Posts Tagged ‘natural’

The Cult of Personality

September 27, 2009

It used to be that the stereotype of the salesman was that of the smooth, slick, fast-talking used car salesman.  The reason was that it worked.  People were drawn to someone who was outgoing, aggressive, and made a lot of promises.  In recent years, the image of the salesman has changed somewhat, or at least I thought so.  People wised up a bit, and realized that it wasn’t how loudly or authoritatively someone talked, but instead, there was a trend toward being natural and authentic.  So much so, in fact, that salespeople, as well as broadcasters, were taught to talk naturally, as if you’re talking to someone, more so than to just shout.

But sometimes, it still seems like it’s the person who uses the traditional sales approach, or more accurately, has a loud or outgoing personality, who flourishes, especially for people who aren’t quite sure what they are looking for and are therefore looking for a figure of authority.  You know the type – the person who can dazzle you with a speech and make your eyes glaze over (“Wow – this person really knows what he’s talking about.”).  Then at the end of the speech, you don’t remember what was said, just that it was said in an authoritative way.  They can do a Powerpoint presentation but aren’t always the most effective at getting the job done.  But it’s comforting to have a person tell you what you need to do.

We see the love of this personality in sports.  Look at the Brett Favre phenomenon.  He’s outgoing and emotional, so the fans and media love him.  But as good as he is, he only has one championship in a nearly 20-year career.  He also is a mistake-prone quarterback, throwing more interceptions than anyone in NFL history.

Look at tennis.  Who do you think the casual fan would say is was the best tennis player out of this group:  Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe, Mats Wilander, Stephan Edberg, or Boris Becker?  Hands down, people would say McEnroe, despite the fact that all of the players listed won between 6 and 8 Grand Slam championships.  It’s McEnroe’s personality – he made a lot of noise and people remember that.

I’m not saying that all loud people lack authenticity, or that all laid back people are genuine.  I’ll I’m saying is don’t be fooled by the person who talks with an air of authority without authenticity.  Don’t overlook the person who is down to earth, which is easy to do if your head is in the clouds.

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Honest Tea and Honest Ade — Healthy Drinks that Taste Great

May 29, 2009

I love Honest Tea and Honest Ade drinks.  They taste great, are healthy and organic, and they only have a little bit of sugar – 12 grams per serving for the juices, and less for the teas.  Most iced teas or fruit juices either have way, way too much sugar (usually more than twice the amount of these drinks), or have artificial sweeteners like Aspartame or Sucralose that can be unhealthy.

My favorite Honest Tea/Ade drink is the Cranberry Lemonade.  I don’t mean to sound weird, but I love this drink so much, I can’t get enough of it.  I have about 3 a day and the only reason I don’t have about 10 a day is that I need to drink water the rest of the time.  The Cranberry Lemonade only has water, sugar, lemons, and cranberries in it, plus carrot extract and citric acid.  It is definitely one of my favorite drinks of all time.

They have a lot of cool flavors.  The Superfruit Punch has yumberry, goji berry, pear juice, grape juice, strawberry juice, berry flavor, carrot juice, and cranberry juice.  How can you go wrong with that?  There’s also Orange Mango, which sometimes has Mangosteen in it (don’t ask me why other times it’s just plain Orange Mango).

Pomegranate Blue and Pomegranate White Tea with Acai are full of antioxidants.  There are a bunch of flavors of teas – green, white, black – that are all great too.

Honestly, the kids flavors are really very good, even for adults.  The Goodness Grape, Tropical Tango Punch, and Berry Berry Good Lemonade are all healthy and taste great.  They come in packs of juice boxes for kids.

Again, sounds weird, but I was so excited when I saw Honest Tea in California last summer that I bought several cases.  I’ve been drinking Honest Tea almost every day since I found out about it several years ago.

One sour note is that recently I bought three Superfruit Punches that tasted and smelled very bad.  There was absolutely something wrong with them.  I’ve noticed this a few times in the past with this flavor, and I think a couple of times with the Cranberry Lemonade.  We’re only talking about this happening about 10 times total, and I’ve probably drank about 3,000 bottles of Honest Tea and Honest Ade.

I emailed and called the company at their location in Bethesda and got no response.  That was disappointing since I’m one of their best customers, but not unexpected.  No matter what the organization, it seems that people think the best way to solve a problem is to ignore it, not reply, and hope it goes away.  I’ve also asked them if there are ways to buy it in bulk for a cheaper rate and they sometimes don’t respond, and other times they say no.

Anyway, I write this blog entry neither to promote Honest Tea nor to bash them, but just to say that I think they have some really great, healthy drinks.  The only thing that could be improved would be if they offered large bottles at a lower price per ounce.  Imagine how much healthier Americans would be if they drank these drinks instead of sodas and coffees.

Just being honest.

Update – 6/17/09

Well, they contacted me back after the second email.  It turns out that because they don’t use preservatives, there’s a slight chance that a small percentage of the drinks may be less than perfect.  However, according to my calculations, less than one percent of the drinks are affected (I drink more than 1000 a year).  That’s a small price to pay for something that is natural and organic.

In fact, one of the great things about Honest Tea and Honest Ade is not just what’s in it – great flavors and antioxidants – (can you imagine anything with more antioxidants than the Pomegranate Blue or Mango Acai White Tea flavors?) – but what is not in it – any type of preservatives.  They are also made without “antibiotics, pesticides, irradiation or bioengineering.”  The lack of pesticides is important because pesticides and herbicides have been implicated in all sorts of health problems, including autism and breast cancer.

So, anyway, I went to the Honest Tea Offices, and they took me to their vault, where there are cases and cases of every flavor of Honest Tea and Ade.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  Well, okay, that may be a slight exaggeration.  Maybe it was more like Christmas. I got to choose a few replacement drinks.  I even got a glimpse of the 64-ounce teas.

My only regret is that now there are so many great flavors, it’s impossible to try them all.

Update, 7/10/09 – Some more of the Cranberry Lemonades and Superfruit Punches are a little off.  Maybe it’s the summer heat. I’m reluctantly switching to the Orange Mango with Mangosteen, Blueberry Pomegranate, and Peach White Tea for now…

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