The newest expansion to the Trulyverse is here.  It’s Boston Beer’s Tea Party.

The Boston Beer Company (NYSE: SAM) officially announced the launch of Truly Iced Tea Hard Seltzer. The drink is a refreshing combination of spiked seltzer, real brewed tea, and fruit flavor.

The new bubbly hard iced tea, which comes in shimmering gold cans, each sporting its corresponding fruit flavor, is available nationwide. The Truly Iced Tea Hard Seltzer Variety Pack contains four flavors of tea blends: Lemon, Raspberry, Peach and Strawberry.

Like the original and lemonade varieties, each can contains 100 calories, one gram of sugar, and five percent ABV.

After the successful release of the Truly Lemonade Hard Seltzer Variety Pack last spring, the brand took its time in developing its new spiked and sparkling iced tea. Indeed, “Truly Lemonade was the most successful incremental innovation of the year,” according to a statement from the company, and in less than a year captured a nearly 10 percent share of the entire category. The Boston Beer owned seltzer company is hoping to recreate the magic with its new hard iced tea.

“With each innovation, we’re pushing the boundaries of what drinkers expect from hard seltzer,” said Casey O’Neill, Senior Product Development Manager at The Boston Beer Company. “We spent eight months testing more than 250 iterations to land on the Truly Iced Tea launching today and can’t wait to finally share it with our drinkers.”

Boston Beer produces Twisted Tea, a product that’s celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.  Twisted Tea is a malt base made from beer and tea.  That product contains gluten and comes in a variety flavors in both bottles and cans.

Hard Iced Tea Brands Fighting for Market Share

With several similar high profile seltzers also set to release spiked and sparkling teas later in the year, Boston Beer is eager to get out ahead of its competition.

White Claw’s hard iced tea will launch with four flavors: Lemon, Mango, Peach, and Raspberry.  That lineup is expected to have 5% ABV.

PBR has a Peach Hard Tea, launched in 2020, which is brewed with real tea leaves and comes in peach flavor.  It has only 100 calories and 4% ABV.

AriZona tea collaborated with Molson Coors to bring Arnold Palmer Spiked Iced Tea, but is now releasing a hard seltzer.

Based on recent trademark applications, New Belgium Brewing could be working on a hard iced tea.  The company is seeking to brand products with the names “Suncut” and “Sunwaze.”

“As the hard seltzer category continues to explode, we’re excited to bring another first-to-market product to our drinkers and fuel their discovery through new flavors,” says Lesya Lysyj, chief marketing officer of The Boston Beer Company.

“Truly believes in inclusivity and that no one is just one flavor, which is why we’re once again expanding our portfolio to offer a flavor for everyone. Truly Iced Tea is another testament to the mega-brand we’re building and our relentless innovation, and trust us, it will be your cup of tea.”

Truly’s iced tea brand segment sits alongside its hard seltzer and lemonade product offerings, each developing its own identity with slight tweaks to messaging, and presumably, target market.

Does Truly Hard Iced Tea Have Caffeine?

Many are asking about caffeine content of new alcoholic premixed beverages, such as Truly’s new hard iced tea.  Truly’s Hard Iced Tea is brewed with real tea.  No public announcement has been made about the product’s caffeine content.

Other hard teas, such as PBR’s Peach Hard Tea, reportedly have 30mg of caffeine, but the product’s website isn’t forthcoming about that.  Four Loko famously was warned by the FDA for its mixture of high alcohol content and high caffeine levels.

White Claw also hasn’t released the caffeine content of its upcoming hard iced tea.

Dry January?  Try January

To celebrate and spill the tea on its new release, Truly has launched Try January, a campaign to get consumers to try new things – like Truly Iced Tea Hard Seltzer.  Starting on January 6, legal-drinking-age (LDA) consumers are invited to visit Truly’s website and sign up to receive free hard tea swag, including a Truly beanie, skinny can koozie, or fanny pack.

The campaign is a clever play on Dry January, a popular trend to give up drinking for the month of January. It is also a clever antidote to launching a major new expansion in the midst of a month where many folks are taking a break from alcohol.

Sobriety months aside, it promises to be another hugely successful year for Truly. If the four new iced tea flavors aren’t enough, Truly Extra Hard Seltzer is also on the horizon. The brand is expected to release its new imperial eight percent ABV version nationally later this year.

And that’s the tea, folks.

Erin Grafton
Latest posts by Erin Grafton (see all)