An entrepreneur from Montgomery County, Maryland, is getting back into the tea business and his new organic drink-line starts hitting store shelves in September.
After creating Honest Tea back in 1998, Seth Goldman and his business partner Barry Nalebuff sold the brand to Coca-Cola. The drink-maker announced it would phase out the Bethesda-based drink in May.
Now he’s launching a new tea business called Just Ice Tea, which will begin hitting grocery stores this month.
“You know when we started Honest Tea 24 years ago, it was tough because nobody knew about organic and no one drank less sweet drinks and there wasn’t such a thing as fair-trade tea,” Goldman told WTOP. “Now we get to go at it with the market that we essentially created.”
Goldman is not alone in the venture of getting back to tea. He said more than half of the Just Ice Tea staff worked with him at Honest Tea.
“Just Ice Tea has given us all a renewed flame,” Goldman said.
Goldman says his new line of teas are better than his first creation.
The first six varieties go right after Honest Tea’s top sellers before it was sold, he said. Here are the available flavors:
- Berry Hibiscus Herbal Tea
- Honey Green Tea
- Moroccan Mint Tea
- Original Green Tea
- Peach Oolong Tea
- ½ Tea ½ Lemonade
The teas will be available at most Giant Wholefoods and MOM’s Organic Market stores.
WTOP’s Jessica Kronzer contributed to this report.
