Chicago Bulls icon Scottie Pippen extends foray into beverage biz with bourbon barrel-aged tea

Iconic former Chicago Bulls basketball player Scottie Pippen extends his foray into the beverages business with a December 5 launch of his limited-release DIGITS Bourbon Barrel Aged Tea in partnership with Smith Teamaker.

The tea launch follows an earlier release of his five-year Tennessee mature bourbon DIGITS, which won a gold medal for its 97 point rating at the Sunset International Spirits Competition.

According to the 6-time NBA champion, the beverage industry is something he is trying to find his lane in.

The bourbon, named after Pippen's gigantic hands, is aged at renowned Napa Valley winemaker Dave Phinney's Savage & Cooke Distillery in California.

The sane hands appear on the packaging for the tea.

Smith Teamaker, a Portland-based premium craft tea company, was founded in 2009 by the late legendary teamaker Steve Smith.

Smith Teamaker previously released No. 90 Ode to Whiskey, a whiskey barrel-aged Assam tea blend; Tennessee Oolong, a milk Jin Xuan oolong varietal tea scented on a whiskey oak barrel; and Irish Moringa, a blend of Indian moringa scented in an Irish whiskey barrel.

Pippen said he has a reputation of working with the best, and that "Smith Teamaker is king in this business as one of the top tea companies in the world."

December 5, the launch date of Pippen's bourbon-inspired tea, marked the day in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt repealed the 18th amendment and ended the 13-year prohibition on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages.