Nestea Logo PNG
Chilled natural tea is immediately readable in the image of the emblem. The Nestea logo is filled with the taste of fragrant green leaves and fruit additives that set them off. The image also hints at the pure spring water used in cooking.
Nestea grew out of Nestlé’s work on Nescafé. In 1938, the company launched soluble coffee made by drying coffee concentrate into powder, and by 1943, the same patent logic was applied to instant tea. After several years of development, Nestea entered the US market in 1948 as a tea powder that dissolved in hot or cold water.
In Europe, where leaf tea traditions were stronger, the powder was often treated as a substitute for leaf tea. In the United States, it found a clearer role as a convenient iced tea. Consumers mixed it with cold water or ice, and by the 1970s, Nestea held more than 50% of the US instant tea market.
In the 1980s, the line expanded with lemon, peach, and other fruit flavors. In 1991, Nestlé and The Coca-Cola Company formed the 50/50 venture, Coca-Cola Nestlé Refreshments Company, to produce ready-to-drink iced tea. In 2001, it became Beverage Partners Worldwide. Its main rival was Lipton Iced Tea, backed by Unilever and PepsiCo.
By the mid-2010s, Nestlé and Coca-Cola were on different paths for their brands. In 2017, BPW ended, with Nestlé taking direct control in most markets, while Coca-Cola kept licenses in countries including Bulgaria, Canada, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, and Spain. Nestlé reformulated Nestea without artificial colors, flavors, corn syrup, or GMO ingredients, using stevia extract and tea leaves from Nilgiri, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Indonesia. In 2020, Maspex took over distribution in Central and Eastern Europe.
Meaning and History
The logo’s main message can be summed up in four words: freshness, coolness, naturalness, and usefulness.
Nestea, Nesquik, Nescore, and Nescafé share the common prefix “Nes,” indicating their affiliation with Nestlé. But each brand has its unique logo that emphasizes its distinctive features. For example, Nestea’s main characteristic is its herbal composition. Therefore, almost all of his emblems contain the image of leaves.
The designers emphasized that the drink has a pleasant, refreshing taste, not because of artificial colors and flavors, but because of natural tea leaves from India. This is not only a publicity stunt designed for health-conscious food lovers but also an effective tool for attracting attention. In combination with the tea’s amber color, the logo creates a thirst that customers immediately seek to quench.
What is Nestea?
Nestea is a brand of ready-to-drink tea sold chilled in plastic bottles. The range also includes tea concentrates. Drinks come in a variety of flavors, including the traditional lemon. Stevia is used as a natural sweetener. The trademark is owned by the Swiss multinational conglomerate Nestlé.
1950 – 1960
The first logo appeared in 1950. It was a slightly revised version of the name of the producing corporation. From the top and bottom of the letter, N went straight stripes outlining the rest of the words above and below. This symbolized Nestlé’s patronage, care, and ownership of the brand, which the customer already knew. In addition, the stripes resembled the road the new brand was taking to life, taking its origins in a famous corporation. This road is straight and level. The color chosen for the logo was “teal”, brown with yellow highlights on the edges of the lines. It created a slight blur, transitioning into a light, watery background. The composition alluded to the water element and dissolution.
1960 – 1979
In the early sixties, tea gained popularity, and the association with Nestlé no longer mattered. Therefore, the Nesti logo changed. The letters were made larger; the “protective” stripes were removed. The color scheme shifted from brown to black and gray. The brand’s drinks were made from black tea, as the coloring showed.
1979 – 1987
Tea was actively expanding into new markets. It became necessary to accentuate the contents of the bottles. So the brand name was written in capital letters, with a space between the two parts of the word “Nes” and “tea.” This helped the word ‘tea’ stand out, so it was clear to the customer what kind of drink they were looking at. Another innovation was a slight arc-shaped curve. It had a refreshing, uplifting taste. The upward stretching letters reinforced this association.
1987 – 1989
The logo has been given a background. It seems to be written on a piece of paper or an envelope lying in a corner, which is “sent out” to the world. In the top shaded paper corner, you can see a sprig of a plant with three leaves on it. The leaves are tilted toward the word “tea” and represent a tea bush. The emblem is now more associated with the plant beverage. The letters in the inscription are not as elongated, which makes it look more harmonious.
1989 – 1997
By 1991, Nestlé had teamed up with Coca-Cola through Beverage Partners Worldwide (BPW) to develop Nesti Tea. Coca-Cola oversaw the bottling and distribution of the drink in 52 countries, which made adjustments to the brand’s advertising and logo.
