Our story begins in 1869.
A mad Mancunian (or person from Manchester to you) called Arthur Brooke opened a fancy tea emporium in Market Street. The people of Manchester we're mad for it as they would say, because it was a raving success. Tea, coffee and sugar flew out the door and Arthur Brooke's posh tea shop was a huge hit.
Arthur then spent the next few years doing all the usual things business types do, opening more shops, making babies, wearing fancy hats, etc, until 1930.
In 1930 Arthur launched PG Tips, although it wasn't called PG Tips at the time.
Arthur had sold many varieties of tea for different uses and occasions and his new tea was meant to be drunk before eating. It was launched called Digestive Tea. The name was later changed to Pre-Gestee (as in pre-digest-tea) to ram home the idea that it was to be consumed before eating. This then became known as PG Tea which in turn became PG Tips, because it was made from the tips of tea plants, and thus a titan was born.
Fast forward twenty years to 1950 the infamous monkeys arrived. Monkeys you say? What's all this about monkeys?
T.V. In the 50s was a grim era airing sober black and white shows such as What the Papers Say, Woman's viewpoint and Around the World with Orson Wells. Into this monochromatic world stepped the PG Tips Monkeys Louis and Ada. In some of the first adverts ever seen on British television our chimp heroes would act out scenes clothed in suits and dresses with voiceovers provided by folks such as Russ Abbot and Bob Monkhouse.
The adverts were extremely successful and with the tea flying off the shelves the chimps keepers were able to found a Zoo in Twycross which to this day is still going strong.
The adverts ran from 1956 through to 2002 when the chimps retired to Twycross. The ads are recognized in the Guinness book of world records as the longest running TV adverts in the UK.
Along rolled the 60's and in a move that shocked the civilized world PG Tips started coming in teabags. Oh the infamy. There is nothing worse than getting to the bottom of a lovely cup of tea only to get a mouthful of tea leaves. Yuk. Bags obviously prevent this by containing the leaves in the bags but they've decimated the tea leaf reading industry and a whole generation of fortune tellers were ruined. Oy Vey!
In 1980 it was discovered that 50% of people, being troglodytes, made their tea in mugs instead of using a teapot. This shameful behavior was encouraged by PG Tips introducing bags with strings attached so that they could be easily removed once the tea had brewed even though there are many small tea pots available on the market. Disgraceful.
1990 and PG Tips started selling Pyramid shaped Tea bags. Besides being an obvious nod to pop combo The Bangles, pyramid tea bags were supposed to act like mini teapots, allowing the tea leaves room to drift around inside. Allegedly.
Today PG tips comes in many forms be it bagged, loose leaf, decaf, or dairy-free whatever that is.
PG Tips is still made in Manchester at the Brooke Bond plant in Trafford Park. Of the 150 million cups of tea consumers drink each day, 35 million are PG Tips. It is one of the most popular tea brands in the U K, and it is enjoyed around the globe.
I hope you enjoyed my quick potted history of PG Tips...
Now I'm off to put the kettle on because I'm gasping. Ta-Ta!
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