We value transparency, not only in sourcing ingredients, but also in our process. To grasp how Barley Tea sets itself apart from its progenitors and other canned teas on the market, you need to understand how that process came to be. How do we make Barley Tea, what makes our process unique, and why do we do it this way? Let’s start from the beginning:
Brewing
First, a unique blend of organic craft malted grains and roasted barley are crushed in a mill the same way grain is prepared for beer brewing. This exposes the inside of the kernels for better extraction without pulverizing the grain into dust.
In a large mixing vessel, the resulting grist is steeped in hot water so that color and flavor are extracted from the grain, but starches are not converted into sugar. Any added herbs, like dried hemp and lemongrass, are steeped with the grain at this point.
The extracted "tea" is separated from solids with a filtration process similar to lautering in beer brewing (for you non-homebrew nerds: lautering involves separating the sweet wort from the spent grain), and transferring to a boil kettle.
Acidic elements (lemon juice!) and sweeteners (organic honey and cane sugar!) are added to the hot tea to improve shelf stability and balance/brighten the flavor.
The tea is then flash boiled to kill any microbes and transferred to a holding tank to be cooled before packaging. Chilling helps improve tea clarity and gives us time to perform some testing on the bulk tea to make sure it's juuuuust right before packaging.
Packaging
Next, we pack the still (i.e. uncarbonated) Barley Tea cold in cans. Why not carbonate? It’s simple, we want the flavors layered within Barley Tea to shine, and to avoid adding extra sugar to compete with the carbonation. Instead we dose with liquid nitrogen to pressurize the can and barricade against oxygen infiltration.
Canning
Why 12 oz sleek cans? That’s a no-brainer. They are more environmentally friendly than glass or plastic, weigh less for transport and for you, Dear Patron, to handle, and they are easily recyclable. Did we mention they just look cool?
Pasteurization
We (that includes you!) want these cans to last. Pasteurization post-packaging creates a shelf stable tea by heat treatment without the need for any chemical preservatives. Hooray!
If you've gotten this far, you've likely worked up a thirst and you might like to try one of the recipes we've thoughtfully prepared! Check out our entire lineup of sleek cans, or experiment at home with Loose Barley Tea.