Who owns TWISTED TEA?

TWISTED TEA is owned by

BOSTON BEER CO

First Brewed

2001

Origin

Ohio, United States

Website

Twisted Tea is a popular brand of hard iced tea that was created in 2000 by the Boston Beer Company. It is the most popular hard tea malt beverage in the world. The brand was born out of a desire to compete with the growing popularity of Mike’s Hard Lemonade, which had been introduced by Mark Anthony Brands Inc in the United States in 1999. As Jim Koch says in his book “Quench Your Own Thirst,” the company wanted to target rural drinkers and women, two categories that the company’s main brand Samuel Adams had trouble reaching.

Boston Beer had been contract brewing the non alcoholic Tradewinds Iced Tea out of its Cincinnati, Ohio brewery, and used that facility as its testing ground for the beverage. It was originally named BoDean’s Twisted Tea, after two employees who had worked on the product, Bo and Dean. However, a trademark lawsuit by Milwaukee band The BoDeans was bolstered by the fact that Boston Beer had referenced them in their advertisements for the product without their consent. In 2001, the name was changed to simply Twisted Tea.

The brand has slowly grown in prominence throughout the years, and by 2022 was outselling Samuel Adams three to one in chain retail sales.