In the 1940s, Leo Cob Porter would get home from his day job at a Mason, Texas, junkyard and spend the nights brewing sweet tea in his kitchen.

Seven decades later, Joele Porter, Leo’s great-grandson and Moonshine Sweet Tea founder, was also brewing Leo’s sweet tea recipe—in the kitchen of his sister-in-law’s South Austin cafe after business hours—which is how the name came about.

“It’s catchy; people remember it; it’s always a great conversation-starter,” he said of the name. “Of course, people always ask how much alcohol is in it.”

Although the drink is non-alcoholic, Joele said it is brewed the “old-fashioned way,” using loose-leaf black tea, filtered water and pure cane sugar. He said the tea is packaged in ready-to-drink glass bottles as well as a concentrated form.

Moonshine can be found in stores throughout 27 states, and Joele said the company has come a long way since he began offering samples of the drink at Austin-area farmers markets in 2009.

Raised by his grandparents in Lago Vista, Joele said his grandmother, Claudette Porter, got the recipe from her father-in-law, Leo, when she was 19, and she has been brewing the tea ever since.

When the 2008 recession hit, Joele said he gave up his landscaping company and started a metal-recycling company. However, he said his passion was his great-grandfather’s sweet tea, and in 2011, Joele started frequenting farmers markets in the Austin area and selling the tea in quart-sized plastic jugs.

He said he met Milton Verret, an Austin-based entrepreneur and philanthropist, in July 2013 at a farmers market, and the two agreed to go into business together, launching ready-to-drink bottles with six flavors in October 2015

Remmy Castillo, Moonshine CEO and Verret’s son-in-law, said Verret brought his passion for children’s charities to the business, and today, Moonshine donates its time, money and tea to nonprofits such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.

Castillo said he expects the company to grow in the next few months.

“[The Porter family has] done such a great job creating this—all we want to do is build off of that.”

6500 River Place Blvd., Bldg. 2, Ste. 102, Austin
888-793-3883
www.moonshinesweettea.com