Only in Canada you say? Pity…

Modern packaging for Red Rose Tea

Only in Canada you say? Pity…

Many of you will remember that advertising line that appeared on televisions during the 1960s and 70s.

Did you know, though, that the Red Rose Tea Company had its start in New Brunswick? Theodore Harding Estabrooks was born December 28, 1861 in Wicklow, New Brunswick. He had the usual public education and in 1884 went to work for a company in St. John that imported molasses.

In 1894, he opened the doors to his own company. The Theodore H. Estabrooks, blending and packaging loose tea. His first year in business was not a profitable one, less than $200 worth of tea was sold. It is interesting to note that Estabrooks started his tea company in 1894, the same year Murchie’s Tea & Coffee was established in Vancouver.

In 1899, he met a master tea-taster by the name of M.R. Miles and together they came up with a blend of Sri Lankan and Indian tea leaves which ‘was a rich and flavourful tea’ much different than the Chinese and Japanese teas that were popular at the time. Estabrooks registered the trademark for his tea in Canada, naming it Red Rose Tea. Sales soared throughout the Maritimes and by 1920s he was selling in the United States.

Tea, at that time, was sold loose and this often resulted in a poorer quality of tea. While he did not invent tea bags, he was one of the very first to package his tea in individual bags which made brewing cleaner and simpler for his customers. Individual tea bags also insured a more consistent quality.

During that same time period, the Red Rose company also included small porcelain figurines that quickly became collectables. ‘Wade Whimsies’ as they came to be called were named after Wade Ceramics, an English ceramic company. The Canadian series focused on animal and nursery themed figurines. The first series of figurines was comprised of 32 animals and ran from 1967 to 1973. The second series, from 1971 to 1979 consisted of nursery rhyme characters.

The great American commercial artist, Norman Rockwell, created ads for the Red Rose Tea Company. In the late 1950s, early 60s, a Toronto-based advertising agency, McConnell, Eastman & Company (MEC), who handled the Red Rose Tea print campaigns, commissioned Rockwell to produce the ads that appeared in a popular Maritime magazine called the Atlantic Advocate. Rockwell apparently stated that he would not produce the ad unless he liked the tea. A sample of tea was sent to him and since we have the ad, we can assume he liked the tea.

Today, the Red Rose Tea Company is owned by Redco Foods in the US and Lipton in Canada.

Norman Rockwell ad for Red Rose Tea. Atlantic Adovcate, February 1959, Vol. 49, No. 6.

Image source: Memorial University of Newfoundland – Digital Archives Initiative.