Saturday, April 19, 2008

I Heart... Honest Tea


I am a big tea drinker. Someday I will post an photo of my cabinet which entirely filled with tea. So needless to say, I'm a bit of a tea snob as well. Not as bad as some, but it means I don't touch Nestea or Lipton bottled tea with a ten-foot pole. Okay, maybe with a ten-foot pole, but only to knock it off the shelf and push it behind something where no one will find it and make the mistake of drinking it. The fact that it claims to be tea is... well, blasphemy. Most bottled "iced teas" are just not up to par.

However, Honest Tea is amazing. I love it for several reasons:

1) The company was founded and is located in my hometown. If I still lived there I would run to their offices and beg for a job just so I could get free cases of the stuff. And because I love them.

2) The name. Even though it took me 5 years longer than it should have for me to realize that Honest Tea = Honesty. Oh, you genius.

3) Totally organic, all natural ingredients, and very very little sweetener (in the form of cane sugar). And they are big into community, the environment, and fair business/trade practices.

The one thing that saddens me is that they no longer make my favorite flavor, Decaf Ceylon. However, I am now in love with their Sublime Mate (more puns! Sublimate? Sub-lime Mate? Oh Honest Tea...) and their Pomegranate Red Tea. Mmm. Not all of their flavors are my favorite, but they still rock my world.

They also now have Honest Ade and I seem to recall seeing something about them having loose leaf tea as well.

(The only comparable bottled tea is Harney & Sons new bottled iced tea and fruit beverages. They're a little sweeter than I would like and contain... *shudder*... citric acid. However, they'll work in a fix.)

1 comment:

Marichelle said...

my boyfriend (English and a HUGE tea-buff) has been on an ongoing bottled tea drink quest and Honest Tea (mint) has been one of the few that have made it on the shortlist! Apparently most other brands are way too sweet. I'll let you know if he discovers anything new :)