Bell is one of New Zealand’s oldest and most popular tea companies. The historic Kiwi brand has been a pantry staple in New Zealanders’ homes and this year it’s celebrating a 120-year milestone.
Bell was founded in Dunedin by Norman Harper Bell in 1898, who had a vision to create cups of tea for everyone to enjoy in the country he called home, a passion and dedication the Bell team still shares today.
Not only an excellent tea blender, Norman Harper Bell was an astute businessman, understanding the many essentials of creating a successful business, from marketing a first class product to public relations, customer service and good distribution. It’s no wonder then, he was able to grow his fledgling tea brand into one of New Zealand’s most popular cuppas!
Depression, each having a profound effect on its fortunes.
Bell’s master brewers continue to source some of the best teas and ingredients from across the globe, to be locally blended back home for Kiwi taste buds to enjoy.
“We’re delighted to be celebrating such a massive milestone and we’d like to thank our Kiwi tea drinkers for supporting us over the years,” says Monique Mahe from Bell.
Understandably, tea-making processes have modernised over the years, from Tea Clippers delivering Bell Tea by horse and cart to Auckland – a procession the public gazed at in wonder, Bell now makes and delivers over 189 million tea bags each year to supermarkets and stores across the country!
“We roughly estimate that the amount of Bell tea bags we send out for Kiwis to drink every year weighs more than a standard Boeing 747, or the average weight of 75 African elephants or 3700 Kiwi sheep! In fact, if we laid them all next to each other, they’d stretch about 7560km – further than New Zealand to Indonesia. That’s a whole lot of cups of Bell tea being enjoyed in our nation,” says Mahe.
While Bell was launched with the classic ‘original’ brew, the range has grown with the nation to include a variety of Kiwi favourites from traditional black to newly added white, green tea, eclectic fruit and herbal tea varieties – even decaf!
A perfectly brewed cuppa is a daily ritual for many New Zealanders and Bell is proud to serve a range of refreshing great tasting teas for every occasion.
