Coca-Cola India enters ready-to-drink tea beverages segment

Coca-Cola India said it is foraying into the ready-to-drink tea beverages segment with the launch of 'Honest Tea'. The brand is owned by Honest, a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company.

With the release of "Honest Tea," Coca-Cola India has joined the ready-to-drink tea beverage market. In order to provide ready-to-drink iced green tea, the firm has teamed up with Makaibari, the renowned Darjeeling tea plantation owned by the Luxmi Group.

The brand ‘Honest Tea’ is owned by Honest, a subsidiary of the Coca-Cola Company. It comes in two flavours — lemon-tulsi and mango. The bottled iced green tea was formally launched on the second and concluding of the Bengal Global Business Summit 2023, on November 22.

The organic green tea for the product will come from Kolkata-based Luxmi Tea Co Private Ltd's Makaibari Tea Estate, according to a PTI report citing company executives. An MoU in this regard was signed between the two companies at the seventh edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS).

The idea behind the launch was to provide consumers with wider beverage options, a senior official of Coca-Cola India & Southwest Asia told PTI. The iced green tea will come in lemon-tulsi and mango variants.

Karthik Subramanian, director of marketing - hydration, coffee and tea category, Coca Cola India and Southwest Asia, said in a statement, “We are thrilled to introduce our new ready-to-drink iced green tea. With Honest Tea, we are offering consumers a unique experience of a great tasting green tea-based beverage.” There are not many tea producers offering a ready-to-drink format – however, the Goodricke Group has a bottled organic iced tea.