Sweet Leaf Tea Company is a producer of ready-to-drink organic branded teas and lemonades, 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 sold 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.[1] On May 29, 2008, Sweet Leaf Tea Company filed suit against an Arizona-based company for the name of their sweetener, SweetLeaf Stevia.[2]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.[3][4] 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.[3][5] [Wikipedia]
