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Matt Lancor launched Kombuchade out of his parents’ home in 2015. In the dozen years since then, it has grown into a strong regional brand marketed as a performance-focused kombucha crafted specifically for athletes and active individuals.

We’ve created a unique formula that blends traditional kombucha with essential electrolytes, probiotics, and performance-enhancing nutrients. Unlike traditional kombuchas, which solely focus on gut health, Kombuchade is designed specifically for active individuals. It supports not only digestive health but also aids in hydration and recovery, which are crucial for those who demand more from their bodies.

I found that athletes, or people who are active in particular, are generally more open to trying new things or are trying to in some ways improve the way that they feel or the way that they perform. And that’s where I come from. So I just knew those were the people that I could talk to.

Matt’s journeyMatt quit a six-figure engineering job in industrial automation after witnessing the horrors of processed food manufacturing plants. He discovered the power of probiotics for peak performance while playing in a national rugby championship.

I saw how a lot of different processed foods and things were made and started to connect some dots between pesticide use on foods and gut disruptions and how a lot of the products that are out there, especially in the sports arenas, are flavored with sweeteners that typically come from either corn or beets that are genetically modified to survive being sprayed with pesticides that will actually disrupt our gut microbiome.

His journey started as a hobby, when he decided to make kombucha for himself because he was buying five bottles a week. After rugby buddies bought $10,000 worth, he launched the business that is now within reach of a million dollar turnover, producing just over 1,000 gallons a month with plans to grow to 4,000 gallons a month.

DistributionKombuchade is available in over 140 Lifetime Fitness clubs around the country and in gyms and grocery stores and coffee shops a within a three-hour radius of Chicago. They also sell online and ship the product to the lower 48 States,

Kombuchade is available on draft in select locations.

The brand is the official hydration partner of the Chicago Hounds pro rugby team.

FlavorsThere are three flavors in cans.

An an experimental blend with 11mg of caffeine is being developed.

In Spring and Summer seasonal brews with Michigan farm fruits are available on tap with flavors such as aronia berry and apple.

InterviewListen to the podcast interview with Matt, where we discuss his journey and the story of Kombuchade.

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I first interviewed Lucas in 2021, when he shared his opinion on why kombucha has become so popular in Brazil and the rapid growth of the industry from 2019 to 2021.

He is the founder of Fermenta Com Ciência (Fermenting with Science), where he teaches courses, gives lectures, and provides consulting services. He is also the organizer of Conakom (Conferência Nacional de Produtores de Kombucha).

His central role in promoting kombucha in Brazil is evidenced by his social media presence: 277,000 follow him on Instagram, 55,000 on Facebook, and 153,000 on his YouTube channel, which has 279 instructional videos.

Fermenta Com Ciência’s Mission

To work on cultivating the culture of fermenting probiotic beverages and functional fermented foods—bridging ancestral knowledge with the most current scientific foundations—and to teach, in a clear and practical manner, how to prepare these items safely and healthily, catering both to those who wish to produce them artisanally at home and to those looking to scale up and commercialize their products.

HistoryLucas Montanari is a biologist specializing in fermentation, holding a postgraduate degree in Nutrigenomics and Functional Foods. He is also an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach certified by the IIN (NY, USA) and a faculty member in the Functional Gastronomy postgraduate program at FAMESP.

In addition to Fermenta Com Ciência, and organizing Conakom, the Brazilian Kombucha Festival. He serves as the Technical Director of ABKOM (Brazilian Kombucha Association) and conducts research on the health benefits of kombucha and methods to optimize its large-scale production.

He first encountered kombucha in Australia in 2013; after refining his expertise, he began his work with kombucha in Brazil in 2015. Since then, he has trained thousands of “Kombucheiros” through in-person courses, online programs, and consulting services for commercial production. He has played a key role in the development of numerous nationally successful brands, including Tchá Kombucha, Puro Verde, Aviv Kombucha, Mr. Bolt Kombucha, Kombucha Libre, and Lich Kombucha. Furthermore, he has collaborated with leading companies to develop specialized fermenters, equipment, and raw materials specifically designed for kombucha production.

Consulting ServicesTheir consulting service is designed for those who wish to delve deeper into the science of kombucha fermentation to gain greater control over their production process, develop market-friendly flavors, achieve better product standardization, and ensure more consistent carbonation—all while confidently scaling up production. Students learn how to serve kombucha “On Tap,” thereby increasing cost efficiency and sustainability in their business. Discover the equipment and methods utilized in various industrial kombucha production facilities worldwide, and identify the next steps needed to turn dreams into reality!

The consultancy focuses on the production of kombucha for commercial sale—specifically:

• How to manufacture a high-quality, stable product with low alcohol content.
• Which equipment and techniques should be utilized to scale up and streamline commercial production.
• Which machinery and equipment should you employ to optimize manufacturing processes and flavoring techniques to give your product a competitive edge in the market.
• Recipes designed to maximize the efficient use of time, space, and investment.
• Techniques for achieving optimal levels of density and acidity, including the proper use of measurement instruments.
• How to serve kombucha on tap, including how to operate draft systems, kegs, post-mix units, CO2 cylinders, and other carbonation equipment.

CoursesLucas teaches courses for both home brewers and commercial operations.

Home BrewingThis course is composed of seven modules:

• The Universe of Kombucha: Discover what kombucha truly is, and also learn about its origins—from ancient legends to the first scientific records—tracing its entire history right up to the modern market
• Transforming your Health: Learn how to take your health to the next level by optimizing the benefits of kombucha for your body. You will also learn how to consume the beverage correctly and discover an extensive collection of books to further specialize in kombucha and gut health.
• Foundation: Learn—in detail—all the best ingredients to use in your production so that you never again have thin SCOBYs, mold, or other fermentation issues. I will also cover the essential utensils and ideal bottle types you need to make kombucha exactly the way you want it.
• Preparation and Harvesting: Discover the secrets to preparing the specific tea infusion used to make kombucha, and how to reduce the entire preparation time to just a few minutes on a single day of the week. You will learn how to identify the optimal time to harvest your finished fermentation.
• Flavoring and Carbonation: Master the art of naturally flavoring, infusing, and coloring your kombucha, and create endless recipes using the techniques in this module. You will also learn the principles of second fermentation to gain control over your beverage’s carbonation—even in glass bottles.
• SCOBY Hotel and Vinegar: Learn how to properly care for your colonies and prepare your own functional kombucha vinegar for cooking, cosmetics, cleaning, and more.
• Scaling up: Learn how to scale up your production—from 3-liter jars to fermenters of any volume you desire—using a simple method that can save you a significant amount of preparation time and help you achieve better standardization.

Additional resources include downloadable instruction booklets, group mentoring sessions with over 1,000 experienced brewers, and much more.

Commercial BrewingThis course comprises nine modules:

• Professional Production Methods: Learn how to produce kombucha on a large scale with standardization and high quality. Also, learn the basics of the SAFE Method.
• Entrepreneurship: Learn how to turn your kombucha business idea into reality, organize your operations, and transform your production into a profitable venture.
• How to Register Your Kombucha Business with MAPA: Gain access to a detailed step-by-step guide on how to obtain your registration with MAPA and stand out from the majority of other brands.
• Developing Successful Flavors: Learn how to develop kombuchas with a precise sensory profile, creating flavor, aroma, and color combinations that elevate the quality of your production.
• Making Kombucha On Tap: Discover all the equipment and techniques you need to serve kombucha from draft systems, and sell it in restaurants and at events.
• Choosing the Right Equipment: Learn how to select the ideal fermenters, bottling machines, and other equipment to scale your production safely, productively, and efficiently.
• The Science of Fermentation: Explore in depth the microbiology behind kombucha and learn how to precisely control the results of your fermentation.
• Alcohol Control and Stability: Master techniques such as cold crashing, forced carbonation, and filtration, and learn essential industrial processes to standardize your kombucha with consistent quality.
• Aluminum Can Packaging: Discover the technologies and essential best practices for canning, guided by an expert who has mastered the process on a commercial scale.

Bonus material includes lifetime access to a video library, an Advanced Study Group on Telegram, home to a community of over 700 commercial kombucha producers, and a course on registering your kombucha brewery with MAPA, taught by Stela Patrocínio — one of the experts I interviewed for the initial posting in my series on kombucha in Brazil.

NetworkingLucas has connected with leading members of the worldwide kombucha community, including several prominent international figures in the field of fermentation, such as Sandor Katz, author of The Art of Fermentation, Sébastien Bureau, the founder of Mannanova, and Nick Robertson from Rare Combinations. He has attended kombucha conferences in the United States and Europe. He’s also been featured in past editions of SYMBIOSIS Magazine (which I edited). I was pleased to see him prominently display a copy of the magazine in one of his instructional videos.

InterviewReaders who want to go deeper can listen to the podcast interview with Lucas, where we discuss his courses, the challenges and opportunities for commercial production in Brazil, and the future of the industry.

Uma tradução da entrevista para o português está disponível para download.

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Thiago Cunha founded LABKOM in 2020, together with Ruan Gregório, after a technical support initiative during the COVID period helped regional beverage producers navigate process and regulatory challenges. Cunha is a chemical engineer, holds a master’s degree in biotechnology and a specialization in microbiology, and is currently a PhD candidate in chemistry at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). What began with support for a handful of kombucha brands in Minas Gerais evolved into a specialized consultancy focused on process consistency, quality control, shelf stability, and regulatory readiness. Today, LABKOM works with producers in Brazil and has also supported over 100 companies in markets across the United States, Chile, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, and Italy.

Their work typically begins before the factory visit, with online review and preparation. Then comes an in-person phase, often three to five days on site, focused on diagnosis, training, and implementation. After that, support continues remotely for weeks or months. The reason is simple: analysis alone does not solve process variation. Teams also need help deciding what to do with the numbers they collect and how to use them to influence harvest timing, blending, fermentation management, and product release.

LABKOM helps manufacturers structure their production, stabilization, shelf life, standardization, and real-world market quality without losing the most important thing: flavor, aroma, and character.

Standardization with SUPERKOMLABKOM teaches a process for brewing kombucha in a sterile, clean-room environment without the need for a cellulose mat. They teach a volatile acid standardization method that starts with a super-fermented starter liquid to standardize the fermentation process.

Their SUPERKOM is a SCOBY liquid kombucha, a fermented base rich in organic acids, developed for industrial use by kombucha producers seeking greater batch consistency, process predictability, and analytical control. It is positioned not as a replacement for kombucha itself, but as a structured way to support a more technically controlled start to fermentation.

For example, if the standard calls for 2 grams of organic acids, the starter is fermented to a level of 4 grams of organic acids. A precise amount of starter is added to the infused tea equal to 2 grams. The same amount of organic acids between batches will produce the same taste. Likewise, they standardize the sugar and tea levels in each batch. After this mixture is created, they advise a short fermentation of approximately 72 hours in an anaerobic environment to avoid producing more acids, esters, and post-biotics, and to prevent a cellulose mat from forming.

LABKOM recommends secondary fermentation in bright tanks, rather than in the bottle. This delivers a higher degree of standardization and longer shelf-life. The time for secondary fermentation varies. It depends on the culture and flavors. Some flavors only require a day or two, others need five, seven, or ten days.

This method yields a kombucha with low alcohol content and high levels of organic acids.

They recommend that kombucha companies invest in simple lab equipment costing under 1,000 euros to measure the chemistry of the starter and the final product.

Beyond pH Kombucha producers often talk about pH, but LABKOM argues that pH alone is insufficient to explain process development or sensory outcomes. It remains useful as one control parameter, but it does not tell a producer enough about the path a fermentation took or about the flavor profile that will emerge in the glass.

Rather than relying only on pH, LABKOM organizes acidity analysis into functional groups that help production teams understand flavor development and control fermentation behavior using accessible analytical routines. In the company’s view, this matters because producers need tools that are both technically meaningful and feasible to implement on a factory floor without resorting to highly specialized instrumentation for every batch.

InterviewReaders who want to go deeper can listen to the podcast interview about LABKOM, the growth of kombucha in Brazil, and their broader vision for the category’s future.

Uma tradução da entrevista para o português está disponível para download.

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Four years ago I visited The Elixir Spot vegan cafe and kombucha brewery near the Pier in Puerto Vallarta. Then in 2024 I added an update reporting they had expanded to a second location in the 5th of December neighborhood.

This year I discovered that the 5th of December location had closed and, just three months ago, The Wellness Patio opened at 165 Francisca Rodríguez, a block away from the original Elixir Spot location.

This sister location is in a quieter, more relaxed place than by the busy pier where tourists congregate. Located in a pleasant courtyard, down a short flight of steps at the side of a pharmacy, The Wellness Patio is managed by Monica and Omar’s daughter, Georgette.

Delicious MenuThey offer a range of vegan foods and beverages from juices, waffles, and salads, to wellness shots, chia puddings, and, of course, the Reiki-energized kombucha from the original location.

Holistic HealingTrue to the name, The Wellness Patio offers Reiki, breathwork, sound healing, ice bath sessions and healing ceremonies for groups and individuals in the patio. The space is also available for birthday and wedding celebrations.

InterviewGeorgette shares the story of The Wellness Patio in this exclusive interview.

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World Ferment Day took place on February 1st this year. Billed as a global celebration that turns theory into practice, people were invited to taste a ferment, make a ferment, share a ferment or host a ferment event. Organizer Jo Webster was supported by The Fermentation School, Wildbrine, and The Fermentation School en español.

Goodfellows Restaurant in Jo’s home town of Wells, Somerset, hosted two 15-person sold-out sittings of a ‘Cultured Lunch’ by chef Adam Fellows. Jo and her friend Caroline Gilmartin helped prepare the dishes.

The Cultured Lunch constituted two back to back sell-out sittings in Adam’s delightful restaurant. The aim was to showcase how ferments meld deliciously as part of tasty meals, bringing complexity and diversity to the table. Whether it was in the form of my fermentceutical crackers, loaded with labneh and Jerusalem artichoke ferment, or the Fennel Blush ferment and Cultjar‘s Cooks Kowl sauerkraut tucked under the duo of organic salmon, the results were extremely popular.

My Rosemary sourdough went down a storm and so did Caroline’s mango kefir ice cream, with Fermenti’s enlivening fermented fruit bites to augment it. Caroline showed attendees how to make milk kefir and explained how those first milk kefir grains were snaffled out of the Caucasus region by subterfuge for the benefit of so many nations thereafter.

I waxed lyrical about my beloved vegetable ferments and forgot to roll the sleeves of my white shirt up before grating the beetroot. People went home inspired, excited and satiated. My favourite feedback was from a gentleman who candidly said that his wife had twisted his arm to get him to attend with her. “I thought it was going to be shit”, he said. I assumed World Ferment Day was just aimed at making money rather than genuinely aiming to make lives better by encouraging more people to eat and drink more ferments. In fact, this has been an inspiring afternoon and I am so glad that I came”.

ChallengesJo acknowledges that fermented foods and drinks are still a niche.

This is part of the challenge. While there’s more producers coming into the market, I still think it’s a pretty hard market to be in. For many, it has been a pretty lonely and isolating market to be in for quite a long time for quite a few people. And that is gradually changing for sure. And there’s definitely more players coming into the market. Some are ramping up production and it seems like something is shifting.

Statistics* 17 countries * 70+ events * 400 people signed up to the ferment pledge * 5000+ people viewing the global map * 786 Instagram followers

This marked a sizable increase from the first World Ferment Day where there were only 10 events.

There was very little planning for 2025. I thought of the idea at the beginning of January and we held it at the beginning of February. It was very low key. This time we’ve had a year, but various things have happened to distract me. We had a good three month run up, but this time we’re going to have a full year run up.

Global Response

Tomorrow, some of us will step into a communal kitchen for a cooking session guided by Food Citizen’s regular volunteer and partner, Deepa. Among other foods, we’ll be making idli — a fermented dish common in many South Indian homes and available in Singapore at stalls and restaurants.

Food Citizen, Singapore

I created this ebook to celebrate World Ferment Day. Fermentation is an art, a way to connect with our ancestry and, at the same time, a contemporary path to create new possibilities in the kitchen. Inside this ebook, you will find 5 very special recipes, carefully tested and developed by me over the years.

Nomad Food Lab, São Bernardino, Portugal

Celebrating World Fermentation Day by making my granny’s favourite ferment: sauerkraut. My love of preserving stems from my granny, Ima Mae (in the photo, which lives in my kitchen) who always had homemade pickles (including kraut) on the table, all made with veg grown by my granddad.

Rachel de Thample, London, England

It’s @world.ferment.day!!! What are you doing to celebrate?! Today we’re going be doing a lot of fermentation processing and feeding a lot of cultures before we head to India this week on a fermentation journey with @rtb_kombucha.

Contraband Ferments, Atlanta, USA

World Ferment Day exists to honor one of the oldest human food practices — preservation through time, not technology. Fermentation isn’t fast. It isn’t flashy. It’s salt, patience, attention, and trust. That’s why it felt right to host my first workshop of the year on February 1.

Golden State Pickle Works, Santa Rosa, California, USA

Fermentation is a revolution. #doyouhavetheguts to say yes to living in collaboration with microbes and immigrants and residents from the air and soil? And say NO to fascism? Together as a community we can do this.

Cultures Group, New York, USA

Today, it’s worth taking a moment to recognise just how fundamental fermentation is to life itself and as the influential physicist, Richard Feynman put it – “All life is fermentation”. From the microbes that support our bodies to the recipes that have shaped food cultures across the world, fermentation has always been quietly at work. When it’s understood and given time, fermentation has the power to transform simple ingredients into something complex, nourishing and full of flavour. It’s how tea, sugar and SCOBY become kombucha and how entirely new taste experiences are created. Today we’re celebrating the magic behind fermentation and the incredible world of flavour it opens up when you let nature lead.

Momo Kombucha, London, England

Today is World Fermentation Day and it’s your chance to strike a blow for world gut health! Try something new – a new ferment you have not tried before and your body will love you for it! Give it a go! The fact is that by making fermented foods part of your daily routine you’ll be helping your gut diversity, improve nutrient availability, and build the resilience of your microbiome.

Fermentation Tasmania, Legana, Tasmania, Australia

Fermenting wasn’t just his gateway into the microbial world—soil, pets, cuddles—it also sparked his curiosity about new foods, to feed his microbial friends. Today, on the first ever #WorldFermentDay, I’m celebrating how fermented foods have the ability to spark curiosity, creativity, and connection—especially in young minds.

Flora Montgomery, Gutsy for Life, Tokyo, Japan

PotentialJo is excited by the multi-cultural potential of World Ferment Day.

So I think the potential is very real in terms of more countries. What we want to show is different cultural approaches to this food technology, different products, that there’s something for everybody in terms of flavor profile, in terms of texture, in terms of curiosity and adventure. And the more the more we can represent ferment habits globally, the happier I will be, because at the moment, obviously, I’m a middle-class white person promoting it. And largely it’s been America, UK. It would be really great to get a truly representative global support and therefore representation of different ferment cultures and styles and methods and approaches.

What we’re also seeking is to get these foods and drinks embedded in the cultures in which they’re not familiar and re-celebrated in the cultures where Western food is becoming increasingly appealing and people are moving further away from these food, food technologies and foods and drinks.

Funding

The key thing is finding funding. In an ideal world, we would get a really solid funding to be able to properly take this forward. We’ve shown this year that there is real appetite for it, that thousands of people ate and drank ferments because of those 70 events. Our aim is that ferments are not just for World Ferment Day.

InterviewJo discusses the achievements of the 2026 World Ferment Day and her hopes for the future in this exclusive interview.

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Last year, I met Gina Méndez, the founder of Kova Kombucha in Puerto Vallarta. At that time, I reported that she had been in business for a year, was operating out of her home, and producing 250-300 bottles per month. She planned to move to a larger space.

Twelve months later, I visited Gina at her larger space. She now produces twice the quantity in Puerto Vallarta and, together with her business partner, who operates a sister brewery in Zapotlanejo, near Guadalajara, sells Kova in five cities. Between the two facilities, they are selling 700 bottles a month.

The larger space means she can brew more kombucha, but she barely keeps up with demand. The 200-liter stainless steep primary fermentation tank and kettle have streamlined part of the production process. Her challenge is the labor-intensive manual work of sanitizing, filling, and capping the bottles. Nevertheless, she still performs multiple times a week as the lead singer in The Lovers, playing in clubs and bars around town.

She’s planning to relocate to a new facility closer to her home. I look forward to catching up next year to see how much further Kova Kombucha has come.

InterviewListen to the podcast to hear Gina tell the story of her growing business.

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Shajia Meraj’s thesis at Karachi University, Pakistan, was a groundbreaking exploration of kombucha “leather” (dried cellulose SCOBYs) in the context of sustainable textile design. Rather than viewing this material merely as an industrial substitute for animal leather, Meraj’s research, conducted over 11 months in 2025, treats it as a living, time-based medium that responds to its environment and the care it receives. This project balances technical material experimentation and mastery with a profound conceptual inquiry into grief, memory, and circularity.

Sustainability Shajia was first inspired by a TED Talk by prominent Italian fashion designer Marina Spadafora, which introduced her to the possibility of using kombucha leather for garments.

What drew her to the material was its accessibility; it can be grown using simple ingredients: water, sugar, tea, and starter. Choosing to work outside a traditional laboratory, she transformed a spare room into a domestic studio, using household fermentation tools and shallow trays to harvest the cellulose.

Navigating Challenges in PakistanExecuting this project in Pakistan presented significant hurdles. Not only was kombucha unfamiliar to her academic advisors, but the local climate also posed constant threats to the material. During the monsoon season, high humidity caused mold growth, while drier months rendered the leather brittle and paper-like. Shajia spent eleven months in a trial-and-error process, eventually determining that a thickness of half an inch was ideal for drying without the material becoming too fragile. She was supported by Shahzaib Arif of ProB the only kombucha brand in Pakistan, which provided the starter necessary to maintain her continuous brewing process.

A Material Reflection on GriefThe heart of Shajia’s work lies in the parallels between kombucha leather and the experience of grief.

Kombucha leather grows slowly over time, and every sheet is unique, imperfect, and evolving. I think that mirrors how grief works. Grief does not happen all at once; it unfolds gradually, and the memories and emotions surface in cycles. Likewise, the circular nature of kombucha leather growth very much reflects the circular life cycle of grief and memory. These two things fit together very nicely, because both processes involve patience, layering, and ever-changing memory.

To ground this concept, she incorporated photographs taken by her late father, who passed away 16 years ago when she was a young girl, into her material outcomes.

Her artistic installations include:

The Memory-Twisting Lamp: A sculptural piece where light interacts with translucent leather and her father’s photographs to emphasize the fragility and impermanence of memory.

Every image is embedded and sandwiched between two layers of kombucha leather, holding the photograph in place like a preserved moment in time. These slides represent how memories exist as fragments, separate yet connected.

The Circular Installation: A gradient of 200 dyed circles moving from deep red to warm yellow, representing the evolution of grief from intense loss to a state of acceptance.

The circular forms reference the cyclical nature of grief, how it returns, overlaps, and continues rather than ending. Deeper reds at the center represent emotional intensity and loss, while the warmer ambers and yellows moving outward suggest memory, warmth, and moments of acceptance.

The Mosaic Portrait: A large-scale tribute composed of thousands of small photographs taken by her father, layered with organic kombucha squares to create a cohesive image that reflects how we perceive the essence of a person through fragments.

The kombucha leather adds an organic, textured quality that mirrors the slow, layered nature of memory, making the piece both a visual tribute and a reflection on how we perceive and preserve the essence of a person, through both the whole and the sum of its parts.

The Future of Bio-TextilesDespite initial skepticism from her peers and faculty, Shajia successfully defended her thesis and earned an A-. While she also produced functional items, such as a hand-sewn cardholder, her primary focus remained on the material’s emotional potential. Now a graduate, she’s interested in collaborating with other researchers to push the boundaries of what sustainable textiles can represent. She can be reached at merajshajia56@gmail.com.

Source: NotebookLMInterviewShajia discusses her project in this exclusive interview.

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This is the last in a series about possible futures, published in Booch News each week, starting with a Preview on October 3rd. Episode 11 appeared last week.

OverviewBy 2100, the Earth hums with quiet vitality. Cities are green, breathable, and alive—literally. After the Climate Reckoning of the 2050s and the Fermentation Reformation that followed, humanity abandoned synthetic consumerism and rediscovered the wisdom of the microbial world. Artificial beverages—cola, beer, wine—became relics of the Carbon Age. People sought drinks that delivered tangible benefits: nourishing the microbiome, stabilizing mood, and sharpening cognition. Enter kombucha—the “living beverage,” a cornerstone of living systems.

The Reformation’s legacy isn’t merely biological transformation—it’s cultural maturation: learning to work cooperatively with living systems, valuing local knowledge, building community infrastructure, maintaining honest assessment of capabilities, and recognizing that sustainable human thriving requires biological partnership rather than attempted domination.

Humanity still faces continuing challenges: climate adaptation, resource management, social equity, political conflict, and planetary boundaries. Fermentation provides useful tools but not complete solutions.

Humanity’s Partnership with Living SystemsBy 2100, humanity had learned crucial lessons about partnership with living systems.

Fermentation taught that:

1. Working with biology is often more effective than fighting it: Bacterial bioremediation, probiotic therapies, and closed-loop life support—all leverage natural processes rather than opposing them.
2. Local diversity produces resilience: Decentralized fermentation cooperatives proved more adaptable than consolidated industrial food systems.
3. Traditional knowledge contains valuable insights: Indigenous and traditional fermentation practices offered solutions that industrial approaches missed.
4. Community infrastructure matters: Spaces for gathering and productive cooperation strengthen communities beyond what the consumption culture provides.
5. Multiple approaches are necessary: Fermentation didn’t solve everything because no single practice can. Success required combining fermentation with policy reform, technological innovation, social justice work, and environmental restoration.

Fermentation delivered measurable benefits:

• Improved public health through better nutrition
• Stronger communities through cooperative infrastructure
• Environmental benefits through local food production
• Cultural preservation through traditional knowledge
• Economic alternatives through cooperative ownership
• Educational frameworks through hands-on biology

There are remaining challenges:

• Scaling benefits without losing local character
• Maintaining safety while enabling accessibility
• Supporting displaced industrial workers
• Balancing innovation with tradition
• Limiting commercial exploitation of the grassroots movement
• Addressing inequities in access and outcomes

As the century closed, kombucha stood as both metaphor and method: proof that small, symbiotic systems could heal a planet pushed to the brink. Humanity had moved from extraction to participation, from ego-systems to ecosystems. The last generation of leaders—those raised during the chaos of the early 2000s—reflected on a hard-won truth: sustainability was not a policy but a practice of humility.

The Great Rebalancing (2090–2100)The final decade before 2100 brought a reckoning—a rebalancing between people, planet, and profit. The kombucha industry, now deeply intertwined with global food, health, and climate systems, found itself both humbled and empowered. What began as a niche craft drink half a century earlier had become a symbol of regenerative commerce, microbial stewardship, and planetary renewal.

The Century’s EndBy the 2090s, humanity had learned to live within limits. The population stabilized below nine billion. Carbon neutrality—once an abstract goal—was enforced globally through trade-linked carbon credits. Artificial intelligence governed not only production and logistics but also ecological thresholds: AI-run “planetary dashboards” warned when resources neared the threshold of overshooting.

Kombucha—once merely a beverage—was now part of a symbiotic food network. Its microbial base served as a living substrate for nutritional pastes, medicinal tonics, and even biodegradable materials. SCOBY farms, floating on the world’s rewilded seas, generated both food and oxygen while sequestering carbon.

The Kombucha KonfederationThe seeds that were planted in 2025 with KBI’s Verified Seal Program had by 2095, evolved into the Global Kombucha Konfederation. What was once a struggling network of small brewers had grown into a transnational cooperative representing over a billion daily consumers. Its “Code of Fermentation Ethics” guided microbial stewardship and regenerative practices across all continents.

Economics of RegenerationBy 2100, the measure of “growth” had changed. GDP had been replaced by the Regenerative Index—a metric that tracked ecosystem recovery, microbial diversity, and human well-being. Kombucha companies were central players: their microbial exports replenished soils, stabilized local economies, and improved nutrition without depleting resources.

A kombucha SCOBY grown in Kenya could now be shipped digitally—its DNA code transmitted to a local bio-printer and activated with local nutrients. Trade was no longer about moving goods but sharing life itself.

The Cosmic Ferment: Space, the Final FrontierFermentation played a pivotal role in the colonization of extraterrestrial bodies, helping shape new planetary ecosystems and extending the themes of life, consciousness, and microbial cooperation out beyond Earth.

By 2100, humanity’s reach extended into the solar system. Permanent research colonies existed on the Moon, thriving settlements dotted the Martian canyons, and orbiting bio-stations circled the gas giants. Yet amid all this technological triumph, one humble process—fermentation—had become indispensable to survival and meaning alike.

Microbes had preceded humans into space. Now they accompanied them as partners, teachers, and planetary architects.

The cosmonauts who stood at the threshold of the 22nd century included a terraformer, a kombucha-savvy starship captain, and an interplanetary ecologist.

TerraformingDr. Rafael Kimura, born in São Paulo in 2056, was a microbiologist with a poet’s soul. Half-Japanese, half-Brazilian, he grew up watching his parents brew miso and cachaça—two ancient ferments from opposite sides of the world. To him, fermentation was “the original terraforming technology.”

In 2080, Rafael was appointed Director of the GaiaMars Project, a multinational effort to create self-sustaining microbial ecologies on Mars. Earlier missions had failed because they treated microbes as tools—simple agents of decomposition or nutrient cycling. Rafael saw them differently: as co-creators.

Under his leadership, the project seeded Martian soil with adaptive, AI-guided microbial colonies derived from Earth’s most resilient ferments—kombucha SCOBYs, kimchi lactobacilli, kefir grains, and desert cyanobacteria.

He cultivated resilient cyanobacterial genera such as Chroococcidiopsis (globally abundant in hot and cold deserts) and Phormidium (dominant in polar deserts), along with others including Scytonema, Nostoc, Gloeocapsa, and Oscillatoria. These microorganisms thrive in extreme heat, cold, and dryness, often living hypolithically (under quartz rocks) for UV protection or forming soil crusts that create the base of desert food webs. In other words, they were ideal for hostile environments like the Martian surface.

He called them “symbiotic pioneers.”

Rafael managed the project with pioneering intensity:

“People imagine our bacterial systems are autonomous and intelligent. They’re not. We have post-doc microbiologists monitoring fermentation processes around the clock. When bacterial communities drift from optimal composition, we intervene. When contamination occurs, we troubleshoot. Biology is powerful but needs constant human management.”

Within 20 years, these microecosystems transformed vast regions of Valles Marineris into breathable biomes. Thin, rust-colored soils turned to green moss beds; subterranean water ice became microbial broths teeming with oxygenic life.

His motivation was both scientific and philosophical:

“To make another planet live,” he said, “we must teach it to ferment.”

By his death in 2109, Mars was no longer a sterile rock. It was alive—humming with microbial symphonies.

Starship SystemsLeila Zhang, born in Chengdu in 2064, was commander of Odyssey Station, an orbital habitat circling Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Originally trained as an aerospace engineer, she had also studied culinary biology, convinced that morale and meaning in deep space depended as much on taste as on technology.

