A: I became passionate about tea a little over 10 years ago. I began exploring tea and botanicals for their health benefits. When I realized that I could make incredible-tasting beverages with tea as a base, I was hooked!
I became a tea sommelier, and Maria and I set off on the journey to build a business together. We first launched our wholesale tea company, Brew Lab. At Brew Lab, we crafted tea programs for restaurants, fast casual chains and coffeehouses. Some of our clients included sweetgreen, Momofuku Group and The Public Hotel.
At the same time, I was collaboratively developing tea cocktail programs with our restaurant partners. Maria and I loved these “tea cocktails,” and it was our preferred way to imbibe.
Maria and I were also “over” the boozy beverages that were available on the market. Everything was either full of sugar or—worse—chemicals. What was a natural flavor made with natural flavors? As it turns out, it was just a fancy way of saying “junk.” We started hosting “tea parties” and participating in events around the country. The more we poured our spiked tea, the more feedback we got that people wanted to drink the same way we did—with good, whole, clean ingredients that they could pronounce.
When we started to really look at the alcohol market, we realized there was nothing like what we were doing available. There was a major lack of transparency in ingredients; no one was publishing what was actually inside. All the canned products were filled with all sorts of chemical additives, colorings and junk (including, of course, “natural flavors”).
We launched Owl’s Brew as a solution to this problem. We make clean boozy beverages, and we say “Drink Wise,” because we believe that you should know what you’re putting into your body, even when you have a spike or two!
At Owl’s Brew we never use any funny stuff in our products, which is prolific in our category. That means no artificial flavors, no natural flavors (which are made in a lab and always contain chemicals), no sugar substitutes, no parabens and no animal byproducts (which are surprisingly present in beverages).
The response to our mission for Owl’s Brew and our commitment to delivering a clean alcoholic beverage has been welcomed with incredible support. We launched our line of spiked sparkling teas, Boozy Tea, in 2020. Boozy Tea is now available in six flavors and in 18 states.