In May, Coca-Cola announced that it would discontinue Honest Tea as part of a portfolio consolidation. The Atlanta-based firm said it would focus resources and retail space on its other tea brands, Gold Peak and Peace.
Unsurprisingly, this came as a “gut punch” to Honest founder Seth Goldman, as the Honest brand was value-focused on providing consumers with healthier, organic tea on a large scale. For Goldman, it wasn’t just about Coke shelving the brand he founded but also about consumers losing a better beverage option.
Goldman remains undeterred and dedicated to Honest’s values. He teamed up with Honest co-founder Barry Nalebuff and celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn to launch Just Ice Tea, just four months after Honest got the axe. The spiritual successor to Honest, Just Ice Tea deliberately drops the “d” in “Iced Tea” to spell “Just Ice,” or “Justice,” as the brand seeks justice for the environment and workers through Fair Trade Certification and organic sourcing.
Packaging for Just Ice Tea features highly-recyclable glass bottles. Logo typography is crisp and legible in front of beautiful ingredient images, while the label background is white and secondary type is friendly and casual. Overall, the packaging conveys a sense of purity and cleanness while clearly communicating flavor and core features like organic and fair trade certifications.
“Just Ice Tea is picking up where Honest Tea left off, but we are tripling down on our commitments to our core values – Fair Trade Certified, organic, and just sweet enough,” said Goldman via press release. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to once again serve, and hopefully expand, the community of tea growers and retailers we assembled who were abandoned by the discontinuation of Honest Tea.”
Just Ice Tea is available nationwide at Sprouts grocery stores, served at PLNT burger NYC locations, and coming soon to more supermarket chains.
Images courtesy of Just Ice Tea.
