Teh botol
Encyclopedia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n drink produced by the company Sosro and is sold worldwide. Teh botol literally means bottled tea in Indonesian
Indonesian language
Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
. It is a sweetened jasmine tea
Jasmine tea
Jasmine tea is tea with added jasmine flowers. It originates from the time of the Song Dynasty . Normally, jasmine tea is based on green tea or white tea. The resulting flavor of jasmine tea is subtly sweet. It is the most famous scented tea in China.Tea scented with jasmine flowers has been a...
and it is usually served cold. In addition, Sosro also sells the tea in the Tetra Pak
Tetra Pak
Tetra Pak is a multinational food processing and packaging company of Swedish origin. It was founded in 1951 in Lund, Sweden, by Ruben Rausing. It was Erik Wallenberg who invented the tetrahedral package, today known as Tetra Classic...
packaging.
History
The Sosro brand, a well-known tea brand in Indonesia, is taken from the Sosrodjojo family name, the owners of the company. They started the business of marketing jasmine teaJasmine tea
Jasmine tea is tea with added jasmine flowers. It originates from the time of the Song Dynasty . Normally, jasmine tea is based on green tea or white tea. The resulting flavor of jasmine tea is subtly sweet. It is the most famous scented tea in China.Tea scented with jasmine flowers has been a...
based in Slawi
Slawi
Slawi is the capital city of the Tegal Regency of the province of Central Java, Indonesia. Slawi is known for the production of a particularly fragrant black tea and the tea drinking culture known as Moci.-Geography:...
, a small town in Central Java
Central Java
Central Java is a province of Indonesia. The administrative capital is Semarang. It is one of six provinces on the island of Java.This province is the province of high Human Development in Indonesia and its Points Development Index countries is equivalent to Lebanon. The province of Central Java...
province, in 1940. The first brand was called Teh Cap Botol (or the bottle sign tea).
In 1965 the Cap Botol jasmine tea was first introduced to Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
by promoting the product with the marketing name of cicip rasa (or today known marketing name of free samples). During the free tasting promotion, the jasmine tea was brewed on the spot, but the time required for brewing was too long for some of their more impatient customers. To overcome this problem, the promotion staff brewed the tea in the office before going to the promotion location and poured the ready-to-consume jasmine tea into big pots and pans. However, this technique did not solve the problem; the tea in large pots and pans spilled over on the way before they reached the location.
Another solution was found by placing the brewed jasmine tea in clean used glass bottles, which were normally used for packing soda, soy sauce and other products. It was successful and gave birth of the teh botol (or tea in a bottle) brand name in 1969. The official name was Teh Botol Sosro.
The first bottles were introduced in 1970. In 1972, they re-designed the bottles. In 1974, with the establishment of PT. Sinar Sosro (a company producing the Teh Botol Sosro) in Ujung Menteng (part of Bekasi
Bekasi
Bekasi is a city in West Java, Indonesia, located on the eastern border of Jakarta in the Jabodetabek metropolitan region. To the south is Bogor Regency, east is Bekasi Regency....
at that time), they re-designed again the bottle which remains until today.