With the rising interest in specialty and artisanal foods and beverages in recent years have come a number of the latter that have sought to merge tea in one way or another with something that has a little more of a punch. As noted in an earlier article on this blog, these include various formulations of vodka, liqueur, and malt beverages, among other things.
If beer, ale and that sort of libation happens to be more to your liking, then you’re also in luck. There’s probably a flavored beer to please every imaginable taste nowadays and of course there are a number of brewers out there who have experimented with melding tea and beer. One of the more long standing entrants into this category is iKi Bier, a product of the Netherlands that combines green tea and yuzu, a type of Asian citrus fruit. Also from Europe, there’s Lindemans Tea Beer, a product of Brouwerij Lindemans, of Belgium.
For even more of this sort of thing, take a look at Sah’tea, a product of Delaware-based Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. Described as “a modern update on a 9th century Finnish proto-beer,” it combines rye, juniper berries, and “a sort of tea made with black tea, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and black pepper.” Of course, black tea would not likely have been found in Finland in the 9th century, but we quibble. Enjoy it anyway.
According to their web site, California-based brewer The Lost Abbey, has been contemplating a T.E.A. series, which is a line of Traditional Experimental Ales that will include various flavored teas from the popular tea merchant, The Republic of Tea. More on this effort at Lost Abbey’s web site.
Yerba Mate is not — at least technically speaking — a type of tea, but is a tea-like beverage much loved in South America. So it’s worth noting the existence of Mateveza. It also hails from California, from the Mendocino Brewing Company. As the name suggests, it’s a mix of yerba mate and beer. Mateveza has been around for several years now and is available in two varieties – MateVeza Organic India Pale Ale and MateVeza Organic Black Lager. More on these here.
Lots of tea chatter on William’s blog, Tea Guy Speaks!
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