A different brew: tea bags marketed as flavour enhancer for beer

Peter Martino, chief executive of Capital Teas, had just closed a deal with the US Naval Academy for a custom tea blend and was wondering whether other colleges might be interested in their own unique brand.

Then the epiphany hit him: "I suspected that at most colleges, people drink more beer than tea."

Martino scooped up 24 bottles of different beers and spent an evening steeping sachets in foaming mugs instead of cups of hot water. "The tea totally changed the character of the beer," he recalls.

The result: Tea Lager Beer Enhancers, 10 organic blends available separately or in a sampler pack of five. Each foil packet contains six tea bags, with instructions to dangle one sachet in 330ml of beer for 5 to 10 minutes. (You can leave it in longer for extra flavour, but too long an exposure turns the beer cloudy and flat.)

I bought a couple of large cans of beer at a local convenience store and experimented to see what kind of salvage job the teas could do on mass-market yellow lager. Cream Earl Grey, combining bergamot orange and vanilla, added body and a smooth, citrusy flavour to an otherwise wan and watery Coors Light. Provence Rooibos, which promised "ripe berry notes" and "mild lavender," contributed such a floral bouquet to a glass of Budweiser that my friend and co-taster wanted to bathe in it. My own impulse was to dunk a sachet in a hoppy ale and pair it with Thai or Indian takeaway meal.

Indeed, Martino’s beer enhancers are also useful for customising a pint of craft beer. Genmaicha, a traditional Japanese blend of green tea and roasted rice kernels, adds a layer of toastiness to the even-keeled, toffeelike sweetness of Devils Backbone Vienna Lager.

As Martino sees it, tea has three effects on beer. First, it tends to block the sensory pathways that detect bitter, making the beer taste sweeter.