Honestly, Terps Make the Best Tea

When the leader of the free world says he loves your drinks, you know you’re doing something right.

President Barack Obama’s favorite, Black Forest Berry, is just one of the many “Just a Tad Sweet” organic beverages that originates from the surprisingly modest test kitchen Mike Petrone ’05 oversees at Honest Tea’s Bethesda headquarters.

That’s where the director of research and development and his all-Terp team, Marisa Tan ’13 and Milo Li ’11, create teas, lemonades, children’s juice drinks and new zero-calorie sodas. Their space could almost be transplanted into your home kitchen—though the reclaimed rubber floor and glass countertops set it apart, as do the fridge full of multicolored test beverages, the homemade carbonator that looks like a fire extinguisher and the pantry stocked with aromatic tins of loose-leaf teas.

Petrone’s road to Honest Tea started with a bottle he bought at the Maryland Food Co-op in the Stamp Student Union. The transfer student from Montgomery College, less than enthused about his biology major and a previous internship shaving mice for Army Ebola research, had finally settled on a new focus: food science.

“I looked at the back of a bottle and saw ‘Bethesda,’ and I literally called the number and asked if they could use any interns,” he says. Soon, he was working there one day a week, and then as a summer intern. He was offered a full-time job after graduation, making him the company’s first food scientist. (“Their old equipment included medicine droppers from CVS,” he says.)

But with just seven people in its headquarters in 2005, Petrone had to pitch in wherever he could and do “lots of strange things.”

At one point, “they needed more tea, so they told me to rent the biggest truck I could legally drive, load it full of tea from the production plant and bring it back,” he says. He worked night shifts at the plant, sleeping in his car and doing anything to help the young company, founded in 1998 by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, save money.

These days, Petrone’s focus is entirely on pumping out fun new varieties like a ginger ale for the soda line, Honest Fizz, and unsweetened herbal teas, cinnamon sunrise and ginger oasis. It takes about nine months to go from idea to the shelf, during which Petrone and his team can spend weeks mixing and remixing drinks to get just the right blend of sweetness or tartness.

From left, Milo Li ’11, Mike Petrone ’05 and Marisa Tan ’13 in the test kitchen at Honest Tea’s Bethesda headquarters.

Despite Honest Tea’s success—the company sold its billionth bottle last year, after being bought by Coca-Cola in 2011—not every drink is a hit.

“Everyone loves chocolate,” so it seemed like a great idea to launch Honest Cocoanova, a brewed cacao infusion, Petrone says. “But nobody knew what it was, and stores didn’t know where to put it.”

He’s learned from failures like that one, and he’s imparting his wisdom to the two young Terps he’s hired. He recruited Tan and Li through his annual visits to UMD’s food science department, and it’s not surprising the three work well together: All considered and rejected the idea of biology and dietetics, not wanting a career where waiting for results can take decades or in telling others what to eat. The food lovers spend a lot of time on the road together, visiting production plants across the country (and now, they can stay in hotels).

“It’s so cool to see your products on the shelf,” Tan says.

With Coca-Cola’s immense resources, Honest Tea now has greater distribution and marketing, including small-batch imports to Dubai and South Korea.

“I’ve dedicated my life to this business,” Petrone says, “and it’s a bit like your kid going off to college—you hope they’re on the right track. I hope we continue to build the brand even more so people no matter where they live, can have access to organic products and learn more about social responsibility and fair trade tea.”

As for his personal ambitions?

Get President Obama to sign a bottle for him, of course.