New hard tea and hard lemonade brands continue to populate shelves, while the No. 1 hard tea brand continues to grow its share, despite being more than 20 years in the game.
Fishers Island founder Bronya Shillo, Owl’s Brew founder and CEO Jennie Ripps and New Belgium senior director of brands & innovation Dave Knospe shared the stage at Brewbound Live in Marina del Rey, California, earlier this month to discuss strategies for staying competitive in the crowded market, and how they’ve carved out unique identities for their brands.
Over the last 52 weeks (ending December 3), ready-to-drink bev-alc (RTDs) has grown dollar sales +6.1% year-over-year (YoY), adding an additional $565.5 million to the segment. Much of that growth – more than $393 million worth – has come from hard tea and lemonade, which has grown its own dollar sales +26.4% YoY and volume +20.9% in the period.
Hopping on the tea train with all that growth is intriguing for any brand. But what gives brands like New Belgium more incentive to join the movement is the type of consumers flocking to the segment. New Belgium has expanded its Voodoo Ranger brand – known for its high ABV IPAs – with Voodoo Ranger Hardcharged Tea, expanding nationally in 2024.
“The drinker of [Voodoo Ranger] Juice Force, the drinker of [Voodoo Ranger] Fruit Force, looked a lot different than the traditional craft drinker, and the other beverages, the other occasions, that they had were very FMB-focused,” Knospe said. “They weren’t necessarily jumping for other IPAs or jumping to other craft offerings at all.
“So as we tried to evaluate what was next for Voodoo Ranger, for us it wasn’t trying to get on necessarily the tea train, it was more of where do we think the brand can extend, where does it make sense to extend and where do our fans, where do our drinkers, spend the rest of their time and bev-alc occasions, and that was tea,” he continued.
There are now more than 328 moving universal product codes (UPCs) for hard tea and hard lemonade in Circana-tracked channels, and the number of brands in hard tea alone has grown more than 80% over the past three years. While increased competition could mean a bigger battle for consumer purchases, Shillo is excited to see more brands enter the space.
“For a long time, part of the reason why I never innovated was because you were just continuing to build awareness on, ‘Oh, you’re not Mike’s Hard Lemonade?’” Shillo said. “We were trying to tell you almost what we aren’t versus what we are so that consumers would understand that quick elevator pitch. Seeing the segment grow – whether it’s canned cocktails, spirit-based, FMB, whatever we’re continuing to classify RTDs as – it’s been really great to see everybody jumping in.”
Ripps agreed, adding that there is still white space for hard tea and lemonade despite the recent boom.
“There’s so much opportunity for different subsets within the category, whether it’s higher ABV, lower ABV, premiumization,” Ripps said. “And I think that we kind of owe the consumer teas or lemonades on all of those levels in order to meet their needs. I’ve been thinking and dreaming about tea cocktails for my entire professional life …I just think it’s really exciting to begin to see hard tea evolve as a space.”
Insiders can watch the full panel discussion above, including comments on innovation strategy and why New Belgium is investing $10 million behind Hardcharged Tea.