When I bought Stonehouse Teas in 2016, one of my priorities was to really challenge peoples’ perspectives about what tea could be. As I was busy with my new business, I watched as Beach Fire Brewing was opening across the street and I often thought about popping next-door to say hi but I always felt too busy. After Beach Fire Brewing had been open about six months, the brewer and co-owner, Darrin, popped over to say hello. We chatted about our businesses and opportunities to work together, and it was that conversation that sparked the idea of infusing tea into beer. At the time it was something we both wanted to try, so we decided to start with a nice summertime tea: our lemon mango tango.
In July 2017 our first small batch tea beer hit the taps, the Lemon Mango Tango Blonde Ale. Honestly, we both were so surprised by how popular and delicious it was! Since then, we’ve worked together to create over 40 different tea beers using Stonehouse Teas. We’ve even done collaborations to create signature tea blends, those that have been created with other local businesses, into tea beers too. Our first creation was the Ocean Mountain Yoga tea (now known as Session Studio + Spin- Signature Blend), beer that began our community collaborations. Since then we’ve had tea beers that included other signature blends like: Island Joy, Eagle Eye, YBL, Island Good and more recently at the North Island Beer Festival, the chocolate EndowMINT tea beer in support of the Campbell River Community Foundation.
For me, my goal was always to have people look at tea beyond the hot beverage and find other ways to combine tea and flavours. Being able to partner with Beach Fire Brewing to create these ideas was the perfect match. I see teas being used more often now in beer and I love to think how that original conversation between neighbours, Darrin & I, has perhaps sparked these other drinks too.
If you haven’t tried a tea beer, I’d highly recommend giving it a try—not just because I love tea, but because I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I know a lot of beer snobs around here are now regulars, and the tea beers at the Beach Fire do often sell out quickly!
Here’s to our next Teer! (Yes, I’ve made up a new word for tea-beer, let’s see if we can make it stick!)
Christine