Our History
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1998 - We launched Honest Tea in February of 1998. Our first bottles hit grocery store shelves in June of that year offering five varieties of freshly brewed and barely sweetened tea. Interested in our original business plan? Click here for the pdf! Our first account was Fresh Fields (Whole Foods), which Seth and Barry landed with the batches of tea made in Seth’s kitchen. Eventually, tea production was moved to Buffalo, N.Y. We finished our first year with sales of $250,000. |
1999 - We added a few more varieties of our bottled tea in the second year and weathered our share of spoiled batches, learning as we went along. First Nation Peppermint, our first organic tea, was launched, and Decaf Ceylon joined our portfolio as a naturally decaffeinated black tea. By this time we were landing lots of new accounts including Whole Foods Markets, Wild Oats, Giant, Harris Teeter and Food Emporium. We ended our second year at $1.1 million in sales. |
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2000 - Year three put us into the tea bag business in addition to our bottled beverage business. We added another organic variety, Jakarta Ginger, in the summer months and launched eight varieties of tea bags (five organic). To our delight, we became the fastest-growing bottled tea brand in natural food stores (SPINS), and our sales weighed in at $1.9 million. |
2001 - Into our fourth year more than 50% of our offerings became organic. We introduced Community Green, an organic bottled tea created in partnership with City Year, a non-profit organization that brings together young people for a year of community service. Fourth year sales were $3.2 million. |
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2002 - We introduced Chamolime, an organic herbal tea made with chamomile and dried limes. We purchase the limes from a Guatemalan farm cooperative, becoming their first US customer. We also introduced Haarlem Honeybush an herbal tea produced in partnership with a farmers’ cooperative in Haarlem, South Africa. In this year we became the best-selling bottled tea brand in the natural foods industry, claiming seven of the top ten best-selling varieties (SPINS). Our sales topped $4.6 million. |
2003 - We launched two new flavors, Peach Oo-la-long and Green Dragon Tea and reformulated Lori’s Lemon to create a new line of “a tad sweet” teas. Peach Oo-la-long, the first Fair Trade certified bottled tea and Green Dragon Tea were our two most successful product introductions to date and the two most successful new beverages launched in the natural foods industry in 2003. |
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2004 - In January, we gained full USDA organic certification on all twelve varieties of our bottled tea and eight tea bag varieties. With this certification, Honest Tea became the only tea company to offer an entire line of organic bottles and bags. We introduced a line of tea in PET-1 Bottles which was met with rave reviews and won several packaging awards. The tea bag line was re-designed to include individually overwrapped bags in response to requests from foodservice accounts. The company was again listed on the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies. |
| 2005 – Honest Tea’s first white teas were introduced in both the glass and PET bottle lines. These included Mango White Tea, Pearfect White Tea, and Vanilla Mint White Tea. Heavenly Honey Green was also introduced. In May, the company made its first foray into a non-tea product with the introduction of Honest Ade Limeade and Cranberry Lemonade organic citrus quenchers. |
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2006 - The Honest Tea and Honest Ade lineups expanded even more with the addition of Pomegranate Blue (which became one of our top-selling varieties in a matter of months), Just Green Tea and Just Black Tea, two unsweetened fair trade teas. The “Just Teas” barely hit the shelves before being named a Clear Choice Award winner by the Glass Packaging Institute for excellence in packaging. The July issue of Consumer Reports runs a feature story on bottled teas and selects “An Honest Winner”, Lori’s Lemon gets the #1 ranking. Sales hit $13.5 million. |
| 2007 – We welcome new investors and board members with the launch of nine new products. New flavors that have already hit the shelves include Pomegranate White Tea with Açaí and the newest Honest Ade, Orange Mango with Mangosteen, both in plastic, and Sublime Mate (Honest Tea’s first yerba mate drink) and Pomegranate Red Tea with Goji Berry in glass. Our Just Green and Just Black are the first of our teas available in 64-oz. bottles. This spring we will be launching our much-anticipated new line, Honest Kids, with three flavors of low-sugar organic thirst quenchers—Goodness Grapeness, Tropical Tango Punch, and Berry Berry Good Lemonade! |
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| 2008 – We celebrated our 10th anniversary in February and also announced that The Coca-Cola Company purchased 40 percent of Honest Tea, presenting opportunities for even further growth and expansion nationwide. Five new flavors included Citrus Green Energy Tea, Peach White Tea, Lemon Black Tea in 16.9 oz. PET bottles, as well as Citrus Spice Decaf and Jasmine Green Energy Tea in 16 oz. glass bottles. Consumer Reports again ranks Lori’s Lemon as the best bottled tea in its May issue ... | |