AriZona is moving away from its “controversial” Sweet Tea label

Well, I guess it was more like an Internet rumor, conspiracy, or birth of a new urban legend. There were rumblings going around on blogs, where someone initially claimed the labeling was racist, supposedly portraying slaves at the plantation house on the cover of the cans and bottles. If I had seen those images, I would not have purchased the tea.

I have been drinking this tea for a few years and had never seen any racially insensitive appearing images on the tea containers. With that person’s rants, there was a phone number to call the Arizona company and complain about the images.

It was a cause not worth my time, but it was a good time to acknowledge the fact that sometimes people try to make you see racial smoke where no fire exists. It is quite possible that many individuals took the bait, called this company, and fired off a few emails.

Okay I had not thought about that campaign until I was in the 7-Eleven last week and thought I would buy four 23 oz cans of this delicious Sweet Tea. When I reached into the cooler to load up, I noticed two different labels. I thought to myself, “whaaaattttt?” did that little campaign work?

The wording was the same: Original Brand, Arizona, Southern Style, Real Brewed, and Sweet Tea. However, on my left were about five cans of the old labeling with the plantation on it, and to my left were about 20 cans of the new labels with faded black and white images of two old steamships. Waiting for the next rumor of someone spotting slaves on these ships…

Maybe the company gave in and decided to phase out the plantation images due to the rumors. Again, time will tell.