By Colleen Rothe

Many in the Puget Sound area and others around the country seeking beverages not full of chemicals have greedily guzzled down the Honest Tea brands of sport drinks and teas.

I counted myself as one of them, my favorite being the Honest Ade Pomegranate and Blueberry flavor. It’s like squeezing pomegranate and blueberry juice straight from the fruit into your mouth. Additionally, anything with peach flavoring came out tasting quite fake and overly sweet. But Honest Tea’s Peach OO-La-Long tea, which features the spokesman for most fans of irreverence, Opus, tastes like ice-tea with a slice of peach in it.

Oh! and if it wasn’t enough that these beverages actually taste good without high-fructose corn syrup and other unpronounceable chemicals in their make up, the Honest Beverage company prides itself for searching out the best practices in being environmentally sustainable, using organic products, and honest business practices.

You have to give kudos to a business that says they aren’t a godsend to the world. From their Web site:

“We will never claim to be a perfect company, but we will address difficult issues and strive to be honest about our ability or inability to resolve them. We will strive to work with our suppliers to promote higher standards. We value diversity in the workplace and intend to become a visible presence in the communities where our products are sold. When presented with a purchasing decision between two financially comparable alternatives, we will attempt to choose the option that better addresses the needs of economically disadvantaged communities. A commitment to social responsibility is central to Honest Tea's identity and purpose. The company strives for authenticity, integrity and purity, in our products and in the way we do business. In addition to creating a healthy alternative beverage with a lot less sugar than most bottled drinks, Honest Tea seeks to create honest relationships with our employees, suppliers, customers and with the communities in which we do business.”

It would appear that the owners, Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, understand what conscientious consumers want in a product. But in February Honest Tea announced an Honest Deal, or what they were labeling it as. The deal is leaving some of us scratching our heads. And Seth and Barry are on the defensive.

The Honest Deal was that Coca-Cola, the world’s largest beverage company and not one known for healthy organic products, environmental friendliness or social justice, was buying a 40 percent stake in Honest Tea’s enterprise. This made Coke Honest Tea’s largest stakeholder.

Honest Tea owners contend that the deal was negotiated to ensure that Honest Tea will not be managed by Coke, maintaining independence. It also contends it’s not selling out, but that Coca-Cola is buying in to its ideals.

Goldman said to really have Honest Tea make the global impact of ‘honesty’ they dreamed of, they needed Coke’s muscle. They needed, primarily, Coke’s distribution system, to get my favorite Pomegranate Blue and the like to places where organic and earth-friendly products are not regularly demanded, like it is here in the Pacific Northwest.

“When we sell 32 million bottles and drink pouches with less than half the calories of mainstream alternatives, as we did in 2007, we help displace 2,400,000,000 empty calories,” Goldman defended on Honest Tea’s Web site. “That’s important, but when we sell ten times that number, we help lead a national shift toward healthier diets.”

But when Coke’s muscle has been built on human exploitation (and some alleged brutality and murder), and environmental piracy especially in developing countries, it seems Goldman might be caught up in an image of the good he perceives he can force upon Coke as a whole. For a company that’s been kicking ass and taking names in the war against corporate greed and ill-doing, Honest Tea’s latest move seems really foolish and ill-advised.

Not everyone thinks this partnership with Coke is a bad thing. Comments on the company’s Web site talk about how they (customers) won’t have to drive two hours to get the product, or that they feel an injection of honesty is necessary into Coke’s polluted veins.

But it seems that most of the customer base that Honest Tea had is pretty appalled by this move. They have written letters and left comments on the Honest Tea Web site saying that they are now confronted with the decision of supporting “a multinational corporation that has a history of violating global, social and environmental rights, and that already owns more than a fair share of the beverage market,” or abandon a company, and product, they’ve fully supported with their ideals as well as their dollars.

Honest Tea probably only has three years to convince those customers, like myself, or Honest Tea will become more like Coke as opposed to the other way around. Because, in the small print of the ‘Honest Deal’ is that Coke will have the option to purchase a majority stake in Honest Tea after those three years. Honest Tea is a mere decade old. But, its list of accomplishments is long:

• First company to introduce a certified organic bottled tea

• First company to introduce a certified Fair Trade bottled tea

• Won awards and top rankings from national consumer publications and organizations for creating great-tasting, healthier products.

• On the leading edge (sometimes bleeding edge) of innovation in terms of new ingredients, packaging and packaging re-use.

• A leader in its local community, launching the Bethesda Green initiative to develop a model sustainable business community.

The question is, will Honest Tea, the David to Coke’s Goliath, be able to bring down the poor business practices and ill-favored reputation of Coca-Cola enough to actually make an Honest-Tea difference? Only time will tell.