Honest Tea Founder Talks on Coke Deal

By Samuel Fromartz

Though I took a critical look at Honest Tea's deal with Coke last week, company co-founder and CEO, Seth Goldman, agreed to chew it over with me in an interview.

I've admired Honest Tea for awhile and profiled the company here. It sources from organic and fair trade tea estates, has  looked hard at packaging and shipping, and has been open and transparent in its practices - as this interview attests. These are all key practices in sustainability.

Their "less-sweet" drinks offer a tasty alternative to sugar-laden calorie-busting sodas - yes, just the kind Coke sells. The formula drove Honest Tea sales up 70 percent to $23 million last year.

But I worried Coke's deal to buy a 40 percent stake would throw Seth and his team off track, or worse. There's more than a few examples of companies that stagnated or died a slow death after a giant took them over.

Seth countered that Coke will actually give him a major push in the market -- starting with two new products he's launching this year. Here's the edited interview:

(Photo: Seth Goldman via Honest Tea)