Class Action: Celestial Seasonings Honey Vanilla Chamomile Tea Contains Less Honey, Vanilla Than Buyers Expect

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A proposed class action alleges the labeling of Celestial Seasonings’ Honey Vanilla Chamomile Herbal Tea is misleading given the product contains only “trace” amounts of honey and vanilla.

The lawsuit argues that reasonable consumers, upon reading the product’s label, would be misled into believing the tea is flavored with real honey and vanilla when, in truth, the honey and vanilla taste is “not derived exclusively or even predominantly” from honey and vanilla sources.

According to the case, consumers prefer foods flavored with their characterizing food ingredients—“i.e., honey flavor from honey and vanilla flavor from vanilla beans”—and, as a result of the defendant’s representations, expect the tea to contain significant amounts of real honey and vanilla.

Moreover, the labeling requirements for vanilla-flavored foods are particularly stringent due to the “rampant misleading labeling of vanilla products,” the suit adds.

The chamomile tea’s ingredients list reveals, however, that the product contains “Natural Honey Flavor With Other Natural Flavors,” which the case interprets to mean the tea’s characterizing taste is not derived from real honey and vanilla sources. If it were, the ingredient list would separately note honey and vanilla extract, the lawsuit contends.

Per the complaint, the Honey Vanilla Chamomile tea is flavored with, at best, only isolated honey components and a “minute” amount of vanilla supplemented by artificial vanilla flavors:

The case goes on to assert that consumers “will not feel they need to turn over the box to double check the ingredient list” given the front of the tea box displays no qualifying terms—i.e., “flavored” or “natural flavors”—to indicate tea’s the flavor may not be derived from the characterizing honey and vanilla ingredients.

“The unqualified ‘honey’ and ‘vanilla’ representations on the Product caused consumers, like Plaintiff, to believe that the Product’s honey and vanilla taste comes predominantly, if not exclusively, from honey and vanilla,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit argues that Celestial Seasonings, knowing consumers will pay more for products flavored with real honey and vanilla, designed the packaging of its Honey Vanilla Chamomile tea to “deceive, mislead, and defraud” consumers.

The case looks to represent all New York residents who purchased the Honey Vanilla Chamomile herbal tea within the applicable statute of limitations period.

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