For All the Tea in Rwanda

MODSUB#90

Wotcha!

Have you ever wondered what a particular NA beer tastes like but didn’t want to risk buying a 6-pack, only to be stuck with five cans of something you hate?

Have you ever wanted to try a beer from the other side of the country but weren’t about to hop on a plane to get it?

Or are you on a mission to try every NA beer you can, beyond the five options at your local supermarket? 

Then I strongly encourage you to check out this week’s sponsor. The launch of NA Beer Club’s new NA Beer Market is a true game-changer for non-alcoholic beer fans. It’s simple: you can now build your own 12-pack of single NA beers from across the country.

For those of you that aren’t close to a quality non-alcoholic bottle shop, the NA Beer Market is a cracking option to now try all those beers you’ve read about but never been able to try.

I’ve got to say, I’m pretty excited about this. Check it out below. 

Cheers, Myles

In this week’s edition:

NAN
New NA Drink News

TEAS
Sarilla - Part 1 (Lemon, Green Tea, Vanilla Rooibus Infusion)

BEER
La Trappe Trappist - La Trappe Nillis

Read time: 6 minutes 47 seconds

NAN
New Non-Alcoholic Drink News

NORTH AMERICA

• FUNCTIONAL: Well BRĒZ knocked it out of the park this week with a whopping 4 new tonics. Amplify, Elevate, Drift and Dream pretty much means BRĒZ has you covered 24/7. (Link)

• BEER: One for the Mexcian beer fans. Modelo have just launched Model0% Dorado and Model0% Negra in Mexico. So it can’t be long before the two beers head across the border. (Link)

• FUNCTIONAL: Hot on the heels of me trying out Corpse Reviver’s Botanical for the first time last week, the Colorado-based beverage company are releasing their fourth flavor, Berry Hibiscus. (Link)

• FUNCTIONAL: Over in Chicago, Revolution Brewing have introduced Reverb, a 5mg THC/ 5mg CBD Concord Grape Blueberry sparkling water. (Link)

WORLDWIDE

• COCKTAILS: Over in the UK, Fever Tree are rolling Mediterranean G&T and Italian Spritz which will initially be available at Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. (Link)

From our sponsor:

Finally! A marketplace where you can order single cans of unique non-alcoholic craft beers.

NA Beer Club’s new NA Beer Market lets you build a custom 12-pack with top picks from across the country.

New brews added monthly! Start building your NA 12-pack here.

Thank you for supporting our sponsors who in turn support this newsletter.

SPARKLING TEAS

The ModSub thoughts: When the Sarilla sample box arrives and you open it up, it’s like Willy Wonka personally sent you a magical selection of his favorite non-alcoholic drinks. It’s an explosion of color—from the pink and orange sunburst packaging to the six cans it houses, sitting side-by-side with their vibrant two-color can art like someone threw darts at a color wheel and hit the jackpot with each throw. It’s quite splendid. 

Sarilla was founded by Sara Stender Delaney in 2018, and there’s a volume or two of backstory behind the creation of the drink. While healing from a personal trauma, she was inspired by reading about the women who had survived the horrors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a civil war that killed nearly 10% of the country’s population in just four months. A year spent living in Rwanda, working to support these women, led her to form the international non-profit African Healing Exchange, which oversees programs to help people overcome trauma.

During her stay, she was introduced to Rwanda’s extraordinary teas—white, black, silver, and green—grown without pesticides and processed minimally. If the flavors were remarkable, the health benefits were jaw-dropping, preserved as they were through the whole-leaf brewing technology used by Sarilla. Antioxidants, amino acids (essential for numerous bodily functions), omegas (for heart health, brain function and reduced inflammation) and polyphenols (with too many benefits to list!) are just a handful of the long list of reasons to be giving these teas your time. 

So, she put two and two together. By promoting and selling Rwandan tea, she wasn’t just supporting local farmers and the women involved in tea production—it also became a social enterprise that could help fund her non-profit. And so, the idea for Sarilla was born.

Next week: Part 2 - How Sarilla went from tea in kegs in North Carolina bars to seven flavors and national distribution.

The Drinks

There was no way I could bring you the whole Sarilla story and write about all 6 drinks in one newsletter. Instead I’ll spread it over two issues. Here’s the first three drinks.

Lemon Light Tea
I don’t know if I got lucky with this first can or if I’m in for a box full of treats, but the Lemon Light Tea is a corker. There’s not a whole lot of lemon on the nose—just mild notes of black tea. I was nervous, before I opened the can, that it might be overly lemony, with the citrus overpowering the tea, but that’s not the case at all. This sparkler is very much tea-first—both black and silver tip—with the lemon juice just along for the ride. A little carbonation and the faintest hint of spice on the finish. I could happily drink this all summer long. Bravo.

