Meet the Next Generation Honest Tea: Just Ice Tea

Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman has named the successor to the bottled organic tea line that Coca-Cola has discontinued: Just Ice Tea. Goldman made the announcement on his company’s website and in an interview with Gourmet News.

“The name builds on our Fair Trade commitment, the working conditions and wages paid, and it also looks at the environment, we’re choosing organic over chemicals, pesticides to maintain pristine ecosystems,” Goldman told Gourmet News. “And it also speaks to the taste. It’s just sweet enough.

“We use recognizable and minimal ingredients in every recipe,” Goldman wrote on the website, “and of course nothing artificial. You will taste the essence of the tea, and not much more.”

Coca-Cola acquired Honest Tea in 2011.

Coca-Cola’s announcement in May that it was discontinuing Honest Tea was “a gut punch to all the sweat, tears and incredible passion that went into building our beloved brand,” Goldman said in a post on his LinkedIn account.

“But we bounced back well!” Goldman told Gourmet News.

Goldman expects Just Ice Tea to be on shelves this fall.

Read more about Goldman’s new ice tea, created with Chef Spike Mendelsohn, in the August issue of Gourmet News. Subscribe now so you don’t miss anything!