Sweet Leaf Tea Company is a producer of

ready-to-drink Ready to drink (often known as RTD) packaged beverages are those sold in a prepared form, ready for consumption. Examples include iced tea (prepared using tea leaves and fruit juice) and alcopops (prepared by mixing alcoholic beverages with frui ...

organic branded teas and lemonades, owned by

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

and with their headquarters located in the Penn Field Business Park in the

South Congress South Congress (abbreviated SoCo) is a neighborhood located on South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, United States. It is also a nationally known shopping and cultural district known for its many eclectic small retailers, restaurants, music and a ...

area of

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

. It was founded in

Beaumont, TX Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seat of government of Jefferson County, within the Beaumont– Port Arthur metropolitan statistical area, located in Southeast Texas on the Neches River about east of Houston (c ...

in 1998 by Clayton Christopher and David Smith. On April 2, 2008, Sweet Leaf Tea Company announced $18 million in private funding from

Catterton Partners L Catterton is a U.S.-headquartered private equity firm. Since 1989, the firm has made more than 250 investments in brands across all segments of the consumer industry. L Catterton is led by its co-Chief Executive Officers, J. Michael Chu and S ...

. On May 29, 2008, Sweet Leaf Tea Company filed suit against an Arizona-based company for the name of their sweetener, SweetLeaf Stevia.

History

Sweet Leaf Tea was founded in 1998 in

by Clayton Christopher, using $10,000 and his grandmother's recipe for home-brewed iced tea made with cane sugar. Early production consisted of brewing tea in crawfish pots in Hen's kitchen, using pillow cases as "

tea bags A tea bag, or the compound 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 (''Camellia ...

" and; then using garden hoses to transport the tea to

plastic bottle A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed from high-density or low density plastic. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking oil, medicine, shampoo, milk, and ink. The size ranges from v ...

s. In March 2009,

Waters North America invested $15.6 million in the company. In 2012, Clayton Christopher stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by former Nestlé General Manager Dan Costello.Valdez, Andrea
"How to Brew Sweet Tea."
Texas Monthly. Aug. 2009"Sweet Leaf Tea Brews a Recipe for Success."
NSIDE ATX. July 2010 In April 2010, Sweet Leaf acquired Cincinnati-based Tradewinds Beverage Co. In 2012, Sweet Leaf replaced the organic brewed tea used in the original recipes with organic tea concentrate.

Products

Teas * Organic Original Sweet Tea * Diet Original Sweet Tea * Organic Mint & Honey Green Tea * Organic Citrus Green Tea * Diet Citrus Green Tea * Organic Peach Sweet Tea * Organic Lemon Sweet Tea * Raspberry Sweet Tea * Lemon Lime Unsweet Tea * Organic Half & Half Lemonade Tea * Diet Mint & Honey Green Tea (discontinued) * Diet Peach Sweet Tea (discontinued) * Organic Mango Green Tea (discontinued) * Organic Pomegranate Green Tea (discontinued) Lemonades * Organic Original Lemonade * Organic Peach Lemonade (discontinued) * Organic Cherry Limeade (discontinued)

Headquarters

Sweet Leaf is headquartered in the Penn Field Business Park in the

area of

.Sweet Leaf triples space, adds flavors and new can
" '' Austin Business Journal''. Tuesday January 5, 2010. Retrieved on January 10, 2010. Sweet Leaf originally had its headquarters in Beaumont, Texas. The headquarters moved to Austin in October 2003. In the mid-2000s, Sweet Leaf had its headquarters in an area west of

Downtown Austin Downtown Austin is the central business district of Austin, Texas. Downtown is located on the north bank of the Colorado River. The approximate borders of Downtown include Lamar Boulevard to the west, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the U ...

. In 2007, Sweet Leaf relocated to the South Congress area. In April 2009, the company began to look for a larger headquarters space. In October 2009, Sweet Leaf announced that it planned to move its headquarters to a LEED certified building during that month.Sweet Leaf Tea Purchases "Green Power" for Corporate Headquarters from Green Mountain Energy Company
" PRWeb. October 1, 2009. Retrieved on January 10, 2010. In December 2009, the company moved its headquarters to the Penn Field Business Park in South Congress.

References

External links

Sweet Leaf Tea Company
{{Beaumont Texas Manufacturing companies based in Austin, Texas History of Beaumont, Texas Food and drink companies established in 1998 Iced tea brands Nestlé brands

History

Products

Headquarters

See also

References

External links