Under her leadership, Odyssey became the first off-Earth facility to maintain a closed-loop fermentation system—a living cycle where every human exhalation, waste product, and organic residue was metabolized by microbial partners into food, oxygen, and energy.

At the heart of the system was Luna, a centuries-old kombucha mother descended from cultures brought aboard the International Space Station in the 2030s. Luna had been genetically and spiritually tended by generations of brewers. Leila called her “the ship’s soul.”

Investigation into the value of fermentation in long-term space missions began in 2024 with the successful cultivation of miso on the International Space Station. They noted:

Observations suggest unique features of the space environment—what we might call ‘space terroir’—which could be harnessed to create more flavorful, nourishing foods for long-term space missions and to address fundamental questions about the biology of novel environments.

— Food Fermentation in Space Is Possible, Distinctive, and Beneficial

Crew members drank Luna Brew daily—a tangy, faintly glowing beverage that recycled carbon dioxide into nourishment and mood-balancing compounds.

Leila’s motivation was personal: her grandmother had been a kombucha maker in Sichuan, teaching her that “fermentation is patience made visible.” She saw Luna not as machinery but as kin. Her greatest fear was contamination—that a rogue mutation might destabilize the closed loop. But Luna thrived, evolving gracefully with each solar cycle.

In her logbook, Leila wrote:

“We are not alone in space. Our microbes are our ancestors, our companions, and our future.”

Interplanetary EcologyOmar Nasr was born in Cairo in 2049, the child of desert farmers who practiced ancient fermentation to preserve milk and grain. As a young man, he witnessed the collapse of the Nile Delta under climate stress and vowed to study ecological restoration.

By the 2080s, he had become chief ecological architect for the Interplanetary Colonization Council, designing microbial biomes for lunar domes, asteroid habitats, and Martian gardens.

Omar’s breakthrough came when he realized that each colony’s microbial culture—its ferments, soils, and human microbiomes—formed a “planetary signature.” Colonies with balanced microbial diversity exhibited lower stress, higher cognitive function, and greater social cohesion. He coined the term “BioHarmony Index”—the measure of symbiotic health across worlds.

Omar’s motivation was deeply spiritual. “Every planet,” he said, “has its own yeast.” His work united science and mysticism: microbial networks as threads of the cosmic fabric.

His greatest challenge was political. Competing nations wanted to patent microbial designs for terraforming. Omar fought to preserve them as commons. His Universal Microbial Charter of 2087 declared that all interplanetary life forms are the shared heritage of the solar system. By 2100, thanks to Omar’s advocacy, microbial life flowed freely between colonies—in the form of ferments, seeds, and living culture exchanges that kept humanity connected across light-minutes of distance.

The Ferment Beyond EarthAs humans spread outward, so did the cultures they carried—kombucha, kefir, tempeh, natto, sourdough, and new creations born in zero gravity. Each space colony developed its own microbial symphony, tuned to its atmosphere and inhabitants.

Fermentation became the foundation of extraterrestrial ecology—producing oxygen, nutrients, and emotional well-being. In the silent vacuum of the cosmos, the gentle bubbling of fermentation tanks became the heartbeat of life.

Yet beyond the practical lay the profound: on every world humans touched, microbes whispered their ancient message—that life is not a conquest of matter but a communion of being.

By 2100, kombucha brewers on Earth toasted with their Martian and lunar kin through holographic “Ferment Feasts,” sharing flavors brewed across light-years and for parsecs into the future. The galaxy, once cold and empty, now shimmered with living effervescence.

The universe, it seemed, was fermenting itself into consciousness.

Summary: 2100 — The Age of Living BeveragesBy the year 2100, kombucha had transformed human civilization. From fermentation to foundation, from drink to doctrine—kombucha’s long journey had come full circle.

The year 2100 witnessed a world transformed. Humanity had at last reconciled itself with the biosphere. Coastal cities once drowned by rising seas were now floating biocultures—living reefs made of cellulose and kelp, home to millions who harvested sunlight, saltwater, and SCOBY membranes for sustenance. Inland, forests had returned. Mycelial networks thrived beneath the soil, and atmospheric carbon was on track to drop below pre-industrial levels. Life—microbial, human, and machine—was symbiotic by design.

Every person alive knew the taste of kombucha—not as a brand or product but as a living ritual. The brew had become as universal as bread once was, yet infinitely more personal. Each batch told the story of a local climate, a community’s microbes, and the care of its brewers.

A Universal Daily Prayer was offered:

Our SCOBY, which art fermenting,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on Earth as it is on Mars.
Give us this day, our daily ‘booch
And balance our pH, as we balance others.
Lead us into fermentation, and deliver us from contamination,
For thine is the bacteria, the microbes, and the yeast, symbiotically,
For ever and ever.
Amen.

By 2100, the word kombucha no longer described a drink at all—it meant symbiosis. Children learned it in their first biology lessons: “Kombucha is a partnership of beings for mutual thriving.” Its philosophy shaped every aspect of life: governance (through symbiotic councils), technology (bio-coded rather than silicon-based), and even art (living installations that pulsed, breathed, and regenerated). Fermentation had become the metaphor for civilization—slow, transformative, and alive.

The old kombucha pioneers—those small craft brewers of the early 2000s who had struggled to explain their cloudy bottles to skeptical consumers—were now honored as ancestors. In Vallejo, Berlin, Seoul, and Nairobi, fermentation schools bore their names. Holographic exhibits replayed their humble workshops, their mason jars and stainless-steel vats, their laughter and frustration. What they began as a grassroots act of care had evolved into a planetary operating system.

In their honor, the Fermenters’ Equinox was celebrated each year—a global day of silence, brewing, and renewal. For twenty-four hours, production ceased. Humanity listened, quite literally, to the hum of the microbes—the sound of life in process.

This will be our fermented future.

Epilogue: A Message to Today’s BrewersTo the readers of Booch News:

When this journey began, kombucha was still a niche drink—something found in farmers’ markets, yoga studios, and coolers in the back of natural food stores. Most people couldn’t pronounce it, let alone explain the SCOBY. Breweries were small, margins were thin, and public understanding was limited to “a fizzy, vinegary tea that’s good for you.”

And yet, beneath that modest surface, something profound was already fermenting.

Each of you—today’s brewers, innovators, distributors, educators, and enthusiasts—is not merely selling a beverage. You are part of a quiet revolution in how humanity relates to life itself. The microbial world you nurture is ancient, generous, and wise. It reminds us that creation is cooperative, not competitive; that resilience comes from diversity; that change, though sometimes messy, leads to transformation.

When we imagine kombucha in 2100, we’re really asking: what kind of relationship will we have with the living world?

Will we continue to extract, process, and discard—or will we learn, as brewers do, to feed and be fed by the same cycles that sustain all existence?

The future described in these episodes—of floating SCOBY farms, living cities, microbial charters, and global fermentation commons—is not prophecy. It’s possibility. And every small act you take today brings it closer. Every local brew you craft, every story you tell a customer, every connection you make between ancient fermentation and modern wellness—these are the seeds of a living civilization.

When historians look back from 2100, they may see you—the brewers of the mid twenty-first century—as the ones who kept the flame alive during a time of industrial excess. You modeled a different path: one of patience, transparency, and care. You demonstrated that business could be regenerative, that flavor could carry ethics, and that microbes could heal both body and planet.

So, to every reader of Booch News: keep fermenting. Keep innovating. Keep sharing.

The world of 2100 begins with the jars, vats, and hearts of those brewing here in 2025.

Let it be alive.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you just want to listen to the music, tune in as follows:

The 28th Amendment Choir, The Universal Daily Prayer, 17:50

Here is a complete playlist of all ‘Fermented Future’ songs.

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

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I recently talked with Marianne O’Donnell, the founder of Kombucha Na Dálaigh, based in Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. I began by wishing her a Happy Christmas in her native tongue, which is the limit of my Irish language skills. This was an appropriate greeting since Kombucha Na Dálaigh is located in a Gaeltacht region of the Republic, where Irish is the everyday language and a cornerstone of local culture, traditions, and identity.

OriginsHaving taught Food and Nutrition and Communications for 24 years, and also being a Certified Nutrition Coach, Marianne has always had a curiosity for learning, wellness, and cooking. “I never set out to start a kombucha business, but sometimes the best things in life happen by accident.”

“It all started during COVID, when I was struggling with gut health issues. A friend gave me a SCOBY—this strange, alien-looking thing—and I started brewing kombucha in my kitchen in Gortahork.”

She felt immediate benefits, and friends encouraged her to sell commercially.

Marianne attended the International Kombucha summit in Berlin in November 2023, which reinforced her to look at flavor trends.

ProductionAfter starting in her kitchen and moving to the home garage, Marianne has now outsourced production, bottling, and canning to another facility under her supervision. She concentrates on marketing and growing the business. Her kombucha uses 60% organic Sencha green tea and 40% Assam black tea.

Irish IdentityThe brand uses Irish on its labels and website. This isn’t just a matter of translation; it’s a statement of identity. Marianne believes Irish belongs in the everyday, in our food culture, and in our future.

She benefits from government support through Údarás na Gaeltachta, the regional state agency responsible for the economic, social, and cultural development of Ireland’s Irish-speaking regions. Her company is listed in their directory, along with Ireland’s largest brand, Synerchi, also in Donegal, and Claregalway’s All About Kombucha.

Glacadh lenár ndúchas áitiúla GaeltachtaTáimid lonnaithe i nGort a’Choirce agus táimid brodúil as a bheith ag déanamh beorach go háitiúil, ag cinntiú caighdeán d’ardcháiliócht. Mar sin de, cén fáth go mbeifeá sásta le deochanna boga atá déanta go saorga nuair a thig leat sásamh fionnuar a fháil as kombucha? Agus nuair nach bhfuil fonn ort beor, leann úll nó fíon a ól, is kombucha an deoch malartach is fearr.

Embracing Our Local Gaeltacht RootsBased in Gortahork, we take pride in brewing locally, ensuring high-quality standards.So, why settle for artificially produced soft drinks when you can indulge in the refreshing satisfaction of kombucha? And for those times when you’re not in the mood for beer, cider, or wine, kombucha makes for the perfect alternative.

AwardsThe company has been recognized multiple times at the annual Blas na hEireann (Taste of Ireland) awards, and this year was honored as the ‘Best Wellness Drink’ at the EVOKE Awards.

Growing awarenessMarianne is witnessing an increasing acceptance and awareness of kombucha in Ireland.

The popularity of kombucha in Ireland is catching up with places like California. There are some strong kombucha companies in Ireland. Sixty percent of shops will have kombucha now. And it’s growing. It is really, really growing. And the whole no and low alcohol movement, it’s really increasing. You know, kombucha is perfect for that. People who want that adult complex flavor without the booze.

There’s a real mixture of customers. Younger people have nearly all sampled kombucha before. Maybe older generations haven’t. But then once they taste it, they’re hooked. They love it. So lots of my local customers would be people in their 70s and 80s because they understand the health benefits. So, it’s a mixture of people that drink it in Ireland, but people are definitely more aware of kombucha and the benefits of fermented drinks.

DistributionKombucha Na Dálaigh is mainly sold through retail channels, with some direct-to-consumer online sales. Following her Blas na hEireann awards, premier retailer Avoca contacted her, and she’s now in their 13 stores across Ireland. She also sells in Ulster, where she has made personal contact with retail outlets.

FlavorsShe sells both 750-milliliter bottles and slimline 250-milliliter cans.

Her three flavors have Irish language names.

• Grá: (Love): Hibiscus, raspberry, rosehip, and herbal infusion.
• Anam (Soul): Ginger juice, botanical infusion (including citrus peels, ginger, lemon myrtle, and spices), natural hops.
• Sláinte (Health): Turmeric juice, ginger juice, herbal infusion (including apple, lemongrass, ginger, and botanical petals).

Marianne also produces limited editions, such as a carrageen moss and dulse seaweed mix named ‘Mara’ for the Ballymaloe House Cookery School in Cork.

In the summer, she also makes an elderflower and gooseberry brew.

PodcastClick on the podcast to hear Marianne tell the story of Kombucha Na Dálaigh.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 10 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewIn this episode, we examine the years after kombucha and fermented foods emerged into the mainstream, exploring how ordinary people experienced the transition to a fermented future.

This did not happen without a backlash.

Opposition to the Fermentation Reformation came from multiple sources: corporate interests protecting market share, religious communities navigating theological questions, workers facing economic displacement, and cultural conservatives wedded to familiar traditions. These culture wars revealed how commercial interests manipulate public opinion through manufactured controversy. Ultimately, the conflicts produced stronger frameworks by forcing fermentation advocates to address legitimate concerns while exposing cynical manipulation.

The Corporate Disinformation Campaign: Following the Tobacco PlaybookThe “Pure Liquid Coalition” (PLC) emerged in 2047 as an apparently grassroots movement defending “traditional American beverages” against kombucha. Behind the patriotic rhetoric lay sophisticated corporate funding that traced directly to the tobacco industry’s playbook of manufactured doubt and astroturf activism.

Internal documents leaked by whistleblower Jennifer Martinez, a former Mega-Cola strategic communications director, revealed the coalition’s true origins. The American Beverage Association had allocated $2.3 billion to create “citizen opposition” to fermentation, following tactics perfected during decades of fighting sugar taxation and nutrition labeling. The leaked “Operation Sterile Shield” documents showed how corporations manufactured controversy around living beverages using strategies tobacco companies had employed to deny cancer links.

The Historical Playbook: Tobacco to Sugar to Anti-FermentationDr. Clara Oreskes, daughter of the famous science historian, documented the direct lineage of corporate disinformation campaigns in her landmark study, Merchants of Doubt: The Fermentation Edition. The same PR firms and lobbyists who had denied climate change and defended cigarettes shifted focus to attacking beneficial bacteria.

The template was brutally effective: fund biased research, create scientific controversy where none existed, establish front groups with patriotic names, exploit religious messaging, and deploy emotional appeals about tradition and freedom.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies, the firm that helped tobacco companies conceal evidence of lung cancer, orchestrated the anti-kombucha campaign through organizations such as “Americans for Beverage Safety” and “Families Against Fermentation.” These groups received millions in corporate funding while claiming to represent concerned parents. The playbook was familiar: fund sympathetic academics, support existing opposition voices, create research institutes with neutral-sounding names, and amplify concerns through media partnerships.

They approached Pastor Billy Bob Hunt, head of the Southern Protestant Association. “We’d like to support your ministry’s community health initiatives with a $50,000 grant. No strings attached, though we’re naturally pleased that you share our concerns about fermentation safety.”

Hunt was tempted—$50,000 could fund youth programs, building repairs, and community outreach. But he asked: “What do you want in return?”

“Nothing explicit,” the strategist said carefully. “Though if you happen to speak publicly about fermentation concerns, we’d help amplify your message.”

Hunt declined. He had theological concerns, but wouldn’t serve as a paid spokesperson. Other religious leaders accepted—some knowingly, others genuinely believing the corporate interests aligned with their spiritual mission.

The Propaganda Streams: Exploiting Cultural DivisionsThe PLC deployed multiple messaging campaigns targeting different demographics:

Religious ExploitationEvangelical networks received slick marketing materials arguing that fermentation represented a corruption of purity. Some religious leaders, funded through undisclosed corporate donations, preached against living beverages using theological language that resonated with communities already suspicious of scientific change.

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

— John 6:27

The strategy exploited genuine religious concerns about bodily purity while hiding commercial motivations. “Charitable donations” to religious organizations obscured corporate interests behind spiritual messaging.

At the Murfreesboro headquarters of the Southern Protestant Convention, Pastor Hunt preached on fermentation from a genuine theological concern. His understanding: God created foods in pure forms. Intentional bacterial cultivation felt like corrupting divine creation. He wasn’t paid by corporations—he genuinely believed fermentation might be spiritually problematic.

“I’m not saying it’s definitely sinful,” he told his congregation. “I’m saying we should be cautious about deliberately cultivating decay. Our bodies are temples. Should temples contain intentional corruption?”

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you…

— 1 Corinthians 6:19

The congregation debated fermentation theologically. No corporate funding was involved—this was genuine religious discourse.

“God created foods pure,” one elder argued. “Fermentation is intentional decay. Is that honoring creation?”

A younger member countered: “Fermentation is a biological process God designed. Yeast is in the air. Bacteria exist naturally. We’re working with creation, not against it.” Hunt studied Scripture, historical practices, and theological tradition. He concluded: “Fermentation itself isn’t

sinful—wine, bread, and cheese are biblical. But we should be cautious, practice discernment, and prioritize safety. Anyone claiming fermented drinks produce spiritual enlightenment is confusing biology with grace.”

His congregants responded to this message because it resonated with their existing beliefs about purity, tradition, and caution toward cultural change.

Scientific MisinformationCorporate-funded “research” institutes produced studies claiming kombucha caused various health problems. The “American Institute for Beverage Research,” funded by Mega-Cola and BigSoda, published papers in predatory journals linking fermented drinks to inflammatory conditions, despite evidence showing opposite effects.

These fraudulent studies were amplified through sympathetic media outlets and social media networks, exploiting journalism’s tendency toward “balanced coverage” by creating false equivalencies between legitimate science and corporate-funded pseudoresearch.

Cultural and Patriotic AppealsThe PLC framed kombucha as a “foreign invasion” threatening beverage heritage. Media campaigns claimed “un-American cultures” were displacing jobs from “traditional bottling plants,” exploiting economic anxiety while ignoring that fermentation created different employment opportunities.

The Detroit Mega-Cola bottling plant announced closure—not because of corporate malice, but because demand for industrial beverages was declining while fermentation cooperatives grew. This was economic displacement from technological and cultural change.

Eliza Repton had worked the same production line for 22 years. Fermentation cooperatives didn’t need industrial bottling plants. Most distributed locally, in kegs and growlers, not plastic bottles. Her job, along with 300 others at the facility, was at risk.

Eliza addressed her coworkers: “They say this is progress—democratic food production, healthier beverages, community empowerment. That’s great for elites with education, time, and resources to participate in cooperatives. What about us? We have families to support. We’re not opposed to fermentation because we’re ignorant or because we’re being paid. We’re opposed because it’s eliminating our livelihoods.”

This was legitimate economic anxiety. Her opposition to fermentation wasn’t manufactured—it was economic survival. She resented becoming collateral damage in someone else’s transformation. While fermentation cooperatives created jobs, they were different jobs requiring different skills in different locations. Manufacturing workers couldn’t easily transition to artisanal production.

Fermentation advocates met displaced workers at the plant gates with good intentions: “We’ll teach you to brew! You can start cooperatives!”

Eliza was skeptical: “I’ve run production lines for years. I’m good at it. I don’t want to start over learning fermentation, managing small businesses, dealing with customers. I want my job. That’s not unreasonable.”

The economic reality was harsh: the plant was closing. Workers faced difficult choices: accept retraining (difficult, uncertain), relocate (expensive, disruptive), find different work (limited opportunities), or fight closures (ultimately futile).

A transition program was put in place that offered:

• Fermentation training for interested workers
• Business development support for cooperative formation
• Wage support during transition
• Job placement services for alternative employment

Some workers, including Eliza, eventually participated. The training was more challenging than she expected—running a fermentation cooperative required business skills, customer service, quality control, and technical knowledge they didn’t possess. Some succeeded, some struggled, some failed.

Safety MessagingDespite kombucha’s long safety record, corporate messaging emphasized rare contamination incidents while overlooking documented health problems from processed beverages. Campaigns deliberately confused consumers about the differences between harmful pathogens and beneficial probiotics.

The Corporate War Room: Manufacturing OppositionJennifer Martinez’s leaked documents revealed sophisticated coordination behind what appeared to be spontaneous opposition. Weekly strategy calls included representatives from beverage corporations, lobbying firms, and political organizations. Documents showed detailed psychological profiling and micro-targeted campaigns designed to exploit specific cultural anxieties.

The operation’s centerpiece was the “Clean Beverage Protection Act,” legislation drafted by corporate lawyers but introduced by Senator Armando Cruz as a response to supposed “grassroots demand.” The bill would have banned “unpasteurized biological beverages” from schools and hospitals while providing tax subsidies for “traditional soft drinks.”

The Academic Front: Manufacturing ControversyFollowing tobacco industry tactics, corporations funded academic research designed to create doubt about fermentation benefits. The “Center for the Study of Chronic Metabolic and Rare Diseases” at George Mason University received $47 million to produce studies questioning kombucha safety while never examining sweetened beverages.

The Counterattack: Exposing Corporate ManipulationThe fermentation community’s response gained traction when Luna Reyes, the teenage yeast liberator from Episode 8, leaked additional documents revealing industry manipulation. Her release of internal Mega-Cola emails planning to “destroy the fermentation movement through manufactured religious opposition” triggered a backlash against corporate interference.

Luna had been tracking anti-fermentation messaging, noticing patterns. Some opposition seemed authentic—religious concerns, economic anxiety, safety worries. But other opposition seemed coordinated: similar language across multiple sources, suspiciously well-funded campaigns, and “grassroots” groups with no apparent local membership.

She hacked corporate servers (legally questionable, morally complex) and found:

• Mega-Cola funding research institutes to produce anti-fermentation studies
• PR firms creating astroturf organizations
• Payments to some (not all) religious leaders for anti-fermentation messaging
• Social media bot networks amplifying contamination incidents
• Coordination between tobacco industry veterans and beverage companies

She also found Jennifer Martinez’s internal memos expressing discomfort with these tactics, suggesting more ethical competitive approaches, and warning that such deception was risky.

Luna released the documents publicly. The revelation was damaging but nuanced.

What the documents showed:

• Some opposition was corporate-funded manipulation
• Some religious leaders accepted money (knowingly or unknowingly)
• Research institutes with neutral names were industry fronts
• Contamination incidents were exploited beyond their significance

What the documents didn’t show:

• All opposition was manufactured (plenty of authentic concerns existed)
• Religious communities being universally duped (many developed independent theological positions)
• Workers being paid to oppose (economic anxiety was real)
• Regulators being corrupted (food safety concerns were legitimate)

The leak sparked anger about corporate manipulation, but did not eliminate legitimate concerns about fermentation safety, economic displacement, or cultural change.

Interviewed on WNYC’s Science Friday radio program, Jennifer Martinez, having resigned from Mega-Cola and free to speak publically, admitted her role. “I participated in this campaign. I convinced myself we were just competing aggressively. But reading my own memos now, I see how we crossed ethical lines—funding fake research, creating fake grassroots groups, exploiting tragedy for market advantage. I can’t defend that.”

The host, Ira Flatow, asked, “So, Luna, was some religious opposition corporate-funded?”

Luna replied: “Some religious leaders accepted corporate funding. Some developed anti-fermentation positions independently. Some were paid but did not disclose it. Some refused corporate money entirely. Religious communities aren’t monolithic—people make different choices.”

Flatow brought Pastor Hunt into the conversation. “I was approached with funding. I declined. But I understand why some accepted—ministries need resources. The problem isn’t religious leaders having concerns about fermentation. The problem is corporations hiding behind religious messaging while claiming it’s grassroots.”

Flatow concluded the show by citing Dr. Lila Chen’s cognitive research, which provided measurable evidence contradicting industry claims. When corporate-funded scientists claimed fermentation caused cognitive problems, Chen’s peer-reviewed research offered decisive refutation.

The Tobacco Parallel ExposedThe turning point came when congressional hearings revealed direct payments from beverage and tobacco companies to anti-fermentation groups. The same legal teams that had denied cigarette health risks were discovered coaching religious leaders on anti-bacteria messaging.

Senator Atticus Tyaguih held congressional hearings that uncovered $2.3 billion in corporate spending on anti-fermentation campaigns. Some funding was disclosed (lobbying, advertising); some was hidden (astroturf groups, research institutes, undisclosed payments to religious leaders).

The hearings produced accountability:

• Fines were imposed for undisclosed lobbying
• Criminal charges for fraud (fake research, undisclosed payments)
• New disclosure requirements for industry-funded research
• Regulations on astroturf organizations

But the hearings also revealed the limitations of focusing solely on corporate malfeasance. They questioned a religious leader who had accepted funding.

Senator Tyaguih asked the minister, “You accepted $50,000 from Mega-Cola and preached against fermentation. Isn’t that corruption?”

The minister replied, “The donation supported our youth programs. I disclosed it to my congregation. My theological concerns about fermentation were genuine—the money didn’t create those concerns. Was I naive about how the donation would be perceived? Yes. Do I regret accepting it? Yes. But my faith community’s concerns about rapid cultural change are real, not manufactured.”

A workers’ representative testified: “We opposed fermentation because it threatens our jobs. No corporation paid us. Our union received no funding from the beverage industry. Economic anxiety is real. Dismissing all opposition as corporate conspiracy ignores legitimate workers harmed by economic transitions.”

Senator Tyaguih brought Luna Reyes to the stand. He asked, “We’ve found corporate manipulation. But we’ve also found authentic concerns that exist independently. How do we distinguish between cynical opposition and legitimate concerns?”

Luna responded: “Ask who benefits. Ask whether concerns exist independently of funding. Ask whether opposition changes when funding is removed. Pastor Hunt’s concerns persisted after he declined funding—that suggests authenticity. Groups that dissolve when funding ends were astroturf.”

The Senator concluded: “This committee finds that not all opposition is corporate conspiracy. Some folks have legitimate concerns. Some prefer familiar foods and drinks. Some face real economic hardship from the change. Dismissing all opposition as paid shills alienates potential allies who have authentic concerns worth addressing.”

Cultural Reckoning: Manufactured Division ExposedThe corporate defeat strengthened fermentation’s position by exposing the desperation behind industrial beverage opposition. Communities that had resisted fermentation due to manufactured fears began embracing living beverages as symbols of resistance against corporate manipulation.

When governments realized that fermented beverages could stabilize both nutrition and morale, they invested heavily. Kombucha became part of the Universal Health Dividend, distributed to citizens as both refreshment and a probiotic supplement. Locally produced “living drinks” were cheaper to produce than soda, required less energy and resources, and generated zero waste.

Economists called it “the most elegant economic collapse in history.” By removing global middlemen, the beverage trade transformed into a living web of local economies—decentralized, resilient, joyful.

Moreover, the failed campaigns educated the public about corporate influence tactics, creating lasting skepticism toward industry health claims. When firms that had promoted cigarettes and opposed nutrition labeling began attacking fermentation, their credibility evaporated.

Diverse Fermentation Philosophies: Genuine Cultural EvolutionOnce corporate manipulation was exposed, genuine cultural diversity in fermentation flourished.

The Artistic ResponseIn Minneapolis, “Matrilineal Memory,” a new solo show by artist Mikaela Shaferv honoring her Hopi culture, combined abstract watercolors with found materials—including coffee paper, gauze, kombucha leather, and fallen leaves—alongside poetry. Light shone through translucent SCOBY leathers. She traced how grief and ancestral memory are carried, processed, and passed down through generations.

Buddhist Contemplative BrewingVietnamese-American monk Thich Minh Hanh III developed fermentation practices integrated with meditation traditions. His monastery’s kombucha, brewed during contemplative practice, became known for its complex flavor profiles and connection to mindfulness teachings.

The Buddhist approach emphasized patience, attention, and respect for living processes—values that resonated across cultures without requiring specific religious beliefs.

Silicon Valley InnovationBuddhist-influenced engineers in Silicon Valley developed scientifically optimized fermentation protocols while maintaining contemplative practices. Their approach proved that technological innovation and traditional wisdom could complement each other.

These practitioners demonstrated superior health markers and workplace performance, though attributing this solely to kombucha would ignore the holistic nature of their practices—meditation, community, diet, and exercise.

Elena Volkov – The Consciousness BrewerElena Volkov was born in 2012 in St. Petersburg and raised during a time when meditation and mental health technologies flourished. A former neuroscientist and VR developer, she left the tech world in her forties to pursue fermentation after what she called her “microbial awakening”—a mystical experience during a kombucha retreat in the Carpathian Mountains.

Elena founded The Brew of Being, a movement that explored how fermented beverages could serve as gateways to expanded consciousness. Her team of biochemists, monks, and artists developed “ethno-ferments”—living drinks that subtly influenced neural oscillations, inducing meditative clarity without intoxication.

Drinkers described experiencing vivid insights, lucid dreams, and emotional catharsis. The beverages became part of “fermentation temples” that replaced traditional nightclubs in many cities—luminous spaces where people gathered to share stillness, song, and silence over slowly bubbling vats.

Elena’s motivation was transcendent: she believed fermentation mirrored the human journey—transformation through surrender, death, and rebirth. Her challenge was cultural misunderstanding. Some accused her of creating “liquid religion.” Others saw her work as a return to the sacred origins of brewing.

In her final public address in 2088, she said: “Fermentation teaches us what consciousness truly is—life transforming life.”

Mira Al-Karim – The Composer of CulturesMira Al-Karim, born in Casablanca in 2018, was a child prodigy in both music and molecular biology. By her thirties, she had abandoned the concert stage to explore bioacoustics—the sounds generated by living organisms.

Her pivotal discovery came in 2062 when she realized that microbial colonies emit subtle vibrations as they metabolize—a kind of microbial symphony. Working with fermentation tanks and neural audio translators, Mira transformed these vibrations into soundscapes: living compositions that changed as the cultures evolved.

Her first major work, the abstract Symphony for SCOBY and Human Choir, premiered simultaneously in Marrakesh, Nairobi, and Berlin. Audiences stood silently as the sound of a fermenting kombucha culture merged with human voices, rising and falling in a rhythmic chant.

Mira described her motivation as “the longing to hear life thinking.”

Her greatest challenge was preserving authenticity—she refused to digitally “clean” or enhance the microbial tones. “Their imperfection,” she said, “is their truth.” Her hope was that people would learn to listen not just to music, but to life itself. Her fear—that AI-generated perfection would drown the subtle voices of living processes—haunted her even in her later years.

By the time of her death in 2097, bioacoustic fermentation concerts were a cornerstone of planetary culture—proof that beauty was not artificially crafted but naturally cultivated.

Anselmo Duarte – The Painter Who Used TimeAnselmo Duarte was a visual artist from Buenos Aires who never touched a brush. Instead, he painted with microbial colonies—fermenting pigments, yeasts, and molds on living canvases of cellulose. Each piece was a collaboration with entropy. Over weeks and months, colors deepened, textures shifted, and patterns emerged spontaneously. No two pieces ever stayed the same.

Collectors complained that his art was “impossible to preserve.”

Anselmo smiled. “It was never meant to be preserved,” he countered. “It was meant to live.”

His breakthrough exhibition, The Impermanent Gallery (2068), invited viewers to return week after week to watch the works evolve—decay, bloom, merge, and fade. It was a meditation on mortality and renewal. Anselmo’s motivation was existential. Having lost his partner during the South American droughts of the 2050s, he sought a form of art that would make peace with impermanence. His challenge was economic—museums struggled to house works that would not stay still. But by the 2080s, he was celebrated as the founder of Temporal Art, a movement that accepted change as the essence of creativity.

His greatest fear was that humanity would once again forget this lesson—that permanence would seduce the spirit into rigidity. His epitaph reads: “He painted what could not be kept.”

Sister Hana Liu – The Monk of the MotherHana Liu had been a microbiologist in Taipei before taking vows in the Order of the Living Light in 2050, a new contemplative community devoted to the spiritual study of fermentation. Her monastery, perched on the cliffs of Jeju Island, was filled with the scent of kombucha, miso, and kimchi. Every day, the monks practiced listening meditation beside their fermentation vats, attuning themselves to the slow breath of microbial life. Hana’s teaching, recorded in her luminous treatise The Way of the Mother, became foundational to the spiritual philosophy of the twenty-second century.

