Brewbound Pitch Slam 13 Finals - Kharisma Tea Company

Speaker 1 [00:11] All right. Our final presenter for the final round is Tomme Arthur from Kharisma Tea Company. Tomme?

Speaker 2 [00:24] First and foremost, thanks to Brewbound and Ray and John and everybody else for the opportunity to be up here. The judges, thanks for having me back. Um, it's kind of exciting to stand up here for the next 4 minutes and I'm really worried about the 5 minutes over there, but, uh, let's rock and roll and go for it. Have you ever met a charismatic person, dare I say a leader even? They're the kind of individual that delights the senses, captivates an audience, and naturally leads by example. Pretty sure everyone in this room knows a few of those people in their lives. We believe our Kharisma hard tea is poised to be a leader in the emerging hard tea category. With everyone asking what comes after seltzer, it's obvious the answer will be hard tea, and we think this brand could be a larger player in the better for you space. How could a brand possibly know this? A new one at that. And isn't it a bold statement? Well, of course it is. But for the past 2 years, we've been beta testing these flavors in our tasting rooms and watching firsthand new consumers engage the cheese we created. Sampling customers in this way confirmed that charisma has brought appeal. From non-beer drinkers to wine aficionados and even the most hardcore, I only drink IPA people, every step along the way, we've encountered favorable reception. Our customers tell us they love Kharisma hard tea and they wanna know the next tea brand when it's coming out. It's very simple. They're expecting new and bold flavors. As you can see, it checks all the better for you boxes, including the super elusive soccer mom certified. Being from San Diego, we know that it tastes great at the beach. Kharisma is equally adept at hanging out in the sun or the shade, and obviously Kharisma loves to kick at poolside and will always be down for lounging around. Perhaps you're an influencer and you're attracted to pretty things. Don't worry, we've got this. And lastly, Kharisma always seeks out adventure and is ready for whatever life throws its way. Each of these slides I presented has been, has been presented with pretty pictures to stimulate the dreamer in you. That is how I see our brand. But what about the economics of it all? Well, welcome to my friend White Space, a seemingly vast and land filled with tons of opportunity. Here's a quick view. Of the industry for those of you not living the 30,000 dream of what hard tea can be. Currently in scan data, hard tea sells about $400 million a year. The top 4 brands control 93% of the total units sold. Where once there was no hard anything categories, we now have hard seltzer, hard coffees, and even hard energy drinks. These are all very new and recent category disruptions. But what if I reminded you that hard tea has been around for 20 years? How crazy is it to think that twisted tea was launched by Boston Beer back in 2001. Yet for the last 20 years, the hard tea category has lacked any real innovation. Many of the top flavors are black tea-based with a twist of lemon. Our hard charismas were purposely built with what's next in mind. They're gluten-free, agave-based, low calorie, and of course delicious. There is nothing shy or same about them. Still, brands need to be built, scaled, and launched. I don't have to tell anyone watching this broadcast those propositions cost money. So we decided to come to Brewbound Pitch Slam to see what's out there. We have built an amazing set of flavors and developed a brand identity, but investment to scale in this space is king. Everyone's currently looking for what's better, what's next in the better for you space. Lagunitas in Sierra Nevada have already announced they're going to be producing a hard tea in 2022. But I ask you, what if the charismatic category leader everyone was looking for was already right in front of you in this very ballroom? Wouldn't you want to invest? I think so. Thank you and good luck to the other finalists.

Speaker 1 [04:22] Good. All right. Um, Veronica, I felt like, uh, we got a little bit more of an ethereal feel, um, to this presentation and to Kharisma as a brand. Does that play to the larger opportunity? Does that play to the broader opportunity that Tomme was talking about?

Speaker 3 [04:40] I definitely think it does. I mean, we are all sitting here in this room knowing you, knowing what you've done in the beer business, but by looking at the brand, it seems like you're also trying to get to a customer that might not be a beer drinker. Um, you are using your own taprooms, which I am curious if, if there's a, if there's a plan to get to that non-beer drinker truly, um, on there. I didn't mean to say truly, but you know. To, to get their feedback specifically on future flavors.

