In my recent story about how food and beverage businesses were dealing with the effects of the pandemic, I pointed out how clever TailGate Brewery owner Wesley Keegan was for diversifying his business to help hedge revenues during down times. Well, he’s done it again. In addition to his commercial brewery, taprooms, pizza and soft-serve businesses, and cider offerings, Keegan has recently established a new company that is separate from TailGate, but which operates under the same umbrella.
Miss Lacey’s Southern Tea has been a dream of Keegan’s for quite a while as a way to honor his Aunt Lacey’s recipe for sweet tea that has been brewed in his family for generations. Keegan was also looking for a way to fill up some of the excess capacity in his huge brewery in West Nashville without having to take on contract brewing agreements, which would essentially give a leg up to his competition.
Working from Aunt Lacey’s recipes, Keegan uses organic black-leaf tea to create two flavors, Sweet Tea and Peach Tea. Distributed by Lipman Brothers, Miss Lacey’s products are now available at convenience and grocery stores around the Nashville market, and Keegan plans to expand quickly across the state.
Keegan was kind enough to drop off a few sample cans for me to try, despite my protestations that I’ve never been much of a tea drinker. (Me and Ted Lasso.) I asked my girlfriend to sample it, and her reaction was so positive that I was encouraged to give it a try. I may be a convert! The Sweet Tea was indeed sweet, but not cloyingly so. There’s a really nice balance between the taste of the brew and the natural sugar, and I didn’t worry about the instant diabetes that some Southern teas threaten. I’ll drink fruit tea on occasion, but most of those just taste like hummingbird food anyway. The Peach Tea from Miss Lacey’s also exhibits deft balancing of sugar, tea and peaches, although my girlfriend says it reminds her a bit of a fuzzy navel from the early '90’s, which she recalls hazily.
In addition to serving as a way to honor his own family’s recipe, Keegan acknowledges that this expansion was primarily a business decision. “The beer industry is highly regulated and difficult to grow in,” says Keegan. “Non-alc is different. Still difficult, but the same basic principles apply: make an excellent, handcrafted product and stand by it. I grew up drinking this tea as young as I can remember, so I care deeply about the ingredients and preserving the history of the family recipe. There’s a lot of great tea in Tennessee, but crafting a ready-to-drink sweet tea takes attention to things like branding, packaging, shelf-stability and strict quality control. I’m at the point in my career where I can confidently say we can do this family recipe justice.”
Lipman Brothers' Clark Calvert thinks Keegan has a winner on his hands, saying, “We’re really excited to partner with a local non-alc brand, particularly one that has a strong brand story and sense of history behind it like Miss Lacey's. We think Nashville’s going to love this local, small-batch, craft sweet tea, and are excited to work to make it grow further.”
Hmmm … Lipman? Lipton? This has to work!
