During his visit to the United Kingdom in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted Queen Elizabeth an award-winning variety of tea from the Makaibari tea estate. This particular tea is the preferred choice of Feluda, a fictional private investigator created by Satyajit Ray. Recently, Coca-Cola India has collaborated with the renowned Darjeeling tea estate to launch a ready-to-drink iced green tea.

The iced green tea is made from organic green tea and sourced exclusively from the Luxmi Group's Makaibari estate. It is sold under the 'Honest Tea' brand, which is owned by Honest, Inc., a subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company. The bottled iced green tea was launched on the second day of the Bengal Global Business Summit and is available in two flavors - lemon-tulsi and mango.

Karthik Subramanian, director of marketing - hydration, coffee and tea category, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, said in a statement, "We are thrilled to introduce our new ready-to-drink iced green tea. With Honest Tea, we are offering consumers a unique experience of a great-tasting green tea-based beverage". Rudra Chatterjee, managing director of Kolkata-based Luxmi Group, said that there was no greater tea estate in Darjeeling than Makaibari. "It is the last word among teas, whether in Japan or England, royal houses".

Only a few tea producers offer a ready-to-drink format; however, the Goodricke Group has bottled organic iced tea. But for Darjeeling estates face numerous challenges, including lower demand, and a Coca-Cola-Makaibari-style partnership could provide much-needed support. It's worth mentioning that the US-based Honest Tea, a company that sells bottled organic tea, was established in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff. Coca-Cola acquired the company in 2011. However, in 2022, The Coca-Cola Company announced that it would discontinue the Honest Tea product line to streamline its drink portfolio and prioritize fewer, more significant brands.