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There is a particular theatre to a Champagne toast. The chill of the flute, the fine bead of bubbles, the quiet pop. For years, if you weren’t drinking, you were unintentionally excluded from that theatre. You got the soda or the juice like a polite afterthought.
Copenhagen Sparkling Tea, or CST as the world’s most discerning sommeliers call it, was created to end that exclusion, and it has made its India debut in 2025. If you still haven’t heard of it, your favourite chaophile (a tea connoisseur) surely has!
The Danish sparkling tea is currently poured in over 200 Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide, from Noma in Copenhagen to El Celler de Can Roca in Girona. It keeps company abroad with Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Rolex, Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., The Ritz, Four Seasons, and the Cannes Film Festival. Its London debut was with Fortnum & Mason. In India, it is brought in by Bebida Hospitality, the luxury market-entry house behind Caviar House & Prunier.
It is not tea as you know it. It is not kombucha. It is an entirely new category: a luxury sparkling tea, blended like a fine wine, served like Champagne, at 0 per cent alcohol.
The story begins, fittingly, with a sommelier who couldn’t find the right bottle. “In 2010, Jacob Kocemba, then sommelier at the Michelin-starred restaurant Herman in Copenhagen, was asked by his chef to find a wine for a new dessert. Even with a cellar of some 1,800 of the world’s finest wines, he could not find the right match,” explains Nadia Sood, Co-Founder of Bebida Hospitality and the person behind bringing CST to India.
“So he began experimenting with tea extracts, guided by a simple but radical idea: if tea were treated the way wine is, it could make a beautiful pairing and a truly distinctive drink.”
The experiments were so successful that in 2017, Kocemba launched Copenhagen Sparkling Tea with co-founder Bo Sten Hansen. “It got there the way great wines do,” Sood says, “through chefs and sommeliers who wanted it served at their tables.”
Today it is sold in more than 50 countries, from Mexico to Australia. And now, finally, India.
“It starts with the leaves,” says Sood. The teas are hand-picked from some of the world’s most respected plantations, including Silver Needle white tea, first-flush Darjeeling and Assam, so there is a little of India in every bottle.
Up to 13 teas including white, green, black, oolong, jasmine and hibiscus go into a single blend. Each is hand-brewed in small batches at its own temperature and for its own time, and only then are the infusions blended. That layering, much like blending Grand Cru grapes, is where the complexity comes from.
Then comes the fizz. Before bottling, CO₂ is introduced in a closed loop, in three stages, to at least 5 bar of pressure which is close to that of Champagne. That gives it its fine, persistent mousse. The bottles then rest for six to eight weeks before release, which deepens the complexity and gives it its wonderful bouquet. Every bottle is vegan.
“India has an intimate relationship with tea and a real love of celebration. Copenhagen Sparkling Tea sits exactly where the two meet,” says Sood.
The timing couldn’t have been better. The global no-alcohol movement is no longer niche. IWSR forecasts global no-alcohol volumes to grow by 36 per cent between 2024 and 2029, and India is moving even faster. Zero-proof drinks now make up 12 to 15 per cent of beverage sales at premium Indian restaurants, up from under 5 per cent before 2023.
Bebida Hospitality itself is founded by luxury veterans like Nadia Sood, Varun Sahni, Dr. Latika Nath and Sid Jalan — who, between them, have been Nestlé’s first Director of Health and Wellness, built India’s first home-grown luxury restaurant chain, created some of India’s finest luxury wildlife retreats, and served as an Academy Chair for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
“Bringing the world’s luxury brands to India, often for the first time, is what Bebida Hospitality does,” says Sood. “When we discovered that Copenhagen Sparkling Tea was not yet served in India, it was obvious that India’s most discerning guests should be able to enjoy it here too.”
And they have moved fast. In under two years, Bebida has introduced CST to 45 per cent of India’s luxury hospitality outlets, and the country’s 50 finest hotels and restaurants all list it, from The Chambers at the Taj and Arc at The Leela to Masque, Papa’s, NAAR and 360 West.
Sood is careful not to call it a Champagne substitute. “Not as a substitute. Copenhagen Sparkling Tea has an identity of its own. It has the bubbles and elegance for a toast or a wedding, and the depth to hold its own through a tasting menu.”
Nowhere is that more relevant than at Indian weddings. India’s 2025 wedding season was estimated at around $72 billion in just 45 days, one in four weddings is now a destination celebration, and alcohol-free bars are becoming standard. Many weddings are alcohol-free by tradition, from Jain weddings to celebrations in dry Gujarat.
At India’s finest weddings, from Umaid Bhawan Palace in Jodhpur to Taj Falaknuma Palace in Hyderabad, CST is now the pour for the toast, so every guest can raise a glass.
For the first-timer, Sood’s advice is simple: treat it exactly like a great Champagne. “Well chilled, at around 5°C, in a Champagne flute, so the aromas open and the bubbles last. Enjoy it as an aperitif, with a beautiful meal or on its own as a digestif.”
BLÅ: Jasmine, white tea, Darjeeling and a touch of Assam. Delicate and floral, it loves seafood, light cheeses and fresh greens like oysters, sea bass ceviche, burrata, sushi, or for an Indian palate, chaat and fresh greens.
LYSEGRØN: Sencha and green tea lifted with citrus and first-flush Darjeeling. Fresh and bright, it cuts through spice and loves umami-rich dishes like vegetable tempura, tandoori prawns, dahi kebabs, dim sum, chicken yakitori.
LYSERØD: Silver needle, oolong and hibiscus with Darjeeling and Assam, delicately fruity with a blush-pink hue. It has the structure for duck, galouti kebabs, mushrooms and aged cheeses, and it shines with dessert. Think lemon tart, fresh berry pavlova, panna cotta.
“But these are invitations, not rules,” says Sood. “I always suggest tasting each one on its own first, then letting the food take it somewhere new.”
Copenhagen Sparkling Tea is available direct from Bebida Hospitality at sparklingtea.in, priced at Rs 3,500 for 750 ml and Rs 1,950 for 375 ml (inclusive of taxes).
In a market that has long thought a celebration must be alcoholic to be luxurious, we now have an answer: Cheers!