The line of organic, Fair Trade certified teas, launched in 2022 and has since become one of the fastest growing, top brands in the natural foods sector, according to SPINS data.
Now, the new supermarket listings see it double its retail footprint.
Just Ice Tea comes from the founders of the iconic Honest Tea brand: which was bought by Coca-Cola in 2011 but then shuttered by the beverage giant in a post-pandemic reshuffle in 2022.
Just Ice Tea: Setting itself apart
Just Ice Tea sets itself apart from other RTD teas on the market with its mission to deliver ‘delicious teas that are good for consumers and communities’.
Its ingredients are grown without synthetic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers or artificial flavors.
Meanwhile, Fair Trade certification for both tea and sweeteners ensures safe, healthy working conditions and fair wages for farming communities. And the brand pays a premium that goes directly to the workers for them to reinvest in their communities.
Each tea is designed to be ‘just sweet enough’: with pure, natural sweeteners or none at all.
Another point of difference is that celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn is part of the trio behind Just Ice Tea: joining Honest Tea entrepreneurs Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff.
That’s allowed the brand to create chef-crafted flavors for the summer of 2025. Orange Mango Herbal Fusion, Golden Oolong Tea and Enjoy Mint Tea are now joining flavors such as Peach Oolong Tea, Mango White Tea and Half Tea & Half Lemonade.
But the brand’s magic touch will be the expertise gained from Honest Tea and much more besides (Goldman’s experience covers Eat the Change, Beyond Meat, Tony’s Chocoloney and much more).
Just months after hearing Honest Tea was to be discontinued, Goldman and Nalebuff had Just Ice Tea on shelves and ready to take on the gap left by Honest Tea.
National expansion: Target, CVS, Walmart and more
Having conquered the natural foods channel since its 2022 launch, Just Ice Tea is now heading into the mainstream.
This month, the brand has announced its expansion into Target, CVS, Wegmans, Harris Teeter, online at Thrive, and regionally at 7-Eleven and Walmart.
With the expansion, Just Ice Tea effectively doubles its retail footprint: now reaching 12,000 stores across the country (as well as being on Amazon).
“Like Honest Tea, we started in the natural channel and focused there first to become the top brand in places like Whole Foods and Sprouts,” Goldman told us.
“And so now we’ve done that with Just Ice Tea - although we’ve done it far more quickly than Honest Tea did!
“Now we’re using that success as a lift off point to go into the more broad mainstream channels.”
Getting out to more consumers
But it’s more than just a simple expansion of product availability, said Goldman. It’s about getting the brand’s organic and conscious consumer mission out to more people.
“We’re getting our product into the hands of people who don’t usually purchase organic on an everyday basis,” he said.
Getting into national retailers is clearly a powerful way to do this: but the brand has other mechanisms up its sleeves.
As with any brand, sampling is important: and the brand will ramp up these efforts over the summer months.
But it is also targeting food service channels as a key way to reach out to new consumers.
“We’re working with food service channels because that’s where you get trial,” said Goldman. “So many times I hear, ‘oh, I’ve tried this at the bagel shop, or I bought this at the salad place, then I became a regular customer’.
“It’s a great place to get trial.”
Just Ice Tea is available in glass bottles and cans: a different packaging mix to Honest Tea (which had been glass bottles and plastic bottles).
That’s a ‘recognition of the times we’re in’, says Goldman (plastic bottles are under fire from consumers over environmental concerns, whereas beverage cans have been building momentum for several years).
Times have changed...
Goldman founded Honest Tea back in 1998. At the time, the brand was carving out new ideas and a new space and developing its ethos and mission as it went along.
“When we started Honest Tea, we had some organic ingredients but no organic certification,” said Goldman.
“With Just Ice Tea, everything was organic, Fair Trade from day one.”
And not only has the brand been able to launch with a bang, but the consumer environment is different too, said Goldman.
“What we’re doing with Just Ice Tea, we’re leaning harder into those missions [organic, Fair Trade] but they’re more readily welcomed and accepted by the consumer.”
