Marketing tea against a turning tide : coffee and the Tea Council of Australia 1963-1974

Before World War II, Australians followed British tradition and largely drank tea. When coffee challenged tea-drinking in post-war Australia, the tea industry fought back using marketing techniques imported from America. This article looks at the shift to coffee-drinking in post-war Australia through both the challenges faced by the tea industry, and how the tea industry tackled the trend towards coffee. It focuses on the Australian Tea Council’s marketing campaign—targeted primarily at women and using television, radio, women’s magazines and cooking competitions—that promoted tea as a fashionable drink and preferable to coffee. It draws on oral histories and the memories of people working in the tea and coffee industries as well as articles and reports in newspapers and popular magazines during this period of transition.