HONEST FAQS 

Why do you call it Honest Tea? How many calories are in Honest Tea? Which bottled teas have caffeine in them? What are all those "floaties" in the bottle? Why does it matter if the tea bags are made with large leaves? Are any of these teas organic? Are Honest Teas Kosher?

Have your plastic bottles changed size? Are Honest Teas pasteurized? Can I buy Honest Tea by the case? Where does the tea come from? How old is the company? Is the company public? Decaf Process

Honest Tea is made with real tea leaves, unlike most brands which use powder or syrup.
Honest Tea is all-natural and uses organic ingredients.
Honest Tea is lightly sweetened, so it actually tastes like tea.
Honest Tea seeks to create healthy and honest relationships with its suppliers, customers and the environment.


This information is on the back of each bottle. Our teas have between 0 calories and 40 calories per 8-ounce serving. Our Honest Ade quenchers have 50 calories per 8-ounce serving. There are about two 8-ounce servings in one bottle of Honest Tea.


Black Forest Berry, Pomegranate Red Tea ,and the Honest Ade quenchers are naturally caffeine-free. Our green teas have a small amount of caffeine, about 1/4 of the amount found in coffee (about 35 mg per serving). Our black teas have about 1/2 the amount found in coffee. Assam Black and Lori's Lemon Tea have 1/2 the caffeine of coffee. Peach-Oo-la-long has about 2/5 the caffeine of coffee. The list below provides approximate milligrams of caffeine per serving of Honest Tea. For comparison, we also included average milligrams of caffeine in different types of coffee.

Assam Black Tea 48.6 mg
Classic Green Tea 24.3 mg
Community Green Tea 24.3 mg
Green Dragon Tea 48.6 mg
Half & Half 40.0 mg
Honey Green Tea 70.0 mg
Jasmine Green Energy Tea 24.3 mg
Just Black Tea 24.3 mg
Just Green Tea 24.3 mg
Lemon Tea 45.0 mg
Lori's Lemon Tea 48.6 mg
Mango Acai White Tea 24.3 mg
Mocha Cacao 9.0 mg
Moroccan Mint Green Tea 24.3 mg
Passion Fruit Green Tea 25.0 mg
Peach Oo-La-Long 24.3 mg
Peach White Tea 40.0 mg
Pearfect White Tea 24.3 mg
Sublime Mate 16.3 mg

Coffee, Drip, 115-175 mg
Coffee, Brewed, 80-135 mg
Coffee, Espresso (2 ounces), 100 mg


Our tea is made with real tea leaves and ingredients, a few of which end up in the bottle. In Black Forest Berry, those are little pieces of fruit on the bottom. Go ahead and drink them.


Large-leaf tea offers superior taste. When tea is processed, the leaves are sorted into categories, based on their size. The highest grade is unbroken whole leaves, because they offer the smoothest, truest flavor. Our tea bags have the richness and smoothness of loose-leaf tea, without the mess!


All Honest Teas are certified as meeting the USDA's organic standards.


All Honest Tea varieties are certified Kosher under the authority of the Orthodox Union.


Unlike other companies that are reducing the size of their products, ours still remains 16.9 ounces. We redesigned the bottle to use 22% less plastic and therefore lower our carbon footprint and utilize fewer natural resources. You’re still getting the exact same volume as before, just with a new design to help with stability and strength while having less plastic.


All of our beverages are pasteurized to ensure the safety of our consumers.


It varies from store to store, so check with your local store manager. Use our store locator to help find some Honest Tea near you. Many stores allow you to buy cases and some may even give a discount for case purchases. You can also buy from online retailers here.


Our teas come from all around the world. The green tea comes from China and the black teas come from tea estates in India. Black Forest Berry is a German fruit blend that uses ingredients from several different countries. The Decaf Ceylon uses black tea from Sri Lanka.


Honest Tea was launched in February 1998 in Seth Goldman's home. Once we started producing the tea, we moved into an office in downtown Bethesda. Honest Tea has been on the shelves since June of 1998.


No, it is a private company.


Most teas which describe themselves as "naturally decaffeinated" use ethyl acetate, a chemical solvent which tends to leave a residue and unpleasant taste. At Honest Tea we use an all-natural CO₂ process which uses pressure and temperature but no solvents. We start by placing 800 pounds of tea in a ten-foot tank for 16-18 hours. We then force carbon dioxide, a naturally occurring gas, into the tank. The pressure in the tank becomes so intense that the CO₂ turns into a liquid (the lid of the tank weighs more than five tons to make sure it doesn't pop off!). As pressure is released from the tank, the CO₂ becomes a gas once again and carries the caffeine out with it.

From a technical standpoint a very small trace of caffeine remains in the tea. Just to be sure, we recently ran a portion through a local lab in Bethesda and they were unable to detect any caffeine in the sample.