Tea and Craft Beer…A Perfect Pair

Tea and Craft Beer…A Perfect Pair:

Last month we shared with customers an article in Indy Week about our friends at Trophy Brewing using tea in a couple of their latest brews. Specifically, the El Hombre and Wit-Tea-Est brews use our Roasted Almonds fruit tea and Ginseng herbal tea, respectively. Trophy’s customers are raving about these additions, and they aren’t the only ones enjoying this latest trend in craft beer.

Beerinnovations.com recently discussed the year’s top 7 craft beer trends…among those are what they called “hybrid styles.” What’s a “hybrid” beer, you ask? Well, they describe it as a beer that is not “technically correct or brewed to an exact recipe,” adding whiskey, fruit, spices, or, you guessed it, tea leaves to the mixture.

Tea is a versatile thing. You can drink it, cook with it, take a bath in it; the list of possibilities goes on and on. But not only is it versatile, the flavor profiles are endless. In 2014, FastCasual.com wrote an article about beverage trends. Included was none other than, tea! When describing the tea trend, the article quoted Senior Research Analyst for Euromonitor, an international marketing research and strategy firm, Elizabeth Friend, with this, “It’s a really good way to differentiate because there’s so much you can do with those flavors. Tea can be healthy or indulgent, it can be seasonal, there’s really no limit with what you can do with tea and it can pair very well with any type of concept.” That “concept” has expanded to beer, and many are enjoying it.

If beer isn’t your thing, don’t fret. There’s something else you might like to test that has a little different flavor and offers a very miniscule alcoholic content. Kombucha. Say it with me… Kom-booch-ah! If for nothing else, it’s a fun word, right?

You’ve probably heard of Kombucha before, or you’ve seen the bottled versions popping up in stores all over. Kombucha is a fermented, probiotic drink made from tea, sugar, a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast), and a starter. While Kombucha has a relatively small percentage of alcohol (usually around .05%), people are enjoying this fizzy drink for its many health benefits, tastiness, and even as a replacement for their hoppy brew.

Want to give Kombucha a try? We fell in love with Tribucha, currently the Triangle of North Carolina’s only dedicated kombucha brewer. Stop by the store and grab a bottle. You can find them in our refrigerated case!

https://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/trophys-new-horchata-stout-is-the-brewerys-best-beer-yet/Content?oid=5005463
https://www.fastcasual.com/articles/tea-craft-soda-beer-bubbling-up-in-beverage-trends/
https://www.eatclean.com/trends/kombucha-tea-trend
https://beerinnovations.com/press/beer-industry-news/4502