The key question when offering tea used to be “milk or sugar?” but it could soon be “still or sparkling?” as the British institution becomes the latest target of a foodie makeover, with cold brews for al desko lunches and fancier fizz to serve like wine at dinner.
With the traditional cuppa losing the battle with coffee, particularly with younger Britons, tea is winning new fans as it is recast as a soft drink with “wellbeing” powers and a headache-free alternative to booze.
Sales of high-end sparkling teas soared over Christmas as it replaced champagne during festive toasts and it is fast becoming a staple of the “nolo” ranges of supermarkets and drinks specialists such as Majestic Wine amid the annual “dry January” marketing blitz.
The Buckinghamshire-based drinks company Real says demand for its sparkling tea, which costs about £10 a bottle, is soaring. Over Christmas, sales of its fizz, which includes green tea-based Dry Dragon and Peony Blush (from white peony tea), were 72% and 60% up on 2023 levels in Ocado and Waitrose respectively. The company is also behind the wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd’s £17 sparkling tea, of which 1,600 bottles were sold over the holiday period.
Fizzy tea is also competing with cola and lemonade for the lunchtime trade in supermarket drinks chillers. Tea-based soft drinks tend to be made from extracts rather than leaves, while more expensive sparkling teas usually involve a fermentation process (although some are carbonated) resulting in a more complex flavour that lends itself to a comparison with wine.
Last year, Twinings entered the fray with its own canned sparkling tea aimed at health-conscious consumers. With recipes bolstered by fruit juice and vitamins, the different flavours carry the promise to boost drinkers’ immune systems or lift flagging energy levels. The cans are almost £2 each but feature in some supermarket “meal deals”.
The travails of Typhoo, which changed hands in a rescue deal at the end of last year, highlighted the waning demand for traditional cups of “builder’s” tea. A recent poll by the research company Mintel suggested that less than half of the nation – 45% of adults – drink standard breakfast tea at least once a day. The amount being bought by Britons has tumbled by almost a fifth since 2020, it says.
But while we no longer put the kettle on as frequently as we used to, tea is still part of our daily lives. Britons are not necessarily “falling out of love” with tea, says Polina Jones, a food and drink expert at the data company NIQ; they are drinking it in a different way. As well as sparkling options, she points to the rise of bubble tea, kombucha and even energy drinks containing tea.
The Real co-founder, Adrian Hodgson, says tea is being used in lots of new drinks because of its health credentials but also the flavour it can give. “It is an amazing ingredient. It is the fermentation that delivers natural flavours, with complexity coming from the tea astringency and acidity,” he says.
Research points to a big opportunity for non-alcoholic drinks that actually taste good. A Mintel poll conducted last year found 59% of adults had limited their consumption in the past 12 months, or did not drink alcohol.
Alcohol moderation is now a “mainstream” trend, according to Mintel’s Kiti Soininen. She points to the presence of tannins in tea, which are also a crucial component in the flavour profile of many wines. “The absence of that pleasingly ‘mouth-drying’ element of tannins can be a factor in why alcohol alternatives taste too thin or too sweet,” she says.
However, sparkling tea faces the “same hurdle as other alcohol alternatives in justifying its price”, she warns, as just over half of adults told Mintel that the price of “nolo” drinks puts them off.