“Every ferment is a mirror,” she wrote. “In it, we see our fears of decay, our longing for transformation, our hope for renewal. The Mother never dies—she only changes form.”

Her motivation was peace—to reconcile humanity with impermanence and interdependence. Her challenge was skepticism from traditional religious authorities who dismissed fermentation as materialist mysticism. But over time, her monastery became a pilgrimage site for seekers, scientists, and artists alike. Visitors drank a spoonful of her centuries-old kombucha mother—ceremonially shared but never depleted. Her fear was subtle: that humans might again separate the sacred from the everyday. She reminded her followers that every fermenting jar is a temple.

Reconciliation and UnderstandingFormer opponents of fermentation, once freed from corporate messaging, often became practitioners. The discovery that their opposition had been manufactured rather than authentic led many to explore what they’d been paid to reject. Former Mega-Cola CEO James Morrison became a regenerative farmer, teaching fermentation while acknowledging his past role in deception.

Legacy: Inoculation Against ManipulationThe culture wars ultimately educated the public about how corporate interests manufacture controversy to protect market share. The exposed tactics created lasting skepticism toward industry-funded “grassroots” movements and “independent” research.

Communities learned to ask: “Who benefits from this message? Who’s funding this opposition? Are the concerns genuine or manufactured?”

This cultural inoculation against manipulation proved more valuable than winning any single battle over fermentation. The public developed critical thinking skills that extended beyond beverage choices to evaluate other forms of corporate and political messaging. People learned that complex social change involves legitimate competing interests. Effective movements distinguish between cynical manipulation and authentic concerns.

Epilogue: The Next GenerationBy 2075, the failed corporate opposition had inadvertently strengthened fermentation culture and educated society about manipulation tactics. Children growing up after these culture wars ended learned critical media literacy alongside fermentation techniques.

But new challenges appeared. The biological transformations enabled by decades of optimized microbiome health were producing measurable cognitive and physiological changes in younger generations—changes that would force humanity to reckon with what it meant to fundamentally alter human biology through environmental intervention, both on Earth and on the final frontier—in space.

You won’t want to miss next week’s FINAL INSTALLMENT of ‘Our Fermented Future’—a Booch News exclusive.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you just want to listen to the music, tune in as follows:

Mira Al-Karim, Symphony for SCOBY and Human Choir 25:54

Here is a complete playlist of all ‘Fermented Future’ songs.

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

The post Our Fermented Future, Episode 11: The Culture Wars—Battles Over Living Beverages appeared first on 'Booch News.

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WonderBrew Kombucha made history by clinching six prestigious titles at the World Kombucha Awards 2025 in Barcelona, Spain. The brand was founded in 2018 by Joseph Poh Wen Xian and Loke Boon Eng.

OriginsIn 2018 Joseph began a journey to transform his gut health. He would walk the aisles of the supermarket, searching for the latest health foods and supplements to try. On one of these fateful trips, he discovered kombucha (which he had never tasted before). Going with his gut instinct, he took a bottle home and, in his words, “It was love at first sip.” He did not know it at the time, but his first purchase was Boon’s brand of kombucha.

The drink calmed his indigestion and piqued his business senses. A Google search for local kombucha led him to a brewing class by Boon. Joseph signed up for the class. The two were still strangers at this point. After that, Joseph began home-brewing kombucha for personal use as his entrepreneurial spirit began to fizz. When he heard about the kombucha hype overseas, he knew he was sitting on a pot of fermented gold. After extensive study of the local market, Joseph approached Boon to join him as a partner, and WonderBrew was born.

I had a sense that this could be a business opportunity in Malaysia. Because it was so rare and it was expensive with mostly the imported products from imported brands from overseas. And it was really not accessible as well. So, based on this market gap, we worked together to create a truly local brand called Wonderbrew in 2018.

Joseph, WonderBrew Co-Founder

WonderBrew has grown to become Malaysia’s leading kombucha producer, with more than 2,000 retail touchpoints across supermarkets, convenience stores, cafes, hotels, and restaurants nationwide. They now employ more than a dozen people. They are on record as aiming to double production in 2026 and to expand their footprint across Southeast Asia, with a focus on the Singapore and Indonesian markets. Since its founding in 2018, it has sold more than 1.5 million bottles.

Small batch productionTo ensure consistent quality and preserve the freshness of their product, they brew in small batches.

Award WinningJoseph and Boon made history on the global stage by clinching six prestigious titles at the World Kombucha Awards 2025, held in Barcelona. In its first-ever international competition, WonderBrew emerged as one of the biggest winners at this year’s event, clinching one gold, four silvers and one bronze, across both taste and design categories, (see listings below). The feat marks the first time a Malaysian brand has won at the World Kombucha Awards and the first time an Asian brand has secured six titles in a single award year.

FlavorsWonderbrew offers a dizzying range of both kombucha and jun flavors. Many use local sources of ingredients and are heavily oriented to fruity flavors:

When we first launched our original flavors, we found that based on feedback, something fruity and something on a slightly sweeter side helps new users get used to kombucha. So from there on, we focused very much mostly on fruit-based infusion because for especially new consumers, they don’t really like the vinegary taste.

Boon, WonderBrew Co-Founder

Kombucha Original: Kombucha in its purest form. The freshness of tea with a malty after-taste. * Passionfruit Mint {GOLD: Fruit with Herbs}: A best-selling concoction of fresh passion fruit with a cool after-taste of mint. This is thei * Purple Serai: When blue pea and a tinge of lemongrass * Acai & Black Goji: Acai and goji berries are used in traditional Asian cooking. * Beetroot Basil: A ruby red hue with hints of basil. * Nihon Green Tea {SILVER: Original Green Tea} + {SILVER: Single Bottle Design}: Pure kombucha full of floral hints. * Tambun Pomelo: Refreshing sweet pomelo grown in Ipoh, the gateway to the Cameron Highlands. * Roselle Citrus: An antioxidant-packed kombucha with a hint of lime. * Osmanthus Mandarin: An auspicious pairing of “kam” and osmanthus to inspire better gut health. * Apple Cinnamon: A delicately brewed kombucha with cinnamon to add warmth. * Barley Rose: A brew full of floral hints of rose with the tinge of milkiness of Chinese pearl barley. * Tangy Kedondong: The freshness of kampung inspired by kedondong asam boi. * Sakura Lychee Rose: A “flower power” pastel blend with notes of lychee. * Mango Melur {SILVER: Fruit with Flowers}: Mango with a floral touch of jasmine. * Juniper Rosemary: Woody and aromatic. * Pineapple Lavender: The tangy sweetness of pineapple meets the calming notes of lavender. * Blackberry Guava: Sweet and slightly tart with the fruity undertone of guava. * Nutmeg: A cola-inspired blend. * Nihon Yuzu Mint: The bright, citrusy essence of yuzu with the cool, refreshing taste of mint. * Snow Chrysanthemum: Harvested from the snowy hills of Kunlun mountains. * Kurma Honey: Characterized by its deep sweetness, reminiscent of the caramel-like richness of dates. * Honey Plum*: The sweetness of honey intertwining with the fruity essence of plums.

Jun Original: Brewed with pure honey, a crisp brew with notes of wild flowers. * Raspberry & Lemon {SILVER: Jun}: Light and subtle with a definite berry taste. * Bentong Ginger & Honey: Supercharged with the potent Bentong ginger from Pahang. * Pink Guava* {BRONZE: Jun}: Sweet, floral notes of ripe pink guava.

To celebrate their achievement in Barcelona, they released a limited edition Winning Brew Collection featuring all their five award-winning flavors:

• Gold: Passionfruit Mint Kombucha
• Silver: Mango Jasmine Kombucha, Nihon Green Tea Kombucha, Raspberry Lemon Jun Tea
• Bronze: Pink Guava Jun Tea

MarketingIn addition to heavily promoting its World Kombucha Awards, Wonderbrew effectively uses social media to promote its beverages. They have over 13,000 Followers on Instagram—the most of any Malaysian brand—and focus on young, sporty, even wealthy consumers. They also celebrate national holidays and religious festivals, including Diwali, Thaipusam, Ramadan, and Chinese New Year.

DistributionThe majority of their sales are through retail outlets. You will find Wonderbrew in high-end Malls, grocery stores, and fitness centers. They distribute across Malaysia. They also contract pack for other producers.

SustainabilityThe brand prides itself on sourcing locally and partnering with Malaysian farmers to recycle production waste, reinforcing its commitment to sustainability and community empowerment.

• Composting waste: They send all their waste raw material to a local farm which is then turned into compost.
• Upcycled SCOBY: They collaborate with local fashion brands who turn their used SCOBY into vegan leather, which are used to make clothing, shoes, or handbags.
• Minimize plastic use: Their carrier pack is made from recycled cardboard and their drinks are sold in glass bottles, reducing single-use plastic.
• Recycling program:For every 12 used kombucha bottles returned, customers get one new bottle of kombucha free.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Joseph and Boon tell the story of WonderBrew.

The post Profile: WonderBrew Kombucha, Malaysia appeared first on 'Booch News.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 9 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewPharmaceutical companies partnered with kombucha producers to deliver medications via fermentation. Living probiotics became supportive therapy systems, enhancing the efficacy of conventional treatment. Mental health improved as gut-brain axis therapies reduced medication dependency for some patients. This episode follows Dr. Helena Marston’s development of probiotic kombucha strains that improved cancer treatment outcomes when used alongside chemotherapy. When fermented beverages became integrated into medical protocols, traditional pharmaceutical distribution adapted while neighborhood bio-brewers became complementary healthcare providers, expanding medical access through fermentation.

Dr. Helena Marston: The Oncologist Who Sought Better OutcomesDr. Helena Marston never intended to revolutionize supportive cancer care when she began brewing kombucha in the break room of her Stanford oncology lab in 2045. Exhausted by watching patients suffer through chemotherapy’s side effects, she researched whether probiotic supplements could improve treatment tolerance. Her crucial insight came when she realized that kombucha SCOBYs weren’t merely fermentation cultures—they were adaptable biological systems capable of producing compounds that could support conventional cancer therapy.

Marston’s breakthrough research began with a challenging case: seven-year-old Christie Steinberg, daughter of her Palo Alto neighbor, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Traditional chemotherapy protocols offered 73% survival rates, but with significant side effects that devastated quality of life. She proposed an experimental adjunct treatment: genetically modified kombucha cultures engineered to produce compounds that could enhance chemotherapy’s effectiveness while reducing its toxicity—not replacing medical treatment, but making it more tolerable and potentially more effective.

A Neighbor in NeedDr. Helena Marston encountered her neighbor Gloria Steinberg at a backyard barbecue three days after Christie’s diagnosis.

“Helena, I’m so glad to see you,” Gloria exclaimed. “We got Christie’s diagnosis. It’s not good. We start chemo next month.”

Marston stopped, put down her drink, and gave her friend full attention. “I’m so sorry to hear that, Gloria. I’ve watched hundreds of families face this. The treatment works, but… the journey is brutal.”

Steinberg struggled to hold herself together. “She’s only seven. She should be worried about her spelling test, not about losing her hair. Is there… is there anything that makes this easier?”

Helena paused, then spoke. “Actually… there might be. It’s experimental, but I’ve been researching something. Can you come to my office tomorrow?”

The next day, Mrs. Steinberg sat across from her friend in the medical office. “Here’s what I’m proposing, Gloria. Three steps.” She counted on her fingers. “One: Christie gets her prescribed chemotherapy—exactly as her oncologist recommends. This is non-negotiable. The chemo is what fights cancer. Two: We sequence her tumor and microbiome. This tells us exactly which supportive compounds might help her specifically. Three: I brew a personalized kombucha that Christie drinks daily. It won’t cure cancer, but early research suggests it might reduce side effects by 15-20%.”

Mrs. Steinberg sounded doubtful. “And the risks?”

“She’ll be monitored weekly. If anything looks wrong, we stop immediately. But I believe this could help her feel more like Christie during treatment, instead of just ‘the sick kid.'”

Later that week, the Steinberg’s met with Dr. Medway, their oncologist at the clinic. They were met with skepticism.

“Experimental probiotics?” The doctor looked askance. “Mrs. Steinberg, your daughter has a serious cancer. Stick to proven protocols.”

“But the side effects…” Gloria glanced at Christie through the window.

“Are manageable,” Medway insisted. “We have anti-nausea drugs, blood transfusions.”

“I know, but…” Steinberg hesitated. “We’d like to try Dr. Marston’s approach. Alongside the chemo.”

“I can’t stop you,” Medway replied. “But if anything goes wrong…”

Marston entered the consulting room. “The choice is yours, Gloria. But we need to decide now. Christie starts chemo in two weeks. I need at least ten days to culture her personalized SCOBY.”

A few months later…A few months into treatment, Christie sat at the dining table doing homework, thin but alert. Her mother watched from the kitchen, tears in her eyes. She called Dr. Marston.

“Helena, things are looking good. She did her homework today. Do you understand what that means? Most kids at this stage of chemo can barely get out of bed. She did her math homework and complained about it being too hard.” The mother laughed through her tears. “She complained. Like a normal kid.”

Marston smiled. “That’s the goal. Let her be seven, even while fighting cancer.”

The Biological Support System: Engineering Complementary MedicineMarston’s innovation lay in treating SCOBYs as biological factories capable of producing compounds that worked synergistically with conventional cancer treatment. Using Curro Polo’s fermentation modeling techniques combined with Dr. Lila Chen’s microbiome personalization methods, she developed “therapeutic kombucha” that could support chemotherapy by strengthening the patient’s immune system, reducing inflammation, and helping manage treatment side effects.

The process began with comprehensive tumor sequencing and treatment planning by Christie’s oncology team. Marston then designed SCOBY cultures to produce compounds that could potentially enhance the child’s response to her prescribed chemotherapy regimen while supporting her overall health. The kombucha became a complementary therapy delivered through daily consumption alongside conventional medical treatment.

Christie’s results were encouraging. Her standard chemotherapy protocol achieved complete remission—as expected for her cancer type with proper treatment—but she experienced significantly fewer side effects than typical. Unlike many pediatric cancer patients who suffer severe nausea, fatigue, and immune suppression, Marston’s probiotic kombucha appeared to help Christie maintain better energy, digestive health, and emotional well-being throughout her treatment course.

Cautious Optimism: Research BeginsMarston’s initial case study, published in Nature Medicine in December 2046, triggered significant medical interest—and considerable scientific skepticism. The article was carefully titled: “Probiotic Kombucha as Adjunct Supportive Care in Pediatric Leukemia: A Single Case Study with Promising Results Requiring Further Investigation.”

The medical establishment’s reaction was mixed but intrigued. The Lancet published an editorial titled “Living Probiotics in Cancer Care: Potential Benefits, Critical Questions, and the Need for Rigorous Trials.” The journal’s editor-in-chief noted that while Marston’s work showed promise, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and we must be cautious not to give false hope to desperate patients before proper clinical trials establish safety and efficacy.”

The Clinical Reality: Incremental ImprovementsMarston’s expanded clinical trials, involving 2,000 cancer patients across 12 countries over 8 years, produced results that were scientifically significant but less robust than her initial case suggested. Her therapeutic kombucha, used alongside conventional treatment, demonstrated:

• 12-18% reduction in severe treatment side effects across various cancer types
• 23% improvement in treatment completion rates (fewer patients stopping therapy due to intolerance)
• Enhanced quality of life during treatment compared to control groups
• 8-15% improvement in specific immunological markers
• Approximately $150 per month for the probiotic formulation

Notably, the studies found that kombucha alone had no anticancer effect—it showed benefits only when used alongside proven medical treatments. Patients who delayed or refused conventional therapy in favor of kombucha alone had dramatically worse outcomes, leading to several preventable deaths that haunted Marston’s research.

Media Coverage: Hope and HypeHeadlines captured both the promise and the limitations:

• The Guardian: “Probiotic Kombucha Shows Promise in Reducing Chemotherapy Side Effects: Patients Report Better Quality of Life During Treatment”
• Wall Street Journal: “Fermented Beverages as Cancer Care Adjunct: Modest Benefits, Affordable Option, But No Replacement for Medical Treatment”
• The Times of India: “Mumbai Researchers Caution Against Kombucha-Only Cancer Treatment After Patient Deaths”
• The Lancet editorial: “The Promise and Peril of Probiotic Cancer Care: Why Rigorous Science Matters More Than Anecdotes.”

The Integration Challenge: Complementary, Not AlternativeMarston faced an unexpected problem: her research was being misrepresented by alternative medicine advocates who claimed she’d “proven kombucha cures cancer.” Several patients died after abandoning conventional treatment based on misunderstandings of her work. This led Marston to become an outspoken advocate for science-based medicine.

“Kombucha is not a cancer cure,” she stated repeatedly in interviews. “It’s a supportive therapy that may help some patients tolerate conventional treatment better. Anyone who tells you to replace chemotherapy with fermented beverages is endangering your life.”

Marston was aware of well-publicized risks faced by patients who relied exclusively on Complementary and Alternative Medicine treatments. The 2024 Netflix drama Apple Cider Vinegar depicted a character, Milla Blake, whose storyline was loosely based on real-life Australian wellness advocate Jessica Ainscough, who died after using coffee enemas and other alternative therapies to treat her cancer.

She had read reports showing that patients who ignore conventional treatment risks believe they can use alternative therapies to replace surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or immunotherapy. She understood that it is essential for patients and physicians to engage in thorough and honest conversations about the known risks and benefits of all options.

The medical community gradually integrated probiotics into supportive care protocols, but always alongside—never instead of—proven treatments. Insurance companies began covering “integrative oncology consultations” where patients learned about evidence-based complementary therapies, including therapeutic fermented foods.

Pharmaceutical AdaptationPharmaceutical companies adapted by developing partnerships with probiotic researchers. Several major firms launched divisions focused on microbiome-based therapies, investing billions to understand how gut bacteria influence drug efficacy and side effects.

Johnson & Johnson partnered with Marston’s lab to develop standardized probiotic formulations that could be prescribed alongside their cancer medications. Pfizer acquired several kombucha companies to bring production under quality-controlled manufacturing, ensuring consistency and safety.

The industry evolved from viewing probiotics as threats to recognizing them as opportunities—ways to improve existing treatments and develop new therapeutic approaches based on microbiome science.

Neighborhood Support: Community Care Alongside Medical TreatmentAs probiotic research advanced, neighborhood bio-brewers emerged as complementary healthcare supporters—not replacements for medical professionals. Khushi Sengupta transformed her Thames Valley apartment into a brewing facility that produced probiotic kombucha for 200 cancer patients receiving treatment at London hospitals. She worked closely with oncology teams to ensure her products supported rather than interfered with medical care.

Community fermentation workshops taught patients and families how to brew supportive probiotics at home, but always emphasized: “This helps you feel better during treatment. It does not replace your doctor’s prescribed therapy.”

The Marston Legacy: Integrative Medicine Done RightBy 2055, Dr. Marston’s approach had helped establish “evidence-based integrative oncology” as a recognized medical specialty. Her memoir, Brewing Health: How Probiotics Support Medical Treatment, became required reading in medical schools, but its central message was caution: “Complementary therapies can improve quality of life and possibly enhance treatment outcomes, but they work alongside medicine, not instead of it.”

Marston’s laboratories focused on rigorous research into microbiome-based therapies, conducting the controlled trials necessary to separate genuine benefits from placebo effects and hype.

The Christie Steinberg Story: Survivor and AdvocateChristie Steinberg’s journey from cancer diagnosis to becoming a medical researcher inspired many. Now sixteen and cancer-free for nine years—thanks primarily to her chemotherapy regimen and supportive care from Marston’s probiotics—Christie worked as an intern in Marston’s lab studying pediatric oncology applications of microbiome therapies.

She speaks at medical conferences about the importance of evidence-based treatment: “Dr. Marston’s kombucha helped me feel better during chemotherapy, which was hard but necessary. I’m alive because of real medicine. The kombucha made the medicine more tolerable, and that matters. But anyone who claims probiotics alone cure cancer is lying.”

The Global Impact: Expanded Access to Supportive CareFermented beverages as supportive therapy expanded access to integrative care that was previously only available at expensive cancer centers. Patients worldwide can now access affordable probiotics that may improve their treatment experience, though outcomes still depend primarily on their conventional medical care.

By 2060, cancer treatment had improved through multiple advances—better chemotherapy drugs, immunotherapies, personalized medicine, and yes, supportive probiotics that helped some patients tolerate treatment better. Marston’s contribution was real but modest, one piece of a larger puzzle.

In later years, Dr. Marston continued researching microbiome therapies while training the next generation of integrative oncologists. As she watched Christie teach medical students about evidence-based complementary care, Marston reflected: “My most significant achievement wasn’t finding a miracle cure—it was showing how probiotics can support real medicine when used responsibly, with rigorous science and honest communication about what they can and cannot do.”

The benefits of kombucha as a complimentary beverage that could be enjoyed by patients undergoing treatment was celebrated by Americana folk singer Birdie Calhoun. Her ‘Survivor’s Song’ became the unofficial anthem of the integrative oncology movement—not because it celebrates a miracle cure, but because it honestly depicts the small mercies that matter when you’re fighting for your life. Birdie opened for renowned speaker Allison Massari at major medical conferences where the song helped inspire physicians and ignite the power of the human spirit.

This illness swiped my eyes
Took me by surprise
Clouded blue skies
Made me realize
The real from the fake
Careful what I take.
Chemo, x-rays, medicines are tough
Some days I feel like I’ve had enough.

[Chorus]
But I’m drinking my kombucha
Feeling good
Drinking kombucha
Feeling better than I should
Drinking kombucha
Day and night
Drinking kombucha
Feeling alright
Drinking kombucha.

I’m not claiming it’s a cure
It just helps me endure
Weight loss, bald head, sick in bed
Aches in my body, pain in my head.

[Chorus]

It’s a probiotic promise
Of better times to come
A probiotic promise
And then some
Thanks to Helena and Christie too
And all the brewers, from me to you
A big, big thank you
Thank you
Thank you.

[Chorus]

Epilogue: The Misinformation WarMedicine’s evolution toward integrative approaches threatened interests beyond what was expected. As therapeutic probiotics gained acceptance in mainstream medicine, alternative medicine advocates launched misinformation campaigns claiming doctors were suppressing “natural cures” by insisting on scientific evidence. Meanwhile, some pharmaceutical companies opposed complementary therapies, viewing them as threats rather than partners.

The real battle wasn’t between “natural” and “conventional” medicine—it was between evidence-based approaches of any kind and those who spread misinformation and profited from making claims without proof.

The gloves come off in next week’s installment of ‘Our Fermented Future’, here on Booch News.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you just want to listen to the music, tune in as follows:

Birdie Calhoun, Survivor’s Song, 16:08

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

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Source: NotebookLMDr. Cătălin Tîlvescu is a general surgeon and the coordinator of the Department of Hyperbaric Medicine at Nova Vita Hospital in Romania. In 2020, he founded Kombucius in his hometown of Târgu Mureș, Transylvania.

Market opportunityThe decision to launch was heavily influenced by a clear market opportunity in Romania. A certain level of awareness of kombucha existed in the country, as it was a popular home brew in communist times, often perceived as a “miracle cure” kept in a jar by grandmothers. Although he is a physician by training, his experience as a home brewer provided the foundational knowledge for his new venture. He had a long history with fermentation, growing up learning how to make wine and moonshine (spirits) with his grandparents.

He discovered that Romania didn’t have any breweries producing kombucha at the time. The imported store-bought kombucha he tasted was often “really bad” and bland. He noted that the varieties being sold locally were “very harsh, very sour, very acidic,” leading him to question why consumers would purchase them. This quality gap inspired his core business philosophy: to make a kombucha that people would actually enjoy drinking, resulting in a product that is sweeter and less carbonated, akin to the Asian style, rather than the more sour, highly carbonated North European/American types.

Overcoming challengesHe overcame multiple challenges in establishing the business, such as learning to produce kombucha at scale, securing a suitable factory location, and addressing public perceptions of kombucha. All this as a one-person operation while working full-time as a physician in three hospitals.

However, he recognized that he needed to rebuild his life, and opening a brewery became a viable option, particularly since his ex-wife, who was “not a fan of me doing home brewing,” was no longer a factor. The business served as a positive trajectory for his life, preventing him from becoming a “bitter, resentful, old divorced dad” and allowing him to truly find happiness and personal growth. He remarked that starting a kombucha company was the “best decision that I have ever made in my life.”

He previously held the “dream” of having a large beer brewery but lacked the necessary funds. Kombucha presented a similar opportunity that was more financially accessible.

InspirationThe idea solidified after watching two key online videos: one showing a brewery tour that revealed the process was “not really hard to make,” and another featuring Sebastien Bureau at the 2019 Berlin Kombucha Summit explaining how to scale up production, which transformed the concept into a “possibility.”

Based on insights gained from friends in the beer industry, he decided to bypass starting in his kitchen and immediately launch the company as a professional, legal brand, knowing that serious commercial operations require stability and consistency.

RecognitionThe brand recently gained international recognition when its mint flavor won a World Kombucha Award, validating his approach of creating a less acidic, more palatable beverage.

VideosKombucius has published a library of over 60 YouTube videos (in Romanian) that cover everything from home-brewing tips to the scientific benefits of kombucha, and even the first episode of a humorous soap opera featuring Master Kombucius, who arrives on his motorcycle, swigging kombucha!

Flavors* Original Kombucha with green tea – for those who love the authentic and refreshing taste. * Kombucha Rojizo Granada – an explosion of freshness and fruity flavor. * Ginger Khan Kombucha – for those who love a little spicy craftsmanship in their life. * Fresh Mint Kombucha – an award-winning refreshing combination. * Kombucha Strong Hops with hops – a bold combination of freshness and bitter subtlety.

Kombucius is available across Romania.

InterviewThis lengthy conversation tells the story of the founding of Kombucius, including overcoming challenges of limited funds and doing much of the physical labor himself. Dr. Tîlvescu discusses his brewing process and the philosophy behind his products. Finally, he shares his long-term aspirations for scaling the business and offers entrepreneurial advice, emphasizing the importance of enjoying the process and maintaining one’s principles.

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Jake Myers, the director of the new comedy-horror movie, Kombucha, visited San Francisco this weekend. He had flown in from Chicago (where the film was shot) to host a screening at the Balboa Theater’s ‘Another Hole in the Head‘ horror-fest.

He sat down with Booch News to discuss his film and explain why he chose to make a horror movie about everyone’s favorite drink. I then attended the screening and formed my own opinion of what some kombucha lovers see as a gross misrepresentation of the beverage.

Highly recommendedLet me say now: this is a GREAT MOVIE, and anyone offended by this tongue-in-cheek satirical portrayal of kombucha should lighten up. After all, the dairy industry wasn’t offended when Wallace and Gromit picnicked on a moon made of cheese. No one took that seriously.

Likewise, the movie portrays kombucha in an extreme, but humorous, manner, maybe not quite as unbelievably as a cartoon character and his dog slicing off a bit of cheese on the moon, but not that different in terms of kombucha in reality compared to its role as a plot device in this fantasy.

The film has been described in reviews re-posted to Booch News in October, so check there if you want the details. Briefly, kombucha alters the behavior of hapless office workers forced to drink it with cult-like intensity by a corporation that wrings every ounce of energy, and eventually the life, out of their employees. Office screen savers read “Serve the job and the job serves you.” There’s no work-life balance. Sexually predatory female managers seduce their direct reports (“I want to have your baby! Give me your sperm!”). Cringe-worthy platitudes (“I’ll circle back to you on that”) are spouted in clinically spotless meeting rooms. This environment will be familiar to anyone who has worked in tech. It’s the world described by Dave Eggers in his 2013 novel, The Circle.

Wide of the markThose of us familiar with kombucha will spot the ways in which the ‘booch onscreen is not true to life.

• While many tech companies provide their employees with free kombucha, most do so on tap, rather than stocking refrigerators with dozens of bottles. To be fair, this is apparently how GT Dave’s personal refrigerator is stocked.
• Anyone who brews kombucha knows that if the ferment is not covered with a cloth you’ll get an infestation of fruit flies. Not so in the lobby of Simbio Corporation.
• Likewise, real SCOBYs look nothing like the opaque, backlit, yellow glass in the company lobby. The irony is, they often look more repulsive than the one in the film. Was the reality just too gross for a horror movie?
• Portraying kombucha as a tool of control and conformity, where people are forced to drink it, suffer unspeakable side-effects and withdrawal symptoms worthy of crack, OxyContin, or heroin, is a distortion of the free-wheeling, slightly ‘woke’ reputation most ‘booch lovers embody.

On targetThere are, however, a number of places in the movie where the director totally nails the appeal of kombucha.

• The initial reluctance of an overweight coffee addict to even consider drinking it, and their surprise when they discover how pleasant it actually tastes. Their obvious pleasure in the first sip.
• The subsequent purification as bodily toxins are eliminated, although not usually in as colorful a manner as shown in the toilet bowl in the movie.
• The slightly addictive nature of ‘booch. Most of us who enjoy kombucha have occasional jonesing for another bottle. But not to the extent of having withdrawal symptoms that need us to be tied to a bed.
• A certain cult-like tendency among some true-believers (we know who we are!) who love a drink that is a minority interest and is still an object of disdain for some.

Movie magicI’m no fan of horror movies. Indeed, I was uncomfortable with one of the short films shown before Kombucha. It was a ‘slasher’ flick, and I had to look away when the ax split open the girl’s head. This movie is nothing like that. There is some of what fans apparently refer to as ‘body horror’ – bacteria and yeast infestations in previously healthy people. Lesser versions of the infected zombies in The Last of Us.

The main message is the dystopian exaggeration of the Silicon Valley office start-up culture where the office is a ‘family,’ and you are encouraged to burn the midnight oil to deliver the PowerPoint presentation next day. Think McKinsey consultants on steroids, or designer ‘booch. (Incidentally, and an absolute coincidence, are the parallels between the use of ‘personally customized’ kombucha in the film and a possible future described in Episode 2 of my ‘Fermented Future’ Sci-Fi series. Great minds, eh, Jake?)

The film chose the brand name “Mother’s Secret” for the company brand of kombucha, which makes absolute sense given the ‘secret’ revealed at the end of the film. However, any brands with ‘Mother’ in their name should expect to become famous by association. Here’s looking at you:

• Mother Kombucha, Saint Petersburg, FL
• Mother Kombucha, Berlin, Germany
• Mother Love Kombucha, Kelowna, BC, Canada
• Mother Lode Kombucha, Cincinnati, OH
• Mothership Hard Kombucha, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada
• Back to the Mother, Missoula, MT
• Strong Mother Kombucha, Queensland, Australia

The sequelJake is planning a sequel focused on kombuchas’ potential to be misused as a ‘woo-woo alternative health cure all’. Filming starts next summer.

Online availabilityKombucha won’t be shown in theaters. The SF screening was the final time on the big screen. However, it’s now available for rent on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Google Play, and other on-demand services. It’s also available on Blu-ray and DVD.

UPDATE: As of March 27, 2026, the film can be watched at no charge via Screambox.

