At Hoplark we brew tea like a craft beer, with the sophisticated flavor of hops but without the alcohol or calories.
Hoplark was born during to a trip to a local brewpub in 2016 that, we admit, was probably a bad idea. Dean took his best friend, Andrew to try a great new beer he had found. The problem was that Dean had 5 days left on his first round with the Whole30 diet. After years of trying, Dean had finally found a diet that worked. He was 50 pounds overweight and desperate for a solution, so he did not order a beer that day. The hoppy aroma of Andrew’s double IPA made him realize how much Dean missed that sophisticated flavor of a great beer that really didn’t exist without the alcohol and calories. It was tough, but he stuck to his commitment.
We immediately started talking about how to add delicious hop flavors to something low calorie and healthy like tea. It took about 18 months and hundreds of admittedly terrible HopTea batches before we made a product that we were proud of. It was important to us to brew it with actual organic tea leaves and use real hops, not extracts. HopTea also had to not rely on sugar to cover up off flavors, it had to let the hops shine. We launched in May of 2018 at a farmer’s market in Denver, Colorado. To our first-time customers, HopTea is completely unexpected, but yet surprisingly familiar, with connections to craft beer, tea and sparkling beverages. Our customers showed us that HopTea is much more than a beer replacement, it is an experience in its own right.
Due to the many fans that keep on buying our product at grocery stores, restaurants and farmers markets we decided to build our own Hoplark brewery and taproom in Boulder, Colorado. We will open our doors to the public in early 2019. We are committed to creating innovative, healthy beverages made the right way and hope you will join us in this journey.
Cheers,
Andrew and Dean
