ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW
Largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world
IPR Licensing has worked with Kew Gardens since the agency was created in 2011. Working closely with the in-house team at Kew, IPR has developed a number of high profile licensing collaborations and continues to do so today.
From fruit and herbal teas with Taylors of Harrogate, garden tools and accessories with Spear & Jackson, bed linens with Turner Bianca, garden furniture with Hartman and most recently food licensing including food gift sets with IC Innovations. All these licensing partnerships and collaborations create compelling and desirable consumer products, the sales of which generate key income streams for Kew’s important work on plant preservation and research.
CASE STUDY
KEW & TAYLORS OF HARROGATE
Naturally extraordinary teas and infusions – made in partnership with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Noting the dominance of one or two tea brands, within the rapidly growing fruit and herbal tea sector, IPR was committed to unlocking the potential for it’s client, Kew Gardens, to tell a story of its own around tea within the food licensing landscape.
Taylors of Harrogate in parallel were looking at the demand for fruit and herbal blends and could see the growth potential as part of their core tea menu. Importantly for them was the desire to create a tea range that for the first time would deliver on both fragrant smell and crucially on taste. Teas that usually had the best fragrances were disappointing on the palate.
It was this goal that brought Kew Gardens and Taylors together and links the unique attributes of both in a very clever collaboration. What Taylors know about tea, quality sourcing and unique blending, and what Kew knows about botanics, plant science and importantly for the best tasting tea, the ‘chemistry of taste’.
Working alongside Kew’s Innovation Unit, Taylors team set about creating new blends and experimenting with unique flavour combination. The result is the best tasting infusions bringing together the flavours of the orient with produce from the fields of England. And this includes world famous rhubarb from Taylors home county, Yorkshire, England, which has been used to create the award-winning ‘Sweet Rhubarb’ tea which yes, does taste like rhubarb!