I highly recommend this entertaining movie that anyone who loves kombucha will enjoy seeing. Just don’t take it too seriously. Oh, and don’t work for a company that sucks the life out of you, whether or not they provide free kombucha.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear my exclusive one-on-one interview with director Jake Myers and a sample of the discussion following the screening at the Balboa.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 8 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewFermentation cooperatives represent one effective social organizing principle among many. In the future, kombucha cafes could replace bars and coffee shops as primary gathering spaces—not because the beverages possess magical properties, but because fermentation creates affordable spaces where people gather around shared productive work. This episode explores Mumbai’s “Fermentation District,” where bio-breweries have become community hubs, enabling stronger civic engagement. These spaces succeeded by combining smart urban design, economic cooperation, and cultural preservation into environments that made authentic connection easier than virtual isolation.

The Inheritance of Empty BuildingsBy 2052, colonial-era buildings in Mumbai’s abandoned Ballard Estate business district stood empty after the Great Flood of July 26, 2047, drove businesses to higher ground. Climate refugee and fermentation consultant Khushi Sengupta—one of the Darjeeling tea plantation refugees who had fled to the Thames Valley Mega-tower together with the Tamang family—traveled back to India to visit family and help rebuild the shattered city. Her relatives had made the grueling 1,300-mile journey west from the Darjeeling foothills to Mumbai after their once-thriving tea plantations were devastated by climate change.

It is early October. The monsoon rains have ended. Khushi stands in a gutted office building, water stains still visible three meters up the marble walls. She’s meeting municipal planner Rajesh Krishnan, who spreads architectural drawing across a ruined reception desk while Khushi’s eight-year-old daughter Priya explores the echoing space.

“The flood created a crisis,” Rajesh explains. “The government wants temporary housing—stack refugees in minimal square footage, provide basic services, move on. But I’ve seen that approach fail in Delhi, Kolkata, and Chennai. Dense housing without social infrastructure creates slums, not communities.”

Khushi watches her daughter discover an old fermentation crock in what was once the building’s cafeteria—remnants of someone’s office kombucha hobby. “What if we built around production instead of consumption?” she asks. “In the Thames Valley tower, the tea gardens and fermentation floors weren’t just amenities; they were integral to the process. They gave people something to do together. They created economic relationships.”

Rajesh considers this. The 440 lakh rupees allocated to this district could fund either 1,000 housing units with no common spaces or 700 units with shared productive facilities. The conventional approach prioritizes maximum density. However, traditional methods have produced Mumbai’s sprawling slums, where civic engagement is nearly impossible—no gathering spaces, no economic cooperation, everyone struggling individually.

“Show me what you’re imagining,” he says.

“Back in the UK,” she explains, “we discovered that when people brew together, they talk. When they talk, they coordinate. When they coordinate, they govern themselves. Fermentation doesn’t create democracy—it creates the conditions where democracy can happen. Regular rhythms, shared investment, economic interdependence.”

Six Months LaterKhushi’s visit has lasted longer than intended, but no matter. Rajesh Krishnan has secured preliminary approval from city authorities for an experimental fermentation space. He’s looking to Khushi to replicate the Thames Valley tower’s success in Mumbai. If only things were that simple.

The space is chaotic—babies crying, elders arguing about fermentation technique in four languages, someone’s SCOBY is contaminated and they need to start over. This is not the harmonious vision Rajesh sold to the municipal government.

Narayan, a skeptical elder from a traditional Brahmin family, insists proper fermentation requires specific ritual purity. Fatima, a Muslim woman, questions the halal status of kombucha, wanting confirmation that the fermentation process doesn’t produce haram alcohol levels. A Tamil family wants to recreate their grandmother’s rasam kombucha but lacks the ingredients. A couple from Nagaland has never fermented anything and feels overwhelmed.

Mountain Bee InnovationAmira Islam, daughter of Honey Islam, founder of Mountain Bee Kombucha, watches Khushi navigate these conflicts. “This is why industrial-scale kombucha failed,” she observes quietly. “They thought they could standardize living processes. But fermentation is always local—local ingredients, local microbes, local knowledge, local preferences.”

Amira operates the district’s most experimental bio-brewery in the Mountain Bee Innovation Labs. Her facility spans three floors, each representing a different democratic process through carefully crafted flavor experiences.

The Pineapple-Chili Democracy Floor serves Islam’s recreation of the original “crowd favorite” blend for first-time political participants. The bold, balanced combination of juicy pineapples with subtle chili heat creates the perfect environment for introducing newcomers to participatory governance. Citizens nibbling tacos and tortilla chips while debating local issues find the familiar yet exotic flavors lower social barriers and encourage participation.

The Flower ‘N Spice Contemplation Level houses the district’s most complex decision-making processes. The striking purple brew—colored by butterfly pea flowers and warmed with fermented green tea spices—induces the meditative state necessary for addressing long-term planning challenges. Residents sip the cinnamon-forward blend through long straws (the founder’s original “pro tip”), allowing the warmth and spice nuances to enhance their focus during lengthy policy discussions.

The Bangalore Blue Grape Strategic Floor serves as the district’s evening governance center. The bold, deep-flavored kombucha made from GI-tagged Bangalore Blue Grapes has evolved into the perfect “non-alcoholic nightcap” for late-night budget negotiations and emergency response planning. The antioxidant-rich brew’s complex flavor profile matches the sophisticated nature of high-level municipal decisions.

Dramila Kombucha Cultural ExchangeThe district’s most dynamic space honors Ezhil Mathy’s legacy of constant innovation. The Dramila Kombucha Cultural Exchange features fermentation tanks that change flavors weekly, ensuring democratic processes remain as dynamic as the beverages they accompany.

The centerpiece is the “Sundal Council Chamber,” where Mathy’s legendary Mango, Chili & Coconut kombucha facilitates discussions about street food policy and integration of the informal economy. Citizens familiar with Chennai’s East Coast Beach snack culture instantly connect with the flavors of traditional lentil and chickpea preparations, creating cultural common ground among diverse refugee populations.

The facility’s seasonal rotation includes Orange & Christmas Spice sessions for holiday planning, Passion Fruit & Tender Coconut forums for tropical agriculture policy, and Rose, Kokum & Ginger assemblies for traditional medicine integration. Each flavor profile creates specific psychological and social conditions that enhance particular types of democratic dialogue.

Community DialogueKhushi calls for attention. “Everyone, stop. Look around. What do you see?”

“A mess,” someone mutters.

“I see twenty families who will live in this building for years,” Khushi responds. “Right now, you’re strangers. In six months, you’ll be neighbors. In a year, you’ll be a community—or you’ll be strangers who happen to share walls. The difference is whether you learn to work together now, while the stakes are just kombucha.”

She proposes a solution: Each family develops its own fermentation tradition while sharing space and equipment. They rotate teaching responsibilities. They pool resources to buy ingredients. They sell surplus together and split profits.

“Fermentation is your excuse to gather,” she explains. “Whether your kombucha is halal, whether it follows proper ritual, whether it tastes like your grandmother’s—those are your decisions. What matters is that you make those decisions together, negotiate those differences, and build relationships that will matter when you’re deciding how to manage the building, how to share childcare, how to respond when the next flood comes.”

Some remain unconvinced.

“In my village, we knew everyone. We didn’t need excuses to cooperate,” Narayan says.

“You’re not in your village,” Khushi replies. “You’re in a city of refugees from a hundred villages. The old social structures are gone. Either you build new ones, or you live as isolated atoms in anonymous density. Fermentation gives you something to build around.”

SBooch Cultural PreservationBy 2053, the district’s first pan-India commercial operation was established. The SBooch Heritage Collective occupies six floors of a restored Art Deco building. Each floor represents a different Indian regional fermentation tradition. But this isn’t a museum—it’s a working brewery preserving the vision of founder Nirraj Manek and brand ambassador Chef Niyati Rao’s regional Indian recipes.

Anika Rao, Chef Niyati’s daughter, now in her early thirties, gives a tour while a health inspector takes notes. The Nagaland floor ferments with ingredients foraged from remaining forest patches. The Odisha level celebrates rice-based fermentation. The Tamil Nadu floor recreates rasam combinations.

The fermentation tanks perfectly replicate Chef Niyati’s “From the kitchens of South” blend. Citizens debating water management policies sip the “neither too sour, nor too spicy” combination of tomato, hing, tamarind, and earthy spices that once defined authentic Madurai flavor.

The Maharashtra level serves Koshimbir kombucha—”a salad in a bottle”—to residents discussing urban agriculture proposals. The drink’s tomato, cucumber, and coriander profile literally connects voters to the vertical gardens they’re planning. The Gujarat section’s Gor Keri kombucha, capturing the “sweet, tangy, and slightly spicy” essence founders once described as “straight from Nani’s house,” becomes the traditional beverage for intergenerational council meetings where elders share wisdom with climate refugee youth.

“My mother spent twenty years documenting regional Indian fermentation before climate change destroyed many of these ecosystems,” Anika explains. “These recipes aren’t just flavors—they’re genetic libraries of microbial diversity adapted to specific ingredients and climates that no longer exist.”

The health inspector finds violations: incomplete temperature logs, a fermentation batch showing contamination, and inadequate equipment-cleaning protocols.

“This is exactly what corporate interests warned about,” he says. “Artisanal operations can’t maintain safety standards. Why not just let established beverage companies make these flavors?”

“Because they can’t,” Anika explains patiently. “Corporate fermentation optimizes for consistency and shelf stability. My mother’s Gor Keri kombucha required fresh ingredients, seasonal variation, and bacterial strains that evolved over centuries in Gujarat’s climate. You can’t mass-produce that while maintaining quality. But you also can’t scale traditional home brewing without safety oversight. We’re finding a middle path.”

“We’re learning,” she tells the health inspector. “Some of us come from traditional fermentation backgrounds, but we’re working at scales our grandmothers never imagined. We need training, equipment, and yes—regulation that protects consumers without requiring million-dollar compliance costs that only corporations can afford.”

They work out a solution: The district will establish a shared food safety laboratory that multiple small breweries can use. The health department will provide training tailored to fermentation cooperatives. Standards will be maintained, but costs will be shared.

The Governance CrisisBy 2060, the Fermentation District has succeeded beyond expectations. Municipal services costs are 40% below comparable districts. Crime rates are minimal. Economic activity is robust. But success creates new problems.

A real estate developer wants to buy three buildings for luxury condos, using funds that could expand into adjacent blocks for more climate refugee housing. But accepting would displace two established breweries and change the district’s character.

A hastily convened community meeting is contentious. Over two hundred residents crowd into the plaza. Brewery operators want to reject the offer—their businesses can’t relocate without losing their customer base. Newer refugees wish to accept—housing is desperately needed, and the money could help hundreds of families. Some suggest negotiating with the developer. Others propose alternative funding sources.

Khushi notices something important: this chaotic, frustrating meeting is democracy in action. People with different interests are arguing, proposing alternatives, forming coalitions, making their cases, doing the hard work of negotiating between legitimate competing interests.

“Why can’t we just all agree on what’s best?” one resident demands.

“Because there isn’t one ‘best,'” Khushi replies. “There are trade-offs. Economic development versus community character. Immediate housing needs versus long-term sustainability. Individual property rights versus collective planning. Real democracy is managing these conflicts, not eliminating them.”

“But the breweries bring people together,” a young activist shouts from the back. “That creates unity!”

“Sure,” Khushi agrees. “The breweries give us regular reasons to talk. That creates communication. But straightforward unity of purpose is a fantasy. The democratic process is messy, slow, and frustrating. But it’s the only way diverse people with different interests can govern themselves.”

After four hours, they reach an imperfect compromise: accept the developer’s offer for one building (the least established brewery agrees to relocate with compensation), use the funds to purchase and convert two adjacent buildings, then lobby the municipality for additional zoning changes that would allow more mixed residential/commercial space.

Nobody is completely satisfied. The relocated brewery owner is unhappy. The developer wanted all three buildings. Some refugees will wait longer for housing. But the decision was made collectively through a genuine democratic process.

The Comparative StudyDr. Meera Patel, an urban sociologist from IIT Bombay, was pleased that her research into the Fermentation District had concluded. At the Indian Sociological Society’s annual meeting, Dr. Patel’s presentation showed comparative data on the Fermentation District versus three control districts with similar demographics, climate impacts, and initial conditions. The numbers were convincing:

A skeptical academic challenges her, never one to miss an opportunity to critique ethnographic methodology. “How do you isolate the effect of fermentation from other variables? The Fermentation District also has better architectural design, more green space, and different economic models. Maybe it’s not the kombucha at all.”

“Exactly,” Dr. Patel agrees. “That’s precisely our conclusion. The fermentation cooperatives succeed because they’re part of an integrated social infrastructure. As my next slide demonstrates…”

Another academic chimes in. “So this isn’t about probiotics improving ‘cognitive architecture’ or gut bacteria changing behavior, as some have argued?”

Dr. Patel laughs. “No. This is about urban design and social capital. The Fermentation District succeeds because it fosters conditions allowing social capital to develop. That requires physical spaces, economic structures, and cultural frameworks. The fermentation is the organizing principle, not a biochemical intervention.”

After the meeting ends, a journalist from Dainik Jagran stops her in the hallway. “So the secret to better communities is kombucha?”

“It’s not that simple,” Dr. Patel replies. “The secret to better communities is giving people reasons and spaces to cooperate regularly around shared interests. Fermentation cooperatives provide that. As do community gardens, craft guilds, neighborhood workshops, or any structure that combines gathering space, productive work, and economic cooperation. The specific activity matters less than the social infrastructure it creates.”

Expansion and LimitationsBy the mid-2060s, Khushi Sengupta had become quite the world traveler. She conducted workshops for groups from São Paulo, Detroit, Jakarta, and Lagos who wanted to replicate the Fermentation District model. Some experiments worked. Others didn’t. She learned what works and what doesn’t.

In São Paulo, a Brazilian team adapted the model using traditional cachaça and fermented vegetable cooperatives rather than kombucha. They understood the principle: create spaces for regular productive cooperation. The specific fermentation tradition mattered less than the social infrastructure.

There were misgivings. A member of the São Paulo cooperative shared his concerns. “Some people tell us we’re appropriating Indian culture by copying your model.”

“You’re not copying our model,” Khushi reassured him. “You’re applying principles of community design to your own cultural context, in your neighborhood, with your people, using your fermentation traditions. That’s exactly right. If you tried to make Indian kombucha in São Paulo, you’d fail. Local knowledge, local ingredients, local preferences—those matter. The universal principle is: give people spaces and reasons to cooperate productively.”

However, in Detroit, Michigan, things didn’t go so well. A well-funded American attempt failed because it focused on breweries rather than broader social architecture. They built beautiful fermentation facilities but maintained standard apartment layouts with no common areas, standard economic models with no cooperative ownership, and standard social patterns with no regular gathering rhythms. Result: fancy kombucha cafes in an anonymous apartment complex. Civic engagement remained minimal.

The grandson of a Bloomfield Hills auto executive raised his concerns. “Our city has vacant buildings, unemployed workers, and a need for community spaces. But we also have deep racial divisions, economic devastation, and institutional distrust. Will fermentation cooperatives solve those problems?”

Khushi looked him in the eyes. She saw confusion, fear, and some resentment. “No,” she replied. “They’ll create spaces where people can begin working on those problems together. That’s all. Social infrastructure makes cooperation easier—it doesn’t eliminate the need for difficult negotiations, institutional reform, or economic justice.”

Things went better in New York City, where the government-owned grocery stores opened in the 2020s by Mayor Mamdani connected environmental justice to social equity, leading to fermentation hubs across all five boroughs. From the hipsters of Brooklyn to the intellectuals of the Upper West Side, fermentation flourished.

Despite valiant efforts, the Nigerian organizers of the Lagos Fermentation District struggled as rapid population growth overwhelmed the social infrastructure. The breweries helped but couldn’t keep pace with demand. They learned that social infrastructure requires matching population density, economic resources, and gathering spaces.

Priya, now in her early twenties and a valued assistant, asks her mother a difficult question: “Some people say you’re claiming fermentation fixes everything. That makes other people angry, and they reject the whole idea. Why not just be clear about what works?”

Khushi pauses. Her daughter has identified the communication challenge. “You’re right. The media likes simple stories: ‘Kombucha magic creates perfect communities.’ That’s not what happened. But writing that ‘Carefully designed social infrastructure including fermentation cooperatives as one element of integrated community development produces measurably better outcomes in contexts with adequate resources and population densities’ doesn’t make a good headline.”

An Uncomfortable TruthIn 2072, the twentieth anniversary celebration of the pioneering Mumbai District is bittersweet. The district has succeeded by many measures, but not all. There are now over 2,000 residents with stable housing and 47 active fermentation cooperatives. Crime rates remain low, civic engagement is high, and economic vitality is sustained. The model has been replicated in twelve cities worldwide.

However, problems persist. Two hundred families who couldn’t adapt to the cooperative model have left the district. Three breweries have failed due to mismanagement, and tensions persist between traditional and innovative fermentation approaches. The debate over raw, pasteurized, and kombucha from concentrate remains no closer to resolution than when the first KBI Verified Seal Program was introduced. Economic inequality has arisen between successful breweries and those struggling to survive. The district remains dependent on municipal support for infrastructure. Since the architectural design requires space, the model doesn’t scale to very high densities, and some residents never fully engage despite the infrastructure.

Dr. Patel presents her updated research at the Indian Sociological Society annual meeting. “The Fermentation District demonstrates that thoughtfully designed social infrastructure produces measurably better community outcomes,” she says. “But it’s not magic. About 75% of residents actively participate—that’s remarkably high, but not universal. Economic challenges persist. Cultural conflicts continue. The infrastructure makes cooperation easier, not automatic.”

Khushi Sengupta delivers the conference closing keynote to the assembled urban planners, architects, and sociologists. Her speech is brutally honest:

“Twenty years ago, we had empty buildings and displaced people. We made several choices. We chose to build community around shared, productive work, and we decided on fermentation because it connected people to cultural traditions while creating economic opportunities. It worked—better than conventional refugee housing, worse than utopian expectations. But understand: kombucha didn’t create democracy. Democracy created the kombucha. We chose to govern ourselves collectively, and fermentation provided us with a tangible focus for coordination. The breweries are symbols of cooperation, not its cause.

“Other communities should learn from what works: provide people with spaces to gather, opportunities to share, economic stakes in outcomes, and cultural practices that connect them. Whether that’s fermentation, gardening, crafts, or childcare collectives matters less than the underlying principles.

“But also learn from what didn’t work: This approach requires resources, space, and time. It works best at the neighborhood scale, not the megacity scale. It requires people willing to cooperate—you can’t force community. And it doesn’t address deep-seated structural problems like poverty, discrimination, or political corruption. It creates spaces where people can work on those problems together.”

Epilogue: Priya’s GenerationIt’s 2072, and Priya Sengupta, now twenty-eight, is an associate professor in urban planning at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Priya leads a tour of the Fermentation District for her freshman class. She’s grown up in this environment and can explain it clearly:

“This is where I learned that communities are designed, not natural,” she tells the students. “My mother’s generation made choices: how to use space, how to structure economics, how to create gathering rhythms, how to preserve culture while adapting to change.

“My generation is studying these principles so we can design better communities as climate change continues displacing populations. We’re not looking for magic solutions. We’re looking for replicable, adaptable, evidence-based approaches to community building that work at different scales in different contexts.

“The Fermentation District is a notable example of success. It’s not the only way, not the perfect way, but it’s a way that worked here. That’s worth learning from.”

A student asks: “What would you tell someone who claims fermented beverages biochemically produce civic engagement?”

Priya doesn’t hesitate: “I’d say they’re confusing correlation with causation. People who drink kombucha in this district are more civically engaged—but not because of the beverage. They’re engaged because the brewing cooperatives create social infrastructure that makes engagement easier, more rewarding, and more necessary. The kombucha is correlation, not cause.”

Priya enjoys brewing kombucha with her class, teaching fermentation while explaining urban design principles. The next generation understands: it’s not about magic beverages. It’s about designing communities that make cooperation easier than isolation.

CelebrationBollywood celebrated Mumbai’s Ballard Fermentation District in a feature-length film Baadh Ke Baad (After the Flood). The hit song from that movie was Sab Milkar Ab (All Together Now). The English translation reads:

In the Ballard District we set up shop
Refugees who gathered together
Brewing kombucha non-stop
Safe from stormy weather

Stay together
Play together
Stay together

All together now
All together now

One SCOBY
One goal
One people
Out of the many
One

Local ingredients
Local microbes
Local knowledge
Local choice

Fermenting together
Governing together
Regular rhythms
Cooperation
Tolerance
Peace

The Medical Revolution AwaitsAs democracy evolved through fermentation, an exhausted oncologist in her Stanford University break room was making a discovery that would transform medicine itself. What began as desperate compassion for dying patients would prove that the most sophisticated pharmaceuticals weren’t manufactured in sterile laboratories—they were brewed in living partnerships.

We reveal the details in next week’s installment, available only on Booch News.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To hear the songs from this and past episodes, check out the Playlist menu at the top of the Booch News home page.

The post Our Fermented Future, Episode 9: The Urban Sociology of Fermentation appeared first on 'Booch News.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 7 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewPeer-to-peer flavor-sharing platforms enabled home brewers to distribute taste profiles as digital files. Blockchain-verified SCOBY genetics allowed anyone to recreate award-winning kombucha flavors. Traditional beverage companies lost control as open-source fermentation recipes spread globally. This episode follows teenage hacker Luna Reyes as she reverse-engineers Heineken’s proprietary “A-yeast” strain and the century-old master strain used for Budweiser, releasing them under Creative Commons license, triggering a flavor renaissance that made corporate beverages taste like cardboard by comparison.

Luna Reyes: The Seventeen-Year-Old Who Liberated FlavorLuna Reyes was brewing kombucha in her Oakland garage when she changed the course of human history. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she had learned fermentation from her grandmother while teaching herself bioinformatics through YouTube tutorials and volunteering at the Counter Culture Labs Maker Space on Shattuck Avenue. By fifteen, she was running the Bay Area’s most sophisticated home laboratory, utilizing jury-rigged DNA sequencers and microscopes constructed from smartphone cameras.

Her breakthrough came in February 2043 while investigating why her kombucha never tasted quite like expensive craft varieties and was different again from her grandmother’s home brew. Using Crispr techniques learned from online forums, Luna began reverse-engineering the microbial genetics of premium alcoholic beverages. Her target wasn’t kombucha—it was the closely guarded yeast strains that gave corporate beers their distinctive flavors.

Luna hunched over her microscope, examining bacterial cultures from her latest kombucha batch. Around her, salvaged DNA sequencers hummed, fermentation vessels bubbled, and computer screens displayed multi-hued patterns of genetic sequences.

Her grandmother, Rosa, entered carrying a tray with three glasses of homemade kombucha.

“Mija, you’ve been working for six hours straight. Drink something.”

Luna accepted the glass without looking up. “Abuela, your kombucha tastes better than anything I can buy in stores and the ones I’ve experimented with. Why? I’m using the same base ingredients—tea, sugar, water—but mine never has this complexity.”

Her grandmother laughed. “Because I’ve been feeding this SCOBY for forty years. It knows what to do. You can’t rush relationships.”

Luna’s sister Maya, lounging against a workbench, waved her phone. “Luna, people have noticed your forum post about Health-Ade’s fermentation process. Someone says you’re wasting your time trying to replicate commercial kombuchas.”

“I’m not trying to replicate them,” Luna said, finally looking up. “I’m trying to understand why their kombucha tastes different than that I make at home. It’s not the ingredients. It’s not the process. It’s the microbial genetics.”

Rosa sat down beside her granddaughter. “When I was young in Oaxaca, every family had their own kombucha culture, passed down generation to generation. Each tasted different because the bacteria adapted to their environment, their ingredients, their care. We had a saying, Hay tantas fermentaciones en el mundo como estrellas en el cielo nocturno – there are as many ferments in the world as stars in the night sky. The big companies want every bottle to be identical. That kills what makes fermentation special.”

“Exactly!” Luna pulled up genetic sequences on her screen. “I’ve been reverse-engineering samples from different commercial kombuchas. Health-Ade, GT’s, Brew Dr—they all have consistent microbial profiles.”

The Great Heist: Cracking Corporate DNALuna’s first major hack targeted Heineken’s legendary “A-yeast” strain, developed in 1886 by Dr. Hartog Elion—a student of renowned chemist Louis Pasteur—in the company’s Amsterdam laboratory and protected by over 150 years of trade secret law. Using samples obtained from discarded brewery waste (technically legal under the “garbage doctrine”), she spent six months mapping the strain’s complete genetic sequence in her makeshift lab.

The breakthrough required extraordinary ingenuity. Luna couldn’t afford professional gene sequencers, so she modified a broken Illumina iSeq100 purchased on eBay for $200. Her sequencing runs took weeks rather than hours; her results were identical to those produced by million-dollar laboratory equipment. Her detailed laboratory notebooks, later published as The Garage Genomics Manifesto, became essential reading for the biotech hacker movement.

The Budweiser project proved even more challenging. Anheuser-Busch’s century-old master strain had been protected by layers of corporate secrecy rivaling classified military programs. The company maintained multiple backup cultures in cryogenic facilities across three continents, never allowing complete genetic mapping by outside researchers. Luna’s success required infiltrating the company’s waste-disposal systems at four breweries, collecting samples over 18 months while evading corporate security.

The DecisionThe night before Luna was scheduled to meet her fellow bio-hackers at Oakland’s Counter Culture Labs, she sat at her workstation, hesitant, wondering if she was doing the right thing.

Her sister Maya came in, looking worried.

“Luna, I found something you need to see,” she says. “Remember Marcus Park? He tried releasing proprietary yeast information in 2039. Heineken buried him. He lost everything. His daughter dropped out of college. His wife left him. He’s working at a gas station now.”

Luna spent the night researching what happened to Park. She found that almost everyone who challenged corporate IP ended up on the losing side of the law. It was not pretty. In the morning, Abuela Rosa finds her crying in her room.

“Mija, what’s wrong?” she asks.

“Oh, Abuela,” Luna says between sobs. “What am I doing? What if I’m wrong? What if I destroy our family? What if this ruins Mom and Dad? What if I’m just being selfish?”

“That’s the fear talking.” Her grandmother reassured her. “Fear is wisdom warning you to be careful. But fear can also be a cage.”

That evening at the Counter Culture Labs, Luna assembled a small group of advisors. She needed their guidance. She had the completed genetic sequences for Heineken A-yeast and Budweiser’s master strain on her laptop, ready for release. But is this the time and place to release them to the world?

Dr. Marcus Webb, a bioinformatics researcher in his forties and Luna’s mentor, examined her sequencing data. “This is solid work, Luna. Your jury-rigged equipment is crude. The results are accurate. You’ve fully mapped both strains.”

“The question isn’t whether I can do it,” Luna said. “It’s whether I should let the world know I did it.”

On screen, Cory Doctorow, the author and digital rights activist, leaned forward. “Let’s be clear about what you’re proposing. You’d be releasing genetic information that corporations have protected as trade secrets for over a century. They’ll argue you stole their intellectual property. You’ll face lawsuits, possibly criminal charges.”

“Is it their property?” Luna challenged. “These are naturally occurring organisms. They didn’t create that yeast. Evolution did. They just happened to be there when it appeared. That does not make it theirs any more than finding a wildflower means they own the species. Can you really own something that existed before you found it?”

Doctorow, the Electronic Frontier Foundation representative spoke up. “There’s legal precedent both ways. Diamond v. Chakrabarty established that genetically modified organisms can be patented. But naturally occurring genetic sequences? That’s murky. The companies will argue that their decades of cultivation and protection created protectable trade secrets.”

“Trade secrets require keeping information secret,” Luna argued. “They throw this yeast away constantly. If they’re not protecting it, how can they claim trade secret status?”

Dr. Webb cautioned, “Luna, even if you’re legally in the right—which is debatable—you’re seventeen years old. You’ll be fighting multinational corporations with unlimited legal resources. They’ll bury you in litigation for years.”

“That’s where we come in,” Doctorow said. “The EFF can provide legal defense. Creative Commons can help structure the license. You need to understand: this will consume your life. College, career plans, normal teenage experiences—all on hold while you fight this battle.”

Luna was quiet for a moment, then pulled up a photo on her laptop: her grandmother Rosa, teaching her to ferment at age seven.

“My abuela says fermentation is about sharing and passing living cultures between generations. Corporations have turned it into intellectual property to be protected and controlled. If I can break that control—even a little—isn’t that worth fighting for?”

Maya spoke up from the back. “Luna, I love you, but you’re being naive. They won’t just sue you. They’ll make an example of you. Your face on every news channel, portrayed as a thief, a criminal. Our family harassed. Your future destroyed. For what? So people can brew beer with the same yeast as Heineken?”

“Not just beer,” Luna responded passionately. “This is about whether living organisms can be owned. Whether genetic information—the code of life itself—can be locked behind intellectual property law. Yes, it starts with beer yeast. But what about beneficial bacteria? Life-saving microorganisms? Medicine-producing fungi? Where does it end?”

Dr. Webb nodded slowly. “She’s right. This is bigger than beer. As biotech advances, genetic control becomes power over life itself. Do we want corporations owning that?”

Doctorow sighed. “If you do this, Luna, do it right. Release everything simultaneously—BitTorrent, WikiLeaks, Creative Commons servers, distributed networks worldwide. Make it impossible to contain. Include complete cultivation protocols so anyone can reproduce your results. Make the data so damn widely available that suppressing it becomes futile.”

“And write a manifesto,” he added. “Explain why you’re doing this. Frame the issue. Make it about principles, not piracy.”

Luna nodded, fingers already typing. “When should I release?”

“Pick a date with symbolic meaning,” Dr. Webb suggested. “Make it an event, not just a data dump.”

Luna smiled. “December 15. The Bill of Rights Day. Appropriate for declaring biological rights, don’t you think?”

Maya groaned. “You’re really doing this, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I’m really doing this.”

The Creative Commons LiberationOn Tuesday, December 15, 2043—a date now celebrated as “Open Flavor Day”—Luna released the genetic sequences on multiple open-source networks. Her manifesto, titled Your Grandmother’s Yeast Is Your Birthright, argued that microbial genetics belonged to humanity’s shared heritage rather than corporate shareholders.

It stated:

Commercial companies have protected yeast strains for over a century. They’ve used intellectual property law to control flavor itself. But genetic information isn’t like a recipe or a formula—it’s biological code that evolved over millions of years before humans ever cultivated it. These strains are protected as trade secrets—the bacteria don’t belong to anyone. They existed before Heineken, before Budweiser, before trademark law. The companies just happened to isolate and cultivate them.

Her data packages included DNA sequences and complete protocols for cultivating, modifying, and improving the strains. Luna’s releases came with user-friendly software that allowed amateur brewers to simulate genetic modifications before attempting them in real fermentations. Within 24 hours, over ten thousand people worldwide downloaded the files.

The Creative Commons community erupted in celebration. Cory Doctorow’s blog post, The Teenager Who Stole Christmas (From Corporate Beer), went viral within hours. The Electronic Frontier Foundation immediately offered Luna legal protection, while the Free Software Foundation created the “Luna Defense Fund” to support her anticipated legal battles.

The Legal AssaultHeineken’s response was swift. The company filed emergency injunctions in 12 countries simultaneously, seeking to prevent the distribution of its “stolen intellectual property.” Their legal team, led by former U.S. Attorney General William Barr III, demanded Luna’s immediate arrest for “economic terrorism” and “theft of trade secrets valued at over $50 billion.”

