How did Tata Tea begin its operations in the United States?
Tata Tea Inc, at present, operates from Plant City in Florida where the company office and our instant tea powder processing plant are situated. Business began when the Tata joint venture, Tata Finlay, formed in 1962, successfully developed a process to manufacture instant tea powder with fresh green leaves as the raw material at its instant tea manufacturing plant at Munnar in Kerala, India. This 100-per cent tea product, with its unique fresh tea character and distinct astringent taste, gained for itself a market in the US. With the volumes growing, the need to have a base for the reprocessing and distribution of the tea powder that was near its customers was imperative. So the Tatas approached a leading American tea company that owned the facility at Plant City. This facility, set up in the early 1960s, was being used to extract and manufacture tea powder when the Tatas first started using it in 1974. A joint venture company, TriTea Inc, was then formed with theTatas as a partner an
