Hollywood Trender: Honest Tea the swap for soda on set

By April MacIntyre May 5, 2011, 5:58 GMT

American small business Honest Tea began in 1998, and has slowly taken over Hollywood sets and crafts services as the choice of crew who love the organic and slightly sweet beverages.

American small business Honest Tea began in 1998, and has slowly taken over Hollywood sets and crafts services as the choice of crew who love the organic and slightly sweet beverages.

Today, the company, based in Maryland, churns out 28 different flavors of free trade, certified organic, light, environmentally-friendly delicious teas and "ades".

Honest Tea makes some of their drinks in glass containers, sold in Whole Foods Market, but for the most part the drinks are sold in #1 plastic BPA-free bottles.

We loved their new Classic Lemonade and pomegranate and blueberries combinations that have zero calories.

Their Honest Ades are USDA certified Organic, gluten free with low to no calories. A must-try is the Cranberry Lemonade flavor.

Founders Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff together created this company after both men were searching for the perfect after-sports drink that was refreshing, tasty and good for you.

Back in 1997, Seth connected with his ex teacher, Barry, who had just returned from India where he had been analyzing the tea industry for a case study. Barry learned that most of the tea purchased for bottling by American companies was the lower quality dust and fannings left after quality tea had been produced. Barry came up with the name of their company to describe a bottled tea that was made with real tea leaves - Honest Tea.

Seth started brewing batches of tea in his kitchen. Five weeks after taking the plunge, he brought thermoses of tea and a bottle with a mock-up label to Fresh Fields (Whole Foods Markets). During that meeting, the order came for 15,000 bottles, and Seth and Barry were in business.

That was 13 years ago. Honest Tea can be found in glass bottles, plastic bottles, barely sweetened, or even 'a tad sweet' in tens of thousands of stores across the US. The great tasting teas are now seen replacing sodas on many TV series' craft service tables and catering trucks.