Even when we’re trying to make healthy choices for ourselves and our family, it’s easy to overlook drinks. Unfortunately, skipping over labels means you’re potentially ingesting some not-so-great ingredients, especially sugar. Thankfully, there are brands out there that make it easy to be more mindful about our beverage choices. Honest Kids is not only fair trade and non-GMO certified, but a few years ago the brand eliminated added sugar from its juice packs, endearing them to parents everywhere.

The History of Honest Kids

Honest Kids is an offshoot of the Honest Drinks brand, and just like the parent company, serves up delicious sips—with a child-friendly spin. It all started while Seth Goldman was attending graduate school at the Yale School of Management. He realized he and one of his professors, Barry Nalebuff, shared a love for tea that wasn’t heavily sweetened. In 1997, the two teamed up to create a brand of tea made with real tea leaves. About fifteen years later, the founders’ children started requesting fruity flavor options that would appeal to them (and their friends), so Honest Drinks evolved to include a kids line that abides by the same quality standards.

Honest Kids Company Mission

Honest Kids shares the same mission with its parent company: to create healthy, organic beverages that taste delicious. The brand got its start in downtown Bethesda, Maryland in 1998, inside a converted mortgage broker’s office. In an effort to minimize environmental impact, the renovated space incorporated upcycled materials and used furniture. The company implements fair trade practices and uses USDA certified organic ingredients.

Benefits of Honest Kids

With a fair trade business model, the brand pays back premiums to the communities where it sources its teas, which has helped empower the community to improve farmland, educate families, and make healthcare more accessible. Leaves are picked by hand around the world (in places like China and India) by a teams affectionately called “pluckers.” They choose the most delicate top leaves to dry and process using a natural chemical reaction process. All the ingredients are grown without chemicals, pesticides, or GMOs. In 2013, Honest Kids removed organic cane sugar from its formulas, opting to sweeten the drinks naturally with fruit juice.

Top Honest Kids Products

In lunch bags or picnic baskets, you can’t go wrong with any of these eight-packs:

Honest Kids Appley Ever After

This refreshing drink is brimming with apple flavor thanks to an organic concentrate that’s mixed with filtered water and extra vitamin C to boost nutrition. They’re the perfect addition to the snack cooler after weekend sports games.

Honest Kids Super Fruit Punch

This pouch is ready to serve up a trifecta of fruit flavor with strawberry, watermelon, and grape. Each drink delivers 100 percent of the recommended daily serving of vitamin C.

Honest Kids Berry Berry Good Lemonade

Here’s a drink that keeps things simple—with a twist. This classic lemonade has a splash of natural cranberry juice to treat the taste buds of kids and adults alike.

Best Kid-Friendly Recipes

If you’re cooking with the youngest family members in mind, here are our best kid-friendly recipes. Whether you get them involved with the actual cooking process is up to you, but the flavors are perfect for everyone.

Gluten-Free Fish Sticks Recipe

We use cod for this family-friendly recipe because it has a mild flavor that will appeal to young taste buds. Baked with a crispy crust made of corn flakes and potato chips, it’ll be a weeknight winner.

Almond Butter and Jam Cracker Sandwiches Recipe

This treat is ready-made for after-school snack sessions. It combines almond butter and raspberry jam between two grain crackers, then dunks the whole thing in a chocolate coating.

7 Quick, Easy, Fun, and Healthy Recipes to Cook With Your Kids

Here’s a roundup of 7 easy recipes you can cook with your kids and everyone will love. Include a couple in your next meal plan and you’re bound to find a new favorite.

Honest Kids, Appley Ever After Kid's Juice Boxes