A Search into Organic Food

Coca-Cola has recently gained a 40% share of Honest Tea Inc. for $43 million dollars. After three years, Coke will have the right to purchase the company.

Honest Tea sells USDA certified organic bottled teas. The company has had a history of social responsibility and many of the teas have been linked to particular causes or non-profits (such as the Crow Indians and City Year), with a percentage of sales being donated. Sales of Honest Tea in 2007 were $23 million.

Honest Tea currently has limited distribution and is mostly in organic grocery stores. Coca-Cola will seek to expand Honest Tea’s distribution and make it more main stream- selling it in restaurants and in more grocery store chains.

With sales of soda and other sugary beverages declining due to health concerns, it is no surprise that Coke has decided to buy a major part of Honest Tea. Coca-cola purchased Glaceau (the makers of Vitamin Water) in 2007, and  owns brands such as Odwalla,  Minute Maid, and many others.

Personally, I feel very disappointed about this. I wish there was a readily available company that was selling accessible organic Ready to Drink Teas.  I always felt good when drank Honest Tea, and now I don’t think that will be the case. What was once a small company started out of Maryland will shortly become another name of Coca-Cola’s brand list. I was also disappointed when Coke bought Glaceau, another brand that I really liked. I feel that small brands are just getting gobbled up by the major players (namely: Pepsi Co, Coca-Cola, and Nestle.). I wish I knew how this worked, because oh how I am disappointed in them. Honest Tea’s creators see this as an opportunity to distribute the tea further, to more people. I’m not sure if I see it the same way. Maybe I’m just becoming disillusioned. That is just my opinion.

(to see the opinion of the creators of Honest Tea, view the Honest Tea blog and website for more information)