Coca-Cola’s Honest Tea company has set its sights on the cold brew coffee market with its own line of ready-to-drink (RTD) products, which will include three flavors: Unsweet Black, Just a Tad Sweet Cubano, and Just a Tad Sweet Mocha.
 
The lineup debuted recently on the West Coast and will roll out nationwide in early 2020, according to the company. Honest Tea currently sells RTD coffee in the U.K., Spain, and Norway.
 
The cold brews feature USDA Organic and Fair-Trade Certified ingredients. The Just a Tad Sweet cold brew coffee flavors reportedly contain half the sugar than the leading sweetened RTD coffee.
 
RTD coffee is a natural extension for the brand, given its adjacency to bottled organic teas, according to Clare Verdery, Honest Tea’s general manager. “Because we chose to develop a lower-sugar, black cold brew variety without dairy, our proposition helps to deliver a smooth taste, which is important to our target millennial consumer,” Verdery said. “Our vision for Honest is to ‘own the fridge’ by introducing organic, lower-sugar beverage solutions for adult, youth and all-family drinking moments throughout the day.”
 
Honest Tea cold brew supports the mission of co-founder and TeaEO emeritus Seth Goldman to democratize organics and make a positive impact on communities with every Honest Tea beverage sold.
 
“More and more people are voting with their dollars, so it has become increasingly important to weave our mission into our innovation pipeline,” Verdery said. “As we expand into new categories, it’s even more important that we abide by our brand guardrails of being organic, lower calorie than the competition, and Fair Trade certified wherever possible.”