How do you take your tea – black, with milk or sparkling?

Between the Coronavirus and the stormy weather, our social lives are somewhat curtailed at the moment. However, we're trying to stay positive and cast our minds forward to the summer when we'll be sipping on some lovely fresh drinks in the sun surrounded by laughter and delicious foods. In the meantime, I've been using the down period to try out some new trends and find myself a new drink of choice for those lazy summer days. Already there are two new beverages on offer in Ireland: sparkling tea and a beer made from honey. As an avid tea drinker, when I heard that my favourite tipple now comes in the form of a sparkling beverage I needed to know more. So, I went along to Wilde at The Westbury in Dublin where sommelier Philip Dunne guided me through a taste test of the new drink for the latest episode of Curated With Cassie, which you can view here or below. Danish company the Copenhagen Sparkling Tea Company are the people behind what's been described as a "new and innovative" drinks category. Their range consists of low- and no-alcohol teas, and Wilde is one of the only places which has it available on the menu. This new drink looks just like a glass of Prosecco, but instead of being made from grapes it's created using fusions of up to 13 types of organic tea. There are several varieties, including 'vinter' which has warm, spice flavours, 'gron' with notes of green tea, and 'rod' which is the company's version of a rosé. The 'bla' and 'lyserod' varieties are white and rosé non-alcoholic options. And I can tell you first hand, it tastes lovely – a light and really refreshing drink and a good alternative if you find Prosecco sickly sweet or are not drinking. Watch me trying it for the first time here. Another new drink to look out for is Beekon, a new Irish made, honey-based alcoholic drink. No, this is not a beer flavoured with honey like others on the market. Much like the sparkling tea, Beekon is in an entirely separate category of its own known as a "honey refresher". The company prides itself on only using three ingredients, honey, water and yeast, steering clear of extra additives to produce a drink with 5% alcoholic volume. Beekon is available in classic honey flavour, and also a ginger & lime variety. I have yet to try this wholesome alcoholic beverage but I will be testing it out on an episode of Curated With Cassie very soon. You can watch other episodes of Curated With Cassie here, and there's a new one every week so make sure to subscribe to the series on Her's YouTube channel.