This sweet jasmine tea, beloved throughout the country, is also offered in the form of a processed beverage, the famous “Teh Botol (literally, “tea in a bottle”).” The love Indonesians hold for teh botol can be seen in the saying “As Americans are addicted to Coca Cola, Indonesians are addicted to Teh botol.” Regardless of how remote the village or how small the shop, Teh botol is always available. Although the formal name of Teh botol is “Teh Botol Sosro,” Indonesians usually call it “Teh botol” or “Teh Sosro (Fig 2)”. Teh botol is the most popular beverage among Indonesians and also the uncontested leader of the country’s traditional beverage market. Sosro, the local company that developed Teh botol, began to sell jasmine tea, which Indonesians enjoy drinking, in the 1970s by putting it in bottles. This was the first time tea was sold in a bottle, not only in Indonesia but also throughout the world.Coca Cola, which ambitiously took up the challenge to secure supremacy in the Indonesian beverage market in 1995, never managed to exceed the quantities of Teh Botol Sosro sold (annually) in the country- not even once.
Coca Cola and Pepsi, which targeted the Indonesian market with the “Frestea” and “Tekita” brands, respectively, failed to overtake the stronghold in the market held by Teh botol. Therefore, the success of Teh botol is selected as the most representative case of a local, native brand trumping foreign brands armed with massive capital resources. Teh Botol Sosro has consistently ranked at the top of brand value assessments in the beverage market since its introduction, while Sosro, which developed Teh Botol, currently dominates 70 percent of the entire Indonesian non-carbonated beverage market. Sosro, which noticed that Indonesians had a culture of drinking tea or coffee while eating. The company coined the phrase “Whatever you eat, you drink Sosro” as the marketing slogan of Teh botol, a telling reflection of the culinary cultures and habits of Indonesia that put Sosro on the fast track for continued success.
The story underlying the creation of Teh botol is also quite interesting. Sosro, which initially sold tea in the form of dried leaves, planned a tea tasting event in Jakarta to promote their products. However, there were concerns about the discontent of customers, who would need to wait a substantial amount of time for their tea to brew. To solve this problem, the company decided to brew tea in advance and transport it inside a huge pot in a truck to the event venue. Unfortunately, all of the tea was spilt due to the poor condition of the roads. This incident led to the unforeseen opportunity to turn misfortune into a blessing. Sosro developed the groundbreaking idea of selling brewed tea in bottles, and, eventually, bottled tea succeeded in drawing the interests of customers. Teh botol, which was put in plain-shaped bottles at the initial stage, has evolved into the highly-diversified designs that are easily found today.
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