Sara Lee Corp., Utrecht, The Netherlands, acquired Tea Forté, a Massachusetts-based ultra-premium tea company. The acquisition will strengthen Sara Lee’s expertise and presence in the luxury tea segment, the company said.
Arizona Beverage Co. launched an alcohol malt beverage that merges tea and lemonade called Arnold Palmer Hard, in reference to golfer Arnold Palmer’s non-alcohol tea-and-lemonade drink.
Hot or cold, bottled or bagged, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world next to water, according to the Tea Association of the U.S.A. Inc., New York City.
Downers Grove, Ill.-based Sara Lee Corp. announced the sale of a majority of its North American foodservice coffee and tea operations to The J.M. Smucker Co., Orrville, Ohio, for $350 million.
Snapple, a brand of Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Plano, Texas, teamed with pop-rock band Maroon 5 to develop a ready-to-drink tea named after one of the band’s hit singles.
Despite the specialty coffee craze at limited-service restaurants, regular hot coffee still accounts for the highest level of reported consumption among consumers surveyed by Chicago-based Technomic.
Marley Beverage Co. expanded its line of all-natural relaxation beverages with Marley’s Mellow Mood Lite, a low-calorie version of Marley’s Mellow Mood beverages. Marley’s Mellow Mood Lite is half lemonade, half tea and contains 40 calories in each 8-ounce serving.
Radio host Rush Limbaugh introduced the Two If By Tea line of ready-to-drink iced teas. The line includes Regular, Raspberry, Diet Original and Diet Raspberry flavors and has been in the works for one year by Limbaugh, his wife, Kathryn, and a small development team. The Two if By Tea name is a twist on the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” that features the line “one if by land, and two if by sea.”
