Kelly and Bryan Hackman – a husband and wife team based in New Port Richey, Fla., have united their love of tea and beer, respectively, into thriving businesses. Kelly is a World Tea Academy Certified Tea Sommelier, Tea Specialist and an etiquette consultant, and Bryan has been a craft beer aficionado for decades. Now, both Kelly and Bryan will present a special session at the 2022 World Tea Conference + Expo on Tuesday, March 22 at 9:45 a.m. Their session is titled "A Partnership of Tea & Beer."
Kelly (pictured below) is the owner of The White Heron Tea & Gifts, and Bryan is the owner of Cotee River Brewing Company, the first local brewery in the city of New Port Richey. Together, the two passionate beverage connoisseurs and entrepreneurs have carved out a unique path for themselves. And while they’ve been married for more than a decade, this year marks the fifth anniversary of the couple’s business partnership in the worlds of tea and beer.
A Tale of Two Award-Winning Businesses
For Kelly, her White Heron tearoom is a unique escape, which has assisted in transforming her town’s historic landscape while drawing guests to the area from throughout the Southeastern United States. The business is an award-winning destination for upscale tea service and blends. For Bryan, the Cotee River Brewing Co. brings the town’s main street to life, and it’s been recognized numerous times with a slew of awards for its creativity and craft beer skills. By day, Bryan has been working as an electrical designer at an engineering firm in Tampa for the past 24 years. By night, he works at the brewery, which has been a hit with locals and travels alike.
“We spent so much time planning and building The White Heron that I decided Bryan could also have a business,” Kelly jokes. “Bryan kept telling me he wanted to be downtown and ‘play’ with us since we always seem to be having so much fun at The White Heron Tea & Gifts.”
The two Florida natives grew up in the same town, went to neighboring high schools, and graduated within a year of one another, yet it wasn’t until their mid 30s that their paths finally crossed. “We have been best friends since we met, and we fell in love very quickly,” Kelly recalls. “I told Bryan I was only marrying once so I had to get it right. I knew right away that he and I had something special that we could build on.”
‘Something Special’
Indeed, building upon “something special” is exactly what the Hackmans have done, as they’ve found unique ways for their two businesses to collaborate. They’ve found that identifying the unconventional intersection between tea and craft beer has been the key to some of their top selling beers at Cotee River Brewing.
“We had always heard about using flavors in beer and one day Kelly asked me, why don’t we use tea?” Bryan says (pictured below). “I know it has been done before with certain beers, but what if we could make some really unique beers using tea’s unique qualities, then that would set us apart from other brewers in the area an give guests some really fun beers to try in addition to our traditional ones.”
Cotee River Brewing Company has a great selection of core beers that they brew, including IPA’s, Pale Ales, Reds, Porters, Stouts, and Blondes. But it’s the collaboration beers that get the most attention for Cotee River Brewing Company and The White Heron Tea & Gifts. In fact, the first beer commercially brewed in the City of New Port Richey, by Cotee River Brewing Company, was their Market Fresh Wheat Ale. This light wheat ale boasts fruit and savory flavors one might find at a farmer’s market. And yes, it was brewed with tea. The herbal tea for this beer, provided by The White Heron’s tea brand, Driftwood Tea Company, is introduced during the boil process, and extracts many unique flavors. “It is a great, light beer,” Bryan says. “And because it was our first, many of our guests enjoy it and say it’s their favorite.”
Market Fresh was the first of several beer and tea collaborations that the couple has worked on over the past two years. Each time they introduce a new collaboration that beer tends to become a mainstay on their tap list. “It’s great working together,” says Bryan. “Kelly has such a love of flavors and creating pairings that developing beer using tea as the flavoring agent has been right up her alley, and what she loves to do. She’s always coming up with great ideas and I just can’t brew beer fast enough,” Bryan jokes.
Other beers that the pair have worked on in collaboration include: Sarazen Wheat Ale, using a strawberry and kiwi herbal tea; NPR Engine 1 Smoked Porter (named for the town’s fire department) using Lapsang Souchong to create that smoky flavor; and the Red Headed Blonde which highlights a hibiscus berry flavor from an herbal tea. “We use the tea as a natural way of introducing flavors without using artificial flavorings that leave harsh aftertastes in the beer,” says Bryan.
Last Valentine’s Day marked the release of their hit collaboration, the Chocolate Covered Strawberry Porter. Brewed as a regular porter, the beer takes on the unique flavors of strawberry and chocolate when it is moved to cold crash in the cooler. This is when tea from The White Heron is cold steeped in the beer. The result is a delicious and frothy, semi-sweet porter with notes of strawberry and a creamy chocolate finish. “The porter is traditionally cocoa in flavor, so it was only natural to add chocolate and strawberry flavors to bring out that cocoa-ness, making it perfect for Valentine’s Day,” explains Bryan.
What’s the Key to the Hackman’s Success?
“Understanding your business and your offerings is so important,” Kelly says, whose business took-off early on and expanded to triple the capacity. “Whatever I was going to do, I wanted to dive into it and learn so that my place could become a complete destination.”
If their first two ventures weren’t enough to stay occupied, the couple is taking on a new project together. The Coastline Salt Room will be the first of its kind in West Pasco, Fla. Located on Main Street, this facility will offer relaxing salt therapy sessions and a space for yoga and meditation classes while enjoying salt therapy. In anticipation of opening, the couple travelled to St. Petersburg, St. Augustine and Knoxville to experience different salt rooms. Even on vacation, Bryan and Kelly are constantly evaluating the successful elements of downtowns and brining ideas back to their businesses. “When you own a tea room, a salt room and a brewery, there are lots of opportunities to mix business, travel and pleasure,” says Kelly.
To learn more about The White Heron Tea & Gifts or Cotee River Brewing Co., visit TheWhiteHeronFL.com and CoteeRiverBrewing.com. To learn more about tea and running a successful tea business, attend the upcoming World Tea Conference + Expo, July 14-16, 2021. Visit WorldTeaExpo.com.