PepsiCo Adds to the RTD Par-Tea With Introduction of Lipton Hard Iced Tea

(Photo: Lipton/Facebook)

Lipton will be entering the ready-to-drink (RTD) market with a hard iced tea launching in early to mid-2023. The tea brand which is owned by Pepsi announced that they will be partnering with brewer FIFCO USA to produce Lipton Hard Iced Tea. 

According to Food and Wine, the CEO of FIFCO USA Piotr Jurjewicz had this to say: “Connecting America’s favorite tea brand with FIFCO’s expertise in this hot and growing segment allows us to leverage 130 years of brand history that consumers already know and love,” and further added “Our FIFCO USA product development team stayed true to Lipton’s high quality and great taste. And based on our consumer research, we expect a strong brand launch and great response from consumers.”

The hard teas will be available in four flavors: lemon, peach, strawberry and a half and half. The teas are meant to compete amongst the flavored malt beverages that fall in the 5 percent ABV category.  Lipton Hard Teas will initially land in unspecified selected areas.   

FIFCO USA  has already licensed the name to develop, manufacture, and market the new line of products which will then be available for purchase through the Blue Cloud Distribution network. The distribution company is actually a subsidiary of PepsiCo. The subsidiary is currently working with Boston Beer Company to distribute Hard Mtn Dew which has just recently entered the alcoholic beverage space.  

As seen on Food and Wine, the general manager of Blue Cloud Distribution Emiliano Di Vincenzo, commented “As Blue Cloud Distribution continues to expand on early success as a wholesaler in the RTD alcohol space, we are thrilled to serve as the national distributor of this exciting innovation by FIFCO USA. We are confident we will be able to deliver best-in-class execution for this product in the marketplace.”

The RTD market is rapidly growing and more and more beverage companies are partnering with breweries and distilleries to grab space in the saturated market. With Brands like Truly, Bud Light, and White Claw all having hard iced teas it will be interesting to see how the Lipton Ice Tea one stacks up. There is an even bigger comparison for them, considering that Boston Beer Company has been making one of the biggest hard teas on the market, Twisted Tea. Is there room for all the hard teas to find success? 

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