Anheuser-Busch and Starbucks announced a deal on Thursday to produce, bottle, distribute and market Teavana ready-to-drink teas in the United States, with products expected to be available in the first half of next year.

The world's biggest coffee chain bought tea seller Teavana in 2012. The bottled teas falling under Starbucks' agreement with the maker of Budweiser beer will not contain alcohol.

“When we acquired Teavana in 2012, we saw a unique opportunity to do for tea what Starbucks has done for coffee and expand the Teavana brand across many customer experiences and products," Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in a statement. "We are excited to work with Anheuser-Busch to unlock the premium ready-to-drink market and further grow demand for the Teavana brand.”

The Seattle coffee chain said that its premium brewed and iced teas are a high-growth category, with sales up last year 11 percent, to more than $1 billion.

Under the agreement, Starbucks Corp. will offer its expertise while Anheuser-Busch will produce, bottle and distribute the non-alcoholic drinks.

Starbucks and joint venture partner PepsiCo Inc. market, sell and distribute ready-to-drink coffee products in the United States. PepsiCo already has a ready-to-drink tea partner. It joined with Unilever in 1991 to form the Pepsi-Lipton Tea partnership.

Starbucks bought Teavana for $620 million in 2012 and incorporated its high-end teas into its flagship Starbucks stores.

Earlier this year it said it would close four of its five Teavana "tea bars" that mimicked its namesake stores, except with tea. The closures didn't affect the more than 350 Teavana retail locations.

(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).