Fascinating F1 Fact: 55

What is it with the British and tea? If you stop and think about it, it is a little strange that the whole world associates Britain with a herbal drink that comes from China. The British are reckoned to drink more than 60 billion cups of tea a year, from duchesses to dustbin men. A cup of char is part of the fabric of society. In a crisis, they turn to tea; if they feel uncomfortable in a social situation, they suggest a cuppa; there are tea breaks, tea rooms, tea ladies, tea cakes, tea sets and, well, just tea. Up north, tea is the name of the evening meal, while southern jessies drink tea in the afternoons, with delicate little sandwiches and sugary cakes, while builders stop whenever they can for mugs of the stuff. And if you want an argument, simply ask whether you add the milk before or after the tea is poured…

A cup of char is actually the correct description, as this is what the Chinese called their drink. But just as the Brits turned the word Jerez into sherry, so cha became tea. It all started in the 17th Century, so they say, when Dutch traders started selling the drink. It was supposed to be good for the health and it cost a fortune. People liked it because it gave them a boost, particularly in the afternoons – between lunch and dinner. It grew more popular when sugar became more readily available. They say that it was Portugal’s Princess Catherine of Braganza, who married King Charles II in 1662, who introduced tea to the British aristocracy. They were the only people who could afford the stuff. It was a high-class commodity and if you could afford it, you showed off the fact by having tea parties, with fancy china and crook’d little fingers. In 1770, however, the East India Company began trading with China, prices dropped and team became more democratic. The middle classes copied the upper classes and the workers followed and tea became a domestic ritual. It became the staple for every break during work hours. Fortunes were made, tea was taxed and smuggled. Fast ships were built to rush it around the world and in the 1840s, ambition folk began growing it is India and in East Africa. In Britain tea dealers began blending different teas to create new flavours and Arthur Brooke was one of them. He opened his first shop in Manchester in 1869. To make the company sound fancier he added the name Bond because Brooke Bond sounded better. He so had shops in Liverpool, Bradford and Leeds and by 1872 had moved to London. He then began selling his blends to groceries and made sufficient money to buy his own plantations. When he retired in 1904, he had an empire. There was no shortage of competition in the tea trade, so Brooke Bond started buying competitors and looked for interesting ways to promote its products, including illustrated cards in each packet of tea, so that children could collect them. There were a range of different series, from wildlife to motor cars. Complete sets are worth a fortune.

In 1926 London Zoo was looking for a way to attract more people and came up with the idea of having tea parties for chimpanzees, dressed in human clothing. These were wildly popular and would be the inspiration for Brooke Bond’s celebrated TV advertising campaigns for PG Tips, which began in 1956. The sales of “Monkey Tea” soared.

In 1968, Brooke Bond merged with the Liebig company, famed for its Oxo cubes of beef concentrate. The new company was looking for new ideas and decided to stop the chimpanzee campaigns. Sales dived and 18 months later the chimpanzee advertising was revived. But was else could they do? Animal rights people were beginning to make trouble and Brooke Bond Oxo wanted to find a new silver bullet.

As this was happening, Formula 1 was opening up to sponsorship and Brooke Bond Oxo decided to try to sell its products using racing cars. It joined forces with plummy Rob Walker in 1970 and became one of the first big non-trade sponsors in F1, along with perfume company Yardley. The deal was for three years (1971-1972-1973) and Walker hired British household name Graham Hill to drive. The sponsorship boom meant that life became tougher for F1’s private teams as budgets rose and Hill soon went off to Brabham. Walker decided to create an alliance with John Surtees and so the Brooke Bond Oxo Surtees team was created with popular Mike Hailwood and rising Australian star Tim Schenken, although he would later be replaced by Brazilian Carlos Pace. The experiment does not seem to have done much for sales of teabags or Oxo cubes, and at the end of 1973, with the economy in a mess, the company left F1. It was a time when the food industry was consolidating rapidly and Brooke Bond was soon gobbled up by Unilever.

Unilever, by the way, decided to enter F1 is 2012 with a deal to promote its deodorant brands Rexona and Sure and its Clear shampoo. The deal was originally with Lotus, but has since switched to Williams, a team that is as British as a cup of tea…

* If you like the Fascinating Facts series, it is worth considering that every edition of GP+ has an historical feature, in addition to the coverage of each race. Go to www.grandprixplus.com to find out more.