is a manufacturer of

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

and

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 ...

products in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, w ...

, Hyōgo. "UCC" stands for "Ueshima Coffee Company". It owns a

Kona coffee Kona coffee is the market name for coffee (''Coffea arabica'') cultivated on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa in the North and South Kona Districts of the Big Island of Hawaii. It is one of the most expensive coffees in the world. Only coffe ...

farm on the island of

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only ...

. The company is a part of the UCC Group.

History

The company started as a store under the name of "Ueshima Tadao Shoten" in 1933. It became a limited partnership in 1940 and in 1951, became "Ueshima Coffee Co., Ltd.". The company introduced the world's first canned coffee, "UCC Coffee with Milk" in April, 1969, which started the trend for

canned coffee is a pre-brewed version of the beverage, sold ready to drink. It is particularly popular in Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere across Asia, and produced in a number of styles and by a large number of companies. Canned coffee is available in supe ...

(缶コーヒー) in Japan. It formally became "UCC Ueshima Coffee Co., Ltd." in 1991.

Holdings

* UCC Ueshima Coffee Co. (America) Inc. (100%) * UCC Hawaii Corporation * UCC Craighton Coffee Estate (Jamaica) * UCC Europe Limited (London) * UCC ANZ Limited (Australia & New Zealand)

Marketing tie-ins

UCC Coffee became famous with

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejora ...

(

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

fans) around the world after their canned coffee was featured in the 1997 feature film ''

The End of Evangelion is a 1997 Japanese anime science fiction film written by Hideaki Anno, directed by Anno and Kazuya Tsurumaki, and animated by Gainax and Production I.G. It serves as an alternate ending to the television series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', wh ...

''. As a tie-in with the makers of the film, UCC created six coffee can designs featuring the Evangelion characters holding the company's products. These cans subsequently became prized collector's items. UCC continued this partnership when, a decade later, a new set of four Evangelion films began their release with 2007's '' Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone''. The cans were again featured in the film, and UCC again featured illustrations of the film's characters on a limited release of their cans. In 2009, UCC created another line of limited edition cans featuring the characters from the second film in the series, '' Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance''.

References

External links

Corporate website

Corporate website

UCC Ueshima Coffee Company (America) Inc.

UCC Hawaii Corporation

UCC ANZ Limited
{{Coffee Coffee brands Companies based in Kobe Coffee companies of Japan Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 1933 Midori-kai Food and drink companies established in 1933

History

Holdings

Marketing tie-ins

See also

References

External links