15Sep/0936
Honest Tea not so honest
Here's another solution to the recession. Honest tea has a gaping void at the bottom of their bottle. It's about 1.25 inches deep. I was amazed when my friend showed it to me. This makes the bottom of a wine bottle look like a golf ball dimple. The result is a bottle with a deceptively long and thirst quenching figure.
Update:
Here's a comparison of the new and old bottles (the new one on the left). Even though they contain the same amount of tea, the one of the left looks larger!
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September 16th, 2009 - 01:47
There are actually two valid reasons for doing this: 1. Bottles can be more sturdily and space efficiently stacked during transport and storage, with the cap nested inside the bottom of the bottle above it. 2. When a lightweight (thinner) plastic is used, this recess helps strengthen the package against damage (seems unlikely for such a deep recess as the overall bottle could just have been made thicker with the same amount of plastic). Of course the third purpose, is dishonesty…
September 18th, 2009 - 00:25
Honestly, the bottle doesn’t look that much bigger side by side. The should have just kept themselves honest…
September 18th, 2009 - 00:34
I prefer to believe in the 3rd option.
September 18th, 2009 - 00:35
Why don’t you weigh the empty bottles on a kitchen scale to rule out the efficient packaging theory?
September 18th, 2009 - 00:36
I think the new bottles stay colder when sitting on my desk. Ya know thermodynamics and stuff.
September 18th, 2009 - 00:43
It’s only deceptive if they’re marketed side-by-side with the ‘larger’ version costing more.
If they’re just releasing a new version and phasing the old one out, the only issue with the increased use of environmentally-unfriendly material.
September 18th, 2009 - 00:49
From the Honest Tea website:
“Have your plastic bottles changed size?
Unlike other companies that are reducing the size of their products, ours still remains 16.9 ounces. We redesigned the bottle to use 22% less plastic and therefore lower our carbon footprint and utilize fewer natural resources. You’re still getting the exact same volume as before, just with a new design to help with stability and strength while having less plastic.”
September 18th, 2009 - 01:01
“Unlike other companies that are reducing the size of their products, ours still remains 16.9 ounces. We redesigned the bottle to use 22% less plastic and therefore lower our carbon footprint and utilize fewer natural resources. You’re still getting the exact same volume as before, just with a new design to help with stability and strength while having less plastic.”
YOU JUST GOT SERVED
September 18th, 2009 - 01:01
I bet you feel like a real fucking tool now, asshat. Here they are trying to save the environment and you give them grief about it.
September 18th, 2009 - 01:06
Wow, you really blew the lid off that one, Columbo.
September 18th, 2009 - 01:38
Way to FAIL captain hairy nipple.
September 18th, 2009 - 01:55
I’m not one to question them too much about this, but I’d be curious how the math works out – more surface area usually means more plastic. I’d be curious if when dried and with the label removed what the weight of each bottle would be. It doesn’t add up for me unless they also changed materials altogether which may be likely.
September 18th, 2009 - 02:01
Nick: It’s likely that they reduced the wall thickness of the plastic, making it more flimsy and requiring the deep dish in the bottom to stiffen the bottle and prevent it from ballooning.
September 18th, 2009 - 02:16
Yeah, they’re in business to save the environment. That’s why they sell products that are mostly water in plastic bottles that have to be hauled across the country in trucks. The fact that their new bottles look bigger couldn’t possibly have anything to do with a marketing attempt to sell more product. The company would say so if it did. And companies never lie or fail to disclose stuff like that to the public. That would be mean.
September 18th, 2009 - 02:53
At first I was pretty convinced that Honest Tea may be duping consumers, clearly biased by the title of the article but with further inspection I notices that it says 500ml so if we are to truly put this to the test the question would be, is it really 500ml, if so second question would be does the bottle give the illusion of more volume when placed side by side with lets say a 591ml Gatorade. If it doesn’t then in defense of them it could literally be an industrial design aspect created for better stacking, however if it does look drastically different then we can agree that it seems like something is a foot.
September 18th, 2009 - 03:01
I’d go with Dishonest-tea
September 18th, 2009 - 04:06
Just read the label. It says 500ml. Nothing dishonest about that.
September 18th, 2009 - 05:05
Are all of you consumers naive enough to believe the visual appearance of the bottle had nothing to do with the redesign? Reducing material (and thus cost of the bottle) was no doubt a goal as well — with the added bonus that using less materiel allows they to say they are “saving the environment;” but don’t pretend that Honest Tea doesn’t care what its product looks like on a shelf next to other similar products.
September 18th, 2009 - 05:05
you guys seem to forget that 20% less plasic means 20% less plastic cost, and i’m sure it weighs less as well. saving the environment my butt, they are saving a ton of cash! whoever came up with that new bottle design is probably setting pretty right about now.
September 18th, 2009 - 06:59
So long as the quantity in the bottle is what it says on the label, how does it matter? If not, then it isn’t honest tea, is it?!
September 18th, 2009 - 07:15
Bottled tea makes about as much sense as bottled water. Brewed tea has a shelf life of about 24 hours before the flavor changes and it tastes awful.
All people do when they buy bottled tea is pollute the environment with even more plastic bottles. Ever heard of teabags or loose tea?
