Hard tea and kombucha brand, Jiant, is entering a new chapter of its business as it names actor Chace Crawford to Chief Creative Officer, the company tells me. As part of a new deal, Crawford will also join cofounders Aaron Telch and Larry Haertel, Jr. as part owner and shareholder of the beverage company, which launched in 2019.
Crawford, known for his roles in Gossip Girl and Prime Video’s The Boys, was a frequent customer of Jiant well before meeting Telch and Haertel, initially discovering the hard tea at his local Lazy Acres Market in Los Angeles. “I’m from the South. I like tea,” Crawford tells me. “The other options out there are crammed full of sugar. When I looked at the can, there was just no crap in it…I just kept going back for some more.”
Crawford has extra equity incentives if Jiant hits certain sales milestones over the next several years. “This wasn’t some short-term endorsement deal,” says Telch. “This is a long-term partnership.”
Jiant Hard Tea
“Geriatric Elder Millennial”
Crawford, 39, is a self-described “geriatric elder millennial.” It’s also the theme of a new campaign the company is launching with today’s announcement. “It’s the idea of doing beer funnels and ski shots at a frat bar when you’re in your twenties, then you start to settle down a little bit more and you want something a little more adult, a little more chill,” Crawford explains. “One day you hit 35, and it’s rough getting up after a Friday night.”
The campaign commits Jiant to targeting its core demo in a lighthearted way without explicitly alienating others. “So many brands are trying to target Gen Z. We’re flipping the script,” Telch says. “It’s more of a funny way to highlight how a lot of people…they’re done with their wild party days, but they still like to socialize,” Telch says.
Telch and Haertel met Crawford through a mutual friend, and knew the partnership would work while getting to know each other on the golf course. “Where Chace fits in is helping us go from being a fantastic world class product to a world class brand,” says Haertel. They believe his excitement in the company is already shining through based on his involvement thus far. “I view it as another extension of production, of being creative in a different space,” Crawford says. “I’m also kind of a numbers guy. I like business. So it’s scratching a different itch I didn’t know I had.”
The first variety Crawford tried last year was the Jiant OG kombucha before trying the hard teas. “I was just blown away by the flavor,” he says. “The pineapple’s kind of my new favorite right now.” He also likes the subtle kick of caffeine it provides. “It’s a great daytime, watching football, on the beach or golf course, in the pool drink,” Crawford preaches. “It’s for everybody.”
Competing With The Giants
Telch, from Northern California, and Haertel, from Connecticut, met at Brown University in the 2000s where they both played on the golf team. They would later become roommates while living in New York City–Telch worked in the entertainment industry at places like Viacom after stints in finance. Haertel, dedicated to the hospitality industry, became an editor at the food media outlet, Eater. Both interested in becoming entrepreneurs, they left their gigs to attend business school; Telch earned a Master’s degree from Wharton Business School and Haertel earned his from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
In Los Angeles, Telch would work at a startup where he learned what it would take to bring a beverage to the market, developing the nonalcoholic sparkling tea, Enroot. “[Around 2015] there was a lot of innovation in the non-alc space. Kombucha was becoming a big thing,” Telch says. “The health and wellness consumer was coming out of the niche territory…and I had an idea that I basically could not stop thinking about.” That led him to start brewing kombucha in his own kitchen. He was committed to learning how to ferment it in a way to make it naturally alcoholic, as opposed to just adding liquor afterwards.
Larry Haertel, Jr. (left) and Aaron Telch (right)
Meanwhile, Haertel, who had thought about starting his own brewery, developed a gluten intolerance, so his ambitions needed some tweaking. He was uninspired by the options outside of beer on grocery shelves. “Nothing really spoke to me in the same way that a craft brewery or a local brand spoke to me in terms of packaging and ethos,” Haertel says. So he joined Telch in the kitchen.
Jiant’s original kombucha flavor, which is still available today, is passionfruit and elderflower. “Larry and I did at least 150 iterations of it,” Telch says. “We wanted to do something that was very pure and highlighted the kombucha. We do a jun kombucha, which is green tea and honey–lighter and more floral.”