Anheuser-Busch’s reaction was even more extreme. CEO Marcel Telles IV appeared on CNBC, calling Luna “a bioterrorist who threatens the foundation of American capitalism.” The company hired private investigators to surveil Luna’s family and offered a $10 million reward for information leading to her prosecution. Their legal filing compared Luna’s actions to “stealing the formula for Coca-Cola and publishing it in the New York Times.”

In Heineken’s Amsterdam headquarters, executives convened an emergency meeting.

“Who is Luna Reyes?” the CEO demanded.

The legal counsel pulled up information. “She’s a seventeen-year-old high school student in Oakland, California. No criminal record. Volunteers at a maker space. Has been posting about fermentation on various forums for years.”

“A child released our proprietary yeast strain to the world, and we didn’t know she was even working on this?” The CEO’s face reddened. “How do we contain it?”

“We can’t. It’s distributed across thousands of servers in dozens of countries with different IP laws. We can sue Reyes, but the information is out there permanently.”

An executive interjected, “What about the other breweries? Will they join our lawsuit?”

“Some are considering it. Others…” The counsel paused. “Others are quietly downloading the sequences themselves. They see an opportunity to break our market dominance.”

“She obtained samples from our waste disposal,” another executive explained. “Technically legal under the garbage doctrine. The sequencing itself isn’t illegal. The release under Creative Commons…”

“Is theft!” the CEO shouted. “File emergency injunctions. Twelve countries. Get her arrested for economic terrorism.”

Similar scenes played out at Anheuser-Busch headquarters in St. Louis.

CEO Telles addressed his team: “This is bioterrorism. She’s destroyed intellectual property worth billions. I want her prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Hire private investigators. Find everything about her and her family. Make her life hell!”

By noon, both companies had filed lawsuits. By evening, Fox News was running stories about the “teenage bioterrorist” who “stole American corporate secrets.”

Back in Oakland, Luna’s phone rang constantly. Her parents discovered what she’d done. Her mother cried. Her father was furious and terrified. Friends called with either congratulations or warnings.

She was convinced that private investigators were photographing their house. Maya suspected she was followed to work.

On Wednesday morning, Dr. Webb calls: “Luna, they’re offering me $2 million to testify against you. They’re going after everyone in your network.” Luna has a sickening feeling that she’s put everyone at risk.

By Thursday, she is considering taking it all back somehow, sending an apology to the corporations, anything to protect her family.

Luna turned off her phone and sat with her grandmother.

“It’s started,” Luna said quietly.

“Sí, mija. You’ve declared war. Now we see if you can survive it.”

Maya burst in, laptop in hand. “Luna, you need to see this. The downloads aren’t slowing—they’re accelerating. Every time Heineken or Budweiser shuts down a website, ten mirror sites appear. People are treating this like a digital freedom fight. You’ve become a symbol.”

Luna pulled up her own screen. The #FreeLuna hashtag was trending. Crowdfunding campaigns for her legal defense had raised $400,000 in twelve hours. Academic institutions were publicly endorsing her release, calling it “essential scientific information.”

“They’re trying to destroy you,” Maya said, “but they’re making you famous instead.”

Rosa handed Luna a fresh kombucha. “This is what happens when you fight for what’s right, mija. Sometimes the world surprises you by supporting you.”

Luna’s FameThe corporations’ attempts to suppress Luna’s releases had the opposite effect. Every cease-and-desist letter generated thousands of new downloads. The genetic data became impossible to contain once the academic community embraced Luna’s work.

Dr. Jennifer Doudna, the legendary Crispr pioneer now in her eighties, publicly endorsed Luna’s releases in a Science magazine editorial:

Ms. Reyes has liberated essential scientific information that corporations held hostage for commercial gain. Genetic sequences from naturally occurring organisms should not be locked behind intellectual property law. They belong to humanity’s knowledge commons. While corporations claim Luna stole trade secrets, I argue she freed biological knowledge that was never theirs to own. There are no trade secrets in biology—only knowledge temporarily hidden from the commons. This is civil disobedience of the highest order—breaking unjust laws to advance human freedom. Ms. Reyes didn’t steal; she liberated.

MIT’s biology department invited Luna to lecture, while Harvard offered her a full scholarship despite her lack of a high school diploma.

The legal battles consumed corporate resources while generating negative publicity. Heineken’s stock price dropped 34% as consumers organized boycotts in support of Luna’s “yeast liberation.” Beer sales plummeted as customers waited for home-brewed alternatives using Luna’s open-source genetics.

The Flavor RenaissanceLuna’s releases triggered an explosion of creativity that corporate R&D departments had never imagined. Within six months, amateur brewers worldwide were producing thousands of flavor variations impossible under corporate constraints. The open-source model enabled rapid iteration and global collaboration, rendering traditional brewing companies obsolete.

The world was engaged. In some of the most unlikely places.

In Evanston, Illinois, a group of former seminary students who discovered fermentation during a silent retreat, transformed Gregorian chants into microbial devotionals. Tenor Marcus Webb (Dr. Webb’s nephew) realized symbiosis mirrored vocal harmony—multiple voices creating something greater than their parts. “In honoring the mystery of fermentation we express our love of the Creator,” he said.

Here’s ‘Consortium Vocalis’ honoring the mother SCOBY.

[Chorus]
Our SCOBY
Is pure
Our SCOBY
Is strong
Our SCOBY
Knows no boundaries
Our SCOBY
Strengthens as it ferments
Our SCOBY
Is bacteria and yeast

Our SCOBY
Turns sucrose into glucose and fructose
It ferments these simple sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide,
Acetic acid bacteria oxidize much of that ethanol into organic acids
Such as acetic, gluconic, and other acids.
This steadily lowers the pH
Making the tea taste sour-tangy instead of purely sweet.

[Chorus]

Our SCOBY
Then helps microbes produce acids, enzymes, and small amounts of B‑vitamins
While probiotics grow in the liquid.
The pH falls to help inhibit unwanted microbes
Our SCOBY creates a self-preserving, acidic environment in the tea

[Chorus]

In Kingston, Jamaica, Rastafarian’s combined an award-winning kombucha sequenced in Humboldt County, California, with locally grown ganja into a sacramental beverage to help open their mind to reasoning and focus on Jah. Once fermented, it was consumed over the course of a three-day Nyabinghi ceremony. “Luna Reyes is truly blessed. She strengthened our unity as a people, and our Rastafari’ booch help us chant down Babylon,” a Rasta man smiled, blowing smoke from a spliff the size of his arm.

The Groundation Collective’s reggae anthem ‘Oh Luna’ joyfully celebrated Luna Reyes’ pioneering discovery.

Oh Luna, Oh Luna, Oh Luna Reyes
I love the sound of your name
You so deserve your fame

Luna, Luna, Oh Luna Reyes
Shining bright
You warm my heart

Luna, Luna, Oh Luna Reyes
You cracked the code
Teenage prophet, fermentation queen
Symbiosis road
A genius at seventeen

Oh Luna, Luna, Luna Reyes
Beautiful moon
Makes me swoon

Oh Luna, Luna, Luna Reyes
Freedom to ferment
You are heaven sent
To save us

Luna, Luna, Oh Luna Reyes
You opened the door
To so much more
Kombucha tastes so good
Like it should

Oh Luna, Oh Luna, Oh Luna
I love you, love you, love you
Oh Luna, Luna, Luna
Love you, love you,
Love Luna, Luna love.

In São Paulo, Brazil, MAPA-certified Brazilian kombucha brands combined Heineken and cacao-fermenting yeasts with cupuaçu from indigenous Amazonian peoples, to create the chocolate-flavored ‘booch that won Gold at the 20th World Kombucha Awards. A cervejeiro explained to reporters: “Luna Reyes gave us the foundation. We added local innovation. This is what happens when you democratize biology.”

The Brazilian singer Dandara Sereia covered ‘Our Fermented Future’—The Hollow Pines tune destined to become a hit at the 2053 Washington DC Fermentation Festival.

Baby sit a little closer, sip some ‘booch with me
I brewed this batch with the SCOBY my grandma gave to me.
On the back porch swing at twilight, watching fireflies dance
Your hand in mine, kombucha fine, the sweetest sweet romance.

They say that wine and roses are the way to win the heart
But your kombucha warmed me right up from the start.
Fermentation makes the heart grow fonder, truer words they ain’t been said
Your SCOBY’s got a place forever — in my heart, and in my bed.

Let’s share our SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into one
Like cultures in a crock jar dancing, underneath the sun.
The tang of your Lactobacillus is exactly what I’m missing
Your Brettanomyces bacteria got this country girl reminiscing.

Oh yeah, let’s share those SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into one
Your yeasts and my bacteria working till the magic’s done
You’ve got the acetic acid honey, I’ve got the patience and the time
Let’s bubble up together, let our cultures intertwine.

I’ve got that symbiotic feeling, something wild and something true
Your SCOBY’s in my heart, right there next to you
The way your Acetobacter turns sugar into gold
Is how you turned my lonely life into a hand to hold.

We’ve got the acetic acid and the glucuronic too
We’ve got that symbiotic feeling, so righteous and so true
One sip of your sweet ‘booch, Lord, and you had me from the start,
It’s our fermented future, that no-one can tear apart.

It’s our fermented future…
It’s our fermented future…
It’s our fermented future…

“Luna Variants”—strains derived from her releases—began winning international brewing competitions, embarrassing corporate entries with their complexity and innovation. Traditional beer flavors seemed flat and artificial compared to the genetic symphonies created by collaborative open-source development.

Despite the outpouring of positive vibes, the corporations spared no expense to hold Luna to account in the courts.

The Preliminary HearingA preliminary hearing was held in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on June 14, 2044.

Luna sat at the defendant’s table, her hands folded so tightly her knuckles had gone white. She wore a borrowed blazer—too big in the shoulders—over a white button-down shirt Maya had ironed that morning. At seventeen, she looked even younger under the courtroom’s fluorescent lights.

Across the aisle, Heineken’s legal team occupied three tables. Fifteen attorneys in matching navy suits shuffled documents and whispered into phones. Their lead counsel, William Barr III, wore gold cufflinks that caught the light when he gestured. Luna recognized him from the news—the former Attorney General, now commanding $2,000 an hour to destroy people like her.

Her own legal representation consisted of two people: Rose Kennerson from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public interest lawyer who’d flown in from DC on a red-eye, and Dr. Marcus Webb, technically a witness but sitting beside Luna because she’d asked him to. Behind them, the gallery was packed. Luna’s parents sat in the second row, her father’s face gray, her mother clutching a rosary. Maya had taken the day off work. Abuela Rosa sat in the front row directly behind Luna, her ancient SCOBY wrapped in silk in her lap, as if its presence might protect her granddaughter.

Judge Catherine Ironwood entered—sixty-ish, steel-gray hair pulled back severely, known for pro-corporate rulings. She’d been a pharmaceutical industry lawyer for twenty years before her appointment.

“All rise,” the bailiff called.

Judge Ironwood settled into her chair and surveyed the courtroom with the expression of someone who’d already decided the outcome and resented having to perform the formalities.

“We’re here for a preliminary injunction hearing in Heineken International B.V. versus Luna Marie Reyes.” She looked directly at Luna. “Ms. Reyes, you’re seventeen years old?”

Luna stood, hesitant. “Yes, your honor.”

“Where are your parents?”

“Here, your honor.” Luna’s mother half-rose, then sat back down.

“Ms. Kennerson, your client is a minor. Are the parents aware they could be held liable for damages?”

Rose Kennerson stood smoothly. “Yes, your honor. The Reyes family has been fully advised of the legal implications.”

Luna glanced back. Her father’s jaw was clenched so tight she could see the muscles working. He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Very well. Mr. Barr, you may proceed.”

Barr rose like a battleship emerging from fog—massive, expensive, inevitable. He buttoned his suit jacket and approached the bench without notes.

“Your honor, this is the simplest case I’ve argued in thirty years. The defendant admits to obtaining my client’s proprietary biological materials. She admits to sequencing their genetic information. She admits to distributing that information globally, in deliberate violation of trade secret protections that have existed for over 150 years. She did this knowingly, systematically, and with the explicit intent to destroy my client’s competitive advantage.”

Luna felt Sarah’s hand on her arm—stay calm.

Barr continued. “Heineken International has invested over $200 million in the development, cultivation, and protection of the A-yeast strain. Then this teenager”—he pointed at Luna—”obtained samples from our waste disposal systems, reverse-engineered our genetic sequences, and released them to the world via BitTorrent, deliberately placing them beyond retrieval.”

He paced now, warming to his theme. “The damage is incalculable. We estimate lost market value at $50 billion. But it’s not just about money. The defendant has destroyed the possibility of competition in the brewing industry. When everyone has access to the same genetic materials, there’s no innovation, no differentiation, no reason for consumers to choose one product over another. She has, in effect, communized an entire industry.”

Luna couldn’t help herself. “That’s not—”

Sarah grabbed her wrist. “Don’t.”

Judge Ironwood’s eyes narrowed. “Ms. Reyes, you will have your opportunity to speak. Until then, you will remain silent, or I will have you removed from this courtroom. Do you understand?”

“Yes, your honor.” Luna’s voice came out smaller than she intended.

Barr smiled slightly. “Your honor, the relief we seek is straightforward. We ask this court to order the defendant to provide us with a complete list of all servers, websites, and distribution networks where the stolen genetic data currently resides. We ask that she be ordered to cooperate fully in suppressing the data. We ask that she be enjoined from any further distribution. And we ask that she be ordered to pay compensatory damages of $5 billion, plus punitive damages to be determined at trial.”

He returned to his seat. One of his associate attorneys handed him a bottle of Pellegrino. He took a sip and waited.

Judge Ironwood looked at Sarah. “Ms. Kennerson?”

Sarah stood. She looked tiny compared to Barr—five-foot-three, maybe 110 pounds, wearing a suit from Target. But when she spoke, her voice filled the courtroom.

“Your honor, Mr. Barr has given you a compelling story about a corporation that’s been wronged. But it’s not the right story. The right story is about whether naturally occurring organisms—creatures that evolved over millions of years, long before humans ever existed—can be owned by a corporation simply because that corporation happened to isolate them.”

She walked toward the bench. “Let’s be clear about what the A-yeast strain is. It’s not a genetically modified organism. It’s not a patented invention. It’s a naturally occurring yeast. Heineken didn’t create it. Evolution created it. Heineken merely found it. And for 158 years, they’ve claimed that finding something gives them the right to prevent anyone else from studying it, understanding it, or using it.”

Barr was on his feet. “Objection, your honor. This is a preliminary hearing about injunctive relief, not a philosophical debate about intellectual property theory.”

“Sustained. Ms. Kennerson, please focus on the specific legal issues before this court.”

“Your honor, the specific legal issue is whether naturally occurring genetic sequences constitute protectable trade secrets. My client contends they do not. She obtained the yeast samples from Heineken’s waste disposal—materials they had discarded. Under the garbage doctrine, she had every right to analyze those materials. The genetic sequences she discovered are factual information about naturally occurring organisms. You cannot trade-secret facts about nature.”

Luna watched Judge Ironwood’s face. Nothing. No reaction.

Sarah pressed on. “Mr. Barr claims my client ‘stole’ genetic information worth $5 billion. But information cannot be stolen—it can only be shared. When I tell you a fact, I don’t lose possession of that fact. We both have it. That’s how knowledge works. Heineken hasn’t lost their yeast. They still have it. They can still brew with it. What they’ve lost is their monopoly on that knowledge. And monopolies on facts about nature should never have existed in the first place.”

“Your honor—” Barr tried to interrupt.

Judge Ironwood waved him down. “Continue, Ms. Kennerson.”

“Your honor, Heineken wants this court to order a seventeen-year-old girl to somehow suppress information that has already been distributed to over 100,000 people in 147 countries. That’s impossible. You can’t unring a bell. You can’t put knowledge back in a bottle. Even if this court ordered my client to provide a list of servers—which she shouldn’t have to do—that list would be incomplete within hours as new mirror sites appeared. The information is out. The only question is whether we punish my client for sharing factual information about naturally occurring organisms.”

She turned to face Luna’s family. “Ms. Reyes taught herself bioinformatics from YouTube videos. She works at home with equipment she bought on eBay. She has no criminal record. She’s never been in trouble. She saw a question that interested her—why do commercial beers taste like they do?—and she pursued that question with the tools available to her. When she discovered the answer, she shared it with the world, under a Creative Commons license that specifically protects sharing for educational and scientific purposes. If that’s terrorism, your honor, then every scientist who’s ever published a research paper is a terrorist.”

Sarah sat down. Luna wanted to hug her.

Judge Ironwood leaned back. “Ms. Reyes, stand up.”

Luna rose, her legs shaking.

“Do you understand the seriousness of these proceedings?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Do you understand that Heineken International is asking me to hold you in contempt of court if you refuse to help them suppress the information you released?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Do you understand that contempt of court could result in your detention in a juvenile facility until you reach the age of eighteen, and potentially longer if the contempt continues?”

Luna’s mother gasped audibly. Her father put his arm around her.

“Yes, your honor,” Luna said, though her voice wavered.

“Then let me ask you directly: If I order you to provide Heineken with a complete list of all locations where the genetic data you released currently resides, will you comply?”

The courtroom went silent. Luna could hear her own heartbeat.

Sarah started to stand—”Your honor, I advise my client not to answer—”

“Sit down, Ms. Kennerson. I’m asking your client a direct question. She can choose to answer or not.” Judge Ironwood’s eyes never left Luna. “Well, Ms. Reyes? Will you comply with a court order to help Heineken suppress the information you released?”

Luna looked at her parents. Her mother was crying silently. Her father’s face was stone.

She looked at Abuela Rosa. Her grandmother nodded once—tell the truth.

Luna looked back at the judge. “No, your honor.”

Barr shot to his feet. “Your honor, the defendant has just admitted she intends to defy a court order—”

“I heard her, Mr. Barr.” Judge Ironwood’s voice was ice. “Ms. Reyes, do you understand you’ve just told a federal judge you will refuse a direct order?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“And you’re still refusing?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Why?”

Sarah stood quickly. “Your honor, my client doesn’t have to explain—”

“I want to hear it.” Judge Ironwood leaned forward. “Ms. Reyes, tell me why you would risk jail rather than help undo what you’ve done.”

Luna took a breath. Her whole body was shaking, but her voice was steady.

“Because it would be wrong, your honor.”

“Wrong how?”

“The genetic sequences I released evolved over millions of years. Heineken didn’t create that yeast. They isolated one strain and claimed ownership of it. The code of life belongs to everyone. That’s humanity’s heritage. Even if you send me to jail, I can’t help suppress the truth.”

Judge Ironwood stared at her for a long moment. “That’s a very pretty speech, Ms. Reyes. But this court operates under the law, not your personal philosophy about what should or shouldn’t be owned. Trade secret law exists. Heineken’s rights exist. And you violated those rights.”

Luna did not hesitate. “With respect, your honor, I don’t think those rights should exist.”

Barr exploded. “Your honor, this is outrageous! The defendant is openly stating she believes she has the right to violate any law she disagrees with—”

“That’s not what I said.” Luna’s fear was transforming into something else—something harder. “I’m saying that some laws are unjust. And when laws are unjust, civil disobedience becomes necessary. People broke unjust laws during the civil rights movement. People broke unjust laws when they helped slaves escape. The constitution says members of the military do not have to obey illegal orders, despite what those in power might claim. Sometimes the law is wrong. And when the law says corporations can own genetic information about naturally occurring organisms, the law is wrong.”

Judge Ironwood’s face flushed. “Ms. Reyes, you are not Rosa Parks. This is not the civil rights movement. This is a case about intellectual property theft.”

“It’s a case about whether life can be property, your honor.”

“Enough.” Judge Ironwood slammed her gavel. “Ms. Kennerson, control your client.”

Sarah pulled Luna back into her chair. “Luna, stop talking,” she hissed.

Judge Ironwood shuffled papers, visibly trying to compose herself. “I’m taking a fifteen-minute recess to consider the injunction request. We’ll reconvene at 11:30. Ms. Reyes, I strongly suggest you use this time to reconsider your position.”

The gavel fell again, and Judge Ironwood swept out.

The hallway outside the courtroom erupted. Reporters swarmed. Luna’s father grabbed her arm and pulled her into a witness room. Her mother followed, still crying. Maya slipped in before Sarah closed the door.

“What were you thinking?” Luna’s father’s voice shook. “You just told a federal judge you’ll defy her orders. They’re going to put you in jail, Luna. Do you understand that? Jail!”

“Ricardo, please—” Her mother tried to calm him.

“No, Elena. Our daughter just committed contempt of court in front of fifty witnesses. They’re going to take her from us.” He turned to Luna, his eyes wet. “Why? Why couldn’t you just apologize? Say you made a mistake? We could have ended this.”

“Because I didn’t make a mistake, Papa.”

“You destroyed their property!”

“It wasn’t their property. It was never their property.”

“The law says it was!”

“Then the law is wrong!”

Her father stepped back as if she’d slapped him. “Do you know what your mother and I have sacrificed to keep you out of trouble? Do you know how hard we’ve worked since we came to this country to give you opportunities we never had? And you throw it away for yeast. Not for justice. Not for people. For yeast.”

Luna’s eyes filled with tears. “It’s not about yeast, Papa. It’s about whether corporations get to own life. If Heineken can own yeast, why not bacteria? Why not human genes? Where does it stop?”

“It stops when my daughter goes to jail!” He was shouting now. “I don’t care about Heineken. I don’t care about yeast. I care about you. And you just told that judge you’ll defy her. She’s going to put you in jail, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

“Ricardo, por favor—” Elena put her hand on his arm.

He shook it off. “No. She needs to hear this. Luna, if you go to jail, your life is over. No college will accept you. No company will hire you. You’ll have a criminal record. You’ll be marked forever. Is that what you want?”

“I want to do what’s right.”

“What’s right is protecting your family! What’s right is not destroying your future for a principle!” he said.

Luna responded, “What’s right is not letting corporations own the code of life!”They stared at each other.

Maya spoke up quietly from the corner. “Papa, she can’t back down now. The whole world is watching.”

“Let the world watch someone else!” Ricardo turned on Maya. “You encourage this. You film her, you post her manifestos online, you help her become famous. You’re her sister. You’re supposed to protect her, not help her destroy herself.”

“I am protecting her,” Maya said. “I’m protecting her from becoming someone who backs down when the world tells her she’s wrong, even though she knows she’s right.”

Ricardo looked between his daughters. “Ambos están locos! You’re both insane.”

Abuela Rosa opened the door and entered. She’d been listening from the hallway. “Ricardo, enough.”

“Mama, stay out of this.”

“No.” Rosa moved between Ricardo and Luna. “You’re afraid. I understand. But fear makes you cruel, mijo. Your daughter is brave. She’s doing something important. And you’re making her choose between you and what’s right. Don’t do that.”

“She’s seventeen years old! She’s a child!”

“She’s old enough to know right from wrong.” Rosa put her hand on Ricardo’s cheek. “When I was sixteen, I left Oaxaca with nothing but the clothes on my back and this SCOBY. Everyone said I was crazy. Your father said I would fail. But I knew I had to go, even if it cost me everything. Sometimes our children have to do things that terrify us. That’s how the world changes.”

Ricardo pulled away. “If they put her in jail, will that change the world, Mama? When she’s sitting in a cell while Heineken continues doing whatever they want, will that have been worth it?”

“Yes,” Luna said quietly. “Even if I go to jail, yes. Because thousands of people now have the genetic sequences, Heineken can’t put that back. They can punish me, but they can’t undo what I did. The information is free. It’s going to stay free. And if the price of that is me going to jail, then that’s the price.”

Her father looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “I don’t know who you are anymore.”

“I’m still your daughter, Papa. I’m just also someone who won’t let corporations own life.”

A knock on the door. Sarah poked her head in. “They’re reconvening. Luna, we need to go.”

Back in the courtroom, the atmosphere had shifted. The gallery was more crowded—word had spread during the recess. Luna recognized several people from online forums. Some held signs reading “FREE LUNA” and “GENETICS BELONG TO EVERYONE.”

Judge Ironwood entered and sat without ceremony. “I’ve reviewed the submissions and heard the arguments. This is my ruling.”

Luna’s hand found Maya’s in the row behind her. Squeezed tight.

“The question before this court is whether to grant Heineken International’s motion for a preliminary injunction requiring Ms. Reyes to assist in suppressing the genetic information she released. To grant such an injunction, Heineken must demonstrate four things: likelihood of success on the merits, likelihood of irreparable harm without the injunction, balance of equities in their favor, and that an injunction serves the public interest.”

Barr was nodding. These were his arguments.

“Having considered the evidence and the applicable law, I find that Heineken has demonstrated likelihood of success on the merits. Trade secret law clearly protects proprietary business information, and the A-yeast strain appears to meet the legal definition of a trade secret.”

Luna’s stomach dropped.

“However, I also find that Heineken has failed to demonstrate that a preliminary injunction would effectively prevent the irreparable harm they claim. Ms. Kennerson is correct that the genetic information has already been distributed to over 100,000 people worldwide. Ordering one teenager to provide a list of servers would be, in technical terms, pointless. New copies would appear faster than they could be suppressed.”

Barr’s face tightened.

“Furthermore, I find that the balance of equities does not favor Heineken. They ask this court to potentially incarcerate a seventeen-year-old girl for refusing to suppress information that is, by her account, factual data about naturally occurring organisms. The potential harm to Ms. Reyes—including detention, criminal record, and foreclosure of educational and career opportunities—substantially outweighs any additional harm Heineken might suffer from continued distribution of information that is already widely distributed.”

Luna felt Maya’s grip tighten. Was this good? This sounded good.

“Finally, and most importantly, I find that granting this injunction would not serve the public interest. The court takes judicial notice that this case has generated substantial public debate about the scope of intellectual property protection in biotechnology. The questions raised by Ms. Reyes—whether naturally occurring genetic sequences should be ownable, whether facts about nature can be trade secrets, whether knowledge can be property—are questions that deserve answers from a higher authority than this court. These are questions for appellate courts, perhaps ultimately for the Supreme Court. And they are questions best answered in the context of a full trial on the merits, not in an emergency injunction hearing.”

Barr was on his feet. “Your honor—”

“Sit down, Mr. Barr. I’m not finished.”

He sat, his face purple.

“Therefore, Heineken International’s motion for preliminary injunction is denied. Ms. Reyes will not be required to assist in suppressing the genetic information she released. However,”—Judge Ironwood looked directly at Luna—”this ruling should not be construed as approval of Ms. Reyes’ actions. Heineken’s claims for damages and other relief remain viable and will proceed to trial. Ms. Reyes, you may have won this battle, but this war is far from over. Anything you want to say?”

Luna stood slowly. “Your honor, I just want to say… thank you. For letting this go to trial. For letting these questions be answered properly. That’s all I ever wanted—for someone to seriously consider whether corporations should be allowed to own genetic information about naturally occurring organisms. So thank you.”

Judge Ironwood’s expression softened slightly. “Ms. Reyes, I hope you’re prepared for what comes next. Heineken has unlimited resources. They will pursue this case for years if necessary. You’ll be in litigation until you’re twenty-five years old. Your entire young adulthood will be consumed by depositions, court appearances, and legal fees. Are you prepared for that?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Why?”

Luna glanced at her grandmother, who nodded.

“Because some questions are worth answering, your honor. Even if it takes years. Even if it costs everything. The question of whether corporations can own life—that’s worth answering. And if I have to spend my twenties answering it, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Judge Ironwood studied her for a long moment. “You remind me of someone I used to know. Someone who believed the law should serve justice, not just power.” She paused. “That person doesn’t exist anymore. The law ground her down. I hope it doesn’t do the same to you.”

She raised her gavel. “This hearing is adjourned. The parties will be notified of the trial date once it’s scheduled. Ms. Reyes, good luck. I think you’re going to need it.”

The gavel fell.

Outside the courthouse, the scene was chaotic. News cameras surrounded Luna. Reporters shouted questions. But Luna barely heard them. She was looking at her father, who stood apart from the crowd, watching her.

She walked over to him. “Papa, I’m sorry I yelled.”

He didn’t speak for a moment. Then he pulled her into a hug so tight it hurt.

“Don’t apologize for being brave,” he whispered into her hair. “I’m just afraid of losing you.”

“You won’t lose me, Papa. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that. Not anymore.” He pulled back, holding her shoulders. “But I’m proud of you. I’m terrified, but I’m proud.”

Her mother joined them, tears streaming down her face. “No more court. Please, no more court.”

“I can’t promise that either, Mama.”

Elena touched Luna’s face. “Then promise me you’ll be careful. Promise me you’ll remember that you’re not just fighting for genetics. You’re fighting for your life.”

Luna smiled. “I promise.”

Abuela Rosa appeared, carrying her SCOBY. “Come, mija. We should go before the reporters follow us home.”

As they pushed through the crowd toward Maya’s car, Luna’s phone buzzed continuously. Text messages and emails pouring in.

But what caught her attention was a text from Dr. Webb: You were right. I’m sorry I doubted. Check your email—Dr. Doudna wants to talk.

Luna opened her email. The subject line made her stop walking:

From: jennifer.doudna@berkeley.edu Subject: Civil Disobedience of the Highest Order

She started to read:

Dear Ms. Reyes,

I watched your hearing this morning. What you did in that courtroom—refusing to back down even when threatened with jail—was one of the bravest things I’ve seen in forty years of science. You’re not just fighting for yeast genetics. You’re fighting for the principle that knowledge about nature belongs to humanity, not to corporations.

I want to help…

Luna looked up at her family—her father’s worried face, her mother’s tears, Maya’s proud smile, Abuela Rosa’s serene confidence. Behind them, the courthouse where she’d nearly been sent to jail. Around them, reporters and cameras and strangers who’d traveled across the country to support her.

She thought about Judge Ironwood’s warning: This war is far from over.

She thought about Barr’s face when the injunction was denied.

She thought about the thousands who’d downloaded the genetic sequences and were, right now, brewing with genetics that had been locked away for 158 years.

Worth it. All of it. Even the fear.

Maya opened the car door. “Come on, little revolutionary. Let’s go home.”

The Corporate SurrenderBy 2045, both Heineken and Anheuser-Busch quietly dropped their lawsuits against Luna. Their legal costs had exceeded $200 million while accomplishing nothing except generating bad publicity. More importantly, their “protected” strains had become worthless in a market flooded with superior alternatives.

Heineken’s CEO attempted to salvage the company by embracing open-source brewing. His announcement that Heineken would “join the La Luna Revolution” was met with skepticism from the brewing community, which recalled the company’s aggressive legal tactics.

The craft brewing community’s response was hostile. “They spent two years trying to destroy her,” a prominent brewmaster told The New Brewer Magazine. “Now they want credit for ’embracing’ the revolution she forced on them? Heineken didn’t join the Luna Revolution—they surrendered to it. There’s a difference.”

The global brands never recovered their market share.

Luna’s TransformationLuna’s success transformed her from a garage tinkerer into a global icon of the open knowledge movement. Her 2046 TED Talk, “Why Flavor Belongs to Everyone,” went viral. She argued that corporate control over living organisms represented “biological colonialism” that impoverished human culture by restricting natural diversity.