The name Nesti was written at an angle, which signified a new start and the active promotion of the drink worldwide. The letter N again gained a top line, linking the brand to Nestlé and indicating patronage of the corporation. A roundness was added to the letters, hinting at the product’s mild taste. The tea leaves that appeared in the last version of the logo have moved above the lettering and ‘grew’ over the S. They were pointed upward, increasing the association with the delicate three-leafed tea tops. The traced white veins freshened them up. The composition created an impression of liveliness, freshness, and youthfulness.
1997 – 2003
In 1997, the emblem underwent significant changes, corresponding to the spirit of the time. The most important of them was the appearance of a color. The image came to life and took on more natural colors.
The second important change was the placement of the inscription on a piece of ice. This immediately evoked a sense of coolness and was perfect for a chilled beverage logo. The size, the strong slant of the lettering, and the three tea leaves did not change. However, the typeface became typographic, and the word’s special division into two halves disappeared. The white outline of the letters enhanced the cool feeling.
The blue tones of the letters and the logo’s border linked the emblem to clean water. The green leaves indicated naturalness and freshness. In general, ice, water, and leaves were associated with thirst-quenching, coolness, and healthy herbal drinks.
2003 – 2009
The brand logo was refined to achieve greater naturalness. The more clumsy blue edging of the ice-floe was transformed into a dark blue shade. The letters acquired the same tone, reinforcing the association with a refreshing cold drink. The tea leaves became three-dimensional and closer to nature thanks to an interplay of light and dark green shades. The rounded font was changed into a chiseled, sharp, and “icy” one. On the whole, it looked as if an ice cube was falling into the glass.
2009 – 2014
Since 2009, Nestlé has contributed to the fight against obesity and diabetes and has begun developing healthy drinks and products. A series of Vitao products appeared on the market, comprising three types of healthy antioxidant tea (white, green, and red) blended with fruit juices. And stevia is used as a sweetener. The brand logo has also changed. The emphasis has shifted toward health benefits.
Instead of ice, the background is a blue tea leaf. Blue is the sign of the water element. The color regulates melatonin levels by lowering them, leading to increased vigor. This is exactly the result that Nestea products are supposed to bring.
The word Nestea is set in straight lettering, which symbolizes the brand’s reliability. The white color of the letters indicates naturalness, usefulness, and renewal, with a hint of consumption in refrigerated form. The blue and green outlines give the inscription a three-dimensional look. Each letter seems to be chiseled out of ice or snow.
The three already familiar tea leaves were depicted in light yellow salad shades. This indicated an almost complete absence of fermentation in tea production, preserving maximum antioxidants and the lighter tones of drinks made from these leaves.
2014 – 2017
In 2017, the tea product collaboration between Coca-Cola and Nestlé was terminated due to a mismatch of global goals. The Swiss company decided to promote the beverage itself, leaving its partner with a license in only a few European countries and Canada. The renewed tea is now as natural as possible. Nestlé removed all harmful additives from the beverage, as it remains committed to improving people’s health. This idea of renovation and health in the logo was reflected by changing the color of tea leaves from yellow and lettuce to green. Otherwise, the logo stayed the same.
2017 – today (US)
The logo, created in 2017 for the US market, looks like a drawing from a biology textbook. The artists painstakingly painted every vein of the green leaf to make it look like the real thing. And the shadows and gradient additionally emphasize the volume. It seems as if the sun’s rays are falling on the green surface. This inspires confidence and optimism. The tea leaf is located vertically and serves as the basis for the same vertical inscription, “NESTEA.” All letters are white, capitalized, and go from bottom to top – from “N” to “A.” The font looks the same as in previous versions of the emblem.
2020 – today (Europe)
The Nestea logo is used in Europe, with three tea leaves splashed with moisture. The 3D drops look refreshing, especially against the green gradient background. The leaves are not detailed and outlined with light contours. Below is a white inscription of the brand’s name, designed in the original font. More precisely, this is not a font but an individual set of glyphs with elegant triangular serifs. In the background is a blue, elongated figure, stylized as another tea leaf.
Font and Colors
The logo’s entire gamut accurately reflects Nestlé’s core message. The basic tones are:
- Green – natural, plant-based, health benefits.
- Blue – pure artesian water, coolness.
- White – cooling, no harmful additives.
- Yellow – the basic lemon flavor of Nesti, also the color of joy and vivacity.
The logo font is close to Friz Quadrata.