We wanted to let you in on a bit of news. As of this week, we have a new CEO at Sweet Leaf Tea. This does of course mean that Clayton Christopher, one of our founders, is stepping down as CEO, but not to worry…Clayton will still be a part of the company as he takes a place on our board. He has put his heart, sweat and as we all know, Granny’s recipe, into building the Sweet Leaf Tea brand—and thank goodness for that! But, as any entrepreneur knows, there comes a time when one must take a break and catch his (in this case) breath. For all of us here in Austin, this just means we’ll be spotting Clayton a bit more on Town Lake or Barton Springs this summer. (You can still follow him on Twitter @Idea_Clayton to see where the open road takes him on his travels.)

So, who is our new CEO? Well, we didn’t have to look too far for him. Dan Costello has been a part of the tea’m for over a year. And this certainly isn’t his first rodeo. He’s bringing years of beverage experience with him. Something we all believe will come in handy.

In fact, I can officially report that we, the tea’mates and dogs of Sweet Leaf Tea, have taking a liking to Dan. He survived the muddiest of ACL’s this year with a smile, he likes to jam out in the car, and he’s even worn flip-flops to the office (at least once!). But most importantly, he’s been leading the charge to get Sweet Leaf Tea closer to you. We are very proud to have him in the Sweet Leaf Tea family and expect great things for the future.

It’s an exciting time here at Sweet Leaf Tea HQ, and we’re glad you’re a part of it! We’ve got a lot of cool things in the works. From new flavors to new packages and upcoming contests….yes, the sweetest is yet to come.

Thanks for being a fan!

Yes, that’s right!  Sweet Leaf Tea has just had triplets!  No, Granny’s not having babies—she’s just too old for that.  (No offense, Granny.)

What I mean is, we’ve just welcomed three new family members to our flavor line-up!  Introducing “Lemon Iced Tea,” “Citrus Green Tea,” and “Diet Citrus Green Tea.”  Aren’t they cute???

Sweet Leaf Tea's New Flavors: Citrus Green Tea, Lemon Iced Tea and Diet Citrus Green Tea!

Sweet Leaf Tea's New Flavors: Citrus Green Tea, Lemon Iced Tea and Diet Citrus Green Tea!

Let me back up.  I’m Megan, the Innovation Manager here at Sweet Leaf Tea.  And to be honest, I’m usually too buried in spreadsheets to do anything else. (What? We have a blog??)  But as it turns out, those spreadsheets told me that we were missing some of the most popular flavors on the market!  Thus the birth of Lemon, Citrus, and Diet Citrus.

Citrus Green Tea is already a major hit around here.  We brought it into the office on Friday for the first time, and all the cans were immediately drunk, taken home, or stashed in a secret hiding place.  (Don’t worry guys—we’ll get more.)

Citrus Green and Lemon Iced Tea come in our new cans too!

Citrus Green and Lemon Iced Tea come in our new cans too!

More on Citrus Green’s siblings, Lemon and Diet Citrus, next week!

Yes, you might have heard us chatting up the fact that our new cans are available at  7-Eleven stores in Austin and Phoenix. We even had a Twitter contest to see who could find the new cans first. (@sugarrob, you are super quick on the draw!) As the news of these fancy new cans spread, we had several Tweeps and FB fans asking, “Where can I find those cans?”

Sweet Leaf Peach Iced Tea 16 oz. Can

Sweet Leaf Peach Iced Tea 16 oz. Can

Well, I finally have an answer. At least for some of you…

As of last week, we found out that our cans will now be available in 935 7-Eleven stores in Texas, Utah, Colorado, Las Vegas and Arizona. That’s a whole lot of sweet goodness spreading across the states and a whole lot of opportunities for y’all to get your hands on those cans. Think of all the road trips you’ll now be able to go on knowing that  Sweet Leaf Tea will be available along the route to keep you fueled for your journey. Oh, yes. Indeed, thank heaven for 7-Eleven.

Now for the rest of you who are still looking to find Sweet Leaf Tea cans at your local convenience store, I have a pretty good solution. Just click on the request form here and remember cans come in four delicious flavors (Original, Mint & Honey, Peach and Raspberry)…as of right now.

New 16oz. Sweet Leaf Tea Cans Now Chilling at 7-Eleven

New 16oz. Sweet Leaf Tea Cans Now Chilling at 7-Eleven

So how much is 449,000 ounces of tea? Well, enough to fill up an 18-wheeler. And that’s how much we donated to Feed the Children who was looking for food and supplies for Haiti.

Closer to home as Danny mentioned Monday, we were able to set up a table in front of Dominican Joe Coffee Shop along-side the Peace Peddler herself, Jamie Josephs to offer people one of our new 16 oz cans in exchange for a donation of ANY size!  The Haiti Disaster Relief Fundraiser was put on by the kind folks at Markarios. Danny and April had the booth set up from before 11AM until around 3:30 and in that amount of time we raised around $350! That’s a lot of cans, I tell you what!

Sweet Leaf Tea 16oz Cans for Haiti Relief Donations

Sweet Leaf Tea 16oz Cans for Haiti Relief Donations

Check out the footage from KXAN (our local NBC affiliate) and Fox 7 News! I think that the people of Austin really came out to show their support and I hope that in 6 months when this issue seems like a distant memory, that we are still sharing much-needed aide with the people of Haiti.

So as most of ya’ll might know already, about 2 weeks ago we moved offices further down South Congress to Penn Field.  We are right next to Ruta Maya, Clear Channel Radio, and our good friends over at the GIBSON GUITAR SHOW ROOM!  We love it!  Tons of room, beautiful space, huge kitchen, etc.  So, naturally with the Holidays rolling around, we wanted to show it off.  In a big way….

SO WE HAD A HOLIDAY PARTY!!!! <== Click Here!

It was great!  250+ people showed up and had one hell of a time.  The nights festiviites included:

DJ Orion Pumping out the beats till 1am!

- Ping Pong

Ping pong with Clayton

- Darts

- Old School Nintendo NES == with classic games from Super Mario Bros. to Contra to ExciteBike.

- Photobooth

- specialty drinks (see below)

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- Karaoke

- A Crazy Dance party

This wasn’t your ordinary work holiday party.  No showing up for 10 minutes to “show face” and jet,  hoping your poopy pants boss wouldn’t see you leave. There was so much going on you HAD to stay till the end.

Towards the end of the night Happy, Charla, Elizabeth, Emily and Myself decided to kick off the EXTREME Dancing!  Which included break dancing and ended at salsa.
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Check out our Flickr! to see all the photos from the party. They are worth gazing at!

Happy Holidays to all. Safe Travels.  Check in before NYE for an update on our activities!

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