Initially, tea was an expensive drink reserved for the richest. In 1880, Sir Thomas Lipton, a forty-year-old Glasgow-born entrepreneur and innovator, began to consider the possibility of producing high-quality tea that would be widely available at a reasonable price. He started by purchasing tea estates in Ceylon - present-day Sri Lanka - and provided low-cost packaging and shipping so as to sell teas directly from the plantation to the cup. In 1893 he founded the company Thomas J Lipton Co. a tea packer with headquarters and factory in Hoboken, NJ. Drawing on over a century of experience in tea growing and blending tea, the Lipton® brand maintains Sir Thomas Lipton's passion for quality and innovation. No wonder Lipton® teas are currently the world's number one tea.