Sparkling Tea – alcohol-free

Sparkling Tea, a glass full of tea and bubbles—completely alcohol-free

Sparkling Tea is a bubbly beverage made from brewed tea that originated in Copenhagen and is served in a white wine glass. At nur Gutes, it comes from Copenhagen, the foothills of the Swabian Alb, and the Lower Rhine region, brewed from organic tea and blended into a cuvée with grape juice, meadow fruit, or quince. All bottles in this category are completely alcohol-free.

Sparkling Tea – non-alcoholic is the shelf at nur Gutes for sparkling beverages made from brewed tea that are served completely alcohol-free. A sommelier in Copenhagen established this category in 2017. Today, a manufacturer at the foot of the Swabian Alb and a fruit press on the Lower Rhine also brew organic tea into a cuvée with grape juice, meadow fruit, or quince before adding carbonation.

How a teapot in Copenhagen became a beverage category

Sparkling Tea was created in 2010 in the kitchen of a Copenhagen restaurant when sommelier Jacob Kocemba couldn't find a suitable bottle to pair with a dessert.

With over 1,700 wines in his cellar, none of them seemed to fit the dessert. So, he brewed several teas that he usually only served straight and placed the extract next to the guests' plates. Seven years later, he co-founded the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company with Bo Sten Hansen. On May 26, 2017, the first bottle was sold in Copenhagen.

What resulted bubbles in its own unique way. The effervescence here comes from added carbonation, not from fermentation in the bottle. The tea steeps, is added to a cuvée, and is then pressurized—at the Copenhagen company, after eight to twelve weeks of bottle aging at 5 bar. This is the difference from kombucha, which gets its sparkle from fermentation, developing a fine acidity in the process.

From Copenhagen to the Swabian Alb and the Lower Rhine

This shelf features houses side-by-side that bring tea into the glass in very different ways. One uses grape juice, another meadow fruit, and the third, single-varietal juice from their own press.

From Copenhagen come the floral Blå with jasmine and chamomile, the dry Lyserød, which is colored pink by hibiscus blossoms, and the green Lysegrøn with Earl Grey Sencha, which adds a hint of salt to the glass. Up to 13 organic teas go into one of these bottles, each brewed individually because a Silver Needle requires different water than an Assam. The sweetness is provided by the grape juice, and the rest is tea.

At the foot of the Swabian Alb, Jörg Geiger infuses tea with meadow fruit. In the Teasecco Weiss, green Darjeeling meets apple and pear from old meadow orchards, as well as peach. In the Teasecco Rosé, hibiscus and plum provide color and fruit, based on non-alcoholic Chardonnay. You can recognize both bottles by the drawing of a dachshund—one light blue, the other pink.

From the Lower Rhine comes the Sparkling Juicy Tea, for which Peter van Nahmen lets the tea steep cold for hours before blending it with juice from his own press into a cuvée. Rose, Darjeeling, and Rhubarb are perfect for the spring table, Verbena, Jasmine, and Riesling go well with Asian cuisine, and white tea with vanilla and quince is perfect for a quiet evening.

Dry with oysters, floral as an aperitif, fruity with curry

At this shelf, it is less about the type of tea and more about the residual sweetness, as it determines whether a bottle is meant for a toast or for a meal.

The Lyserød has 20 grams of sugar per liter, the Lysegrøn has 40, and the Blå has 50 grams. The less sweetness in the glass, the more the bottle accompanies food; the more sweetness, the better it stands alone at the start of the evening. The dry variety likes raw fish, sushi, and goat cheese; the green one loves oysters and grilled dishes with lemon; the blue one pairs with scallops and macarons.

The fruit varieties take a different path than the Copenhagen ones. The Teasecco Weiss puts yellow fruits and dried flowers next to the green of the tea, accompanying a brunch just as well as an aperitif. The Verbena-Jasmine-Riesling cools a yellow curry with its mint, and the white tea with vanilla and quince is the most delicate on the shelf, intended for light fish and savory cheese.

A sommelier, a chef, and a fourth-generation fruit presser

Behind the labels are people who came to tea from very different professions, and none of them started as tea merchants.

Jacob Kocemba composes his cuvées like a winemaker does their grape varieties, while Bo Sten Hansen takes care of the commercial side. "Everyone deserves a good glass of bubbles," they wrote about their house. At the three-Michelin-starred Geranium in Copenhagen, Blå and Lyserød are on the menu, and Falstaff awarded the Blå 92 out of 100 points in 2025. You can read more about them in the portrait of the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company.

Jörg Geiger is a trained chef who took over his parents' inn, Lamm, in Schlat. There, he felt he lacked a glass for guests who didn't drink alcohol that looked impressive on the table. In 1998, he made his first sparkling wine from the pears of five old trees, followed by the first Prisecco in 2003. Since then, the Manufaktur Jörg Geiger has consciously paid more than the market price for orchard fruit so that the old trees remain standing.

Peter van Nahmen runs the fruit press in Hamminkeln in the fourth generation. The family has been in the fruit business there since 1917, and since 1994, they have paid their contract farmers a premium for orchard fruit in collaboration with NABU. The house developed the Sparkling Juicy Tea with tea sommeliers, and in 2025, the DLG awarded the house its Federal Honorary Prize for fruit beverages. The entire range can be found in the portrait of van Nahmen.

Well-chilled in a white wine glass, not a narrow flute

The sparkling tea is served well-chilled and in a glass that gives the aroma room to breathe.

The Copenhagen varieties are served at about 5 degrees Celsius, the bottles from the Lower Rhine and the Swabian Alb at 8 degrees. All prefer a bulbous glass, because in a narrow flute, the jasmine gets no air. Once opened, a bottle will keep in the refrigerator for two to three days. A sprig of verbena, a thin slice of quince, or an edible rose petal in the glass—this presentation requires no more effort than that.

At the table, the tea takes on the role usually filled by wine. Oysters and sushi require a dry bottle, while curry and tagine go with the variety featuring verbena and mint. Goats cheese with honey calls for Teasecco, and berry desserts call for the Blå, the concept for which once began with a dessert.

For toasting when not everyone at the table drinks alcohol

Sparkling tea solves an old problem for every host: the one glass for guests who aren't drinking along.

Anyone who simply doesn't feel like alcohol gets the same beautiful bottle as the rest of the table. For weddings, Dry January, and New Year's Eve, an alcohol-free bottle is ready to toast with. If you want to buy Sparkling Tea to supply an entire group, pick up a six-pack, which is available for every variety.

For gifting, the three Copenhagen varieties are available as a gift box with a hand-tied ribbon, ready-wrapped and lined with tissue paper. The varieties with 5 percent alcohol—Grøn, Rød, and Vinter—are intentionally placed next door under Sparkling Tea with and without alcohol. The entire shelf awaits you among the alcohol-free beverages, from Prisecco to kombucha.

Place a bottle next to the sparkling wine, and the whole table can toast together.