Tea bag turns cheap lager into craft brew

A ‘teabag’ containing a blend of hops, fruit peels, and natural flavours promises to transform an ordinary pint, allowing you to customise and boost its flavour.

Produced by Hop Theory, the “beer enhancing sachets” take around three minutes to infuse their flavours and claim to turn a cheap pint into a hopped-up delicate brew. Each tea bag can be used to flavour four beers.

Hop Theory argues that its invention will not only help beer lovers save cash, allowing them to buy a cheaper pint and turning it into “craft” instead of buying a more expensive craft beer, but also control their waistlines. With each infusion adding just five extra calories, the flavour of light beers can be boosted without altering their calorie content, claims the company.

Based in Maryland in the United States, the company has set up a Kickstarter page to raise the US$25,000 needed to launch their first infusion, Relativity. The infusion features a blend of Cascade Hops, which the company says adds the “tangy bitterness often associated with IPA’s”, orange peel, adding flavours often “associated with Belgian Witbier”, and coriander seeds, which add “sweetness and give off a lemon top note.”

Introducing its product, Hop Theory said: “With our first blend, we focused on a combination of cascade hops, orange peel, coriander seeds, and natural flavors. It took a long time to create the perfect blend; more hops, less hops, more orange peel, more coriander, less coriander, etc. etc… Finally, Relativity was born. As our first blend, we think we nailed it. It is delicious & refreshing.”

With 16 days to go, the project has already raised $21,492. If successful, Hop Theory has said it will produce further flavours including raspberry, pumpkin, double IPA and peach.