Twisted Tea is not just a drink, it’s America’s shortcut to summer, condensed into a pale yellow bottle that tastes like your grandma’s sweet tea but with a questionable buzz and a wink.

Born in 2001 in Cincinnati by the Boston Beer Company (the same minds behind Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard), Twisted Tea crashed into the driest aisle in America’s booming flavored malt beverage category and slurred its way to the top.

What sets it on fire is simple: it tastes like real brewed black tea citrus-toned, sugary yet delivers 5 percent ABV from a malt base that once met hops but got hijacked mid-fermentation, masked in flavor so well you won’t cringe at fish tacos thinking you’re drinking beer .

The name? Born “BoDean’s Twisted Tea,” an homage to a rock band that sued Boston Beer for trademark reasons and won. Twisted Tea stripped away the legal limelight and kept the attitude  . Its viral gravity didn’t come from influencer deals or curated ads. It came from the ground up pickup trucks, tailgate tables, college dorms, and the meme circuits of the internet. A man, racist rant, and a twirl of a Twisted Tea can turned into cultural currency, sending the iced tea with an edge skyrocketing across TikTok  . Fast forward to today, and Twisted Tea isn’t just surviving—it’s still leading.

“America’s favorite hard iced tea,” runs the prose, as competitors from Lipton to New Belgium rush to pour their versions around it.

Lipton rides in with familiar green tea flavors, Voodoo Ranger charges with higher ABV riffs, and breweries from Ohio to New Jersey leap into what’s suddenly this year’s surging category  . The appeal is legible: it’s sweet without being simple.

Floral yet sharp. Familiar yet forbidden. It’s half nostalgia, half rebellion like borrowing your grandfather’s walker to do the Worm. In a market glutted with flashing hard seltzers and herbal “probiotic” liquors, Twisted Tea is unashamed, unruly, and lasting.

It doesn’t care how Instagram-worthy your can is it wants your mouth and your memories. So, do you just see this as another canned RTD? Think again. Twisted Tea taught America that not everything needs to taste “elevated” to earn its cool. Sometimes authenticity is just a twist of flavor and a generous pour.