Alameda Runners – Get After It!

I mainly drink water and milk, but occasionally seek a drink that offers a bit of flavor without high fructose corn syrup and the other garbage many sodas and have.  Years back, another endurance runner had a similar thought about tasty drinks that aren’t unhealthy, which led to the creation of Honest Tea beverages.

Honest Tea can be found in Safeway, Nob Hill and other California supermarket chains, while also available at Whole Foods and other specialized food stores.  To learn more about how the company was founded, Alameda Runners chatted with Seth Goldman, Honest Tea co-founder, who spoke about the company’s history, best selling products, and expansion to new markets.

“I’ve been a runner for a long time (ran track and X-C in high school and college) and was always looking for a drink that quenched my thirst without tons of sugar,” said Goldman, Honest Tea founder, told Alameda Runners.  “I never could find the right drink, and that’s one of the reasons my partner and I launched Honest Tea.  So a hydrating drink with less sugar is certainly one of the main reasons Honest Tea works for active people, but in addition, the fact that our drinks are organic means there are fewer toxins going into the body of the
drinker.”

The company offers a wide variety of beverages ranging from Peach White Tea Honest Tea and Cranberry Lemonade Honest Ade to Lemon Ginger Honest Kombucha.  “Some of our most popular beverages include Honey Green and Peach White in PET bottles, Pomegranate Blue Honest Ade.  My personal favorite after a run is Community Green, which is a very lightly sweetened green tea with blood orange flavoring.”

Honest Tea is the latest beverage maker to offer a Kombucha drink, though very few people are familiar with it.

“Kombucha is fermented tea with active cultures that help support gut health, making the body a more effective consumer and producer of health and energy.  Kombucha has a natural effervescence, so it’s not your typical Honest Tea – it’s uniquely tangy and surprisingly addictive!  It’s a great recovery drink, though probably not best immediately after a run.  Better after an hour or so.”

I appreciate what Honest Tea told us in the interview, but I still am not a fan of the Kombucha drinks.  I haven’t picked up an Honest Tea Kombucha yet – I am willing to give it a try – but simply haven’t enjoyed other Kombucha drinks in the past.  I understand they’re supposed to be extremely good for you, but I just simply don’t enjoy the taste and texture of the drinks.
To help end the interview, Alameda Runners was thanked as Goldman again reminisced how the company started.
“Since the ideas for Honest Tea crystallized for me after a run in Central Park, it’s always nice for me to reconnect with a community of runners!”