The co-founder of Honest tea has revealed new details of his upcoming ready-to-drink iced tea brand — including its name and formulation details.
Just Ice Tea will launch this year with a commitment to Fair Trade Certified sourcing, according to a recent LinkedIn post by Seth Goldman. He co-founded Honest tea before selling a 40% stake in the RTD tea brand to Coca-Cola in 2008 and the rest three years later. In May, Coca-Cola announced it would discontinue Honest tea at the end of 2022, and Goldman vowed to resurrect the brand’s ideals in a new product.
Goldman explained that the term “just” speaks to the working standards the new tea line will support through its Fair Trade Certified sourcing — also a trademark of the Honest tea brand. A third-party inspection system will verify that Just’s suppliers comply with International Labor Organization standards, including no child or prison labor, and paying tea harvesters and factory workers a fair wage. Just Ice Tea also commits to pay a premium on every pound of ingredients it buys to go directly to the workers to reinvest in their communities.
In addition, all of Just Ice Tea’s varieties will be certified organic, avoiding the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers, Goldman said.
The use of the term “Just” also reflects the taste and formulation of the upcoming tea line, Goldman said. “We use recognizable and minimal ingredients in every recipe, and of course nothing artificial,” according to his post. “You will taste the essence of the tea, and not much more. And our drinks will be either ‘Just sweet enough’ or ‘Unsweetened’ to accentuate the natural flavor.”
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Goldman also shared an image of Just Ice Tea’s logo, which features a green tea leaf prominently, similar to Honest tea’s logo. The new product line is set to hit stores “in a few months,” according to the post.
