About Lipton

Lipton grew from one of the great self-made Victorian retail stories. Thomas Lipton, a Glasgow grocer with a gift for showmanship, moved into tea in 1890 with a radical idea: buy the estates directly, cut out the middlemen, and sell good tea cheap, direct from the tea gardens to the teapot. He turned tea from a luxury into an everyday staple across Britain, America and beyond, and became a celebrity in his own right as the most persistent challenger in America's Cup yachting history. Lipton now sits at the centre of Lipton Teas and Infusions, one of the largest tea businesses on the planet.

Globally it is known for bright, brisk Yellow Label black tea and for helping define iced tea as a category. The range we carry leans into the flavoured and fruit side, bergamot Earl Grey, mango and passionfruit, lemon, built for an easy, refreshing cup. Lipton was an early and very large-scale adopter of Rainforest Alliance certification, which at its volume moved a genuinely significant share of the world's tea onto a certified footing, with packaging moving to lower-plastic recyclable formats. For our shelf Lipton is the accessible, internationally familiar everyday cup: the flavoured blends are bright and uncomplicated, the quality floor is dependable, and the certified-sourcing scale behind it is one of the more consequential sustainability stories in tea. It is built to be easy rather than rare, and on that brief, with more than a century behind it, it delivers reliably.

Key facts

• Founded 1890 Glasgow Sir Thomas Lipton pioneered the direct-from-tea-garden retail model in 1890, making tea affordable for British working-class families for the first time.
• Country-Specific European Range The European range anchors each blend in the country where the dominant ingredient is sourced, Spanish lemons, Greek peach and mango, French strawberries, Italian bergamot.
• Global Tea Standard The Yellow Label is the global mass-market tea standard recognised in hotel rooms and supermarkets across more than 110 countries.
• Rainforest Alliance Certified The majority of the Lipton supply chain is Rainforest Alliance certified, supporting biodiversity protection and fair wages for tea growers.

The founders

Brand timeline

1. 1890 Lipton founded in Glasgow

   Sir Thomas Lipton founds Lipton Tea in Glasgow, pioneering the direct-from-tea-garden retail model that allowed working-class British households to afford tea for the first time. The brand becomes a global tea pioneer almost from launch, with the slogan Direct from the tea garden to the teapot becoming an industry-defining promise.

2. 1893 Acquires Ceylon tea estates

   Lipton purchases tea estates in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to vertically integrate the supply chain, becoming one of the first international tea brands to own its own gardens rather than buying through commodity markets. This vertical integration is the foundation of the brand model used to this day.

3. 1972 Acquired by Unilever

   Lipton is acquired by Unilever as part of the global beverage portfolio, expanding distribution across more than 110 countries with localised blends for individual markets. The Yellow Label becomes the global tea standard recognised in hotel rooms and supermarkets worldwide.

4. 2000s Iced tea + Pure Nature ranges launch

   Lipton launches the bottled Iced Tea range that becomes the British supermarket benchmark for sweet bottled iced tea, alongside the Pure Nature herbal range and the country-specific European fruit-and-citrus ranges that anchor the brand today across Spanish, Greek, French and Italian variants.

5. 2022 Spin-off as Lipton Teas + Infusions

   Lipton is spun off from Unilever into the new Lipton Teas and Infusions company, focusing exclusively on tea and infusions. The brand continues to operate as the global leader in the category with a Rainforest Alliance certified supply chain across the majority of its tea estates.

6. 2026 Stocked at Teas.co.uk

   Hand-picked into the curator selection: Lipton Yellow Label and the full European fruit-and-citrus range including the Spanish Lemons, Spanish Orange, Greek Peach and Mango, French Strawberries, Italian Bergamot Earl Grey, Berry Bliss, Vanilla and Caramel, and the Pure Nature green range.

Sustainability

Lipton sits within the Lipton Teas and Infusions sustainability framework, the company spun out of Unilever in 2022 focused exclusively on tea and infusions. The majority of the Lipton supply chain is Rainforest Alliance certified, supporting biodiversity protection and fair wages for tea growers. The Pure Nature herbal range uses Rainforest Alliance certified botanicals and the European fruit-and-citrus range supports country-specific agricultural communities (Spanish citrus, Greek stone-fruit, French berry, Italian citrus). Plant-based plastic-free tea bags across the range and fully kerbside recyclable outer cartons.

• Rainforest Alliance Certified Tea The majority of the Lipton supply chain is Rainforest Alliance certified across both the black-tea and green-tea bases.
• Country-Specific Local Sourcing The European range supports country-specific agricultural communities by anchoring each blend in the country where the dominant ingredient grows.
• Plant-Based Plastic-Free Bags Plant-based PLA mesh tea bags across the range, home-compostable, no polypropylene synthetic plastic sealants.
• Kerbside Recyclable Cartons Outer FSC-certified card cartons are fully kerbside recyclable across the UK, inner foil pouches recyclable through supermarket soft-plastic collection.