Sweet Leaf Tea Company is a producer of
ready-to-drink organic branded teas and lemonades owned by
Nestlé. It was founded in
Beaumont, TX 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.[1] On May 29, 2008, Sweet Leaf Tea Company filed suit against an Arizona-based company for the name of their sweetener, SweetLeaf Stevia.[2]
History
Sweet Leaf Tea was founded in 1998 in
Beaumont, TX by Clayton Christopher,[3] using $10,000 and his grandmother's recipe for home-brewed iced tea made with cane sugar.[4][5] Early production consisted of brewing tea in crawfish pots in Hen's kitchen, using pillow cases as "
tea bags" and; then using garden hoses to transport the tea to
plastic bottles.[4][6]
In March 2009,
Nestlé Waters North America invested $15.6 million in the company. In 2012, Clayton Christopher stepped down[7] as
CEO and was succeeded by former Nestlé General Manager Dan Costello.[8][9]
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.
Sweet Leaf originally had its headquarters in
Beaumont, Texas.[12] The headquarters moved to Austin in October 2003.[13] In the mid-2000s, Sweet Leaf headquartered in an area west of
Downtown Austin.[14] In 2007, Sweet Leaf relocated to the South Congress area.[15] In April 2009, the company began to look for a larger headquarters space.[11] In October 2009, Sweet Leaf announced that it planned to move its headquarters to a
LEED certified building during that month.[16] In December 2009, the company moved its headquarters to the Penn Field Business Park in South Congress.[11]
1 Currently manufactured by
General Mills in the U.S. and Canada. Produced by
Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand elsewhere. 2 Brand owned by
General Mills; U.S. and Canadian production rights controlled by Nestlé under license. 3 U.S. production rights owned by
The Hershey Company. 4 U.S. rights and production owned by the
Smarties Candy Company with a different product. 5 U.S. rights and specific trade dress owned by Nestlé; rights elsewhere owned by
Associated British Foods. 6 Produced by Cereal Partners, branded as Nestlé. 7 Produced by Cereal Partners and branded as Nestlé in the U.K. and Ireland. Produced by
Post Foods elsewhere. 8 Philippine production rights owned by
Alaska Milk Corporation. 9 Singaporean, Malaysian and Thai production rights owned by
Fraser and Neave. 10 Used only in Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. 11 Used only in the Philippines. 12 U.S. production rights owned by the
Ferrara Candy Company. 13NA rights and specific trade dress to all packaged coffee and other products under the Starbucks brand owned by Nestlé since 2019. 14 Brand owned by
Mars, sold by Nestlé in Canada. 15 Produced by
Froneri in the U.S. since 2020.