The launch was scrappy, to say the least–the kombucha was packaged in kegs, not the peppy, colorful cans the product is known for today. “We didn’t know what we were doing,” Telch jokes. “We were going around knocking on doors…We learned a lot about the business and how you need a distributor.”
Big box brands in the beer, wine and spirits space inspired the name ‘Jiant.’ “The ‘J’ is an homage to our jun kombucha,” Telch explains. But in the definition of the word, it was a call to action to compete with the giants in the industry. “We’re brewing in our kitchen right now, but we see you.”
In 2022, Jiant expanded its offerings to include hard tea in addition to hard kombucha. “We’re a true hard tea,” Telch says. “There are hard seltzers that have come out with a hard tea, but they’re really seltzer with tea flavor. We brew and ferment fresh brewed tea.” The base of each Jiant hard tea is a Chinese keemun black tea, while the base of Jiant’s hard kombucha is a green sencha tea. The hard tea flavors, including Kiwi Strawberry, Peach Iced Tea, and Half Tea Half Lemonade, are a nod to nostalgic flavors from the 2000s, and lightly carbonated, trends that are surging in popularity today.
Teeing Up Hard Tea Success
Although Jiant is most prevalent in Southern California, the product has proven itself to be successful across several regions of the country, including Colorado and Connecticut, where Telch says Jiant is the number one independently-owned hard tea brand. “When [consumers] turn around the can and see the ingredient lists, the nutrition fact panel, that we’re a climate-neutral certified brand and certified non-GMO…that’s critical to certain consumers,” says Haertel. “That’s really helped us to succeed across these different channels.”
The kombucha market has softened compared its prior spike in years past, leading Jiant to focus more now on growing its hard tea varieties. Twisted Tea, Jiant’s primary competitor, which has been on the market for more than 20 years, dominates roughly 90% of the $1.3 billion hard tea market as of late 2023. And according to Grand View Research, the global hard tea market is expected to reach $14.5 billion by 2030. “To us that screams a huge opportunity to bring a modern approach,” Telch says. “We use real tea, real cane sugar and real fruit juice. No preservatives.”
Mary Guiver, Whole Foods Market’s Principal Category Merchant for Beer, and Jiant’s buyer at the natural grocery chain, says, “Because [Jiant] makes both hard tea and hard kombucha, customers will naturally switch between both categories, which offers great variety for their customers. Overall, not specific to Jiant, hard teas are the trend of the moment but hard kombucha is also staying consistent.” Jiant started out in the Southern-Pacific region of Whole Foods Market and has since expanded nationally.
Telch, Crawford and Haertel
Jiant has proven to be versatile for several tiers of retail, from convenience in 7-Eleven to natural in Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Sprouts. “This past year was our first real foray into conventional grocery with Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons, which is a big growth opportunity for us,” Haertel says.
Major sports stadiums are stocking up on Jiant too, most notably SoFi Stadium, home of the LA Rams, and Ball Arena, home of the Denver Nuggets, setting the brand up to be treated as a commercial alternative to beer while watching sports live or on tv. “The venue accounts are more up and down based on the season, but they’re big accounts for us and we’re very happy,” says Telch.
After closing Series A funding lead by Natureza Growth Partners last year at $6 million, Jiant has strategized a new round of chain distribution expansion starting in 2025. In January, it will release a variety pack of new tropical-flavored 5% hard yerba mate cans. The brand has a target of reaching $10 million in revenue next year, with a north star of $100 million by 2027.
With Crawford on the team, Jiant is pushing to increase awareness beyond its current-biggest markets. The new c-suite loves cracking a Jiant on the green together; their combined love for golfing with friends is in Jiant’s DNA. Crawford even has a golf apparel line on the horizon.
“Until now, we really focused more on our retail relationships and our sales strategy,” Telch says. “Our marketing and brand strategy took a back seat and now we want to change that. That was a big part of this partnership with Chace.”