First Scharffen Berger got purchased by Hershey and today comes the announcement that Coca-Cola has acquired a 40% stake in Honest Tea.
While I can understand the pure business rationale for the additional cash and resources that these kind of acquisitions allows smaller “boutique” manufacturers, they also seem to ignore that part of the attraction of the products they make derives from the fact the independent style and approach taken to produce them. For me it’s always been as much about the politics as it has been about the atoms.
“Honest Tea by Coca-Cola” will no doubt taste the same as little old independent Honest Tea. And it will probably be a lot easier to find (yes, I’ve complained about this very fact). But it will also now be tinged, at least for me, with the after-taste of Coca-Cola and the foul multinationalness that represents.
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I am Peter Rukavina and this is my blog. I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.
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Comments
Peter,I thought you might
Peter,
I thought you might enjoy this exchange between one of the Honest Tea founders, Seth Goldman, and a customer who expressed many of the same concerns you did:
http://www.honesttea.com/blog/…
I can’t seem to link directly to the post, but only to the category; as of today, it’s at the top of the page.
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