September 18th, 2009 - 09:31
Actually two things:
My guess is that this move to the new bottle will be a FAIL – reason being once people buy the product they’ll notice what APPEARS to be a blatant attempt to flimflam the customer.
That will result in an ‘instant turnoff’ – especially when that critical 1st impression flies in the face of their name ‘ Honest’ Tea.
Second – it’s not very likely that there is anything healthy about what’s in that tea – so naming it ‘honest’ is a fail from the get-go. Yes, I’m biased -but it’s only because I’ve learned better…
September 18th, 2009 - 14:01
A message from the folks at Honest Tea:
When you pick the name Honest, you have to live up to the name. We recently switched to a thinner bottle, one which is 22% lighter. This saves us money and saves the world resources. The only problem is that the thinner bottle was getting dented. In fact, this was a big problem that forced us to redesign the bottle. To help keep its shape, the inside must be under pressure. When the bottle is filled with hot tea, the liquid expands and the plug on the bottom pops out. (If you squeeze real hard, you can make this happen.) Then as the tea cools, the plug pops back in and creates the pressure on the inside that prevents the bottles from being damaged. The thinner plastic means we needed much more pressure and hence a much bigger plug. There really is 16.9 oz. inside and we aren’t trying to pull a fast one. But I can see how you could get confused or could think that we are trying to be deceptive. Taller and thinner still means lots less material. That said, we clearly need to do a better job explaining why the bottle has this design. In the next label run we will definitely say something to explain this to our customers. I hope that makes you feel that you can still trust us and will stick with us. And thanks for helping keep us honest.
Barry
Cofounder and Chairman
September 18th, 2009 - 15:11
That really comes down to marketing. People are far more averse to increases in prices than they are to a decrease in the quantity. They’ve been doing it with cereals for years because we’ve had high transportation costs (diesel over $5 per gallon). This is a lot more common than you think.
September 21st, 2009 - 08:03
Sheople!! They are just positioning themselves to increase price while they decrease the amount of product they are selling you. Classic! You’ll get used to the new bottle and then all of a sudden no one will really notice that they gave you less for the same price.
Even Coke is doing it now. Creating twelve ounce bottles to sell beside the 16 ounce. Pretty soon you’ll be buying the 12 at the 16 price and you won’t even notice.
September 22nd, 2009 - 13:03
or better yet people that are so concerned about this….make your own! if you are so concerned then do not buy it, produce your own food and beverages and you will finally have an “honest” food/beverage…and then you can worry about something else
September 24th, 2009 - 12:08
I used to work somewhere that sold these (the old bottle)…. the plastic they used was thin already, and the bottoms of the bottles would pop out, making them fall over in the fridge or wobble. The new bottle has a thinner plastic and yet won’t warp like the old ones.
October 4th, 2009 - 20:15
Not so Honest IS RIGHT! I ingested some contaminated Honest Tea (large blob of yucky growth floating behind label), and complained to the company as I was feeling sick the next day. They asked me to send the bottle for analysis and promised to report back to me. They never did send it to a lab and threw the evidence away!!!
Before I mailed the bottle, I had it analyzed and the growth was some kind of Penicillium (which I am allergic to). I am feeling worse every day and do not know what to do… I am disgusted and really concerned about my health.
October 6th, 2009 - 11:56
CBEX – This is not the experience we want for our consumers to have with our product or departments. Who assisted you at Honest Tea? Please contact me (kelly@honesttea.com) to discuss in further detail. Thanks.
October 17th, 2009 - 14:23
Now this is what I call nitpicking. So what if the bottom is a little longer. It’s not that deceptive when it’s clearly visible that it’s longer. And it tells you right on the bottle exactly how many ounces of liquid there is in it. It’s not like people can’t read. …I mean, ok it bugs me when I open a bag of chips and there’s only half chips and the other half is filled with air. But Honest Tea is not half filled with air, and it tells you exactly how much is in the bottle. It’s not like they’re trying to hide the space at the bottom. Besides, there may be other reasons why they designed it that way
October 17th, 2009 - 14:26
And regardless of the reason why that space at the bottom is there, Honest Tea is still a heck of a lot more honest than other drinks like sodas or juices that are not organic.
October 17th, 2009 - 14:30
Or maybe you’re right, idk. I only started drinking them 6 months ago. So idk if they had a different design before I started drinking them.
January 19th, 2010 - 22:40
I drink them solely b/c they have more decaf options than most other bottled teas and they don’t sweeten the fuck out of them like most others. I could really care less about a subtle difference in the bottle. That’s not why I buy from them.
January 20th, 2010 - 08:26
Coke did much the same thing in the early 80s (or there abouts). A cup-like extension was added to the bottom presumably to make the [1.5 litre(?)] bottle more stable. However, this piece was the same colour of the contents thereby appearing to give you more. So much for perception and reality.
March 12th, 2010 - 20:24
id rather buy the glass bottled tea from them its different flavors but sadly the closes place that sells it got all plastic now i have to go to the town over to buy it in glass
March 26th, 2010 - 13:28
I seriously doubt they are making all that much on the reduction of plastic. When they pour the tea into the new bottles it is hot and as it cools, the liquid condenses making the recess.