Wawa, Pa. — Wawa and Cape May Brewing Co. are teaming on Shore Tea, a limited-edition peach-flavored hard beverage.
The convenience-store retailer will release the canned drink at the grand opening of its newest c-store with beer in Bucks County, Pa., and Cape May Brewing Co. will release it at its tasting room and select other retailers.
The hard tea, made with Wawa’s Peach Iced Tea and Cape May’s adult libations, is available in limited quantities of six-pack 12-ounce cans. The hard tea has 4.5% alcohol, and all ingredients are gluten-free. The beverage does not contain peach juice. A six-pack is $12.99.
- Wawa is No. 9 on CSP’s 2022 Top 202 ranking of c-store chains by company owned and operated stores.
The ribbon cutting of the first cases is at 8 a.m. on July 21, at the grand opening of the newest beer store in Langhorne, Pa., Wawa and Cape May Brewing Co. will give away T-shirts to the first 100 customers. There will be an opportunity to meet the brewers, James Fox, director of brewing operations for Cape May Brewing Co., and Michael McLaughlin, senior manager of concept development for Wawa.
In addition, limited quantities of Shore Tea will be available exclusively July 21 at several Pennsylvania Wawa beer stores.
At 11 a.m. on July 23, there will be a launch party at the Cape May Brewing tasting room in Rio Grande, N.J., with live music, a Wawa and Cape May Brewing Co. T-shirt giveaway, and Wawa pretzels and Wawa Peach Iced Tea nonalcoholic pint giveaways.
Beginning July 25, Shore Tea will be on sale at select retailers.
Also, there is a social media sweepstakes for a Cape May Brewing VIP brewery tour. Customers can enter to win from July 18 through July 25.
“We’re excited to stretch our wings and fly south to the New Jersey Shore to partner with Cape May Brewing Co. to produce our first-ever hard tea with a customer favorite: Wawa’s Peach Iced Tea,” McLaughlin said. “Wawa’s Peach Iced Tea captures the aroma and flavors of biting into a freshly picked peach at the height of ripeness, and pairs it perfectly with the warm carmelic tones of our signature Black Iced Tea.”
Fox added, “We approached the process of making this tea similar to how we make our seltzers. We kept it simple, just like if you were going to make tea at home. Fortunately, we were able to use the same ingredients that Wawa uses in their peach tea. After the alcohol was added, we had several benchtop trials to dial in the ratios and flavors. We are really happy with how this turned out; it’s easy to forget that it’s hard tea.”
Also, in celebration of its 10th anniversary in Florida, Wawa offered free any-size hot coffee and fountain beverages at all of its Florida stores on July 18, the day its first Sunshine State store opened in Orlando in 2012. The offer is to toast the community and thank Wawa’s customers and 10,000 associates across Wawa’s almost 250 Florida stores.
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