An even more thorough explanation comes from Barry Nalebuff (Cofounder and Chairman) in the comments (http://anerroroccurredwhileprocessingthisdirective.com/200

An even more thorough explanation comes from Barry Nalebuff (Cofounder and Chairman) in the comments (http://anerroroccurredwhileprocessingthisdirective.com/2009/09/15/honest-tea-not-so-honest/#comment-567 http://anerroroccurredwhileprocessingthisdirective.com/2009/...): When you pick the name Honest, you have to live up to the name. We recently switched to a thinner bottle, one which is 22% lighter. This saves us money and saves the world resources. The only problem is that the thinner bottle was getting dented. In fact, this was a big problem that forced us to redesign the bottle. To help keep its shape, the inside must be under pressure. When the bottle is filled with hot tea, the liquid expands and the plug on the bottom pops out. (If you squeeze real hard, you can make this happen.) Then as the tea cools, the plug pops back in and creates the pressure on the inside that prevents the bottles from being damaged. The thinner plastic means we needed much more pressure and hence a much bigger plug. There really is 16.9 oz. inside and we aren’t trying to pull a fast one. But I can see how you could get confused or could think that we are trying to be deceptive. Taller and thinner still means lots less material. That said, we clearly need to do a better job explaining why the bottle has this design. In the next label run we will definitely say something to explain this to our customers. I hope that makes you feel that you can still trust us and will stick with us. And thanks for helping keep us honest.