Honest Tea’s website declares that its makers believe they can “help improve the American diet, support a more sustainable form of agriculture and find ways to create wealth  at the community level .” Those are bold objectives but for Seth Goldman and the company he created, new paradigms are becoming old hat. And Goldman has learned that even a green guru like himself can gain from more sustainable practices.

 

 

Company Profile

 

Honest Tea was created by Seth Goldman in February of 1998 in his home. Aided by one of his Yale business professors, Barry Nalebuff, Goldman sought to build a company that produced something “in-between” syrupy colas and bottled water. The  FIRST  batch of Honest Tea hit store shelves in June, 1998.

 

Since then, the company has soared to $13.5  million in annual revenue gaining an average of 65 percent every year in sales. The company now accounts for 64 percent of all organic bottled tea sales in the nation, a market niche that didn’t exist until Goldman pioneered it. Once Honest Tea hit the shelves, though, the market blossomed quickly. Sales of bottled tea have grown tenfold over the past decade and increased 20 percent in 2005 alone.

 

Honest Tea is based in Bethesda, Maryland and operates bottling plants in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and Watsonville, California.

 

Green Tea Gets Greener

 

Though the first impetus for Honest Tea was just to create good tea  that didn’t have loads of sugar , sustainability has always been a key component of the company’s identity. Honest Tea has become the beverage of choice for greenies everywhere as much for its environmental position as for its taste or nutrition.

 

All Honest Tea products are USDA Organic certified which means they are produced without antibiotics, pesticides, irradiation or bioengineering  and contain no artificial colors or flavors. In 2003 , Honest Tea became the first bottled tea manufacturer in the U.S. to market a Fair Trade certified product.

 

But the decision to  ( go )  switch all Honest Tea products to organic didn’t come until a few years ago and the choice wasn’t automatic. Goldman was apprehensive about messing with the flavors he had established with non-organic ingredients. But as a leap of sustainability faith, he made the change – as things turned out, a change that was good for the product and for the bottom line. Sales increased with the all-organic ingredients while costs  eventually  went down  as sales grew . For instance, for the company’s most popular flavor, Moroccan Mint, Goldman replaced refined mint oils with organic peppermint and spearmint leaves and bought organic Chinese green tea. Each batch of Moroccan Mint (about  3 ,000 gallons) was actually eight percent cheaper to make than before. Even the tea company that spearheaded an organic market learned it can profit from a bit of greening.