Tag: hard tea

Beverage of the Week: Loverboy’s hard teas are easy summer drinks… except one

A new hard tea contender brings plenty of flavor at 90 calories per can. It’s not always a good thing.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

The summer of 2023 has been the backdrop to a hard tea revival. Several new contenders have come after the shoddy throne upon which Twisted Tea proudly sits and watches monster truck rallies.

Sometime it’s worked well in a common sense mashup — see Arnold Palmer Spiked Half & Half’s debut back in April. Other times it’s been a bit of a mess, like how Jiant made a bunch of tea that tastes like white wine, somehow. Today we’re on to our third entry of the summer — Loverboy’s low calorie, slim can offerings.

Loverboy isn’t quite coming after Twisted Tea. At 90 calories per can it’s clear they’re pushing up against the hard seltzer marketplace. Advertising an all organic recipe list, sweetened with monk fruit, means its taking a more upscale approach to the concept. So did it pan out? Or are we going to regret trying to make hard tea a thing again?

Beverage of the Week: Jiant hard tea tastes a lot like white wine, somehow

Jiant’s hard teas are boozy and low on calories, but they all taste kinda the same.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

There are three trends I’ve noticed as brewers and distillers ramp up their efforts to ply our great nation with booze this summer. The first is that tequila, while never truly out of style, is getting a big push in the seltzer and canned cocktail game. The second is that we’re throwing peach into everything and making a bunch of good drinks taste like gummy candy (not a judgment, peach rings rule).

The third is that we’re giving hard tea another shot. That’s great, because having a market dominated by Twisted Tea provides a massive opportunity.

Hard coffee was, despite its potential, a bust. Per Kate Bernot — who is a wonderful beer writer you should absolutely follow — canned, boozed-up coffees sold only 1 percent of the volume that Twisted Tea comprised in 2022.  And Twisted Tea, as we’re all aware, suuuuuuucks.

So instead there’s been a push toward expanding hard tea beyond its current horizon. Earlier this year I kicked the tires on Spiked Arnold Palmer and found it to be a worthy replacement for the bile-tasting industry leader. Now comes Jiant, a craft-brewed sparkling hard tea that clocks in at seven percent ABV and between 130 and 150 calories per 12 ounce can, depending on your source. My variety pack came with four flavors; peach, kiwi strawberry, mixed berry and half & half.

One of those is pretty good. Let’s find out which.