Speaker 2 [05:11] I think the biggest thing and one of the takeaways that I wanted to push today was, um, we know in the better for you space that there's a lot of challenges to go to on-premise, um, because it's a lot of off-premise things. But what we've found with the teas is that they're incredibly on-premise friendly. Um, and that's something that I think that isn't, isn't easily seen in a slideshow in a four-minute presentation. I think there's an enormous amount of opportunity, and we've obviously created sampling in our own tasting rooms, um, but it is, it is stable and it can go into the on-prem world in a way that seltzers and a lot of FMBs can't currently.

Speaker 1 [05:40] Laura, do you agree with that statement? Are you seeing a lot of interest in hard teas at this point?

Speaker 4 [05:46] Um, there, there are, yes, absolutely, um, I'm just glad it's not another seltzer because it's just really, really, um, jam packed in that category, and, but I love the fact that yours is lightly carbonated, it's got a nice look to it, nice head on it, and so it's a point of difference for sure, and I think that's the route to go.

Speaker 2 [06:09] Thank you. Uh, we're really proud of the fact that it, that it is foam positive.

Speaker 1 [06:13] Ryan, I'm sure some questions came up between yesterday and today and hearing this presentation. Um, you know, what are some of the things that you'd want to hear from Tommy that you may not have heard in this presentation?

Speaker 5 [06:22] Yeah, I know you talked yesterday about how scalable it is. I mean, no specialized equipment. You can make it essentially any brewing facility. Is that correct?

Speaker 2 [06:29] That's what I, yeah, that's what we believe. So, I guess to answer your question is yes. And the one thing that we haven't been doing at this point is we're not high gravity brewing it. So in terms of, it has an enormous amount of scale at that point. Um, some of the things that are limiting us, we do not have a deerated water plant. We do not have the access to pasteurization, although we don't believe we need it. But, um, if we were to partner on a regional level with someone to scale, a lot of those things would be on site and would allow for a huge upside.

Speaker 1 [06:55] In Malica, I mean, you know, we've, we saw a bunch of teas in this competition. Um, this is the only one I believe in the finals, I should know that, I guess. Um, but, you know, for all the enthusiasm we're seeing in this category, um, it doesn't seem like everyone's going to win. But does charisma have what it takes to win in that space that's so dominated by a handful of players, namely one player? You know, you,

Speaker 6 [07:19] you've hit on the question I have because you're absolutely right. The category is large. It's been completely dominated. There hasn't been a lot of innovation, but there have been a lot of people who've tried big companies and, and smaller. Well and I think this this proposition hits on all of the boxes it tastes great the packaging is great the attitude and the the lifestyle that you're talking about in the presentation today is relevant and connects with the consumer trends we're seeing the question in my mind is, is that enough? And what, what does it truly take to break out of an established category that does seem really ripe for innovation but we're starting to see the building of a long tail as well.

Speaker 2 [08:00] I, I think a simple answer is that there's some large craft players like I said, Lagunitas and Sierra Nevada both, um, that have already announced they're coming to market with it. That means they're gonna take some of the first, you know, bullets. Um, they're gonna have to, they're gonna have to build that, um, but there's gonna be conversations and as long as you can get your foot in the door and be one of those conversations, I think there's a lot of opportunity.

Speaker 1 [08:19] Outstanding. Well, we are out of time. Thank you so much, Tomme. Thank you. Outstanding. Uh, man, uh, it's gonna be a tough, tough job for the judges to pick a winner. Uh, all 6 finalists did such an amazing job. Once again, a round of applause for all of them. And for our judges who really do have a tough job. Thank you so much. OK, the judges are going to convene, deliberate, and pick a winner. We're gonna announce that winner at 3:15 p.m. You want to be here to see it at home. You want to be in front of your computer to watch it.