The hard tea segment operates similarly to soda, with one or two leading national players, and a handful of regional winners.
With that analogy, and Boston Beer Company’s Twisted Tea equating to a Coke or Pepsi, California-based hard tea maker Jiant believes it can be hard tea’s Olipop – a flavor-forward, ingredient-focused functional brand that connects with new and lapsed consumers.
“Sure, we want to capture some share from the big yellow tea company, but we also want to bring new consumers to hard tea who might not be drinking hard tea right now, or might no longer be drinking hard tea because they’ve aged out of the product or category for whatever reason,” co-founder and co-CEO Larry Haertel Jr. told Brewbound.
To help attract more consumers, Jiant launched the Paradise Pack last month, a new variety pack featuring four 5% ABV yerba mate-based hard tea flavors: Pineapple Lime, Tropical Mango, Paradise Punch and Guava Lemonade.
The offering – which boasts “real tropical fruit” and “75% less sugar than typical hard teas” – debuted with a national rollout through Whole Foods, and will hit other retailers’ shelves later this year, including Kroger, Total Wine, H-E-B, Safeway-Albertsons and more.
Yerba mate, a tea derived from tree leaves native to South America, is naturally caffeinated and is typically sold as an energy beverage. However, Jiant’s yerba mate-based offerings contain fewer than 25 mg of caffeine per serving.
“As we talked to more and more consumers, and even a lot of distributors, their familiarity with yerba mate and excitement about it – especially bringing it into the alcohol category – it gave us a lot of confidence to launch this in a big way in 2025,” Haertel Jr. said.
“Yerba mate on its own can be a little earthy and grassy and somewhat of an acquired taste, but when we mix it with like tropical fruit, it actually takes on this tropical, green tea type of profile,” he added.
The lower ABV of the Paradise Pack also opens up new opportunities for Jiant, with its existing portfolio of 7% ABV hard teas.
“In the early days, all of our products were 4.5% to 5% [ABV] and over the years, we kind of incrementally creeped up to where the majority of our products was 7%,” Haertel Jr. said. “And it was great, anytime we increased the alcohol, we sold more Jiant.
“But we found that we had an opportunity and also need and a want to have something that was more sessionable – a little lighter, but still fruit-forward [and] full of flavor,” he continued.
Paradise Pack allows Jiant to have a “set on the shelf” with its existing 7% ABV hard tea variety pack, co-founder and co-CEO Aaron Telch told Brewbound.
The move also opens the Utah market, where Jinat cannot sell its high ABV offerings.
“We love Utah as a market,” Telch said. “We feel like the Utah consumer and Jiant just click, but we haven’t been able to sell our hard tea at 7% into Utah. And we have a great distributor there in Carlson, and they’re super excited about it.”
The latest innovation follows Jiant’s addition of actor Chace Crawford last fall as a part-owner and chief creative officer. The announcement garnered 3 million views across social platforms, Haertel Jr. said.
Additionally, the company recorded its best sales month ever in January – despite many consumers going dry for the month – which the Jiant team credited in part to the buzz around bringing Crawford onboard.
Crawford will be a part of in-store programing and event appearances throughout the year, and is helping the team with innovation, including a new cocktail-inspired hard tea flavor.
Jiant recorded a +47% increase in hard tea sales in 2024, and grew its off-premise chain business +85% last year. For 2025, the company is targeting triple-digit growth, while maintaining its 22-state footprint.
Also on deck for 2025 is the return of Pumpkin Chai hard tea in the fall. The offering was first released as a 2024 seasonal that didn’t last through the full fall season, as Jiant “didn’t make enough of it” to keep up with demand, Haertel Jr. said. The company is also working on a black tea-based Pina Colada flavor, promising to provide the “creamy” quality fans of the cocktail are looking for.
This year, the company also launched a fundraising effort to support wildfire relief in Los Angeles, raising $3,000 so far, as of mid-February. All proceeds from the sale of limited-edition Jiant hats have been donated to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation and the LA Regional Worker Relief Fund.
“LA and our community still need our help, especially as everyone else moves on, so we’re planning to continue the fundraiser for the foreseeable future,” Haertel Jr. said. “We’ve had great support so far.”