The Alcohol That's Actually In Your Beloved Twisted Tea

These days, boozy canned teas are everywhere, but Twisted Tea was there first. Created by the Boston Beer Company, the makers of Truly, Angry Orchard, and Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea was born in 2001 in the company's Cincinnati, Ohio brewery with the mission to deliver a spiked sweet tea that didn't taste like traditional beer, wine, or cocktails. The iconic drink is a refreshing blend of brewed black tea and alcohol, with just the right amount of citrus notes and sweetness. Available in multiple flavors, including Original, Half & Half, Black Cherry, and Pineapple (and we've ranked them from worst to best), it's perfect for casual sippers who want something different. From a public altercation that made it go viral to a lawsuit regarding its original name, Twisted Tea's history tells a story that may surprise many. What may be just as surprising to fans is the alcohol that's in this beloved libation. 

Here's the twist (pun intended): While the Boston Beer Company prefers to keep Twisted Tea's specific brewing process private, it has revealed that Twisted Tea is a beer-based beverage. Its alcohol content comes from a malt base, the same ingredient found in your favorite lagers and ales. Malt beverages are defined as products brewed from malted barley and hops through the process of fermentation, but don't expect Twisted Tea to taste like beer. Its brewing process masks the maltiness, giving it a crisp, tea-forward flavor.

Technically, Twisted Tea is a flavored malt beverage (FMB), a class of drinks that includes everything from hard seltzers to spiked lemonades. Malt is a grain that has undergone germination to prepare it for brewing or distillation. This process begins with soaking the grains in water to allow them to sprout, which activates enzymes that break down the starches in the grain into simpler sugars. These malted grains are then heated and dried in a kiln to stop further growth while preserving the enzymes. The result is malted barley (malt), which serves as a key source of fermentable sugars in brewing. 

Some breweries will then grind these malted grains into malt flour and combine it with hot water in a process called mashing, which extracts the sugars to form a sweet liquid known as wort. During fermentation, yeast is added to the wort, converting the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. For drinks like Twisted Tea, the fermented malt base is filtered and blended with black tea leaves, sugar, and other flavorings to achieve its signature iced tea taste with a slight alcohol kick.