 | This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(August 2024) |
 | |
 | |
| Type | Iced tea |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Honest Tea, Inc (1998–2011) The Coca-Cola Company (2011–2022) |
| Distributor | The Coca-Cola Company |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Introduced | 1998; 27 years ago (1998) |
| Discontinued | December 31, 2022; 2 years ago (2022-12-31) |
| Website | www |
Honest Tea (U.S.) was a bottledorganic tea company based inBethesda, Maryland. It was founded in 1998 bySeth Goldman andBarry Nalebuff, and ultimately sold to become a wholly-owned subsidiary ofThe Coca-Cola Company. The tea brand was discontinued on December 31, 2022.
Honest Tea was founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman, a graduate ofHarvard and theYale School of Management 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 wereorganic and not as heavily sweetened, and to conduct the business usingfair trade principles.[1] Goldman and one of hisYale professors, Barry Nalebuff, conceived the idea for the company and raised $500,000 in startup funds from friends and family.[1]
The first order for Honest Tea was from Fresh Fields, anEast Coast natural grocery chain that was later acquired byWhole Foods Market.[1] Honest Tea was available onIndependence Air flights.[2] By 2006, Honest Tea had revenue of $13.5 million and was selling about 1.5 million cases a year.[1]
The Coca-Cola Company purchased a 40-percent stake of the U.S. company at $43 million in 2008.[3] It bought the rest of the company in 2011.[4]
In 2009, Honest Tea US received an unpaid endorsement whenThe New York Times reported that it wasPresidentBarack Obama's preferred beverage.[5]
A separate small company,Springleaf, controls the Honest Tea trademark inAustralia. Honest Tea lost an attempt to claim the rights to the phrase in Australia in 2007.[6] In 2015, Annabel Young won her case against Coca-Cola in Australia as the original brand name holder, retaining the Honest Tea brand.[7]
In 2021, Coca-Cola introduced Honest Yerba Mate.Yerba mate is a traditional beverage in South America, brewed from leaves and stems of the yerba mate plant.[8]
On May 23, 2022, Coca-Cola announced it would stop carrying Honest tea beverages as of December 31, 2022[update].[1][9] Coca-Cola decided it would only carry two brands of tea,Gold Peak Tea andPeace 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.[10] Coca-Cola said it plans to continue carrying its line of Honest Kids organic fruit juices.[9] Honest tea is one of approximately 200 brands that Coca-Cola decided to discontinue carrying between 2020 and 2022.[11]
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 chefSpike Mendelsohn with the launch of Just Ice Tea in September 2022.[12]
| Brands |
| .svg) | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joint ventures |
| |||||||||||||||||
| Former holdings | ||||||||||||||||||
| Legal | ||||||||||||||||||
| Campaigns andslogans | ||||||||||||||||||
| Other | ||||||||||||||||||
