I hope you all enjoyed my last Drink of the Week featuring Karma Wellness Water! Keeping up with our new category, this week highlights a company with so much background to their beverage. Recently I sat in on a presentation given by CEO of Steaz, Linda Barron, who was so passionate about what her company does and the wellness story behind everything, including their fun logo. Having never heard of this drink before I decided to give it a try, and WOW. Honestly, I am not one to really reach for a drink that says green tea on it, because iced tea is probably my least favorite drink, but my skepticism has truly changed after trying Steaz blueberry pomegranate flavor. Game changer, and bonus it’s organic!
Where it all began…
This company was started in 2002 by two entrepreneurs who were originally in the natural supplement industry (ironic I know). Since then Steaz has grown significantly and has made some impressive innovations, among their firsts are:
- First Organic Sparkling Green Tea Soda
- First Organic Energy Drink
- First Organic Iced Green Tea in a can
- First Organic Energy Shot
Quite the extraordinary track record this creative business has! Steaz has one goal in mind with all of its drinks, and that’s to help people live healthier lives. In order to achieve this mission, Steaz is labeled as USDA organic as well as fair trade, a label Linda Barron is very proud of. She said that they import their ingredients from all over the world, and their farmers are incredibly important too, which is why on each can of a Steaz drink you will find a picture of one of these farmers on it.
Why the can?
A question you may be asking yourself when glancing at a Steaz drink is why its in a can, I mean we all want transportability and the ability to close up our liquid for later? Barron says that the reason behind the can is the environment. Originally, the company did bottle their beverages in glass bottles, but found that less product could fit on a pallet, that would fit on a truck, that would be shipped all over the world. With the environment in mind Steaz decided to reduce their carbon footprint, and switched over to cans, which allowed for more product to be transported. The other motive behind the can is that aluminum is one of the most recycled products in the world, making Steaz feel good about the product they are selling to us consumers.
Evolution of the Steaz logo:
Logo 1: At first the company settled on simply putting their name and the one drink they offered at this time as their logo. The name ‘Steaz’ comes from tea, with the S added for sparkling and the Z added to make it unique.
Logo 2: This logo was made in order to just show the name of the brand, without the added words of ‘Green Tea Soda’ which ultimately made the logo in my opinion more generic, which the company wanted to change immediately.
Logo 3: This logo incorporated the Flower of Life, the new image that would represent Steaz. Though, this particular image seemed too digitized.
Current Logo: Finally, the current logo of Steaz has been created. In the image here the flower is made to look more drawn and simple, and the addition of the tea leaf in the word is another great additive.
Behind the logo
The logo that we see today on a Steaz beverage is one with an important message behind it. The logo is actually the symbol for the Flower of Life, which presents the motto for this company, “The Flower of Life. The Power of Tea.” It is all really about balancing our mind, body, and soul, and realizing that there are connections between people and the planet and a company and its consumers. Also, if you look a little closer you will see a small tea leaf as a part of the letter T in Steaz which I love because it is so small yet so significant.
I personally love the background story of a company, and this part of the presentation is where I was really sold on Steaz as a company. I think it is so important with the growing of all of these big food industries to stay true to the product you originally set out to make, and not compromise this for dollar signs. Steaz is a product that you can feel good about drinking because what your putting in your body matters, and helping out the environment while doing this also doesn’t hurt.
See some pretty pictures and learn more about Steaz as a brand by following their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook pages, and seriously try the blueberry pomegranate flavor.
