Spotted: Nate Archibald with a new job and a hard tea in his hand.
Actor Chace Crawford has joined hard tea and kombucha maker Jiant as chief creative officer and part-owner. Crawford is best known for his TV roles on Gossip Girl (Nate Archibald) and The Boys (Kevin Moskowitz/The Deep).
At Jiant, Crawford “will play a key role in product development, marketing strategies and brand expansion,” as well as helping the Los Angeles-based company deliver “exceptional beverages nationwide with fresh creativity and a touch of celebrity,” according to a press release.
Crawford will also be featured in future marketing campaigns and social media content, starting with a “Geriatric Elder Millennial” advert, with the actor leaning into the wants (and stereotypes) of aging millennials, including better-for-you beverages and waking up early. He will also be involved in both consumer-facing and trade events, including retailer meetings.
“He’s already participated in a few things behind the scenes before we launched [his addition], and you can tell he’s really interested in the behind the scenes business aspect of what we do,” Jiant co-founder and co-CEO Aaron Telch told Brewbound.
“He’s been a huge asset behind the scenes,” co-founder and co-CEO Larry Haertel Jr. added. “He’s definitely had his influence on some of the innovation we have coming out next year, and we’re looking forward to sharing this with the world and seeing what people think of it.”
Jiant had been interested in bringing on a “talent partner” for a while, but it was “more difficult than we thought,” Telch said. Then the duo met Crawford earlier this year through a mutual friend, and learned he was already a fan of the brand, and had moved away from beer to drink hard teas and hard kombucha. Crawford visited the Jiant office the next day, and the partnership was formed.
“Not only did he love the product, but he was very motivated to roll up his sleeves and work on Jiant with us,” Telch said.
Crawford joins Jiant as it wraps up the year with +50% growth, after posting triple-digit growth in 2023. The company also closed a $6 million Series A capital raise at the end of 2023.
For 2025, Jiant is targeting triple-digit growth, according to Telch. The growth will be dominated by the company’s hard teas, which have become Jiant’s primary product since launching in 2022, three years after the company’s founding as a hard kombucha company in 2019.
“This year was not only about top-line growth, but also really proving ourselves in chain grocery from a velocity standpoint,” he said. “We really delivered this year, so we expect next year to really expand upon that and continue to build out our national chain distribution.”
Jiant is also hoping to grow by expanding its presence in natural grocery, a channel that hasn’t capitalized on the growth of flavored malt beverages (FMBs) as much as other channels, according to Haertel Jr.
“Natural grocers have largely missed out on the rise of flavored malt beverages given their stringent standards around transparency and ingredients and quality so they can’t necessarily carry all of the mass market brands that consumers know and love,” Haertel Jr. said. “Our pitch for them, and our challenge has been, can we be that brand for your stores? Because we think that consumers still want flavor, they want fun brands, and they want things that aren’t craft beer, that aren’t non-alc beer, and aren’t kombucha.
“We’re in the early innings of what natural grocery can do with flavored malt beverage,” he continued.
Jiant also plans to deepen its presence in its 27-state footprint in 2025, with a more nationally focused gameplan, although no state additions are planned. The company is the No. 1 emerging and independent hard tea brand in California, Colorado, and some Northeast states, according to Telch. The company plans to use the knowledge it’s built from those three markets – including its home market of California, which represents about one-third of its business – and the reputation it’s built with retailers, and expand it into the rest of its footprint.
“We’ve really flourished there [in those three markets] and developed basically a blueprint that we’re taking more to a national level,” Telch said.
“We’re pretty happy with the markets that we’re in, and we want to continue to develop and saturate those markets,” Haertel Jr. added. “We’ll selectively look at new opportunities, but we’ve got more than enough on our plate, and we’re playing in such a big category in flavored malt beverage and hard tea that we haven’t even begun to tap the potential of what the brand can do in our current footprint.”
FMBs have been one of the few beer segments to consistently record growth this year, along with non-alcoholic beer and imports. In the last 52 weeks (ending October 6), FMB dollar sales have increased +8.9% and volume +7.5% in Circana-tracked off-premise channels, according to the market research firm.
Hard tea has also posted significant growth, increasing dollar sales +20% and volume +18% in Q3, according to data shared by Boston Beer Company last week. The growth comes as several new challengers have entered the hard tea market, trying to chip at Boston Beer’s dominant share with Twisted Tea.
Jiant has been relatively unphased by the increased competition, according to Telch and Haertel Jr.
“We offer something a little bit different: We are a full flavor, full ABV, 7% hard tea, but also one that is low sugar and lightly sweetened [and] has really good ingredients,” Haertel Jr. said.
“One of the unique things about our brand that we haven’t really talked about a lot, but it’s something that we hear a lot from consumers, is that we’re not a fully sparkling beverage, like a hard seltzer, and we’re not flat like a Twisted Tea,” Haertel Jr. added. “We are minimally carbonated, so we still have that refreshing, sensory signature that you get from carbonation, but it’s not filling, it’s not bloating, and it’s super drinkable.
“We kind of occupy this little, small area of carbonation that not a lot of brands exist in – maybe light beer – but it’s one thing that’s pretty unique to Jiant versus some of these other brands.”
Jiant also hopes to bring more consumers into hard tea next year with a new 5% ABV yerba mate hard tea. The offering will be available in a variety 12-pack, the Paradise Pack, with flavors still being finalized. The pack will be released early next year across Jiant’s distribution footprint.
Otherwise, Jiant will continue to prioritize its 19.2 oz. single-serve offerings and variety 12-packs, the latter of which has become more important as the company has expanded into more large format grocers. The variety pack has increased dollar sales +75.8% and volume +83.7% in the last 52-weeks (ending October 5) in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels, according to data shared by 3 Tier Beverages.
Jiant’s top offering is its Kiwi Strawberry hard tea, which has increased dollar sales +44.3% and volume +41.9% in the last 52 weeks in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels. Close behind is Peach Iced Tea, which has increased dollar sales +70.2% and volume +72.5%. Both offerings are available in 19.2 oz cans.
“I am hesitant to hype them up too much, because they’ve kind of been a workhorse for us, but they’ve worked across channels, from c-store to large format grocery to natural grocers to venues,” Haertel Jr. said. “When we got into this business, we never thought we’d make a high ABV 19.2 ounce can of anything, but it’s been a great package, and they’re a lot of fun.”