The History of Sosro Bottled Tea, Used To Be Free In The Market Until It Was Put In Used Bottles

Whatever the food, drink Tea Botol Sosro

This tagline has stuck to my ears because it is consistently mentioned in every advertisement. Not only that, they will also put up banners on the street and in food stalls with the same tagline. It doesn't stop there, the Sosro brand has also become one of the pioneers of bottled tea and has survived for decades until now.

Who would have thought that this packaged tea brand had experienced ups and downs as well, a unique way of selling has also been practiced to boost sales. With the innovations made, this brand finally exists and becomes bigger. Here's the journey.

This company started from a tea plantation owned by the Sosrodjojo family in Central Java

The main character of the establishment of Teh Botol Sosro was the figure of Sosrodjojo, at that time his father owned a tea garden in the Slawi area, Central Java. In 1940, when the price dropped, Sosrodjojo finally made ready-to-brewed packaged tea which had been given the brand Teh Cap Botol to market it. At that time, he had just sold it in Central Java and it turned out that the mixture of green tea and jasmine made this tea popular. The Sosrodjojo family also chose to expand their market to the Jakarta area, causing Soegiharto Sosrodjojo and his brothers to move there in 1953.

Various efforts were made so that the tea products they brought could be marketed well in Jakarta

When you're just starting out, of course, everything doesn't go smoothly, but there are challenges. One of the methods used by Sosrodjojo as an effort to introduce the product is the Cicip Rasa method, namely by driving around by car and using loudspeakers, including to markets. They held a demonstration showing the process of brewing tea until it was drinkable which was carried out on the spot so that it could be seen by those who were going to buy it, but this strategy failed because people had to wait a long time for the process, which made it boring.

Not losing their minds, on the next occasion they changed the method by putting the brewed tea into pots but they actually lost money because the water spilled on the road due to the uneven road. The most effective innovation was finally found, namely by putting the tea into a lemonade bottle that had been previously cleaned.

Seeing the level of effectiveness that ultimately increased sales became the beginning of the creation of the Tea Botol Sosro brand

The bottle packaging finally continued until in 1969 they sold it under the label Teh Cap Botol Sosrodjojo which was simplified to Tehbotol Sosro. The label's design had changed several times since 1969, namely in 1972 and 1974 which became the most similar to the one used today. This success led to the establishment of PT Sinar Sosro which was officially registered in 1974 by Soegiharto Sosrodjojo. The tea that was originally produced manually was replaced by a factory that was able to produce thousands of bottles every hour.

Currently reported from its official website, PT Sinar Sosro already has 12 factories spread throughout Indonesia. The products made are also not only marketed domestically but also exported abroad and even to America and Europe. The product which was originally only bottled tea has also innovated into other products such as Fruit Tea, TEBS, Prim-A Mineral Water, S-Tee, and Country Choice.

It turned out that the product that was originally just ordinary tea was able to go up a class to enter the international market because of the invention of its packaging. Even though it looks trivial, every innovation will be worth trying until you find the best version.