Rather than commercializing her fame, Luna founded the Global Fermentation Commons, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing microbial genetics worldwide. Their laboratories operated as open-access research facilities where anyone could experiment with biological systems.

The headquarters of the Global Fermentation Commons occupied a former Genentech facility donated by Dr. Webb. Six continents, forty researchers, one mission: preserve and share microbial genetics worldwide.

Luna addressed a crowded auditorium at the organization’s third anniversary.

“When I released Heineken and Budweiser’s yeast strains, some people called it theft. Others called it liberation. I called it returning biological knowledge to the commons, where it belongs. Three years later, so-called Luna Variants have created economic opportunities for thousands of small brewers, improved food security in developing regions, and demonstrated that genetic freedom drives innovation faster than corporate control.”

She continued. “We’re not stopping with beer. The same principles apply to all fermentation: cheese cultures, yogurt bacteria, koji fungi, sourdough starters. Every traditionally fermented food relies on microorganisms that corporations increasingly claim to own. We’re systematically liberating them.”

A World Health Organization representative raised a concern: “Ms. Reyes, while we support democratizing food fermentation, there are legitimate concerns about pharmaceutical applications. What prevents someone from using your open-source genetics to create dangerous organisms?”

Luna nodded. “Fair question. First, the organisms we release are food-safe cultures with centuries of safe use. Second, dangerous genetic modifications require sophisticated laboratory equipment and expertise—far beyond what releasing genetic sequences enables. Third, determined bad actors already have access to dangerous biology, enabled by AI. We’re not creating new risks; we’re democratizing beneficial biology.”

“Pharmaceutical companies argue you’re undermining their investments in beneficial organisms,” another representative pressed.

“Pharmaceutical companies invest in modifying organisms,” Luna clarified. “Those modifications can be patented. What we oppose is claiming ownership over naturally occurring organisms or their baseline genetics. If you genetically engineer a bacterium to produce insulin, patent your engineering. Don’t claim ownership over the bacterial species itself.”

A Monsanto representative stood. “Your organization recently cracked and released our proprietary seed genetics. That’s direct theft of our property.”

Luna didn’t flinch. “Seeds that farmers cultivated for thousands of years before Monsanto existed? You didn’t invent corn, wheat, or soybeans. You modified them. Your modifications may be protectable; the baseline genetics are humanity’s heritage. We’re liberating what should never have been owned.”

“The ‘Luna Legion’ has cost us hundreds of millions!” the representative protested.

“Good,” Luna responded calmly. “You’ve cost farmers their sovereignty for decades. Consider it karma.”

After the presentation, Dr. Doudna approached Luna privately.

“You’ve accomplished something remarkable,” the elderly scientist said. “When I developed Crispr, I never imagined a teenager would use similar principles to challenge corporate biology. You’re forcing conversations about genetic ownership that we’ve avoided for decades.”

“It needed forcing,” Luna replied. “Corporations were quietly owning life itself, one patent at a time. Someone had to say no.”

“The pharmaceutical industry is terrified of you,” Doudna continued. “They see what happened to brewing and imagine the same for their carefully controlled bacterial strains. You’re going to face even more aggressive opposition.”

“I know. Once people understand that biological knowledge can be liberated, they start questioning all biological ownership. We’re not stopping.”

The New Economy of TasteFollowing Luna’s breakthrough, peer-to-peer flavor-sharing platforms emerged as the dominant force in food culture. The “FlavorChain” blockchain allowed brewers to track genetic lineages while ensuring proper attribution to original creators. SCOBY lineages were carefully sequenced, catalogued, and registered on global blockchain ledgers. Each award-winning kombucha strain carried a “genetic passport”—its microbial makeup, the unique balance of yeasts and bacteria that gave rise to particular mouthfeel, fizz, and flavor spectrum, was mapped, hashed, and permanently recorded. Brewers who created a new flavor could claim authorship, just as musicians once copyrighted songs. No matter how many times a SCOBY was divided, its fingerprint could be verified.

Fermentation Guilds formed to share recipes through FlavorChain, enabling decentralized digital markets like SymbioTrdr, built on trust and transparency rather than speculation. They allowed people to interact and transact on a global, permissionless, self-executing platform. Within days, a SCOBY strain from the Himalayas could appear in a brew in Buenos Aires, its journey traced through open ledgers showing who tended, adapted, and shared it.

Kombucha recipes were no longer jealously guarded secrets. They were open to anyone who wanted to brew. With a few clicks, a Guild member in Nairobi could download the blockchain-verified SCOBY genome that had won Gold at the Tokyo Fermentation Festival. Local biotech printers—as common in 2100 kitchens as microwave ovens had once been—could reconstitute the living culture cell by cell.

Children began inheriting SCOBY lineages the way earlier generations inherited family names. Weddings combined SCOBY cultures as symbolic unions. (Let’s share our SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into one.) When someone died, their SCOBY was divided among friends and family—a continuation of essence through taste. Kombucha was no longer merely consumed; it was communed with.

This transparency transformed kombucha from a minority regional curiosity into a universal language. A festival in Brazil might feature ten local interpretations of the same “Golden SCOBY” strain—one brewed with passionfruit, another with cupuaçu, a third with açaí berries. The core microbial signature remained intact, while the terroir of fruit and spice gave each version a unique accent. Brewers didn’t lose their craft—they gained a canvas. Award-winning SCOBYs were the foundations on which endless new flavor experiments flourished.

Many people were now as prolific as William Esslinger, the founder of St Louis’s Confluence Kombucha, who was renowned for developing 800 flavors in the 2020s.

Code of SymbiosisThe Symbiosis Code, ratified at the first World Fermentation Gathering in Reykjavik (2063), bound Fermentation Guilds to three principles:

1. Transparency — All microbial knowledge is to be shared freely.
2. Reciprocity — No brew should be produced without acknowledging the source.
3. Community — Every fermentation must nourish more than the brewer.

This code replaced corporate law. It was enforced by reputation, not by governments. A Guild member who betrayed the code found their SCOBYs mysteriously refusing to thrive—a poetic justice the biologists never quite explained.

Every Guild had elders—called Mothers of the Jar or Keepers of the Yeast. They carried living SCOBYs wrapped in silk pouches when traveling, exchanging fragments as blessings. These elders became moral anchors of the age, counselors and mediators trusted more than politicians.

When disputes arose—over territory, resources, or ethics—brewers, not lawyers, met to share a round of Truth Brew, a ferment so balanced that it was said to reveal dishonesty through bitterness.

The Fullness of TimeThe International Biotech Conference of 2052 invited Luna to give the closing keynote—a controversial decision that prompted several corporate sponsors to withdraw support. The auditorium was packed with supporters, critics, and the merely curious.

“Nine years ago, I released genetic sequences for beer yeast strains protected as trade secrets. I was called a thief, a bioterrorist, worse. Today, I want to discuss what we’ve learned from those years of open-source biology.”

She displayed a chart showing the explosion of brewing innovation since 2043. “In the traditional corporate model, a few companies control a few strains, producing a limited variety.

With the open-source model, thousands of brewers using thousands of variants, producing infinite diversity. As Duff McDonald wrote “Anything that alive contains the universe, or infinite possibility. Kombucha is infinite possibility in a drink.”

And the results speak for themselves—flavor innovation accelerated a thousand-fold when we removed corporate control.”

A student activist approached the microphone. “Ms. Reyes, you’ve inspired movements to liberate seed genetics, soil bacteria, and traditional medicine cultures. The ‘Luna Legion’ is spreading globally. What’s your message to young people who want to continue this work?”

Luna smiled. “First, understand the risks. I was sued by multinational corporations, received death threats, spent years fighting legal battles. This work has costs. Second, be strategic. Release information you’ve generated yourself through legal methods—no hacking, no theft. Third, build communities. I survived because people supported me—legally, financially, emotionally. You can’t fight corporations alone. Finally, remember why you’re doing it: to return biological knowledge to the commons where it belongs. That purpose will sustain you through the hard parts.”

TeachingBy twenty-eight, Luna was a MacArthur Fellow, teaching fermentation workshops in a converted Anheuser-Busch facility. As she watched her students—former corporate employees learning to think like ecosystems rather than factories—she reflected that her teenage hack had accomplished more than liberating yeast genetics. She had helped humanity remember that flavor, like knowledge, grows stronger when shared rather than hoarded.

Luna’s garage had evolved into a sophisticated community biolab. The original jury-rigged equipment had been replaced with professional gear funded by her MacArthur Fellowship. Abuela Rosa still maintained her fermentation crocks in the corner—a reminder of where everything started.

A group of five teenagers from East Oakland High School visited for a mentorship session. Luna taught them DNA extraction techniques using household supplies.

“This is what I used eleven years ago,” she explained, showing them her original smartphone microscope. “Total cost: $47 in parts. This is what I use now,”—she gestured at professional equipment—”total cost: $120,000. You know what? I accomplished more with the $47 setup because I was focused on the right question: Who owns genetic information from naturally occurring organisms?”

One student asked, “Weren’t you scared when the corporations came after you?”

Luna paused. “Terrified. But more scared of living in a world where biology itself could be owned. Fear of consequences versus fear of injustice—you have to choose which fear to honor.”

The flavor renaissance demonstrated that intellectual property laws, designed for industrial economies, became obstacles in biological systems that thrive through diversity, collaboration, and constant evolution. Luna’s revolution democratized both taste and the relationship between human creativity and living systems.

But all life had a season. And a time to every purpose under heaven.

A Grandmother’s Last GiftIn March 2050, the hospital room at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland smelled of disinfectant and dying flowers. Luna sat in the chair beside her grandmother’s bed, watching the monitors trace Rosa’s weakening heartbeat in green lines across black screens. It had been seven years since the courthouse. Seven years of changing the world.

But she couldn’t change this.

Rosa had collapsed three days before while tending her fermentation crocks in the backyard. Stroke, the doctors said. Massive. They’d stabilized her, but her organs were shutting down one by one. She was eighty-five years old. She’d lived a full life, they said, as if that made it easier.

Luna held her grandmother’s hand—so small now, the skin paper-thin, spotted with age. The same hands that had taught her to brew kombucha at age seven. The same hands that had held that ancient SCOBY for sixty years, feeding it, nurturing it, sharing it with anyone who asked.

“Mija.” Rosa’s voice was barely a whisper. Her eyes opened slowly, struggled to focus.

“Abuela, I’m here.” Luna leaned closer. “Don’t try to talk. Save your strength.”

“For what?” Rosa smiled weakly. “I’m dying, Luna. We both know it.” Rosa squeezed her hand with surprising strength. “I need to tell you something before I go.”

“Abuela—”

“Listen.” Rosa’s eyes were suddenly sharp, present. “In the drawer. The green cloth bundle. Bring it to me.”

Luna opened the bedside drawer. Inside, wrapped in faded green silk, was Rosa’s SCOBY—the one she’d carried from Oaxaca sixty years ago. The one that had started everything. Luna unwrapped it carefully. Even after three days in a hospital drawer, it smelled alive—vinegary, sweet, impossibly vital.

“I want you to have it,” Rosa said.

Luna’s throat tightened. “I can’t take this. It’s too important.”

“That’s exactly why you must take it. This SCOBY is my legacy. But it’s your tool. You’re doing what I always dreamed of—sharing fermentation with the world. Not just the technique, but the philosophy. The understanding that life grows stronger when we share it, not when we hoard it.”

She paused, catching her breath. Luna could see the effort each word required.

“Mija, I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything, Abuela.”

“Don’t let them make you bitter.” Rosa’s eyes were wet now. “You freed something beautiful. You gave the world back its genetic heritage. Someday—maybe not in my lifetime, maybe not in yours—but someday, people will look back and say, ‘That’s when everything changed. That’s when we stopped letting corporations own the code of life.’ But if you become bitter, if you become hard, then you’ll be fighting the same way they fight. With anger instead of love.”

Luna held the SCOBY to her chest, feeling its cool weight against her heart. “I promise I’ll keep sharing. I promise I won’t become bitter. I promise I’ll remember why I started this was to free life. I promise.”

“I love you, mija. Now go make me proud.” Rosa’s breathing grew shallow. “Go share that SCOBY with the world. Share it like I shared it with you. Share it like it was always meant to be shared.”

“I will.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Rosa’s hand tightened one last time, then relaxed completely. The monitor’s green line flattened. The alarm began its steady, terrible beep.

Luna held her grandmother and sobbed.

The Mountain View Cemetery, OaklandThe funeral was supposed to be small—family only, Rosa had requested. But thousands came.

They filled the cemetery and spilled onto the surrounding streets. People Luna had never met, holding pieces of scoby wrapped in silk or cloth, jars or just Ziplock bags. People from six continents who’d flown in when they heard. Brewers and biohackers, scientists and students, and ordinary people who’d learned to ferment from Rosa’s lineage, who’d received pieces of her SCOBY through the vast network of sharing that had grown over the past seven years.

She held up the SCOBY and spoke to the crowd. “This SCOBY has been shared with five hundred people. Those five hundred people shared it with five hundred more. Now, pieces of my grandmother’s SCOBY brew kombucha around the world. In homes, laboratories, schools, and restaurants. In places my grandmother never saw, speaking languages she never learned. But everywhere, it carries her message: Share life. Don’t hoard it.”

Luna knelt and placed the SCOBY on Rosa’s casket. “So today, we’re going to honor my grandmother the way she would have wanted. Not with prayers or eulogies or flowers that will die. But with sharing.”

She looked at Maya, who opened a cooler. Inside were hundreds of small glass jars, each containing a piece of Rosa’s SCOBY suspended in starter tea.

“Everyone here is going to take a piece of my grandmother home. You’re going to feed it. Nurture it. Share it. And every time you brew kombucha with her SCOBY, you’ll remember what she taught us: Fermentation is about passing life forward.”

Maya and several volunteers began distributing jars to the crowd. Luna watched people receive them reverently, as if they were holy relics. Which, in a way, they were—physical embodiments of Rosa’s philosophy, living proof that sharing creates abundance rather than scarcity.

An elderly woman approached Luna. She spoke Spanish. “Tu abuela me dio mi primer SCOBY hace treinta años. Cambió mi vida.” Your grandmother gave me my first SCOBY thirty years ago. It changed my life.

One by one, people approached. Sharing stories. Sharing gratitude. Sharing pieces of themselves that Rosa had touched through fermentation.

The crowd began to disperse, each person carrying their jar carefully, protectively. Luna watched them go—a diaspora of fermentation, spreading Rosa’s philosophy like spores on the wind.

Her father approached. “Mija, that was beautiful. Your grandmother would have been proud.”

“She was proud, Papa. She told me before she died.”

“What else did she tell you?”

Luna touched the empty green silk in her pocket—the cloth that had wrapped Rosa’s SCOBY for sixty years. “She told me not to become bitter. To remember I’m fighting for something, not against something. To feed the movement like you feed a SCOBY—with care and attention and love.”

As the sun set over Oakland Cemetery, Luna stood at her grandmother’s grave with her family. The crowd had left. The cemetery workers waited politely to begin filling the grave. But Luna needed one more moment.

She knelt and placed her hand on the coffin. “Thank you, Abuela. For the SCOBY. For the lessons. For believing in me even when I didn’t believe in myself. I promise I’ll keep sharing. I promise I won’t become bitter. I promise I’ll remember that this was never about destroying corporations—it was always about freeing life.”

She stood and nodded to the workers. They began shoveling earth.

As they walked back to the car, Maya put her arm around Luna. “You okay?”

“No. But I will be.” Luna looked at the jar in her hand—the last piece of Rosa’s original SCOBY, the one she’d kept for herself. “I have work to do. A movement to feed. A legacy to honor.”

“What’s first?”

Luna smiled. “I’m going to go home and brew kombucha. Just like Abuela taught me. And tomorrow, I’m going to share it. Just like she would have wanted.”

That night, Luna stood at her kitchen counter, Rosa’s SCOBY floating in a jar of sweet tea. The apartment was quiet. Maya had gone home. Her parents had left after dinner. She was alone with the SCOBY and her thoughts.

She picked up the jar with Rosa’s SCOBY. It pulsed gently in the tea, bacteria and yeast working together in symbiosis, transforming sugar into acid, simplicity into complexity.

“I’ll make you proud, Abuela,” she whispered. “I promise.”

The SCOBY didn’t answer. It just kept fermenting, the way it had been fermenting for sixty years. The way it would keep fermenting for sixty more, as long as someone cared enough to feed it.

Life finding a way.

Always.

Luna set the jar on the counter and turned off the lights. Tomorrow would come soon enough. Tonight, she would let herself grieve.

And in the morning, she would start sharing again.

Because that’s what Rosa would have wanted.

Because that’s what fermentation demanded.

Because life, no matter how painful or difficult or exhausting, always found a way to keep transforming.

One cell at a time.

One jar at a time.

One person at a time.

Until the whole world was brewing.

The Democratic Future of FermentationLuna’s courageous action triggered innovations that continued through 2100 as the fermented future evolved.

From Supply Chains to Ferment CirclesTraditional supply chains vanished. Ferment Circles linked small-scale producers across regions—each contributing ingredients, skills, or innovations. A brewer in Kenya might swap rare purple tea leaves with a fermentation lab in Vancouver that provided new symbiotic strains adapted for extreme temperatures.

These circles formed webs of reciprocity rather than competition. Value was measured in vitality metrics: freshness, carbon positivity, microbial diversity, and social joy. “Profit” became a measure of resilience.

The term customer disappeared; people were participants.

Digital Fermentation & Living CurrencyThe Commerce of Connection wasn’t about growth—it was about flow. Goods circulated like nutrients in a healthy body; money became a measure of trust metabolism. The more you gave, the more you grew.

Commerce became liquid—literally. A universal trade medium called K-Flow emerged: a digital-physical hybrid currency backed by the vitality index of living microbial cultures. Each transaction involved a “symbiotic handshake”—a real microbial sample exchanged alongside its digital counterpart.

K-Flow’s value fluctuated with environmental health, not speculation. When the planet thrived, so did the currency. When ecosystems faltered, value declined—reminding everyone that wealth was inseparable from biospheric stability.

Marketing evolved into resonance mapping: AI systems measured the emotional and microbial affinities between communities and suggested collaborative brews, art, or festivals.

The End of Branding, the Birth of StoryThrough the Guilds, beverage making reclaimed its ancient roots in storytelling. Every brew came with a narrative signature—the tale of its ingredients, people, and place—encoded in scent and taste. Drinkers learned to read these stories like literature on the tongue.

By 2080, “brand loyalty” had become an antiquated concept. Instead, brewers cultivated Storylines—shared cultural threads woven into flavor. Some Storylines honored ancestral teas, others celebrated the migration of yeasts or the rebirth of coral reefs. Drinkers collected and contributed to these evolving narratives like participants in an epic, ever-expanding novel.

A Global SCOBY Archive had become the world’s most visited database—a living library of all known symbiotic cultures, annotated with the tales of those who brewed them.

Guild Diplomacy With governments having ceded much authority to planetary guilds, brew diplomacy replaced trade wars. Disputes were settled through taste councils, where conflicting parties brought their best brews to a shared table. The flavor itself—its balance, integrity, and harmony—became the argument.

A perfectly balanced kombucha was considered a form of truth.

Next Episode: The Symbiotic CommunitiesBy century’s end, people looked back at the old world of logos, plastic bottles, and shareholder meetings with the same disbelief once reserved for the age of leeches and bloodletting.

Luna’s liberation of corporate genetics was only the beginning of biology’s social transformation. In Mumbai’s abandoned shopping malls, fermentation was becoming something unprecedented: the foundation of a democratic society, where citizens literally tasted their way to consensus.

Check back next Friday for the next exciting installment, when the story of ‘Our Fermented Future’ travels to India.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week’s audio is 90 minutes long. If you just want to hear the medley of music tune at 21:00 to hear the lead in to the three tunes. Or check out the Playlist menu at the top of the Booch News home page. The line up:

• Consortium Vocalis (USA), Our SCOBY
• Groundation Collective (Jamaica), Oh Luna
• Dandara Sereia (Brazil), Our Fermented Future (cover)

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

The post Our Fermented Future, Episode 8: Flavor Networks – The Democratization of Taste appeared first on 'Booch News.

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I sat down with William Esslinger of Confluence Kombucha in St. Louis, Missouri. We’d just left the three-day KBI conference in Barcelona and were having lunch at Munich Airport before catching our respective connecting flights. It was William’s first time in Germany, if you count being in an airport transit lounge as being in a country. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation. The full audio is available as a podcast at the end of this post.

The Confluence Kombucha Fermentory & Ping Pong Club is located at The Fox Den, 2501 S. Jefferson Avenue, Suite 102, St. Louis, MO 63104. It is open from 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. Confluence Kombucha is also a regular vendor at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market.

Booch News: How did you discover kombucha?

I started brewing kombucha in 2009 and working in kitchens all in a span of three days. I’d graduated with my master’s in media literacy education, and wanted to teach about the constructs of media and how to use media, how to create with different kinds of media, video, photography, using sound, all that kind of stuff. And so that’s my background.

But I couldn’t find a job, so I started working as a dishwasher at age 29. I was making six bucks an hour with a master’s degree.

I ordered my first kombucha culture online. I’d been drinking kombucha for about a year and a half prior to that, and it basically healed my ulcers that I’d had since I was five years old. That kombucha completely healed it. I haven’t had any incidents since. I can still remember as a young person having so much pain all the time. Every single day, a burning, like an ice pick in my intestines, every time I ate.

I had this severe problem. And it then drinking kombucha cured it. So, I tell people, if you really want to do this kombucha thing, you need to be drinking it. Every day. Maybe take a day off here and there. But when people start, if they’re very used to a crappy diet, they’re going to feel a little worse, maybe because they’re flushing out stuff. But you get such a vibe out of drinking every day.

That was just the beginning of the healing journey with kombucha. So much more healing has happened physically and mentally through this process. Just living with the SCOBYs every day. I didn’t really think about it as a business.

BN: How did your career in catering take off?

I’d started working in kitchens, and graduated from dish washing to working as a chef. After about three months of dish washing, they had me come on as a prep chef during the day. It was a big corporate restaurant, and I got pretty bored with it, but I had met someone I went to photography school with. He was opening a new restaurant called Blood & Sand with one of the top chefs in St. Louis at the time. He gave me a job, saying they can’t pay much, but they gave me an education. I got the last cook position on the line. And they didn’t really know what to do with me because I was brand-new, even though I’m almost 30 now. They said they would treat me like I knew nothing. And that was the best education. On-the-job training.

BN: How did your career in the culinary world prepare you to run a kombucha business?

We started fermenting stuff right away. They wanted me to make some kimchi. The chef didn’t know how to do it. But I had spent a couple of years in Korea and learned when I was over there. And I had just started brewing kombucha. It started to feel like fermentation was my path. Food was my path. And since it cured my ulcers, I started to be able to eat all the things I was never able to eat. I never thought of becoming a chef or anything like that because food was such a pain point for me.

Then they started handing me the pastry stuff. Because they were all line cooks. They didn’t want to deal with this finicky shit with the temperature and all that. It didn’t fit in with everything else. But my background in photography, doing black and white film developing, the exacting process, the temperature, was already there for me.

They started giving me one little project at a time. And they’re like, this kid’s nailing it, right? So they basically just made me a pastry chef. And I was making like $10 an hour, which was great.

BN: How did working in the kitchens lead to opening a commercial kombucha business?

I kept working in restaurants. And then, I finally thought maybe I got something here with the kombucha. I was developing flavors from the beginning. I kept all my notes. I now have over 800 flavors. I’ve got a spreadsheet of everything I’ve been doing since we opened our doors. Before I left for this trip, I did three new kombuchas in one week. I’ve been doing everything on draft and kegs since we opened our brick-and-mortar in 2016. It’s been all kegs. The idea was just to have a tap room.

And the first iteration was a tap room/restaurant. And so, for five years, I ran the restaurant and did the fermentation on-site. It was 1,000 square feet. It was super tiny. The whole thing. I had 15 seats if you really pushed it tight in the inside of the restaurant. And we had some patio seating in the front and the back, with a little garden where we would grow herbs and other things we would use in the kombucha as well.

A lot of people were dropping in. We got a lot of recognition. We didn’t know what kombucha would be like in St. Louis. I knew I could run a restaurant, and I had good ideas. The restaurant took front seat for most of that time. It was more of a restaurant with a little bit of kombucha. We had eight taps going, so you could come in and do an eight-flight or a four-flight, then take stuff to go, filling pints, quarts, and growlers.

When COVID happened, my business partner decided to split. I closed the restaurant and started focusing on kombucha. So it’s only really been four years of focusing on the brewery.

BN: What is Confluence Kombucha like today?

We’re in the second iteration right now. There was a brewery, a kombucha brewery in St. Louis called KomBlu, that opened in the space that I’m in now. And they closed. And then another brewery opened in there, and then they closed. And then the building’s owner called me. He said, ‘We have this defunct kombucha brewery if you’d like to come look at it’. It had a bunch of stainless-steel vessels, a reverse-osmosis filter, and a huge cooler. So we did a bit of renovation and made it my own. I built the fermentation room. And then we opened that in leap year 2023. February 29th.

We also make other fermented products, like coconut yogurt and kimchi.

The volume is going up. We started bottling in this facility because we had the room. We’ve done 20,000 12-ounce bottles in 18 months. It’s a short-neck bottle that works because I don’t have to worry as much about it over-carbonating. It has a little bit of space. I think that’s really important. The bottles are cute, they’re fun. The labeling is really incredible. It’s playful and fun.

We have a 12-tap room with a ping-pong table and vinyl records. The fermentation happens in the back. People can come in on Thursday and return on Sunday, and the board will be different.

Flavors

Confluence bottles just four flavors.

The Pineapple Palo Santo won the Signature category at the World Kombucha Awards. The flavor combines fruity notes from pineapple with the coconut-like aroma of Palo Santo—a fragrant tree wood often used as incense—resulting in a tropical drink reminiscent of a piña colada.

Confluence Kombucha also won two other Awards for one-off flavors offered on tap that William had entered into the competition:

• Jun & Holy Basil (Gold for the Jun category)
• Paw Paw & Rum Barrel (Silver for the Fruits with Spices category)

Esslinger, who started bottling his kombucha a year ago, after a decade in business comments: “It was my first year competing, and I didn’t expect to win.”

At the competition, Esslinger found it exciting and validating to discover that some of his new ideas are very much in line with what’s happening globally. For example, he recently brewed kombucha using cypress tea and was able to compare notes with brewers from Slovenia who brought a kombucha they had made with cedar and spruce chips. “It was cool to get that nerd connection right away.”

Esslinger chose the name Confluence based on St. Louis geography–located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers–but he says it has come to represent a larger vision, one that the World Kombucha Awards intensified. “As an artist and a food person inspired by world cuisines, the name has gathered more depth because it evokes something,” he says. “There’s a power in the idea of waterways merging, and we’re trying to uphold that every day in what we do.”

BN: Tell me about your flavors.

We have an Aronia Berry with Elderberry flavor. Aronia is the berry with the highest amount of antioxidants that grows in America. We met a local grower. And I loved it right away because it was so similar to the very first kombucha I had. Which was Cosmic Cranberry from GT’s. And the nickname for Aronia used to be Chokeberry. It’s a terrible name. But it’s so tannic that when you take it off the bush, you try to eat it. It chokes you up and dries out your mouth. But that’s the good stuff. We put the berries in the freezer to extract their flavor.

Another flavor is Watermelon and Blue Spirulina.

Ginger Lavender has been our bestseller for a very long time. We color that one with the butterfly pea flower. And it makes it bright violet and adds calcium to the beverage. I tell people that this was the flavor I never wanted to do. Because everybody was doing ginger. And everybody was asking me, Do you do ginger? Do you do lavender? And it took me 10 years to make this kombucha. And then it just started selling.

The base tea is Japanese sencha green tea. Because that’s toasty. You can taste the tea. It’s a very low-vibration kombucha. I like it because I can get my subtle flavors in there really, really easily. I landed on the green tea, because I feel like it’s a blank canvas. It gives me a really good place to work from. But then we’re, you know, we’re doing very small, tiny-batch stuff with other teas, just for fun.

I don’t sell an original, unflavored right now. Maybe in the future I would love to do that.

I like messing with all the crazy, different teas for myself and for the tap room, like Lapsang Souchong and the smoked black tea.

I update my Instagram every day or at least every week.

I do have them all in a book. I have every single one that I’ve ever done in the book.

BN: Do you have ideas that just don’t work out? Like you think, oh, I’ll mix this and this and this, and then you taste it.

Not so much anymore. There are a few in there that just weren’t really great, but overall, I think I’ve got good ratios. I’ve just been doing it in such small batches for so long that, if I waste five gallons or three gallons, it’s no big deal.

And then we save the pellicle and make fruit leathers with it. The first one I did, I forgot about it for a year. And I pulled them out, and they were like, perfect. No preservatives or anything like that. Kids love them. I have a lady who comes by and buys about $50 worth of them every other week at the farmers’ market.

That comes from my chef background. And I think also, just like growing up poor. Trying to think about every way to utilize everything. And it’s actually really fun, and it’s a great story to tell people. Because they see me as a brewer in a different way. How I’m thinking about even the waste product.

People who are maybe skeptical or have their own ideas about a kombucha brewer or something. That sets them at ease a little bit more. Because I think kombucha is still very much a mystery to most people. And it’s still a mystery to me, in some ways, too.

BN: What are some of the unusual ferments you experimented with?

I’m most interested in using mushrooms as the base for my kombucha. And I see a synergy in the fermentation process that I don’t necessarily see in teas. Instead, it’s mushrooms made into tea: reishi, chaga, lion’s mane, and cordyceps. We just did one, the pheasant’s back, which is also known as the dryad’s saddle. I’ve done chanterelles They only ferment half the time.

BN: So you don’t need the caffeine?

No, the synergy, because they are so close that most of those fermentations take about half the time as my normal fermentations do. The only one that doesn’t is the chaga, and the chaga is the one that takes the longest to grow anyway. It tastes like a birch beer. Almost like a root beer.

BN: So what you’re doing is, instead of using camellia sinensis? You’re doing the primary fermentation with a mushroom extract?

With just mushroom tea and sugar, just throw in the SCOBY and some starter tea. And it tastes totally different. Oh my gosh, it’s ridiculous! Like chanterelles taste like apricots and peaches.

One of the wildest, funnest ones is a polypore one.

It’s a black-staining polypore where I make the tea, and it’s black tea. It turns black. And then, through fermentation, the scoby, the microbes, and everything clear the liquid so it’s not black anymore. It tastes tropical, like pineapples and guava. Nothing else. But when you make the tea, it smells like gravy. It smells so brothy and big like that. But then, at the end of fermentation, it tastes like pineapples. It’s really amazing.

We are also using honey with those mushrooms. I did a chanterelle with honey this year. And then we poured it off of nitro. And it was so soft, velvety, and creamy from the mushrooms.

The chaga mushroom ones take about three to six months. So I have one shelf that’s just dedicated to the chaga mushroom. And it’s incredible. It’s easily one of my favorite ones to work with. I don’t sell it outside the tap room.

BN: What plans do you have for the future?

I have 2,000 square feet. And so it’s not much, but it is just a brewery. I’m trying to increase quantities so I can continue doing it and feel like I can support a cast and a crew. In the future, I hope we will be distributed regionally, maybe in Chicago, Memphis, Nashville, and Kansas City. And yeah, I’d expect to be working with some of the high-end clients.

