LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y. – Bigelow Tea and AriZona Beverages have joined together to bring retailers and consumers a new line of bottled ready-to-drink chai teas and new hot tea flavors, BevNET.com reports. With this partnership, Bigelow enters the bottled, ready-to-drink market, while AriZona debuts hot tea options.

“Our goal was to enter this market to put Bigelow in the hands of more tea drinkers, and we found the best partner on the planet,” said Cindi Bigelow, president of Bigelow Tea. “Not only is AriZona the industry leader in the ready-to-drink category, but they are also a company with the same culture and entrepreneurial spirit as Bigelow Tea. We look forward to shaking up the tea market together by offering a new line of exciting and unique tea flavors.”

Bigelow Tea’s new ready-to-drink flavors come in Mocha Chai Latte and Vanilla Chai Latte 10-ounce bottles packaged with bright colors. These teas will be available nationally in early 2008 to grocery and convenience stores.

Three of AriZona’s top flavors will debut early next year in tea bag form: Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey, Mandarin Orange Green Tea and Pomegranate Green Tea with Acai. The teas, while blended, packaged and distributed by Bigelow, will be branded and boxed as AriZona Tea.

“Simply put, we wanted to partner with the industry leader in specialty hot tea,” said Don Vultaggio, AriZona Beverages founder. “Bigelow’s expertise is unchallenged when it comes to producing a quality tea. Their values are on point with ours and it is a partnership that made perfect sense.”

Bigelow also said her company’s new bottled beverages will help the tea company reach new consumer segments. “People know Bigelow Tea for our specialty tea flavors that are either brewed hot or cold. Our ready-to-drink beverages represent a whole new concept for us that will help us reach a younger audience and give our loyal customers something new and different,” she said.