Each year, the HONEST Tea-m has the privilege of joining our friends at Sweetgreen for a 1-day festival celebrating great music and local food, including Honest refreshment. While everyone came away with unique stories and experiences, here are the  5 sweetest moments we experienced at the event this year:

1.  The Food

Sweelife Festival is a farm-to-table food destination.  This was no run-of-the-mill concert concession stand; the festival brought together some of the best chefs and restaurants in the region.  Craving lobster rolls?  Pork sliders?  Korean tacos?  We ate with abandon and then ate some more.  A few of the great local D.C. favorites at the festival included Pepe, DGS Delicatessen, and Kushi.  One of our favorites came from the organizers themselves—Sweetgreen’s Earth Bowl uses organic ingredients sourced from local farmers and mixes warm grains + arugula, roasted chicken, white cheddar, grape tomatoes, raw corn, spicy broccoli and pesto vinaigrette (and it happens to pair perfectly with Honey Green Tea!).

2.  Mustaches

Who doesn’t love detachable mustaches? Folically challenged or not, our Tea-m  offered Sweelife festival-goers the pleasure of sporting a green ‘stache for the day for a little photo fun. Throughout the day, people shared their creative poses on Instagram with the hashtag #honestache.  Our Instagram page quickly became a beautiful mural of green facial hair with over 80 people sharing their best looks—check it out and share a mustache photo of your own!

3.  The Venue

There is nothing better than sitting back on the grass hill on a sunny day and enjoying tunes from one of your favorite bands while sipping on a Honey Green Tea.  On this day though, right as the Yeah yeah Yeah’s were kicking into high gear, the heavens opened up and released liquid fury for 45 minutes—yes our sunny Saturday quickly turned to rain, but hey, we can’t complain, Merriwether became the world’s greatest mudslide.  Do you have a fond memory of a past spring day outdoors? Share with us in the comment section below!

4.  The Good Vibes

We know a lot of concerts have good vibes, but there’s something about the Sweetlife Festival that is overwhelmingly positive.  Words are inspiring and at Honest Tea we realize a simple positive word can go a long way. Our Tea-m was in attendance with the #honestcompliment booth, our way of keeping the high spirits and good energy flowing.  Picture a typical lemonade stand, but instead of sugary drinks we served up refreshing, personalized compliments, free of charge.  The line stretched to 30 deep at times, with people sometimes waiting 15-20 minutes to receive their personalized compliments, and then sharing the love with someone else at the festival or a friend on Twitter by using #honestcompliment.  We’ve found that giving an #honestcompliment is contagious–if you haven’t already said something nice to someone today, we encourage you to give it a try!

5.  The Music

All three stages at Sweetlife had great music options.  Since the festival’s inception four years ago, it has developed the reputation of attracting cutting-edge musical acts–both well-known and emerging names. Whether you’re into hip-hop, indie rock, R&B, or electronica, Sweetlife has something for music lovers of all backgrounds.  This year, Phoenix wowed the crowds performing cuts from the band’s newly released album as well as classics such as “Lisztomania” and “1901.” Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs filled the stage with her incredible presence and even jumped off stage to invite fans to sing along with her on the same microphone.  Our Honest Tea staff picks for favorite performance included Passion Pit, Robert DeLong, Youth Lagoon, Gary Clark Jr., Solange and Foxygen.  Go ahead and pick up any of these artists’ latest albums–you won’t be disappointed!

May is about celebrating mom. If you travel around the world, you will find mothers devoted to giving their children and family a good life. With your help, we have been able to improve the lives of countless moms through Fair Trade. Every time you purchase an Honest Tea you are supporting our Fair Trade partnerships which ensure the women in our tea gardens are working in third-party verified condition and earn a Fair wage. It’s a simple, direct way to make a world of difference each time you open a cap and refresh the Honest way.  So join us, as we raise an ice-cold bottle of Honey Green Tea in a toast to moms around the world! 

…What do you appreciate most about a Mom you know? Tell us below in the comment section! 

