A year or two ago I read an interesting book called Why Not?: How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big And Small (affiliate link) about invention and innovation. It was a good read, and it put all kinds of new ideas in my head. One of the stories in the book is bout how the author and Yale professor, Barry Nalebuff, and one of his students, Seth Goldman, teamed up to start Honest Tea, which now seems to go by the name Honest Beverages. They were doing a case study on Coke and Pepsi in class, and both Barry and Seth agreed that most retail beverage options were either way too sweet or way too watered down. They wanted something in between, and it happened that Barry had just returned from studying the tea industry in India when Seth e-mailed him to continue the conversation that started in class. They kept running with the idea, and soon after Honest Tea was born. In 1998 the Bethesda, MD based company had 3 employees and $250,000 in sales, and last year those numbers rose to 87 employees and $38 million in sales.

An Honest Day’s Work

The name Honest Beverages isn’t nearly as catchy as Honest Tea, but the company really means it when they use the word honest. They use real tea leaves for their teas, they’re certified USDA organic (as you can see in their logo), and they’re extremely committed to sustainability. Although we’re seeing a lot more of this in the beverage industry now, it was pretty radical back in the late 90s when it all started. If you’re an honest person who is looking for an honest job, then you need to look no further than Honest Beverages’ Jobs page to find what you’re looking for (unless you really love sweet drinks, of course). Their current postings aren’t explicitly entry level, but positions like PR Associate and Demand Planning might be worth checking out. Additionally, Honest Beverages is really big on hiring former interns, so you may want to try using an internship to get you foot in the door. To apply for a position with Honest Beverages send a résumé to jobs@honesttea.com with the job title as the subject.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• HonestTea.com
• Jobs at Honest Beverages
• About Honest Beverages
• The Honest Tea Story and History
• Honest Beverages in the News
• Seth and Barry’s Honest Beverages Blog
• Honest Tea Info

Which of Honest Beverages’ products is your favorite?

We've identified Honest Beverages as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• all employers
• analyst
• communications
• food
• Maryland
• public relations
• sales

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