Green Tea Spritzer
As someone who tends to shy away from the grassy flavors of most green teas, I was somwhat hesistant by this second one. The vegetal notes upon opening the can and the first sip confirmed my green tea fears. But I wasn’t going to give up on it, and the more I had, the more it grew on me. That said, even with renewed enthusiasm, I still felt it needed something extra.

So the amateur mixologist in me reached for a bottle of Wilderton Citrus and added a shot. Instantly, the Green Tea Spritzer became my new favorite mixer. The botanicals, lemon, yuzu and blood orange married perfectly with the grassy, floral and dare I say a hint of mint from the Green Tea Spritzer. I was quite proud myself! Don’t let me put you off drinking it straight though. If you love Green Tea, you’ll likely be big fan of this one.

Vanilla Rooibos Infusion
I loved this one from the off. The Rooibos tea delivers a strong, earthy woodiness along with a little sweet spice. Like the tea itself, the Vanilla Rooibos Infusion will probably divide opinion—you either take it or leave it. A healthy dose of vanilla extract and orange peel has been added to tame the intensity of the tea, and it works perfectly. It’s a little unusual, especially for someone like me who hasn’t had much exposure to Rooibos, but this is exactly the kind of drink that keeps me writing this newsletter each week.

I also followed one of Sarilla’s IG posts and added a generous pour of tart cherry concentrate. It reminded me a lot of the Fireside recipe from the Raising the Bar box I wrote about a few weeks ago—another solid red wine alternative, and one for cozy winter evenings. Great stuff.

How does Sarilla describe: 

Lemon: Described as very mellow and crushable, made with organic Rwandan silver tips and black teas blended with a splash of lemon juice and a touch of cane sugar.

Green Tea: Made with organic Rwandan green tea and hibiscus, sweetened with pure monk fruit. No stevia or erythritol.

Vanilla Rooibus Infusion: Made with organic South African rooibos and honeybush, blended with orange peel and vanilla.

Note: If you aren’t sure which of the flavors would work for you, I’d suggest buying the sampler box for just $18.00.

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BEER

The ModSub thoughts: One of the fun things about there being hundreds and hundreds of NA beers out there in the world, is that I haven’t tried them all yet. There’s always a new one to look forward to, and you never quite know what’s in store when you twist the cap or pull the tab on something you’ve never had before.

What’s even more fun is when you find a keeper like La Trappe Nillis from La Trappe Trappist—and it blows you away.

La Trappe Nillis is produced at the Abbey of Our Lady of Koningshoeven in the Netherlands, alongside what I imagine are some very tasty regular beers. The abbey was founded in 1884 by a group of Trappist monks who had settled in the former country residence of King Willem II and began brewing ale.

To this day, the order continues to oversee beer production at the abbey, and the beer is certified as an “Authentic Trappist Product” by the International Trappist Association, which recognizes 11 Trappist breweries worldwide.

Nillis is pretty magical. The pour reveals a beautiful dark red-amber hue, and the aroma is rich with heavy malts. As with many European amber beers, as opposed to the American versions, it’s all about the malts. So the flavor is wonderfully bready, with sweet caramel notes and bold stone fruit flavors. It’s an extraordinarily smooth beer, packed with full-bodied character.

Well worth your time and money to seek this one out.

How does brew master, Sean Burke, describe the West Coast IPA: The world's first alcohol-free 0.0% Trappist beer. Dark, amber-coloured Trappist beer with an off-white head. Fruity and malty with a pleasant bitterness and a caramel-sweet finish.

Note: You can’t buy this directly from the brewery. Look for it in your local NA bottle shops or online at Belgian specialty food stores. I paid $4.99 for a bottle locally here in Portland but prices vary.

COMMENTS
Share Your Thoughts

Let’s get the conversation going. Hit REPLY to share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

Here are some suggestions:

1. What are your thoughts on the flood of new functional drinks that include low-dose THC?

2. Tea-based non-alcoholic drinks are an area of the NA space that excite the heck out of me. Have you come across any favorites you can share?

3. What’s your favorite European NA beer at the moment?

Have your own questions? Let me know. Hit REPLY.

READS
Last Week’s Edition

Clearly someone over at HBO loves non-alcoholic drinks as much as we do. Hot on the heels of a bottle of Phoney Negroni making an appearance on And Just Like That (see last week), Spiced Piñarita from Parch was seen in the kitchen in the billionaires retreat movie, Mountainhead. Whoever it is has great taste in non-alc cocktails.