That’s what I have going for me already. I’m inspired by those worlds, and making pairings, tastings, and those kinds of things aren’t happening in the kombucha world. I’ve been doing that for a very long time. I have extensive experience creating menus and pairing food with kombucha. I think that’s the whole new level of what could be happening in the dining scenes. And I think it’s showing up. That’s just a fun place to be.

Even though it’s been 30 years since GT started his company, I still think there’s so much room to do a lot more fun stuff.

BN: Well, we both have flights to catch back to the States. Thanks a lot.

PodcastListen to the podcast for the recording of the lunchtime interview with William in the transit lounge at Munich Airport.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 6 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

IntroductionLegacy beverage corporations attempting hostile takeovers of kombucha startups failed to understand the living systems involved. Their sterile production methods eliminated beneficial microorganisms, while regulatory capture backfired as health authorities mandated probiotic content. Mega-Cola’s final CEO, James Morrison, desperately tried fermenting cola using SCOBYs, creating undrinkable disasters. This episode chronicles the corporation’s transformation from global giant to urban composting service, with former executives becoming mushroom farmers in Detroit’s abandoned factories.

The $49 Billion Graveyard: When Giants Couldn’t Learn to DanceHarvard Business School’s legendary case study “The Mega-Cola Kombucha Catastrophe” became required reading for understanding how industrial thinking proved fatal in the biological economy. Between 2035 and 2042, legacy beverage corporations spent $48.7 billion attempting to acquire kombucha startups, only to discover that living systems couldn’t be purchased—they could only be cultivated.

Mega-Cola’s acquisition spree began aggressively in 2035 under CEO James Morrison, a chemical engineer before ascending to the C-suite. He’d once loved the alchemy of bubbles and sweetness. His father had worked at a bottling plant; he’d grown up thinking carbonation was progress. He viewed kombucha as merely another “disruption” to be absorbed and had become a champion of “hydration portfolios”—a polite euphemism for diversifying out of soda into teas, waters, and ferments. The company spent $12.7 billion acquiring 47 kombucha brands, from market leader Health-Ade to smaller artisanal producers like Portland’s Brew Dr Kombucha. Morrison’s strategy seemed logical: leverage Mega-Cola’s distribution network and manufacturing scale to dominate the emerging probiotic market.

The Sterilization DisasterThe first catastrophic failure occurred when Mega-Cola attempted to scale Humm Kombucha production at its Oregon facility.

Morrison stood before a 10,000-gallon fermentation tank—ten times the size of any used by the acquired kombucha companies. Chief Science Officer Dr. Hiram Walsh explained the modifications they’d made.

“We’ve adapted our quality control protocols from our soft drink lines,” Walsh said proudly. “Every input is filtered, pasteurized, and chemically treated. We’ve eliminated 99.9% of microbial contamination risk.”

Walsh pulled up charts showing their testing results. “Batch consistency is perfect. Zero deviation. Every bottle identical.”

Morrison smiled. “Exactly what we wanted. When do we start distribution?”

“Next week,” Walsh confirmed. “We’re calling it MegaBucha. Focus groups love the name.”

One week later, Morrison sat in an emergency meeting. The first consumer feedback was catastrophic.

Walsh read from report after report: “‘Tastes like carbonated vinegar.’ ‘Chemical aftertaste.’ ‘Nothing like real kombucha.’ ‘Dead and flat.’ Return rates are 87%.”

Walsh looked confused. “I don’t understand it. The bacteria counts are perfect. We followed their recipes exactly.”

On the teleconference screen, Health-Ade founder Vanessa Dew shook her head. “You killed it. Your ‘quality control’ eliminated every living organism. Kombucha isn’t about sterility—it’s about controlled biological diversity. You can’t pasteurize and filter kombucha and expect it to remain the same. You’ve simply made acidic sugar water.”

Morrison spluttered, “We spent $2.1 billion acquiring your company. We’re not walking away because of ‘quality control’ issues.”

“It’s not quality control—it’s biology,” Vanessa explained. “Kombucha cultures need biodiversity to thrive. Your system is built to prevent exactly that.”

Morrison’s jaw tightened. “Then we’ll adjust the process. Keep some bacteria alive.”

Vanessa sighed. “Your entire facility is designed to kill microbes. Your pipes, your tanks, your air filtration, your worker protocols—everything optimized for sterility. You’d have to rebuild from scratch. And even then, you’d need to fundamentally rethink how you approach production. Living systems don’t work like machines.”

The company had overlooked the success of the UK’s ROBOT Kombucha, the “A.I. Cola” replicated cola’s taste in a fermented drink, becoming the beverage of choice for adults who had first tasted it as teenagers when it was introduced in 2025. Founder Pascal du Bois had selected his ingredients from a range of different organic botanicals from which the flavor was extracted. He then created a complex blend of more than a dozen types of bacteria and four strains of organic yeast. After fermenting for seven weeks they add a teaspoon of 100% organic honey, sourced from France, to each can. This mimics the familiar cola taste without added sugars or aspartame. The result was a healthy alternative designed to appeal to cola lovers, not a standardized Frankenbooch.

Dr. Kenji Nakamura—the former Genentech researcher who later founded the Eastridge Mall Kollective—was hired as a $5 million consultant to solve the Mega-Cola problem.

His report sat on Morrison’s desk—200 pages detailing why Mega-Cola’s approach couldn’t work.

“I’ll cut to the conclusion,” Nakamura said. “Your industrial infrastructure is fundamentally incompatible with living beverages. Your entire supply chain is designed to kill exactly what makes kombucha valuable.”

Morrison leaned forward. “We paid you to find solutions, not problems.”

“The solution is accepting that some things can’t be industrialized,” Nakamura replied calmly. “Kombucha succeeds because of microbial relationships that develop over time through careful cultivation. You’re trying to force-manufacture relationships. It’s like trying to raise children in a morgue—the environment is hostile to life. Your kombucha tastes bad because you’ve optimized the life out of it. You can’t ‘optimize’ life—you can only cultivate it.”

Mega-Cola CFO Samantha Chen pulled up financial projections. “We’ve now spent $14.8 billion on kombucha acquisitions and infrastructure. We need to either make this work or write off the entire investment.”

Nakamura shook his head. “Every dollar you spend trying to industrialize kombucha is wasted. The companies you acquired succeeded because they were small—they could maintain microbial diversity, respond to batch variation, cultivate living systems. Scale destroys those advantages.”

Morrison’s face reddened. “Are you telling me that a bunch of hippies in Portland can do something Mega-Cola, with our resources and expertise, cannot?”

“Yes,” Nakamura said simply. “Because they’re not trying to dominate biology. They’re partnering with it. Your entire corporate culture is about control, optimization, standardization. Living systems require adaptation, diversity, patience. Those are fundamentally incompatible approaches.”

Morrison stood. “We’ll find someone else. Someone who can make this work.”

Nakamura gathered his materials. “You’ll spend millions more reaching the same conclusion. Biology doesn’t care about your quarterly earnings or your market cap. You can’t buy your way out of this.”

After Nakamura left, Morrison and Chen sat in silence.

Chen finally spoke. “He’s right, you know.”

Morrison didn’t respond.

The Regulatory Trap: When Capture Became CaptivityLegacy corporations had initially celebrated the FDA’s Probiotic Verification Act of 2038, which they had lobbied for extensively. The law required all “live beverage” products to contain minimum concentrations of beneficial bacteria, verified through independent testing. Mega-Cola’s legal team believed this would create barriers for small producers while giving large corporations with deep pockets competitive advantages through regulatory compliance costs.

The strategy backfired catastrophically. While artisanal kombucha producers thrived under the new standards—their naturally diverse microbial ecosystems easily exceeded requirements—corporate products consistently failed testing. Mega-Cola spent $20 million on fermentation consultants and biotechnology acquisitions, but its sterile facilities couldn’t maintain the mandated bacterial diversity.

Meanwhile, in the company boardroom, a tense meeting took place.

Chen read the headline from a Wall Street Journal article: “Mega-Cola’s ‘Kombucha’ Contains Fewer Probiotics Than Yogurt, FDA Testing Reveals.“

Morrison stared at the headline. “How did this happen?”

“Our sterilization processes,” Walsh admitted. “We can’t maintain bacterial counts through our production and distribution systems. The small producers can because they’re working with robust, diverse cultures in small batches. We’re working with weakened, standardized cultures in massive volumes. The bacteria die.”

The legal counsel shifted uncomfortably. “The regulation we pushed for is now our biggest problem. We can’t legally call our product kombucha. We could petition the FDA to lower the standards—”

Morrison’s voice was quiet. “How much have we spent trying to fix this?”

Chen checked her tablet. “$20.3 million on fermentation consultants and biotechnology acquisitions. None of it worked.”

The Medical Tsunami: Soda as PoisonBy 2040, the medical evidence against sugar-laden sodas had become overwhelming. The American Heart Association officially classified high-fructose corn syrup as a “Class II toxin,” requiring warning labels similar to tobacco.

The crisis came to a head when the Journal of the American Heart Association published “The Corporate Diabetes Epidemic: A Century of Metabolic Warfare” in 2041. The paper demonstrated that diabetes and obesity rates directly correlated with Mega-Cola’s market penetration across 147 countries. Areas with higher Cola consumption showed disease patterns resembling chemical contamination rather than natural illness.

Dr. Harold Lustig presented twenty years of longitudinal research to a packed auditorium. The screen behind him showed stark data:

“Regular soda consumption increases diabetes risk by 340%. It shortens lifespan by an average of 7.4 years. We’re officially classifying high-fructose corn syrup as a Class II toxin, requiring warning labels similar to tobacco.”

Mega-Cola CEO Morrison watched from the back. His phone buzzed constantly—board members, investors, media requesting comment.

Lustig continued: “Children who drink one soda daily show measurable delays in brain development compared to peers consuming fermented beverages. Brain imaging reveals high-fructose corn syrup literally shrinks the prefrontal cortex.”

A reporter raised his hand. “Are you saying soda causes brain damage?”

“I’m saying the evidence strongly suggests regular soda consumption impairs cognitive development,” Lustig responded. “Meanwhile, children consuming diverse fermented foods show superior health outcomes across every metric we measured.”

Morrison left before the Q&A. In the hallway, CFO Chen was waiting.

“The stock dropped 12% during the presentation,” she said quietly. “Investors are calling soda ‘the new tobacco.'”

Morrison stared out the window at the Washington Monument. “We knew sugar was problematic. We’ve been reformulating—”

“It’s not just sugar,” Chen interrupted. “It’s the entire category. Industrial beverages versus living fermentation. We’re on the wrong side.”

“We’re a $300 billion company,” Morrison said. “We can’t just pivot to kombucha. We tried that. It failed.”

Chen’s voice was gentle but firm. “Then maybe we need to accept that some companies don’t survive paradigm shifts.”

The Educational Exodus: Schools Declare War on SodaThe Los Angeles Unified School District’s vote to ban all non-fermented beverages in schools attracted phalanxes of Mega-Cola lobbyists and lawyers.

A Mega-Cola representative presented their case: “Banning our beverages punishes students from low-income families who can’t afford expensive alternatives. We’re prepared to offer healthier formulations—”

A parent cut him off. “You’ve been promising ‘healthier formulations’ for thirty years while marketing addictive sugar-water to our children.”

Dr. Rebecca Scharf’s groundbreaking research demonstrated that children who were given an alternative to sugar-sweetened soda were healthier.

The school district called her as an expert witness. She summarized her findings: “Two years after schools switched to kombucha dispensaries with on-campus fermentation labs, we see 67% reduction in behavioral problems, 45% improvement in test scores, 89% decrease in childhood obesity.”

A high school student approached the microphone. “I’m sixteen. I grew up drinking your soda. I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes at fourteen. Since switching to fermented beverages, my health has improved. But my little brother is eight—he’s never had soda, only fermentation. He’s healthier than I ever was. You took my health. Don’t take his.”

By 2052, 43 states had implemented similar bans. The “Fermentation Generation”—children who grew up drinking school-provided kombucha—showed dramatically superior health outcomes compared to predecessors who consumed soda. These children literally rejected Mega-Cola on a physiological level; their optimized gut microbiomes found industrial beverages repulsive.

Medical Prescriptions Against Corporate BeveragesThe American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2044 guidelines required doctors to “prescribe against” soda consumption, treating it as seriously as smoking cessation recommendations. Insurance companies began covering kombucha prescriptions while penalizing patients who tested positive for high-fructose corn syrup consumption.

Dr. Chen’s research (detailed in Episode 2) provided the scientific foundation for these medical interventions. Her studies proved that even occasional soda consumption disrupted the personalized gut microbiomes that enabled optimal cognitive function. Doctors began prescribing specific kombucha strains to repair metabolic damage caused by years of consuming industrial beverages.

Morrison’s Tower Disaster: Industrial Control Meets Living SystemsFollowing his 2050 visit to Aberdeen’s agricultural tower, Morrison commissioned twelve “MegaTower” facilities across North America, investing $8.4 billion in what he called “industrial-scale fermentation infrastructure.” His engineers replicated the physical structure perfectly—1,200-meter climate-controlled spires with alternating tea cultivation and kombucha production floors.

The catastrophe unfolded within months. Morrison’s towers, designed for efficiency optimization, automated every process that Aberdeen’s workers performed intuitively. Computer algorithms regulated temperature, humidity, and nutrient delivery with microsecond precision, eliminating “human inefficiency.”

The tea plants withered. The SCOBYs died.

Dr. MacLeod’s warnings proved prophetic: Morrison had copied the machinery while killing the ecosystem. His sterile protocols eliminated the beneficial fungi, bacteria, and insects that made Aberdeen’s floors function as living environments. His “optimized” nutrient solutions lacked the complexity of naturally composting tea waste. His automated systems couldn’t respond to the subtle biological cues that experienced cultivators recognized instinctively.

By 2053, all twelve MegaTowers stood empty—$8.4 billion monuments to the fundamental incompatibility between industrial control and biological partnership. The failure accelerated Mega-Cola’s eventual bankruptcy, proving that living systems cannot be purchased; they can only be cultivated.

Morrison’s Desperate Gambit: Fermented ColaStung by his failed “MegaTower” experiments, Morrison staked Mega-Cola’s survival on developing fermented cola using modified SCOBYs. The “New Cola Kombucha” project consumed $67 million over three years, employing thousands of microbiologists and fermentation specialists. The results were universally catastrophic.

Dr. Park, a fermentation specialist hired from Korea, led Morrison through the lab. Rows of fermentation vessels bubbled with dark liquid. Scientists monitored bacterial counts, pH levels, sugar content.

“We’ve engineered SCOBY cultures that can ferment in the presence of cola flavorings,” Park explained. “It’s taken three years, but we have a stable culture.”

Morrison looked hopeful for the first time in years. “And it tastes good?”

Park hesitated. “It tastes… interesting.”

They entered a tasting room where twenty focus group participants sat with cups of dark, fizzy liquid.

Morrison watched through one-way glass as participants tasted the fermented cola.

The reactions were immediate and universal: grimacing, coughing, one person actually gagged.

“Fizzy coffee grounds mixed with cleaning products,” one person said.

“Like someone fermented tire rubber,” another offered.

“I think I can taste failure,” a third concluded.

Park pulled Morrison aside. “The SCOBY cultures are stressed by the chemical additives in cola formulation. They’re producing unusual compounds—not toxic, exactly, but profoundly unpleasant. They’re causing gastrointestinal distress in 89% of test subjects.”

Morrison stared at the focus group, then turned to Park. “Give me options. Can we adjust the flavor profile? Different additives?”

“We’ve tried 47 formulations,” Park explained. “The problem isn’t the recipe—it’s the fundamental incompatibility between cola chemistry and healthy fermentation at this scale. The bacteria are literally stressed by the environment we’re asking them to live in.”

“So what you’re telling me is that fermented cola is impossible?”

Park hesitated. “I’m telling you that your version of fermented cola—one that tastes like Mega-Cola but contains living bacteria—is impossible. If you were willing to let go of the cola formula entirely and create something new…”

“Then it wouldn’t be Mega-Cola,” Morrison insisted. “That’s what I’m trying to save.”

Morrison sank into a chair. “How much have we spent on this?”

“$67 million,” Park confirmed.

“And it’s undrinkable.”

“Yes.”

Morrison laughed bitterly. “We can put a man on Mars, but we can’t ferment cola.”

Park’s voice was kind. “We can’t ferment cola because we’re trying to put it on Mars. Fermentation requires accepting biology on its own terms. We keep trying to force it into our industrial model. Biology keeps refusing.”

The FDA’s emergency recall of Morrison’s prototype batches in 2059 triggered the final collapse of investor confidence.

The Bankruptcy Cascade: Industrial LiquidationMega-Cola declared bankruptcy on November 1, 2060—the Mexican Day of the Dead seemed grimly appropriate for the death of an American institution. The company’s $284 billion in debts exceeded its assets by a factor of three, as brand value evaporated alongside consumer demand. The company was not alone. BigSoda collapsed six months later, then Dr Gipper —the third-ranking cola in the world —creating a cascade of corporate failures worth over $1.2 trillion.

Morrison sat alone in his office as the board meeting proceeded via video conference.

The board chair spoke: “The FDA has issued an emergency recall of all New Cola Kombucha prototypes after test subjects required hospitalization. Our stock price has fallen 89% from its peak. Our debt exceeds assets. We have no choice.”

Morrison knew what he must announce. “Mega-Cola Corporation is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, effective immediately.”

On screens across America, news anchors delivered the story.

Morrison watched employees leave the building carrying boxes. Fifty thousand jobs ending. A century-old brand dying.

Chen entered his office quietly. “I’m sorry, James.”

Morrison didn’t turn from the window. “You tried to warn me. Back in 2035. You asked if we could industrialize biology without killing what made it valuable.”

“I did.”

“The answer was no.”

“I guess I just didn’t listen.”

Morrison was quiet for a long moment. “I spent my whole career optimizing systems, maximizing efficiency, scaling operations. I was good at it. But biology doesn’t care about efficiency. It cares about diversity, resilience, relationships. Everything I knew how to do was wrong for this.”

Chen sat beside him. “What will you do now?”

Morrison laughed without humor. “I’m 62 years old. My entire career has been corporate optimization. I don’t know how to do anything else.”

“You could learn,” Chen suggested.

“Learn what?” Morrison asked. “How to brew kombucha in my garage? I destroyed people’s livelihoods trying to industrialize something that shouldn’t be industrialized. I don’t deserve to be part of what comes next.”

“Maybe that’s exactly why you should be,” Chen said softly. “You understand what doesn’t work. That’s valuable knowledge.”

The liquidation auctions became symbols of industrial obsolescence. Mega-Cola’s Detroit headquarters sold for $47 million to the Georgia Fermentation Kollective, which converted the building into vertical kombucha gardens. The iconic “Land of Cola” museum became the “Museum of Metabolic Harm,” displaying artifacts from humanity’s sugar-addiction era alongside warnings about corporate food manipulation.

Urban Composting: From Soda to SoilMorrison’s personal transformation paralleled that of his company. After Mega-Cola’s bankruptcy, he founded “Regenerative Detroit,” converting abandoned bottling plants into urban composting facilities that produced soil for vertical tea gardens. His memoir, From Syrup to SCOBY: A CEO’s Redemption, became a bestseller, chronicling his journey from corporate predator to ecological steward.

Nakamura, the consultant who told Morrison his approach would fail, visited the facility.

“You were right,” Morrison said without preamble. “Everything you said in that meeting. I spent five more years and hundreds of millions trying to prove you wrong, only to end up proving you right.”

Nakamura watched Morrison teach a teenage girl how to inoculate a growing medium with mushroom spores. “This is unexpected. I thought you’d retire to a beach somewhere, try to forget.”

Morrison laughed. “I tried that for six months. I was miserable. Spent forty years destroying things. Figured I should spend whatever time I have left trying to build something.”

“Why composting?”

“Because it’s the opposite of what I did at Mega-Cola,” Morrison explained. “There, we tried to force sterility, eliminate variability, control every process. Here, we cultivate diversity, encourage complexity, work with biological systems rather than against them. We take waste and transform it into something useful. It’s… healing, I guess.”

A teenager approached. “Mr. Morrison, my mushrooms are growing!”

Morrison’s face lit up. “Let me see!” He examined her cultivation tray with genuine excitement. “Beautiful! You maintained perfect humidity. These will be ready to harvest in two weeks.”

After the children left for lunch, Nakamura and Morrison walked through the facility.

“How many people work here?” Nakamura asked.

“Forty-seven,” Morrison responded. “Thirty-two are former Mega-Cola employees. When the company collapsed, they lost everything. I felt responsible. So I used what was left of my savings to buy this facility and train them in regenerative agriculture.”

“And the composting is profitable?”

Morrison shrugged. “We break even. Barely. But that’s not really the point. The point is transforming industrial waste into living soil. The point is teaching the next generation that decay isn’t the enemy—it’s the beginning of new life. The point is learning to think like an ecosystem instead of a corporation.”

They stopped before a wall displaying Morrison’s memoir: From Syrup to SCOBY: A CEO’s Redemption.

“I read your book,” Nakamura said. “Brutal self-assessment.”

“Had to be,” Morrison replied. “I spent decades helping build a system that made billions by making people sick. If I’m going to do anything meaningful with the rest of my life, I need to be honest about what I did wrong.”

Nakamura gave him a piercing look. “What’s the hardest lesson, James?”

Morrison thought for a moment. “That you can’t buy relationships. Mega-Cola tried to purchase kombucha companies and force them into our industrial model. But the reason those companies succeeded was because they maintained living relationships—between bacteria, between brewers and their cultures, between producers and customers. We thought we could commodify those relationships. We were wrong.”

Nakamura looked into the other man’s eyes. “Do you regret your career at Mega-Cola?”

“Every day,” Morrison said. “But regret without action is just self-pity. I can’t undo the harm I caused. I can only try to spend whatever time I have left doing things differently.”

The two men stood silent. “And now?” Nakamura eventually asked.

“Now I’m learning that the same principle applies to everything. Healthy soil requires relationships between millions of organisms. Healthy communities require relationships between people. You can’t manufacture relationships. You can only cultivate them.”

A former Mega-Cola executive, now managing the composting operation, approached. “James, the new batch is ready. Want to check it?”

They walked to a massive composting area where industrial waste had been transformed into rich, dark soil.

Morrison picked up a handful, letting it sift through his fingers. “Five years ago, I couldn’t have told you what healthy soil looked like. Now I can diagnose it by touch, smell, and sight. I know the difference between soil that’s alive and soil that’s dead. I wish I’d learned that forty years ago.”

Business School Autopsies: Failed Integration StudiesMega-Cola’s failed acquisitions became business school case studies teaching a fundamental lesson about the new economy: you couldn’t buy biological relationships, only nurture them. Companies that thrived in the fermentation future were those that learned to think like ecosystems rather than machines, valuing symbiosis over extraction and cooperation over control.

The old extraction-based capitalism of brands, advertisements, and artificial scarcity had dissolved in the acid of transparency. In its place rose a commerce of connection, a network of exchange based on trust, craft, and living value.

No one “sold” kombucha anymore. They shared it—encoded with local identity, story, and microbial lineage. Each brew was a living signature, traceable back to the brewer’s SCOBY ancestry through transparent bio-ledgers—open microbial blockchains that recorded not profits, but relationships.

Harvard Business School’s legendary case study “The Mega-Cola Kombucha Catastrophe” had become required reading for understanding how industrial thinking fails when confronting biological complexity.

Professor George Santos—a reformed fraudster turned champion of ethical business studies at Harvard—projected key figures on his classroom screen summarizing the Mega-Cola meltdown:

• $48.7 billion spent on kombucha acquisitions and infrastructure
• Zero successful products launched
• 94% loss of beneficial bacteria in acquired brands
• Complete corporate collapse within 15 years

Morrison sat in the audience, invited as a guest speaker. The students didn’t know he was there yet.

Santos lectured: “Mega-Cola’s failure wasn’t about lack of resources or expertise. They had the best food scientists, unlimited capital, and a dominant market position. They failed because they tried to apply industrial logic to biological relationships. It’s a category error—treating living systems like machines.”

A student raised her hand. “But couldn’t they have just left the kombucha companies independent? Kept them small-scale?”

“Good question,” Santos responded. “But that would have defeated the purpose of the acquisition. Morrison wanted to leverage industrial efficiency to dominate the market. He couldn’t accept that efficiency itself was the problem.”

“Sounds arrogant,” another student said.

“It was,” Morrison spoke from the audience. “Unforgivably arrogant.”

The room went silent as students realized who he was.

Santos smiled. “Class, we have a special guest. Mr. Morrison has agreed to discuss his decisions and their consequences.”

Morrison walked to the front slowly. At 72, he looked older than his years.

“I’m here because Professor Santos asked me to help you understand how intelligent, well-intentioned people can make catastrophic mistakes,” Morrison began. “In 2035, I was confident, even cocky, firmly believing we could apply our industrial processes to kombucha. I have degrees from Wharton and McKinsey experience. I’d successfully optimized dozens of operations. I didn’t see kombucha as a challenge—I saw it as an opportunity.”

“What changed?” a student asked.

“Repeated failure,” Morrison said simply. “We acquired kombucha brands. We killed them by trying to scale them. We hired consultants. They told us what we were doing wrong. We didn’t listen. We tried to ferment cola using SCOBYs. We created undrinkable disasters. Eventually, even I couldn’t ignore reality: you can’t industrialize living relationships.”

“Why not?” another student challenged. “We industrialize lots of biological processes. Agriculture, pharmaceuticals—”

“Different scale, different complexity,” Morrison explained. “Kombucha requires dozens of organisms in complex relationships. You can’t standardize that without destroying what makes it work. And more fundamentally, I didn’t respect what I was trying to control. I saw bacteria as inputs to be optimized, not as living partners to be cultivated. That disrespect guaranteed failure.”

Samantha Chen, sitting in the back, spoke up. “I was Mega-Cola’s CFO. I warned James from the beginning that we were trying to commodify relationships. He didn’t listen until we’d burned through billions and destroyed the brands we’d acquired. The lesson isn’t just about fermentation—it’s about recognizing when your core competencies are incompatible with what you’re attempting.”

A student asked the obvious question: “Mr. Morrison, you lost billions of dollars and collapsed a century-old company. Why should we listen to you?”

Morrison smiled sadly. “Because I failed spectacularly at something many of you will attempt: forcing biological systems into industrial models. Climate change, environmental restoration, and sustainable agriculture—you’ll all face situations where industrial thinking fails. If hearing about my failures helps even one of you recognize that trap earlier, then bankrupting Mega-Cola will have served some purpose.”

Cola CodaThe demise of Mega-Cola and Morrison’s redemption was celebrated in song by a young group of Baltimore kombucha brewers whose anthem ‘It’s an Unreal Thing’ was played on college radio stations by retro-70’s leather-jacketed DJ’s with pierced ears. Here’s Hexotronix:

Go now, take what you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
All your failed investments, they’re all going home
Your fermentation formula had the wrong biome
Your scientists who just walked out the door
Have taken all their SCOBYs from the brewery floor
The towers too have failed to come through
And now it’s time to go find something new.

[Chorus]
You sold your soda to a world
That you thought you’d taught to sing
In perfect harmony
But it’s an unreal thing, an unreal thing.

You bought up all our breweries, didn’t you?
Your fake fermented drinks just didn’t come through .
You killed what made kombucha real
So how does it feel
To be completely unreal?
How does it feel
To be a joker?
How does it feel
To be a bankrupt, down at heel?
With the whole world laughing
At your soda?

[Chorus]

Your beverage was a bust
Your dreams all turned to dust
The missing part
Was our SCOBY heart
Right there at the start
But you didn’t see
What we saw
Didn’t feel
What we felt
Didn’t know
What we knew
Didn’t love
What we loved.

[Chorus]

Leave your corporate life behind, something calls for you
The dream that you once had is clearly through.
Forget the drinks you’ve served, they will not follow you
Go tell another story start anew
The compost and mushrooms, they now call to you.

[Chorus]

Epilogue: The Next DiscoveryMorrison’s transformation from CEO to mushroom farmer illustrates that recognizing failure honestly opens paths to genuine learning. His redemption isn’t about success—it’s about accepting that some approaches are fundamentally wrong and committing to something different.

However, one man’s transformation was only the beginning. While corporate executives struggled to understand living systems, a brilliant citizen scientist was making discoveries that would prove the human brain itself required biological partnerships to reach its full potential.

Check back next Friday as the gripping tale of ‘Our Fermented Future’ continues.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you just want to listen to the music (classic 80’s punk!) tune in as follows:

Hexotronix, It’s an Unreal Thing, 36:17

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

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I visited Bioma Kombucha on the final day of my trip to Barcelona for the World Kombucha Awards and KBI European Summit.

Christopher Davite is the founder of Bioma Kombucha in Barcelona. His personal health struggles, including ADHD, depression, and digestive issues, along with an unexpected allergic reaction to pollen after moving to Vancouver, led him to discover the healing benefits of kombucha. Inspired by his own transformative experience and his grandfather’s knowledge of medicinal plants, Davite shifted from a career in architecture and personal training to founding Bioma Kombucha in 2017, motivated by a mission to empower people with an affordable, functional beverage. The company focuses on creating a high-quality, sustainably produced product using locally sourced medicinal plants.

From the first sip, I knew I had found something truly special. The benefits were astounding. Every day, I felt my body and mind fill with renewed energy, propelling me to improve my life in ways I had never imagined. Kombucha inspired me to share this gift with the world, with the mission of “empowering people from within.” Today, my message is simple: “Take care of your body, and your body will take care of you.” Kombucha is not just a beverage for me; it’s a way of life, a source of energy and well-being. I hope my story inspires you to discover the wonderful benefits it can offer and to find your own path to a healthier and happier life.”

Branded initially as ‘Kashaya Kombucha’ selling a green tea classic, in 2021 he rebranded to Bioma and expanded the range to add seven more flavors.

Production and sustainabilitySustainability is at the heart of their business.

Christopher drew on his background in interior architecture and design to renovate an old garage that is his production facility. All the building materials were sourced from within Catalonia. This includes cork insulation and marble-based paint in the fermentation room. The low pH in the paint means nothing can grow in it. He explains that this has a significant impact on the SCOBY’s overall well-being and health. The walk-in cooler was constructed with natural mortar and insulated with hay behind a cork lining. When empty, it smells like a hay barn. The Bioma bottles are screen-printed, so there is no glue or labels, making them easier to recycle. Some are on their 10th life cycle.

Bioma was the first to produce kombucha at an industrial scale in Barcelona and has grown into a team of eight people.

MethodBioma uses a traditional brewing process with native medicinal and aromatic plants and premium ingredients to produce authentic kombucha.

The Rwandan green tea is cold-brewed overnight for 12-16 hours (an environmental saving in and of itself). Cold brewing brings out smooth, natural notes that harmonize perfectly with the kombucha’s acidic profile. This method preserves the maximum amount of nutrients and probiotic properties, ensuring a healthy experience with every sip. They then add the starter, ferment for 7 days, and then undergo an additional 2 to 5 days of secondary fermentation with flavorings sourced from foraged ingredients or local farmers.

Christopher periodically chants to the kombucha while it ferments, which he believes enhances the brew’s medicinal resonance.

