Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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A TREND ON TAP continued from page 34 understand tea in new ways— and experiment with other bev- erage pros. That can all help your business maintain its energy. "These projects are not seri- ous money makers, but they do inspire us to rethink our views of tea," says Maya Tea owner Manish Shah, who in addition to his partnerships with Dogfish Head and Borderlands, collab- orated on a tea-beer this year with Georgia-based Terrapin Beer Company. "I like the idea of doing more tea and beer projects just to see how far we can push the leaf. I am not much inclined to just sit here and make Earl Grey all day." One question remains, how- Making Sah'tea beer at Dogfish Head in Delaware to move product out the door, of course, but the brewers looking for great tea tend to be small, and many of the beers using quality tea that have hit the market are lim- ited runs or seasonal. Mem Tea's Gilbert Tsang estimates he sells only around 20 to 25 pounds per month to his Night Shift partners, and the beer actually won't be pro- duced this winter (it's market- ed as a warm-weather sipper). But still, a beer partner- 7DNH LW IURP D EUHZHU We asked leaders of craft beer companies what they look for in a tea partner or other supplier. Here's a sampling of their thoughts: Blake Collins, owner of Borderlands Brewing Company in Tucson, Ariz.: "First: Is it local? Then, quality. We're putting our heart and soul into these recipes, these batches of beer. We don't want to add mediocre ingredients to something we're trying to show off." Joel Manning, brewmaster at Mill Street Brewery in Toronto: "Flexibility in packaging is important. We use a lot of tea, and our partner [Metropolitan Tea] actually has a 35-pound bulk pack of loose-leaf tea. That's a lot cheaper than a 4.5-pound pack." ship carries value. Having your logo on a bottle of well- regarded beer boosts your vis- ibility among consumers who care about taste. And many brewers will incorporate their partners in a range of other marketing activities. "They're young guys," Mem's Tsang says of the Night Shift owners. "They have a lot of open houses and they're very active in social media. We just did a little open house with them where we had a food truck come in, a choco- late company came in and we were all doing demos. There's a benefit to that." Cuddling up to suds makers can also let you and your staff 36 Tea Almanac 2013 Brian "Spike" Buckowski, brewmaster and co-founder of Terrapin Beer Company in Athens, Ga.: "Number one is obviously freshness. We do an oatmeal imperial stout using coffee from Jittery Joe's, a local roaster. They roast the coffee, and then literally two hours later we're putting it in the beer." Sam Calagione, founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales in Milton, Del.: "The first thing you do is find a tea company that loves tea more than they love money. That's what craft brewers are all about. Money is necessary, but it's not the end of what we do. Then it just comes down to the quality and creativity [a potential partner] brings to the process." ever: Is the tea and craft beer combination something that can actually grow and evolve? Or is it simply a twist some crafty brewers cooked up to separate themselves from the competition? Beer experts are confident in the idea's longevity. "I see the opportunity to experiment just ratcheting up," says Dogfish Head's Calagione. "What I love about using a tea is that some of the notes I get out of the chai, black pepper and stuff, are ingre- dients brewers are already playing around with. Instead of grinding black pepper in or throwing in chunks of coriander, finding a tea with those notes already in there gives you way more complexity." Collins of Borderlands puts it more succinctly: "Beer is infinite. The more variables you add, the larger the spectrum becomes." That bodes well for the tea-beer combo. Variation, after all, is the leaf's specialty. Some quotations for this story came from "Steeping Around," a podcast hosted by Maya Tea's Manish Shah. Fresh Cup and "Steeping Around" partnered to develop questions for Brian Buckowski [of Terrapin Beer Company], Blake Collins and Sam Calagione when those beer-tea leaders were featured on the podcast. Listen to the interviews in full at steepingaround.com. COURTESY OF DOGFISH HEAD CRAFT BREWED ALES COURTESY OF DOGFISH HEAD CRAFT BREWED ALES