dropped for all external communication and, in the UK, is used only in internal corporate communications.

The Brooke Bond brand is still used in other countries, especially in India. In Pakistan, Brooke Bond Supreme is the number-one-selling tea brand. Unilever markets it as a being stronger than its Lipton Yellow Label blend.

The Brooke Bond factory is at Trafford Park in Manchester but is not to be confused with the factory of Gold Crown Foods Ltd, Liverpool, which took over production of Brooke Bond Choicest Blend tea. Since then, Brooke Bond rapidly gave way in supermarket shelf space to Yorkshire Tea. A few outlets continued to stock the brand, notably Waitrose, but they discontinued the line when the Gold Crown Foods factory burnt down late in 2005.

ee also

*Tetley, competitor
*Tata Tea, competitor
*Lipton
*PG Tips