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Sweet Leaf Tea Company is a producer of ready-to-drink organic teas and lemonades made with 100% pure cane sugar, owned by Nestlé and headquartered in the Penn Field Business Park in the South Congress area of Austin, Texas. It was founded in Beaumont, TX in 1998 by Clayton Christopher and David Smith. Sweet Leaf Tea is available in 16 oz recyclable aluminum cans, 16oz glass, 12oz PET and 20oz PET at specialty grocers across the United States. On April 2, 2008, Sweet Leaf Tea Company announced $18 million in private funding from Catterton Partners.〔(Sweet Leaf Tea Announces $18 Million in Private Equity Funding from Catterton Partners )〕 On May 29, 2008, Sweet Leaf Tea Company filed suit against an Arizona-based company for the name of their sweetener, SweetLeaf Stevia.〔(Sweet Leaf Tea sues an Arizona company to defend the use of name )〕 On March 23, 2009, Nestlé Waters North America made a $15.6 million investment in Sweet Leaf Tea.〔(NWNA press release )〕 It acquired the rest of the company in 2011. ==History== Sweet Leaf Tea was founded in 1998 in Beaumont, TX by Clayton Christopher, using $10,000 and his grandmother's recipe for home-brewed iced tea made with cane sugar.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.statesman.com/news/business/sweet-leaf-tea-founder-to-step-down-as-ceo/nRrPB/ )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.sweetleaftea.com/history )〕 Christopher was inspired to create the business after returning from a road trip throughout Alabama and Mississippi, where he saw the abundance of homemade iced tea that all the local "mom and pop" restaurants served. He could not find bottled tea on the market that tasted like homemade iced tea and thus decided to make a bottled tea as tasty as the one his grandmother Mimi used to make.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.sweetleaftea.com/history )〕 In 1999, Christopher's childhood friend David Smith joined him at the company. Early production consisted of brewing tea in crawfish pots in Hen's kitchen, using pillow cases as "tea bags" and; then using garden hoses to transport the tea to plastic bottles.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.sweetleaftea.com/history )〕 In March 2009, Nestlé Waters North America invested $15.6 million in the company. In March 2010, Clayton Christopher stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by former Nestle General Manager Dan Costello.〔Valdez, Andrea. ("How to Brew Sweet Tea." ) Texas Monthly. Aug. 2009〕〔("Sweet Leaf Tea Brews a Recipe for Success." ) NSIDE ATX. July 2010〕 In April 2010, Sweet Leaf acquired Cincinnati-based Tradewinds Beverage Co.〔 Since 2012, Sweet Leaf has replaced the organic brewed tea that was in the original recipes with organic tea concentrates. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sweet Leaf Tea Company」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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