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Coca-Cola India makes its foray into the ready-to-drink beverages segment with the launch of ‘Honest Tea’ – an iced green tea product that comes in lemon-tulsi and mango flavours. The bottled iced tea, launched at the Bengal Global Business Summit that took place a couple of days ago contains an organic green tea as its base ingredient, which will be sourced from Makaibari Tea Estate, owned by Kolkata-based Luxmi Tea Co Private Ltd. By expanding its product options for consumers with its newest launch, will be marketed under the Honest Tea brand owned by a subsidiary of Coca-Cola – known as Honest Corporation.
What was originally a US-founded brand, the organic bottled green tea company was acquired by Coca-Cola in 2011. Added to this, the apparent goodwill of Makaibari Tea Estate in Darjeeling extends to royal tea houses in countries like Japan and England. The larger intent of this alliance is also to bring the Darjeeling tea industry into the spotlight, as demand for the tea products have dropped considerably. The Honest The beverage also hopes to give the younger target consumers a healthy beverage option to choose from the ones that are currently available in the market.
Currently, the iced green tea is set to launch in southern and western states, with an eventual plan to make it available nationwide – while also coinciding with the summer in 2024. The 350 ml bottled beverage was launched with chief minister Mamata Banerjee in attendance, along with the director of Luxmi Tea, that owns the 87 gardens of Makaibari Tea Estate, which produces 6.5 million kilos of tea annually and protected by the GI tag.
