Alcoholic cold brew tea is fresh twist for RTD category

Award-winning drinks manufacturer Broadland Drinks is carving out a new sub- category within an evolving market with the launch of Twistea, its latest innovation in the canned RTD category.

Twistea is an alcoholic, semi-sparkling cold brew tea offered in four refreshing flavours that resonate with a new generation of RTD consumers, including Blood Orange & Mandarin, White Peach & Mango, Lemon & Lime and Rhubarb & Ginger. Made using real tea leaves, cold-brewed for 24 hours, vegan-friendly and only 89 calories, Twistea provides an exciting opportunity for retailers as we enter the summer season.

Whilst new to the UK market, alcoholic tea is an established and growing category in the US, where it is worth $582m, a figure that is predicted to more than double by 2024. This isn’t the first time that trends from the US have hit the UK shelves with an influx of new launches in recent years - think of Hard Seltzers, which originally took the US by storm.

Alcoholic tea is set to be the next big trend as consumers, particularly millennials, are looking for lighter alternatives that are less sweet than established RTDs, but that still deliver on taste. With an estimated 62 per cent of 18-24 year olds consuming iced tea, there is clearly an established customer base for retailers to capitalise on by choosing to get ahead of the trend and stock Twistea over the warmer months.

“Iced tea is already a firm favourite in the UK, with coffee shop chains such as Starbucks and Costa offering evolving ranges of flavoured iced teas," said Fran Draper, Marketing Director at Broadland Drinks. "Consumers are used to, and enjoy cross-category innovation, so as a nation of tea drinkers, Twistea has been developed to offer consumers a fresh experience, while providing retailers with a strong category opportunity to increase sales”