Try not to salivate while looking at the float above! Our friend Bakeaholic Mama put together an irresistible recipe we think you’ll love—and for 120 calories, how can you go wrong?  Here’s what you’ll need:

• (New!) Honest Fizz Root Beer
• Low-calorie frozen yogurt. (We recommend Stonyfield Gotta Have It Vanilla Frozen Yogurt)
• Your favorite float mug

Place your float mug in the freezer about an hour before making the floats for a maximum chilled experience.  Combine one can of Honest Fizz Root Beer, two scoops frozen vanilla yogurt, and garnish with a dollop of light whipped cream and marachino cherry.  The creamy sweetness of the frozen yogurt blends perfectly with the classic flavor of our bubbly Root Beer organic soda—the taste will transport you back to a childhood summer day.  You’ll be glad you gave it a try!

Your float is almost ready—just need to invite over a few good friends  to  sweeten the experience! To read more about Bakeaholic Mama’s recipes, visit: www.bakeaholicmama.com

An HONEST thanks to everyone who participated in our Mother’s Day #honestcompliment giveaway on Twitter! Your honest words have inspired moms across the country. We have reached the final supply of coupons for this promotion, but good news is we’ll be back to do this again soon! We hope you’ll check back often to stay up to date with what’s brewing in the kitchen. ***Note: Entry valid while supplies last, you will be contacted via Twitter Direct Message if your entry was received in time. Make sure you are following us in order to receive notification.

Cheers,

The Honest Team

Recycling is easy right? Everyone does it. So we thought, until learning that national recycling rates of beverage containers is roughly 30%.  Seeing an opportunity for improvement, Honest Tea built a 30 foot tall recycling bin last April and placed it in New York’s Times Square for one day, offering rewards for recycling. The response was so encouraging that since then, we’ve taken the bin to cities around the country as a recycling “beacon,” inspiring conversation and action that we hope will help boost rates. The Great Recycle is off to a good start, having collected and recycled more than 65,000 beverage containers – but there is still more work to be done.

Recently the 30-foot tall bin and brand new, 12-foot tall recycling bin made appearances in Washington, D.C., Dallas and again in New York City, and we are taken aback by the commitment and drive many people demonstrated at The Great Recycle events.

Union Station, Washington DC

The Great Recycle – Union Square, Washington D.C.

On April 17^th and 18^th, in our nation’s capital (not far from Honest Tea HQ) we staged The Great Recycle outside of Union Station—a landmark building used by Washington commuters, visited by tourists, and housing shopping and eating establishments.  While people gawked at our 30 foot tall bin and inquired about what was happening, word of our activity spread quickly.

Seeing a teachable moment about recycling, one woman took her son on a hunt around D.C. to collect empty beverage containers so the bottles and cans could be recycled and redeemed for cool items in our on-site recycling store.  Over the course of both days, we were also visited by different groups of people who spent the previous days collecting beverage containers to bring down. Our friends at Roti USA, a local Mediterranean restaurant, got in the spirit of the day by bringing down over 250 bottles to be recycled and providing catering rewards redeemable in our recycling store.  Scores of school children, accompanied by their teachers, came with thousands of bottles and had some fun trying to get their bottles over the top of the 30 foot high bin.  We were also visited by a couple from Maryland who held a party the weekend before and brought enough beverage containers to redeem a bicycle. Those types of stories helped us get the word out and make a difference in our community.

After the two days were over Washingtonians true colors came shining through recycling more than 14,300 beverage containers as part of our Great Recycle.

Don’t mess with recycling and Texas

The Great Recycle – Earth Day Dallas

Everything is bigger in Texas, and our oversized 12-foot recycling bin is no exception.  Dallas marked the next point of our recycle journey and the debut of our new recycling bin. Partnering with Earth Day Dallas on April 20^th and 21st, we invited the city and surrounding communities to bring us their recycled bottles and exchange them for cool items like yoga mats, organic cotton t-shirts and other great goodies.

