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The old adage holds true. Especially if you are the founders of Honest Tea, the fastest growing organic-bottled-tea in the US. Honest Tea uses only organic ingredients and whole tea leaves in a world once defined by bottled sugar water.

As highlighted in Business 2.0's article, "The Best-Kept Secrets of the World's Best Companies," Honest Tea's founders built the company with an honest approach to funding as well.

Started in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff (a Yale business school professor), the pair told investors that rather than guesstimate Honest Tea's future sales, they'd take no stake in the company until the value of the shares rose by multiples of two, three, five, 10 and 15. Eight years later, Honest Tea shares are worth over eight times their original $5,000 price tag and Seth and Barry have earned a 25% holding.

According to the Honest Tea story, just five weeks after brewing the first batches in his kitchen, Seth landed an order from Fresh Fields--a division of Whole Foods. Within a few years, they made Oprah's famous The O List. Today, Honest Tea has 15 bottled teas, eight whole leaf bag teas, two Honest Ade thirst quencher flavors, a low calorie Pomegranate drink and a the world's first organic diet drink.

In building the brand, Honest Tea operates with a philosophy of social responsibility and strives to create honest relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and communities. A good example is the First Nation Organic Peppermint Herbal Tea, based on an ancient recipe and tradition of the Crow Indians, developed in partnership with I'tchik Herb (a woman-owned company based on the Crow reservation) with a portion of the royalties benefiting Pretty Shield Foundation (a non-profit for Native American children).

Honest Tea has also tapped into some more well-trodden tactics for brand engagement including quotations under the bottle cap, label art competitions and the ability to email the owners directly.

The U.S. tea market projected to reach $10 billion by 2010, largely driven by the health benefits of drinking tea. Another concept tapping this trend is the new anTEAoxidant bar located in the Third Avenue Manhattan location of InVite Health, a nutritional boutique. Onsite nutritionists recommend personalized tea-extract tinctures to give beverages an age-defying boost. Enjoy at the anTEAoxidant bar or take home with you.

Feeling thirsty yet?