A Vermont company that set out to make something for the table rather than a substitute for wine.
Brooks Addington spent a career in equity brokerage before moving to Vermont and turning to consumer products. TÖST launched in 2017, and in the early days he loaded cases into the back of his car and took them door to door around New England.
The question he started from was not how to imitate champagne. It was what a drink has to do to earn a place at a table — tannin, astringency, a nose and a finish. White tea supplies the tannin, white cranberry the astringency, ginger the heat, and botanical extracts the aromatics. Nothing is fermented and nothing is removed.
That made it hard to shelve. It is not sparkling juice, not sparkling tea, and not a dealcoholized wine, and the question of where it belongs followed the company for years. Constellation Brands took a minority stake in 2022.
- Producer
- TOST
- Based in
- Manchester, United States
- Founded
- 2017
- Founder
- Brooks Addington
- Process
- Never Alcoholized
- Sizes
- 750 mL and 250 mL