One enthusiastic person brought us 750 bottles to recycle on the back of his bicycle—how he fit all of them in the trailer featured above remains a mystery.  He went home with a brand new bamboo longboard by Element Skateboards.  After hundreds of great conversations around recycling, thousands of ice-cold beverages served, and lots of goodies redeemed, Texans brought us more than 7,000 beverage containers to recycle.

Shot from on top of the W Hotel, Union Square

The Great Recycle – Earth Day NY, Union Square

Next stop: the Big Apple.  Just in time for the Earth Day New York festival on April 21^st, the 30-foot tall bin was set up in the heart of Union Square.  Thousands of people came over to check out the activity.  Two college students in particular wowed us with their recycling efforts–they visited our tent early in the morning to stake out the best items in the recycle store, then went to work collecting empty beverage containers.  By afternoon they had recycled over 1,000 bottles and went home with new Jamis bikes.  What an amazing feat!

At the end of the day, New Yorkers demonstrated their commitment to recycling by bringing down over 13,000 beverage containers.  Special thanks to 5boro Recycling and Envipco, our recycle partners who helped us count every bottle collected and ensure the containers were recycled in accordance with New York City recycling laws.

What’s Next 

We still have a long way to go and could use your help along the recycle journey.  Visit our website www.thegreatrecycle.com to stay up to date with where the big blue recycle bin is headed next, and while you’re there join the 43,800 other people who have made a weekly recycling pledges and recycled an old Facebook status update.  If you’re on twitter, join the conversation with #greatrecycle.

So we have to ask­ – as we travel with the big blue recycle bins, what can we do to improve recycling rates locally and nationally?  What is the greatest challenge in your area which needs to be overcome in order to increase that 30% rate?  Let us know in the comments section below.

Thanks for taking the time to make the world a greener place.

Recycling is easy and truly helps the planet.  That’s why it might surprise you to hear the national recycling rate of beverage containers is only 33.8%.  It’s obvious there’s still a lot of work to be done.  Seeking to be part of the solution, we created the Great Recycle; a nation-wide tour to inspire America to renew its commitment to recycling.  How will we do it?  With your help.  Our tea-m built a 30 foot recycle bin that will travel the country to city centers and local events to spread the Honest word about recycling.  We invite you to bring us your empty bottles to an upcoming great recycle event and in return, we’ll reward you with cool stuff such as yoga mats, Citizen Bikes, and commuter packs from our friends at Patagonia. The more bottles you bring, the bigger the swag.

What better place to launch the Great Recycle tour than the Nation’s Capital.  This week schools, offices from Capitol Hill, and local University clubs all came down to contribute to the recycling action and drop off their bottles in our 30ft recycle bin.  The DC community overwhelmed us in their support, renewing commitments made to recycling every bottle consumed in 2013.  After thousands of conversations, bottles counted, samples poured, and swag delivered, we counted 14,238 bottles recycled!

An Honest thanks, DC—you are an inspiration.

April is Earth Month, so while we may put more focus on recycling this month, the reality is that recycling is important every day.  The national recycling rate is just above 30% for beverage containers, and we’d like to help improve on that number.  In 2012, Honest Tea debuted The Great Recycle, our national recycling initiative in-person, New York City’s Times Square and online.  The event featured a 30-foot blue recycling bin and we invited people to trade in their plastic containers for items such as t-shirts, yoga mats, beverages, bicycles, and more.  Since then, our bin has ventured on a journey across the country from Seattle to Rochester, West Palm Beach to Boston and Denver.  Join us on this journey and swap your plastic containers for fun items!  Look for our recycling bin to visit your city, and stay up to date with upcoming Great Recycle locations by following our Events Tab on Facebook. You’ll find our 30-foot bin, or 12-foot mini bin, popping up at events around the country, including:

April 16-18: Union Station, DC

April 19-22: Earth Day Dallas

April 20-22: Union Square, Union Square NYC

Want to get a jump start on your commitment to recycling in April? Click HERE to get started.