Hoplark HopTea

In 2018, speaking as one of 12 competitors in BevNET’s New Beverage Showdown 16 pitch slam, Hoplark HopTea founder and CEO Dean Eberhardt said he believed his innovative new brand was helping to create a new category for non-alcoholic hops-infused drinks. Three years after winning that competition, Hoplark itself is thriving; building its national distribution network and releasing a steady stream of flavor innovations that lean into the brand’s craft beer styled drinks through unique combinations of hops and teas. The brand’s 2020 sales were 85x its 2018 numbers, and as of this March the brand was reporting exponential growth curves, also doubling its brewery capacity to meet demand. But not only is this Colorado-based startup that dares to play in two different sets of the store living up to its promise, the category Eberhardt predicted is beginning to grow around it. Big name brewers are investing in and creating their own non-alc hop drinks and tea-based competitors are entering the market, leaving Hoplark as an early leader and cementing its status as a trailblazer.