MaraBela Sparkling Tea

MaraBela is a new, alcohol-free sparkling tea produced in Walla Walla. The company is the brainchild of Jesús Martínez Bujanda and his sister Ana, the family behind Bodegas Valdemar in Rioja, Spain and Valdemar Estates in Walla Walla, Washington. The goal was to create a non-alcoholic beverage that would pair with food.

“We’re from Spain, where wine is part of the culture,” says Martínez Bujanda. “I love wine, but the biggest part that I love about wine is that ritual of opening a bottle with a meal and enjoying it with food, the gastronomic aspect. Right now, there is not really an alternative that is no alcohol.”

Martínez Bujanda says that his family experimented in recent years with creating alcohol-free wine. However, they were never fully satisfied with the results.

“It was never something that I would be looking forward to,” Martínez Bujanda says.

The idea to create a sparkling tea came from examples Martínez Bujanda tried in Europe. Bujanda Mora and Devyani Gupta, head winemaker at Valdemar Estates, subsequently starting making cold brews at home and adding carbonation. It was immediately clear that they were on to something.

Tea has natural positives for pairing with food, including flavor and tannin. After several months of experimentation, they came up with a recipe and are now launching the first release.

MaraBela is a mashup of the words ‘maravilla,’ wonderful in Spanish, and ‘bela,’ close to ‘beautiful’ in both Spanish and Italian. The first offering from MaraBela is Wild Verbena. It is made from a selection of green teas, white tea, lemon verbena, and botanicals.

“It’s very simple ingredients, nothing unnecessary,” Martínez Bujanda says. “I think that’s one of the beauties of what people are really enjoying about it.”

The beverage is carbonated. Martínez Bujanda says it’s more akin to the bubbles in Prosecco than Champagne. The result is a sparkling beverage with aroma and flavor complexity.

“It has beautiful citrus notes from the lemon verbena and from the botanicals, light bodied, but with the tannin of the tea,” he says.

Unlike the sparkling teas that Martínez Bujanda had in Europe, there is a very low amount of sugar.

“We tried to do it with zero sugar, then the bitterness of the tea overtakes it, and it just doesn’t work,” Martínez Bujanda says. “But it’s way below almost any other non-alcohol alternative out there.” The Wild Verbena is 12 calories per glass.

So, how does the MaraBela Wild Verbena do at the dinner table? Martínez Bujanda says that it pairs well with seafood, sushi, pastas with white sauce, pizza, and white meat. He drinks it from a white wine glass or a sparkling wine glass.

MaraBela’s Wild Verbena retails for $20. The company plans to add a limited number of additional flavors. MaraBela’s offerings are sold direct-to-consumer through the company’s website and also through limited distribution to restaurants and independent retailers.

“We plan to grow it slowly,” Martínez Bujanda says.

Overall, Martínez Bujanda doesn’t see MaraBela as a replacement for wine but rather as a complement at the dinner table.

“I’m not going to stop drinking wine. I mean, I love wine,” Martínez Bujanda says. “But I don’t personally drink wine seven days a week with every meal, and for the other days, I want to have something that still feels special and that I’m enjoying. This is it.”

Image courtesy of MaraBela.

This article has been updated to correct the first name of Ana Martínez Bujanda.

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