An Honest Post {Giveaway}

Written by on in Reviews, Tidbits and Treats

Happy Thursday!

Another week has practically flown by and this one has been busier than ever. But for good reason: we are now officially under contract on a beautiful home! I’m not getting too ahead of myself yet with all the details on here because we’re tackling the inspection this weekend, but I think it’s safe to say that 1) we absolutely love it and 2) we feel really good about our decision.

Perhaps that first offer fell through for a reason. We are cautiously optimistic. And superstitious.

**Knocks on every wood surface of Bender home.**

I will definitely share more once we are confident it’s a go. I’m doing my best to stay calm and collected. If you know me, you know that that is not actually happening inside my head – details! to-dos! logistics! so many logistics! – but for my lovely readers, I’ll do my best. 🙂

In other honest news, I recently received some delicious samples.

I’ve been a fan of Honest Tea ever since I discovered them while working in the health foods section of Fry’s grocery store the summer before my junior year of college. I practically memorized Seth and Barry’s story while stocking the shelves, so when Jordan from Honest Tea reached out and asked if I’d like to try some new to me flavors, I was very excited.

Honest Tea is an organic, fair-traded beverage company that offers a variety of beverages with great taste – and not laden with sugar – for parents and kids alike. They also use organic cane sugar, so it doesn’t have any artificial sweeteners – a big win in my book.

I tried an assortment of “ades” and “teas,” as well as some deliciously youthful kid juices.

Here are my honest thoughts. Left to right from the top:

  1. Honest Tea Peach White Tea: This tea had a very subtle peach flavor that was light and refreshing. It probably tasted the most like tea of all the samples I had – and that makes sense because it is grown from the same plant as green tea, which always has a more earthy taste, in my opinion. It probably wouldn’t be my top pick but was still delicious.
  2. Honest Ade Orange Mango: A fantastic blend of citrus and tropical flavors, this ade tasted a lot like mango-spiked orange juice. It’s great to have in the morning or on a warm day.
  3. Honest Ade Pomegranate Blue: By far my favorite in the whole bunch! I expected this one to be tart but the blueberry and hint of sweetness from the sugar balanced out the pomegranate perfectly. I will definitely be buying this one again.
  4. Honest Tea Half & Half: Fellow golfers or anyone who is a fan of an Arnold Palmer will love this drink. I especially liked it because it tasted a bit more like lemonade than it did tea (what can I say? I’m a sweet tooth!) but as with all of these samples, the sweetness is not overbearing.
  5. Honest Ade Zero-Calorie Classic Lemonade: Nothing beats freshly-squeezed lemonade, but this bottle comes close. It also felt a lot healthier to drink than the pitchers we used to sell with an inch-high layer of sugar at the bottom! The taste is slightly different from what you might normally expect because it’s sweetened with organic stevia, which is what makes it zero calories.

I also had the chance to try three flavors in the Honest Kids line: Goodness Grapeness, Tropical Tango Punch and Berry Berry Good Lemonade. I was a fan of all three, but the lemonade stood out as my favorite. The cool part about these is that they are served in a new “fruit-juice sweetened” formulation. Honest Tea removed the organic cane sugar and increased the juice content, which is now between 30-42%. Each box has 40 calories.

And I kid you not – this is, after all, an honest post – as I was writing this review, a UPS box showed up addressed to me with the rest of the Honest Kids flavors.

Honest Tea, you’ve got yourself a big fan. Thank you!

Some other honest thoughts and musings this week:

  • Buying a house is a lot of work. I know some of you have experience here, but I had no idea just how much paperwork went into the process! As someone who typically checks, checks and re-checks any form I sign, I have a feeling we’re in for a long 30 days. 🙂
  • Thinking about what you will do once you get into a house is fun. We’ve been able to obtain a floor plan and it’s been fun to start imagining what we can do with the space – assuming, of course, that this house becomes ours. **Knocks on wood again.**
  • Cooking falls by the wayside when you’re in buyer mode. Yet another reason to be so thankful for our gracious landlords and their affinity – and talent – for whipping up delicious meals. M. and P. Bender, I promise to repay you with countless dinners in a few months.
  • So far, fall weather in Phoenix looks like this:

…and I like it.

Any big weekend plans?

Edited to add: The team at Honest Tea has graciously offered a giveaway of Honest Kids samples! Leave a comment on this post letting me know which flavor you’d most like to try. Earn an extra entry by connecting with Honest Tea on Twitter or Facebook and letting me know you did so with an additional comment! One winner will be chosen at random on Monday, October 8 at 8:00 am PST.

Cheers and happy sipping!

GIVEAWAY WINNER:

And the winner of the giveaway is…Chelsea! Congrats – I will send you an email shortly with details!

Abrazos,

36 Comments

  1. I’ll have to try the adult version of Honest products. I bought a pack of the kid juice pouches from Target but returned them when I realized they had added sugar (am only giving the girls pure juice or half juice/half water mixes). Maybe your kid samples were a different version? Enjoy dreaming of home decorating – and geez get your signature hand ready – when you close escrow you sign about 1,000 pages of paper…haha.

    • I think maybe they *just* changed them so that they are only sweetened with juice. The website says that they removed all the cane sugar but that they will only start hitting shelves October 2013 with nationwide availability January 2013, so you probably got the older ones. If they keep I will totally save these extra samples for Thanksgiving. The girls can have a juice tasting while the adults go with the wine. 🙂 And yes, I will do my finger/hand stretches now for signature day!

  3. CONGRATS, Jenn and Bobby! *Knocking on wood* This one is yours and I can’t wait for you two to get settled in your new place! 🙂 It looks like you all have some amazing weather on tap! It’s cooling down this weekend here in the Midwest, but I’m going to be inside most of the time anyway. My family is gathering to celebrate my Dad’s 55th—and his retirement! Can you tell he liked his job by the fact that his last day in the office was his birthday today? 😉

    Have a wonderful weekend, Jenn!!

  4. I’d love to try the Honest Ade Orange Mango. I’ve been obsessed with mango for a while now – can’t explain why.

  6. I am so excited for you! I’ll keep my fingers crossed everything goes well. And that your fingers don’t cramp up. 🙂

    As for the Honest Tea, I’d love to try the Berry Berry Good Lemonade. I love the fact that they’re sweetened with fruit juice.

  17. Grape please! And good luck on the house, it is such a stressful time. We just sold and are renting for the short term while we look for one that we really love.

  18. I’d love to try Goodness Grapeness, my son loves grape!

    demureprincess7(at)gmail(dot)com

  24. Congratulations and good luck with the home! When my husband and I first bought our house, I felt the same way as you – SO much paperwork and so many random meetings with realtors, lawyers, etc. But, it’s such a great feeling 🙂

    As for the tea, peach white tea sounds so refreshing! Thanks for sharing!

  25. What neat flavors! I would like to try the orange mango that sounds like a delight! I am so excited for roasted pumpkin seeds with sea salt 🙂 good luck with your house we just went through it as well but I promise it is worth it love and shine courtstar

  28. It’s hard to type because it is so cold here by Chicago! I’m jealous of the 80 degree temperatures!
    I’d love to try the Half-and-Half. On road trips I love to buy those big cans of Arizona Tea Arnold Palmer’s even though I’m sure they are loaded with sugar!

  30. Cautious congratulations on the house–hope everything works out for you guys! I am one of those who reads every word on a paper before signing, which did not exactly thrill my husband or the attorney during the closing process of our first house!
    The berry berry lemonade flavor sounds great!

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