AriZona products

By Cecilia Levine From Daily Voice

For the first time in more than 30 years, AriZona iced tea’s sacred 99-cent price tag may be on the chopping block.

The company’s Brooklyn-born founder Don Vultaggio told The New York Times that President Donald Trump’s 50% steel and aluminum tariffs, enacted in June, are hitting the brand where it hurts: the can. 

AriZona’s headquarters sit on Long Island in Woodbury, with a massive production plant, AriZonaLand, in Keasbey, NJ, churning out the iconic tallboys that have stayed the same price since 1997.

AriZona burns through more than 100 million pounds of aluminum every year, 20% of which comes from Canada, the Times reports. With costs soaring, Vultaggio admitted even he may not be able to hold the line.

Vultaggio, 73, who has long built his empire around keeping costs low, told the outlet that it's only a matter of time before "the consumer is going to have to pay the price."

In an interview with NBC’s TODAY last year, Vultaggio recalled how AriZona found success almost instantly after its 1992 launch. With cans designed by his wife, the drinks stood out on shelves, decked in their now-iconic turquoise, pink, and yellow, and, according to Vultaggio, they were produced faster and shipped more efficiently than the competition.

But global chaos nearly crushed the brand’s signature bargain.

The fall of the Soviet Union, then the heavyweight in aluminum supply, sent metal prices through the roof and forced AriZona to nudge its cans above the sacred dollar mark—an instant turnoff that tanked sales, The Times said in its latest report.

Once the market cooled, Vultaggio went back to basics, channeling the penny-pinching wisdom he picked up from his father at the old A.&P. grocery chain. In 1997, he unleashed the now-legendary 99-cent tallboy, a price point so magnetic it sent sales rocketing 30 percent by the year 2000, according to The Times.

That principle helped him build AriZona into a cultural icon, marketed with a simple Instagram motto: “Fighting inflation since ‘92.” 

"We’re successful, we’re debt-free we own everything," Vultaggio told TODAY hosts last year. "Why have people who are having a hard time paying rent pay more for our drink?"

Just more than a year ago, he said he wouldn't raise prices anytime soon, adding: "We’re going to fight as hard as we can... consumers are my friend."

The company's website says its core tenants have remained the same ever since: Quality, value, and fun.

Vultaggio has not yet said for certain whether or not he will alter the price of his 99-cent teas. Daily Voice has reached out to the company for comment.

A tongue-in-cheek photo album pinned to the top of the AriZona Instagram page is titled "Don Vultaggio Always Fighting The Good Fight." And it proves its founder's dedication is unwavering.

Click here for more from the New York Times.