East Forged goes gold in London

Australian craft-tea brand, East Forged took out the Gold Medal for its Black Tea & Yuzu at the inaugural DB & SB Autumn Blind Tasting competition in London and its Green Tea & Pitaya and White Tea & Calamansi flavours each earned silver medals.

East Forged co-founders, Tania Stacey and Kym Cooper were understandably delighted with the results, especially as they have been on the market for less than a year.

 “It’s exciting to see a small business like ours on the world stage.... We’re particularly proud of the Black Tea recognition as it’s a local Queensland-grown tea,” said Tania.

“There’s an emerging trend towards alcohol-free drinks, driven by socially-minded Millennials and Gen Z generation and a growing health and wellness industry. It’s still early days in our brand journey and for this category, but these awards provide us with the encouragement and validation to continue our work and vision - we’re excited to keep experimenting and see where what’s in store for our Nitro-tea products in the future,” Tania added.

Run by UK-based publications The Drinks Business and The Spirits Business, the awards were established to create a seasonal platform upon which to celebrate the best brands in spirits, wine, beer and all the low‐ and no‐alcohol options in between.

Part of the Global Spirit Masters series , the inaugural Blind Tasting competition was chaired by The Drinks Business Editor-in-Chief, Patrick Schmitt MW and Melita Kiely from The Spirits Business, with a supporting panel of leading industry experts including Master Sommeliers, Masters of Wine, senior buyers and leading mixologists, who all participated in the blind tasting in a bid to assess and discover the best drinks brand on the world stage right now.

Merging two of the oldest and most popular beverages processes in the world (tea and beer), East Forged offers an innovative range of alcohol-free cold brews with a delicate 'real tea' flavour without the hangover, sugars or sweeteners.

Merging two of the oldest beverage processes by combining premium loose-leaf tea with an injection of Nitrogen bubbles, the three ground-breaking East Forged brews are available in black, green or white tea infused with exotic and rare fruits (Yuzu, Pitaya and Calamansi). The end result is a cold tea-based drink with a crisp, dry flavour and a beer-like appearance and texture - minus the alcohol or bloating!

Loose-leaf tea lovers Tania Stacey (Melbourne) and Kym Cooper (Brisbane) created East Forged with the intention of challenging old ideas of cold tea drinks, which have traditionally been loaded with sugar. It took more than 18 months of experimenting with quality tea leaves from their favourite suppliers and working with an independent craft brewer to bring the beverages to effervescent life with Nitro, before they were ready to launch in January 2020. 

Featuring a hint of exotic fruits, tea remains the hero ingredient in these drinks – yet the beer-like look and texture and a complexity of subtle flavours have seen the drinks be compared to and sit comfortably alongside any alcoholic beverage, in a variety of social occasions and settings.