This article is a paid partnership with Tide Amplified Tea

A bold new player has entered the energy and functional drinks arena, and with a local twist, this may be the most unique creation yet. Tide Amplified Tea, a canned ready-to-drink tea made from all natural and organic ingredients, officially launched this spring, making its debut in St. Pete at the annual Reggae Rise Up Festival.

The founding team of Tide is already well-known in the area, as it includes owners of EVENT Live and Reggae Rise Up. This new venture, based in St. Pete, has the potential to be even bigger than their impressive work across the country, as Tide is the first drink of its kind to feature North America’s only native source of caffeine: Yaupon.

The low-calorie ready-to-drink tea is both an energy and mood enhancer, combining natural and organic ingredients and flavors with the continent’s least-known yet longest-enjoyed tea. Yaupon (Yo-Pawn) tea, which remains unheard of to most Americans, contains the natural mood enhancer theobromine, is high in antioxidants, and offers a host of other disease-fighting properties. It’s also known for its smooth taste and jitter-free, no-crash, long-lasting energy.

As Tide Amplified Tea unrolls its nationwide launch, those of us in the Tampa Bay Area are fortunate enough to be the first to try it. Having already made a splash at Reggae Rise Up, Tide will be popping up at some of the area’s biggest events in the coming months, such as Tampa Bay’s biggest Kentucky Derby party, and the annual St. Pete favorite, Tacos & Tequila Festival. While not yet in stores, Tide is also available for purchase through Amazon.

“We are a lifestyle brand first but would put our products up against the healthiest beverages on the market, as we use only natural and organic ingredients with no preservatives,” said Ryan Waier, one of Tide Amplified Tea’s founding members and St. Petersburg resident. “Our foremost priority in research and development was to ensure we did not take away from the wild harvested organic tea properties by using only premium ingredients. You can easily understand the ingredients on the back of our cans, knowing you are drinking an exceptionally clean and healthy product.”

Get clean energy and mood enhancement in one tasty drink

The functional and energy beverages come in three varieties as of the product launch, all of which contain at least 125 milligrams of organic caffeine. The Sparkling Mango, Black + Blueberry, and Tropical Blend each offer a variety of energy and mood enhancing properties.

The Focus+Energy line is a traditional functional beverage with lion’s mane and cordyceps functional mushrooms to help reduce brain fog and assist in recovery. The Energy+Mood line, including Tropical Blend and Black/Blueberry flavors, was also engineered as pre-flavored premium mixers for signature cocktails at events.

With all Tide Amplified Tea products, the goal is to simply “amplify” the natural properties of the Yaupon tea with other organic ingredients and adaptogens that complement and enhance the plant’s natural properties. The result, Tide creators say, is hours of energy, focus and mental clarity. Learn more and order a case (or two) online.

What is Yaupon?

As the only tea native to North America, Yaupon is quite literally steeped in Native American history. For millennia, the energizing tea has been made from the leaves of the Yaupon plant, a type of holly native to southeastern North America. The smooth tasting tea has been used for thousands of years by Indigenous People in the Southeastern United States as a stimulating beverage, medicinal plant, and ceremonial drink.

Located in Austin, Texas, CatSpring Yaupon has been sustainably wild-harvesting and sharing this incredible plant for over a decade, and it is from them that Tide gets its organic ingredients. Each leaf is handpicked, and the plant itself, which grows wild, requires very little maintenance and water, making it a supremely sustainable crop.

Tide Teas are made with real brewed Yaupon tea and amplified by infusing adaptogens including ginseng. And it is because of this proprietary blend, as Tide says, that the tea “delivers hours of clean, no-crash energy to crush that afternoon slump!”

Tide Amplified Tea, based out of St. Pete, is a Florida lifestyle brand that combines their core founders’ concert and event background with the beach-going, sun-loving, part-time pirate traditions of the state we call home. Tide promises to put “Sunshine In Every Sip” and “transport you to this tropical paradise we live in,” no matter where you are when you take that first sip.

Follow Tide Amplified Teas on instagram to see where Tide will pop up, and visit their website to learn more.