Honest Tea (U.S.) was a bottled organic tea company based in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

. It was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and

Barry Nalebuff Barry J. Nalebuff (born July 11, 1958) is an American businessman, business theorist, and writer. He is a Milton Steinbach Professor of Management at Yale School of Management and author who specializes in business strategy and game theory. His pu ...

, and ultimately sold to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of

The Coca-Cola Company The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational corporation founded in 1892. It manufactures, sells and markets soft drinks including Coca-Cola, other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. Its stock is lis ...

. The tea brand ceased production on December 31, 2022.

History

Honest Tea was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman, a graduate of

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

and the

Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Admi ...

who got the idea to found a beverage company while he was at business school. There were two key ideas behind the company: to bring beverages to market that were organic and not as heavily sweetened, and to conduct the business using fair trade principles. Goldman and one of his

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

professors, Barry Nalebuff, conceived the idea for the company and raised $500,000 in startup funds from friends and family. The first order for Honest Tea was from Fresh Fields, an East Coast natural grocery chain that was later acquired by

Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market, Inc. (colloquially referred to as simply Whole Foods) is an American multinational supermarket chain store, chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from Hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated fats and artificia ...

. Honest Tea was available on

Independence Air Independence Air was a low-cost airline, owned by FLYi, Inc., headquartered in the Loudoun Gateway Corporate Center in Dulles, Virginia, United States (near Washington, D.C.) that operated from 1989 until 2006. Its route network focused on the ...

flights. By 2006, Honest Tea had revenue of $13.5million and was selling about 1.5 millioncases a year. The Coca-Cola Company purchased a 40-percent stake of the U.S. company at $43million in 2008. It bought the rest of the company in 2011.Paul Ziobro March 1, 201
Coke Buys Rest of Honest Tea
/ref> In 2009, Honest Tea US received an unpaid endorsement when ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' reported that it was

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's preferred beverage. A separate small company, Springleaf, controls the Honest Tea trademark in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Honest Tea lost an attempt to claim the rights to the phrase in Australia in 2007. In 2015, Annabel Young won her case against Coca-Cola in Australia as the original brand name holder, retaining the Honest Tea brand. In 2021, Coca-Cola introduced Honest Yerba Mate.

Yerba mate Yerba mate or yerba maté (), ''Ilex paraguariensis'', is a plant species of the holly genus native to South America. It was named by the French botanist Augustin Saint-Hilaire. The leaves of the plant can be steeped in hot water to make a bev ...

is a traditional beverage in South America, brewed from leaves and stems of the yerba mate plant. On May 23, 2022, Coca-Cola announced it would stop carrying Honest Tea beverages .Schere, Dan (May 26, 2022).
Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman laments planned discontinuation of product he created in Bethesda
. ''Bethesda Magazine''. Coca-Cola decided it would only carry two brands of tea, Gold Peak Tea and Peace Tea, because they are "best positioned to meet consumer preferences for high-quality brewed teas with different levels of sweetness and flavor". Coca-Cola expected that discontinuing the Honest tea line would allow it to "prioritize production and distribution" of other beverages, particularly in light of ongoing supply-chain issues that have caused Coca-Cola to be unable to meet consumer demand for Gold Peak. Coca-Cola said it plans to continue carrying its line of Honest Kids organic fruit juices. Honest Tea is one of approximately 200 brands that Coca-Cola decided to discontinue carrying between 2020 and 2022. Following Coca-Cola’s announcement that it would discontinue Honest Tea products, Honest Tea founders Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff returned to the bottled tea business alongside celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn with the launch of Just Ice Tea in September 2022.

Notes

External links

* * {{Coca-Cola brands Coca-Cola brands Iced tea brands Companies based in Bethesda, Maryland Coca-Cola acquisitions American companies established in 1998 Products introduced in 1998 Products and services discontinued in 2022 1998 establishments in Maryland