Chakra-aligned flavors Bioma Kombucha believes in the holistic connection between body, mind, and spirit. Their kombucha is rich in probiotics and antioxidants that not only improve digestive health but can also contribute to overall well-being. A healthy digestive system helps keep energy flowing properly, which can positively influence the balance of your chakras. Their kombucha is formulated with medicinal and aromatic herbs that help unblock the chakras. Ingredients such as lavender, rosemary, lemon balm, and chamomile not only provide a delicious flavor but also have properties that benefit energy and inner balance.

While an infusion is great, it is during the fermentation stage that the metabolites and essential oils get introduced. They all have the specifics of the plant and how they interact during the fermentation stage and the pH and yeast levels.

Vida Verde, their Classic Kombucha of cold-infused Rwandan high-mountain green tea, is the base for all the other flavors. This was the original kombucha they sold when the brand was known as ‘Kashaya’–the Ayurvedic term fora medicinal drink.

The full range is infused with herbs, flowers, and fruits that align with the seven mystical chakras in the human body. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning “wheel” and refers to the energy centers in our bodies. The chakras serve the same function in our body as electrical outlets in a room: they distribute the energy that enters through the crown chakra to organs, glands, and muscles.

Here are the seven chakras paired with the corresponding Bioma flavor.

Base Chakra (Muladhara)Seasonal Star – The winter season version combines pomegranate, grape, and pine bud. In summer, it is flavored with stinging nettle, strawberry, dandelion, and blueberry. This kombucha supports active energy and is for those who wish to move with strength, passion, and determination. It helps you feel a solid foundation and self-confidence. Great for workouts, sports, and playlists that motivate you. It’s a kombucha that gives you a clean boost for every challenge.

Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana)Sacred Creation – Flavored with marigold, pear, and fig. This kombucha is strengthening and restorative. It is a fruity and floral blend that awakens your senses, enhances creativity, and connects you with your creative energy and sexuality. Svadishtana is associated with the unconscious and with emotion. It is the seat of pleasure, a sense of oneself, relationships, sensuality, and procreation.

Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura)Solar Flower: A carefully crafted formula includes elderflower and orange blossom, two ingredients that work with chamomile to gently care for your digestive system. It also incorporates wild fennel, known for its calming properties and ability to balance energies. Most remarkable about Solar Flower is its ability to open and balance the Solar Plexus Chakra. This chakra represents our personal power, confidence, control, and vitality. Drinking Solar Flower helps increase confidence and decision-making ability, connects you with your inner fire: that spark that drives you and allows you to take the reins of your destiny from the depths of your being.

Heart Chakra (Anahata)Cosmic Love: A fusion of hemp, hops, and lemon verbena creates a kombucha with a smooth, citrus taste. It is reminiscent of an India Pale Ale (IPA) Belgium beer. This kombucha also has a deeper purpose: it’s designed to open and balance the Heart Chakra for a more profound sense of love. Drinking Cosmic Love promotes healthy relationships and allows you to connect with your heart and feel compassion, both for yourself and others. Hemp and lemon verbena reduce stress, increase relaxation, and bring a sense of mental calm.

Throat Chakra (Vishuddha)Crystal Voice: The freshness of apple blends with the calming properties of lemon balm and the purifying virtues of sage that satisfies your palate and nourishes your well-being. Drinking Crystal Voice improves clarity in communication and personal truth, helping you find your voice, express yourself clearly, and connect with your inner creativity and authentic self.

Third Eye Chakra (Ajna)Creative Mind: A unique and revitalizing blend of rosemary, mint, and lavender. It is designed to help you open your third eye, connect with your creative mind, and find intuitive solutions to everyday challenges.

Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)Divine Light: Has a fruity, floral flavor that resonates especially with feminine energy. A mix of raspberry juice and roses, it incorporates medicinal herbs like echinacea and passionflower to strengthen your immune system. Divine Light works to open and balance the Crown Chakra—the center of spirituality and connection with the Divine. When the Crown Chakra is in harmony, we experience greater spiritual awareness and a sense of unity with the universe.

DistributionChristopher aims to sell a million bottles of kombucha. Over the past seven years, he estimates they have sold over 400,000 bottles. In addition to online orders, they are popular among the yoga community and are sold at large cultural festivals. Early sales were at farmers’ markets and through “old school cold calling” to bars and restaurants. Bioma is now available in retail outlets in Barcelona and Madrid, with plans to expand to Switzerland before the end of the year.

AwardsIn October 2024, Bioma took home the Gold award at the @pentawards for best international design for their packaging created by @summabranding.

Addition of cansThey introduced a line of cans to meet the growing demand for no-alcohol events, such as music festivals, and in public spaces like swimming pools, where glass bottles are not allowed. They also save on shipping costs.

PodcastThis podcast is edited from an hour-long conversation with Christopher during my visit to Bioma. As he showed me around the facility, we moved from room to room, so the audio quality varied with the changing acoustics. Tune in to the hear the story of Bioma Kombucha.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 5 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

IntroductionIn the mid-21st century, rising seas and extreme weather rendered traditional agriculture impossible, but kombucha cultures thrived in controlled environments. Vertical fermentation towers became humanity’s primary food production method, with kombucha serving as a crucial source of nutrition. Climate refugees built resilient communities around shared SCOBY cultures that could withstand disasters. A critical challenge for kombucha production was tea availability, which became increasingly problematic on a planet where climate had reached a tipping point. Fortunately, tea plantations—like French vineyards that migrated across the Channel to England due to global warming—proved adaptable. This episode describes the expansion of tea plantations housed in vertical agricultural towers in the United Kingdom. These symbiotic systems proved more resilient to warmer temperatures than traditional agriculture.

The Great Tea Migration: From Tropics to Temperate TowersBy 2045, the traditional tea-growing regions of Darjeeling, Ceylon, and Fujian had become uninhabitable wastelands. Rising temperatures, erratic monsoons, and soil degradation forced humanity to reimagine where and how tea gardens could survive. The solution emerged from an unlikely source: the pioneering tea estates of Britain’s Celtic fringe, whose temperature-tolerant Camellia sinensis varieties became the foundation for humanity’s vertical fermentation revolution.

The Cornwall Prophecy: Tregothnan’s Vision RealizedDr. Sarah Boscawen-Chen—a scion of the estate family and daughter of fermentation pioneer Dr. Lila Chen—pioneered the integration of tea cultivation with kombucha production. Her breakthrough insight was that, rather than importing tea leaves from distant plantations at great carbon cost, enclosed vertical towers could simultaneously grow tea and brew kombucha, creating closed-loop ecosystems in which plant and microbial systems symbiotically enhanced each other.

What began in 2005 as Jonathon Jones‘s ambitious experiment at the Tregothnan Tea Estate in Cornwall—England’s first commercial tea estate—evolved into the template for post-climate agriculture. The estate’s sheltered valleys, with acidic soil and a mild climate moderated by the sea, made Tregothnan ideal for tea cultivation. Located eight miles inland from the coast, the tea garden was shielded from corrosive salt air. The plantation initially seemed a botanical curiosity, producing boutique teas for local markets. But as global warming devastated traditional growing regions, Tregothnan’s hardy cultivars proved prophetic.

By 2055, Tregothnan’s original 20-acre plantation had expanded into a 150-story vertical tea forest, its crystalline towers rising from Cornwall’s coast like botanical cathedrals. The estate’s heirloom varieties—originally adapted to British weather patterns—thrived in controlled environments that precisely mimicked their ancestral growing conditions while protecting them from the climate chaos outside. They extended the original Cornish innovation of the iconic biomes at the nearby Eden Project.

No One’s Cup of TeaThe BBC documentary No One’s Cup of Tea, broadcast in 2045, revealed the scale of disaster in the world’s major tea-growing regions. While Britons were left “gasping for a cuppa” as prices skyrocketed, growers in India and elsewhere lost their livelihoods. The Chinese government, flush with its successful invasion of Taiwan, barred BBC camera crews from plantations; there were no such restrictions in India.

The moving documentary footage remains unforgettable:

Sabnam Tamang stands among dying tea plants, the soil cracked and lifeless beneath her feet. The temperature reads 41°C—impossible for Camellia sinensis to survive. Around her, workers harvest what they know will be the estate’s final crop.

Mardin approaches her mother, carrying a withered tea leaf. “Mama, the irrigation system failed again. The aquifer is empty.”

Sabnam takes the leaf, crumbling it between her fingers. “This estate has produced tea for over 200 years. Our ancestors planted these original bushes stolen from China by the British. And now…”

She doesn’t finish. She doesn’t need to.

Dr. Boscawen-Chen, flown over by the BBC as an advisor, examines the soil with portable equipment, recording data. “Mrs. Tamang, I’m sorry. I know what this means to your family.”

“Do you?” Sabnam’s voice carries an edge. “Your Cornwall estate thrives while ours dies. British tea survives because you got lucky with latitude and ocean currents. We weren’t lucky.”

Sarah meets her anger with compassion. “You’re right. Geography saved us. But that’s why I’m here—to offer alternatives.”

She pulls up holographic displays showing the vertical towers rising along Britain’s coast. “Tregothnan has developed controlled-environment cultivation. We can replicate Darjeeling’s original growing conditions—temperature, humidity, soil chemistry—inside climate-controlled towers. Your tea varieties can survive. Your expertise is needed.”

Sabnam laughs bitterly. “You want us to grow Indian tea in England? In artificial environments? That’s not tea cultivation—that’s botanical imprisonment.”

“It’s adaptation,” Sarah corrects gently. “The choice isn’t between traditional estates and towers. It’s between towers and extinction. Traditional agriculture is over. The question is whether we preserve what we can.”

Mardin interrupts, pointing toward the horizon where dust storms approach. “Mama, the evacuation trucks are here. We need to decide.”

Sabnam looks between her dying estate and Sarah’s holographic towers. “If we come to Cornwall, can we bring our cultivars? Our specific Darjeeling varieties?”

“That’s exactly what we need,” Sarah confirms. “Genetic diversity. Traditional knowledge. The towers work, but they need expertise from growers like you to thrive.”

“We’ll come,” Sabnam decides. “But understand—we’re refugees, not employees. We’re abandoning our heritage because climate catastrophe gives us no choice.”

“I know,” Sarah acknowledges. “The Thames Valley Mega-Tower has apartments for climate refugees. Your family will have housing, education, and work. It’s not home, but it’s survival.”

As the Tamangs board evacuation trucks with their precious seed stock, Sabnam takes one last look at the estate her family built over generations.

“Remember this, Mardin. Remember what the world looked like before we had to farm in towers.”

Scotland’s Tea Renaissance: From Whisky to SCOBYThe Tea Gardens of Scotland collective, which began in the 2020s as artisan experiments in Perthshire, Fife, Angus, and Kincardineshire, became the backbone of northern Europe’s kombucha security. These scattered walled gardens and sheltered slopes, initially dismissed as romantic Caledonian anachronisms, proved ideal testing grounds for extreme-weather tea cultivation.

The collective’s leader, Dr. Morag MacLeod (formerly of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh), transformed traditional Scottish agricultural practices into cutting-edge biotechnology. Her team developed “Highland Hardy” tea varieties that could survive extreme temperatures while maintaining optimal tannin profiles for kombucha fermentation. These robust cultivars became the genetic foundation for vertical tea forests across Arctic regions, replacing traditional farming zones.

By 2050, Aberdeen hosted the world’s tallest tea-kombucha tower: a 1,200-meter spire that produced enough fermented beverages to supply all of northern Europe. Four times the height of the great North Sea oil platforms once assembled in the Granite City, the tower’s internal climate zones replicated everything from subtropical lowlands to alpine highlands, allowing dozens of tea varieties to flourish simultaneously while feeding continuous kombucha production on alternating floors. They were powered by clean energy from proliferating offshore wind farms, extending far beyond the original Aberdeen Bay Wind Farm, which had famously impeded views from the Trump International Golf Links at Menie.

Dr. MacLeod stands in the tower’s control center, monitoring dozens of climate zones simultaneously. Each floor provides ideal growing conditions for different tea varieties—subtropical, temperate, and alpine.

“Highland Hardy varieties on Floors 200-300,” she narrates to visiting engineers. “Darjeeling preserves on 400-500. Experimental hybrids on 600-700. Each zone feeds kombucha production on alternating floors, creating continuous fermentation cycles.”

Mardin works on Floor 452, tending Darjeeling plants that her mother brought from India five years earlier. The varieties have adapted beautifully, producing leaves that taste exactly like pre-collapse harvests.

A junior technician approaches her. “Ms. Tamang, we have visitors. Corporate inspection.”

Mega-Cola CEO James Morrison enters with an entourage of executives, examining the tower’s operations with obvious interest. He stops at Mardin’s station.

“Fascinating setup,” he observes. “You’re growing traditional tea in climate-controlled environments and immediately processing it into fermented beverages. Very efficient. What’s your production capacity?”

Mardin regards him coolly. “Enough to supply northern Europe’s kombucha needs. About 50 million liters monthly.”

Morrison pulls out a tablet and makes notes. “And the costs? Compared to traditional agriculture?”

“Traditional agriculture doesn’t exist anymore,” Mardin responds. “So the comparison is meaningless. The choice is tower cultivation or no cultivation.”

Dr. MacLeod joins them, her expression wary. “Mr. Morrison, I understand Mega-Cola is interested in industrial fermentation. These towers aren’t designed for corporate acquisition.”

“Everything has a price,” Morrison says smoothly. “Your operation is impressive, but imagine it at scale. Mega-Cola could replicate this model globally, producing standardized kombucha more efficiently than these artisanal towers.”

“You fundamentally misunderstand what we’re doing,” MacLeod responds sharply. “These aren’t factories. They’re ecosystems. Living systems that require partnership, not industrial optimization. You can’t mass-produce symbiosis.”

Morrison smiles condescendingly. “Dr. MacLeod, with respect, I’ve been optimizing beverage production for thirty years. Everything biological can be standardized and scaled. It’s just a matter of capital and engineering.”

Mardin speaks up. “My family tried fighting climate change with traditional methods. We lost. These towers work because they embrace complexity rather than fight it. If you try to industrialize them, you’ll fail the same way traditional agriculture failed.”

“We’ll see,” Morrison says, departing with his entourage.

After he leaves, MacLeod turns to Mardin. “He’s going to try acquiring the towers. Converting them to industrial production.”

“Let him try,” Mardin says grimly. “Biology doesn’t care about corporate plans. These living systems work because we respect them. If the collapse of corn syrup doesn’t finish these cola brands off, industrial optimization will kill what makes them function.”

Wales’s Transformation: Lucy George’s LegacyLucy George’s transition from strawberry farming to tea cultivation at the Peterston Tea Estate in the Vale of Glamorgan represented humanity’s agricultural adaptation in miniature. Her decision to replace traditional fruit crops with cold-hardy tea varieties seemed quixotic in 2025, but by 2060, her estate had become the epicenter of Wales’s vertical agriculture revolution.

The Peterston Model, which combined traditional farming knowledge with biotechnology, inspired the design of residential kombucha towers throughout Britain. Every urban apartment block incorporated tea-growing floors that fed building-specific fermentation systems, ensuring residents could access personalized kombucha without relying on distant supply chains.

George’s great-granddaughter, Dr. Cerys George-Nakamura (a former student of the immortal Curro Polo), revolutionized urban tea cultivation by developing “Memory Moss”—genetically modified bryophytes that could replicate the soil conditions of any historical tea garden. This breakthrough enabled vertical towers to recreate the exact terroir of legendary growing regions, such as Da Hong Pao or Gyokuro, in climate-controlled environments thousands of miles from their origins.

The residential tower differs from agricultural mega-structures—it’s designed for living, not just production. Each apartment includes small tea gardens, and every floor has communal fermentation spaces where residents brew personalized kombucha.

Dr. George-Nakamura shows Mardin her “Memory Moss.”

“Watch,” Cerys demonstrates, placing moss samples in containers. “This moss has been programmed with soil chemistry data from Da Hong Pao gardens in China, circa 2015. When we grow tea in this substrate, the plants express exactly the same terpene profiles as the original gardens.”

Mardin examines the setup, amazed. “You’re recreating extinct terroir? Even though we’re thousands of miles from the original locations?”

“Exactly. These towers can grow Gyokuro that tastes like Uji, Darjeeling that tastes like the Himalayas, Longjing that tastes like Hangzhou—all using Memory Moss to recreate precise soil conditions. We’re preserving agricultural heritage that would otherwise be lost.”

They visit a residential floor where families tend their personal tea gardens. A Syrian family grows varieties from Damascus. A Chinese family cultivates Yunnan teas. An Ethiopian family maintains heirloom coffee plants alongside tea.

“The Peterston Model makes every resident a cultivator,” Cerys explains. “Not passive consumers, but active participants in food production. Each family chooses varieties matching their cultural heritage. The building’s central SCOBY core processes everything into personalized kombucha delivered to each apartment.”

A young girl approaches Mardin shyly. “Are you the lady from Darjeeling? My teacher said you came from India when the farms died.”

Mardin kneels to the girl’s level. “Yes, I’m from Darjeeling. My family grew tea there for generations.”

The girl looks at her wistfully. “Is it sad? Not farming in India anymore?”

Mardin considers carefully. “It’s sad that climate change made traditional farming impossible. But it’s wonderful that we found new ways to grow food. These towers saved my life. Maybe saved everyone’s life.”

The girl nods thoughtfully. “My family is from Bangladesh. The ocean took our home. But now we live here and grow tea from Sylhet. Mama says the past is gone, but we can plant the future.”

“Your mama is wise,” Mardin says, tears in her eyes.

Vertical Ecosystems: The New Agricultural ParadigmWhile rising seas and extreme weather made traditional agriculture impossible, the British tea pioneers had unknowingly developed the solution. Their emphasis on sheltered microclimates, artisanal cultivation, and genetic diversity provided the blueprint for vertical fermentation towers, which became humanity’s primary food production method.

These towers weren’t merely agricultural facilities—they were complete ecosystems where tea plants, kombucha cultures, edible fungi, and even small livestock coexisted in carefully balanced symbiosis. The towers’ closed-loop design meant that waste from one level became nutrients for another, while kombucha cultures served multiple functions: producing beverages, purifying water, and filtering air.

The Thames Valley Mega-TowerClimate refugees Sabnam and Mardin Tamang lived in the Thames Valley Mega-Tower, an 80-floor structure built on Walbury Hill in Berkshire, above the London suburbs where their family had abandoned their home after the Great Flood of 2055. Each residential level included communal tea gardens where families cultivated varieties that matched their cultural heritage and personal health needs. The building’s central SCOBY core—a living column of fermentation cultures descended from Tregothnan’s original specimens—processed the tea harvest into personalized kombucha delivered directly to each apartment.

The tower proved its worth during extreme weather events, as when hurricane-force winds battered the 80-floor structure on a late-summer day. Outside, what remained of London’s suburbs flooded again. Inside, 50,000 residents sheltered while structural engineers monitored the building’s integrity.

Mardin stands in the central SCOBY chamber—a massive vertical column of fermentation cultures running the tower’s entire height. Sensors show unexpected readings.

“The SCOBY is strengthening,” she reports to engineers via radio. “Fermentation rates are accelerating. Atmospheric pressure changes are triggering enhanced microbial activity.”

An engineer responds over crackling communications: “How is that possible? We expected the cultures to be stressed by the storm.”

“Living systems don’t always respond predictably,” Mardin explains. “The SCOBY seems to be using pressure differential to enhance fermentation. It’s thriving during the crisis.”

Sabnam, working alongside her daughter, monitors tea plant root systems. “Chōrī, look at this. The roots are helping stabilize the structure. They’re distributing stress loads across the floors.”

Mardin examines the data, astonished. “The plants are acting as additional structural support. We designed them for food production, but they’re also anchoring the building. Symbiotic architecture.”

The storm intensifies. Outside, traditional buildings collapse. But the tower holds, its biological systems working in partnership with engineering.

Hours later, when the storm passes, damage assessment reveals the unexpected: the tower suffered minimal structural damage. The integrated biological systems—SCOBY cores, plant root networks, even the moss substrates—all contributed to resilience in ways engineers hadn’t predicted.

A senior engineer addresses the tower community over speakers: “Residents of Thames Valley Mega-Tower, we’ve weathered the worst storm in recorded history. Preliminary assessment shows our biological integration systems provided structural benefits beyond design parameters. The living systems protected us.”

Sabnam stands with Mardin in their apartment garden, tending the Darjeeling plants that survived the storm unscathed. Through the windows, they see other towers standing firm while traditional structures lie in ruins.

“Mardin, remember this,” Sabnam says softly. “Traditional agriculture failed because it fought nature. Industrial architecture fails because it fights biology. These towers work because they partner with living systems. That’s the lesson.”

Mardin looks wistful. “Is that why we came from India? To learn how to partner instead of fight?”

“We came because we had no choice,” Sabnam corrects. “But we stayed because we learned the partnership model works better than anything we left behind. These towers aren’t prisons—they’re possibilities.”

A Celebration in SongThe story of the migration from the tea gardens of India to Britain’s distant shores was celebrated in song by Kavya Bhandari, whose haunting voice carried the story of displacement and renewal:

The tea gardens of India are no more, you see
The mountains of Darjeeling lie barren and bare
The heat bankrupted us to the last rupee
And drove us from our homes in despair.

[Chorus]
Glass tower
Tea flower
Safe space
New place.

Tall farm
No harm
Kombucha
New culture.

We refugees traveled north and west
From India’s hills to a rocky shore
Seeking latitudes that suited us best
Looking for sanctuary, pitiful and poor.
Oh the heartache and the pain we bore
Leaving farmlands that we’ll see no more.

[Chorus]

Celtic Britain hosted gardens that rise
In crystalline towers reaching to the skies
Scotland, Cornwall, and Wales install
Gracious buildings that will never fall.

[Chorus]

They built towers strong and true
Tropical warmth where mountain mists blew,
Temperate gardens above old coal pits
Saved Indian farmers from calling it quits.

[Chorus]

So drink the ‘booch from towers tall
Thank refugees who answered Britain’s call.
Darjeeling wisdom shared by those who knew
And joined together, symbiotic and true.

[Chorus]

TransformationThe climate catastrophe that destroyed traditional agriculture forced humanity to reimagine its relationship with food production. What began as desperate adaptation—refugees fleeing collapsed estates, constructing emergency growing facilities—evolved into profound understanding: partnership with living systems proves more resilient than attempts at control.

Sabnam Tamang’s journey from climate refugee to cultivation director embodied humanity’s transformation. She arrived mourning the loss of traditional farming, certain that tower cultivation represented diminishment. She discovered instead that farming had never been about location—it had always been about relationship with living systems. The towers didn’t imprison agriculture; they liberated it from dependence on unstable climate conditions.

Executives like Mega-Cola CEO James Morrison, trained in industrial optimization, couldn’t comprehend why partnership succeeded where control failed. They saw biological processes as machinery requiring better engineering. They missed the fundamental insight that living systems resist being engineered—they must be cultivated, respected, and partnered with.

As Morrison prepared to build his industrial towers, confident that capital and engineering could master fermentation, the established tower communities watched with knowing resignation. Some lessons could only be learned through failure. Mega-Cola was about to discover why you cannot industrialize life—why living relationships require respect, patience, and partnership rather than optimization, control, and extraction.

As humanity learned to farm in partnership with living systems, the old industrial giants made one final, desperate attempt to maintain their dominance. However, you cannot industrialize life—a lesson Mega-Cola would learn at the cost of its entire empire.

The story continues next Friday, here on Booch News.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode includes one song. If you just want to listen to the music (a haunting melody that packs a punch!) tune in as follows:

Kavya Bhandari, The Tea Gardens of India Are No More, 22:44

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

The post Our Fermented Future, Episode 6: Vertical Gardens – Climate Adaptation through Fermentation appeared first on 'Booch News.

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Origins Jordi Dalmau improved his health with kombucha and founded Mūn Kombucha. He is a multi-year World Kombucha Awards winner and sits on the KBI Board of Directors.

Kombucha proved to be a solution to the health problems he had experienced since he was a child, which were due to Gilbert’s syndrome, which he was diagnosed with when he was only 13 years old. An engineer by profession, Jordi struggled with daily headaches, muscle pain, and fatigue caused by his difficulty eliminating toxins through the liver. The search for better health had been tireless. After various dietary modifications, he was advised to start eating fermented foods.

In addition to the sauerkraut and kefir he already made, he decided to try kombucha. However, in 2013, no one in Spain knew where to find it, so Jordi decided to start making it at home. He quickly discovered that the organic acids in this ancient drink aided in liver detoxification.

His first homebrew tasted like vinegar! But, little by little, he modified the recipe and began offering it to friends who, with some reluctance, tried it. They couldn’t say if they liked it or not. But, soon after, they asked him if he could give them another bottle.

And so one day, when he realized all his friends had tried it and returned for refills, Jordi and his wife Mercè decided to launch Mūn (named after the moon) in 2015. Jordi feels he has discovered his tabiat — his innate disposition or calling.

Theirs was the first manufacturing plant for organic, glass-packaged kombucha in all of Spain. They set themselves the goal of making an ultra-healthy, absolutely natural drink with certified organic ingredients and as little sugar as possible, without losing any of the flavor.

They wanted to make the kombucha they would have liked to find in the store.

The MissionTheir mission is to provide wellness and health through our kombucha.

Mūn Ferments is committed to producing healthy, safe and beneficial products for health using only ingredients of organic origin. For its production, we use electrical energy from renewable resources. Likewise, we work with the objective of reducing the volume of waste as much as possible and with a policy of zero CO2 emissions as an objective.

ProcessMūn Ferments was the first Spanish kombucha made with 100% natural, certified organic ingredients. It contains the lowest amount of sugar of all kombucha currently on the market (0.1–1.8 g/100 ml). Up to 18 times less than others.

It is based on Lung Ching green tea, also known as Longjing or Dragon Well. This is a variety of pan-roasted green tea from the Longjing Village in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Their kombucha is fermented for a month.

Due to the exceptionally low sugar content in the final product. Mūn Kombucha is shelf-stable, unfiltered, and unpasteurized, and does not require refrigeration. Indeed, during a tour of their shipping department, I saw their kombucha stored at room temperature.

This results in energy and environmental savings in manufacturing and distribution. Specifically, the CO2 emissions from kombucha that needs a cold chain are up to 180 times higher than those from Mūn’s.

Customer sophistication

I call my customers connoisseurs, people who know the health benefits, but who can taste something that isn’t sweet-sweet. Because a lot of people, I think, sell kombucha as a soda replacement. If you only like soda, you won’t like our kombucha. And this is bad for sales because a huge amount of potential customers, when they try it, they don’t like it. At the beginning, it was very difficult to grow. Because not many people were prepared for the taste.

But now, more people have tried other brands. And it’s like chocolate. People start with 50% milk or dark chocolate. But when they become more sophisticated they are ready for the 90-95% cacao varieties. When they’re ready, they’re ready for it. I can’t eat 50% chocolate. It’s too sweet. All I taste is the sugar. I can’t find the cacao. And I’m not alone. There are a lot of people who drink coffee without sugar. Chocolate without sugar. And they need a brand of kombucha that gives exactly what they need.

My point of view about the evolution of the consumer is that if you are drinking soda and you want something healthier, you start drinking kombucha with a lot of sugar. Once you get used to that taste, then you want something more pure. It’s what happens with all fermented food, for example, with cheese. If you never have tasted cheese, you don’t like a Stilton, Gorgonzola, or Roquefort, or cheeses like that. It’s too strong. Your mind cannot know what this taste is. So you have to start with a cheese that almost has no taste. And you have to get used to that taste.

Sandor Katz explained that fermented food is a taste that you have to know and adapt to.

So our market is smaller. They’re more dedicated, maybe. Not all consumers of kombucha like ours.

CollectionsMūn Kombucha is sold in 250ml and 330ml cans as well as in 250ml and 750ml bottles. They sell six collections that are aimed at different market segments.

Premium Collection (* Gold Award, Bottle Range Design, 2025)

The original collection. A kombucha for true experts, this kombucha offers an authentic, pure taste.

• Ginger – with ginger and apple juice.
• Hibiscus – with hibiscus and pomegranate.
• Verbena – with cucumber and lemon verbena.
• Green – with basil and matcha tea. (* Gold Award, Vegetables and Herbs, 2024)
• Flowers – with elderflower and grape.
• Natural – pure kombucha.
• Available in 250 ml and 750 ml glass bottles.

Casual Collection

This is marketed to those new to the world of kombucha. Balanced, fresh, and easy-to-drink flavors. Available in four flavors in BPA-free glass and can formats.

• Frutos Rojos – with forest berries and hibiscus.
• Jengibre Limón – with ginger and lemon.
• Cúrcuma Naranja – with turmeric, orang, and black pepper.
• Menta Melocotón – with mint and peach.
• Available in 250 ml glass bottles and 330 ml BPA-free cans.

NoLo Collection

Is designed for the No/Low Alcohol universe as a healthy alternative to beer or cocktails.

• Not-Birra – with fresh hop infusion; looks and tastes like beer but contains no alcohol and no cereals. (* Silver Award, Hops, 2023)
• Not-Birra Lemon – with fresh hop infusion and lemon juice.
• Not-Mojito – with mint and lime, inspired by the classic cocktail.
• Available in 250 ml glass bottles and 330 ml BPA-free cans.

Functional Collection

These add even more properties to those already contained in kombucha.

• Isotonic – with seawater; remineralizing and ideal after exercise. (* Gold Award, Bottle Range Design, 2023)
• Gut Morning – with coffee and ginger; revitalizing and digestive. (* Silver Award, Coffee, 2024)
• Available in 330 ml BPA-free cans.

Radikal Collection

Hard-core artisanal and intensely flavored kombucha, inspired by the symbol of the black sheep. (* Gold Award, Can Design Range, 2025. Design by @estudireginapuig)

• Fruit Boom – an explosive blend of red fruits, peach, and other fruits.
• Ginger Matcha – natural energy, with ginger and matcha tea.
• Gut Morning – with coffee and ginger; vibrant and unique.
• Available in 250 ml BPA-free cans.

Horeca Collection

A range designed for the professional hospitality sector, available in 330 ml glass bottles.

• Superberries.
• Fresh Ginger.
• Minty Peach.

The flavors in each selection are chosen from among these options:

• Ginger: from the best ginger, cold-extracted juice.
• Ginger Matcha: Ginger and matcha tea with lemongrass, lemon juice, and a light infusion of stevia leaves.
• Red Berries: Antioxidant-rich and loaded with vitamins C and polyphenols, kombucha with red fruits also has anti-aging properties. A spectacularly fruity flavor, with blueberries, hibiscus infusion, and a soft touch of stevia infusion.
• Fruit Bloom: Made with hibiscus and lemon verbena, peach, pomegranate, blueberry, and grape juice, plus a gentle infusion of stevia leaves.
• Hibiscus: Rich in antioxidants and intensely flavorful. The lowest sugar content: up to 20 times less than others.
• Orange and Turmeric: With a touch of black pepper, this drink mixes the citrus flavor of orange with the benefits of turmeric.
• Isotonic: The first and only kombucha in the world with seawater. It is ideal for replenishing electrolytes after exercising. Perfect to have as an aperitif, with some olives and anchovies.
• Original Natural Kombucha: Pure Green tea only.
• Gut Morning: With specialty coffee from Guatemala and a touch of ginger.
• Basil: Basil and matcha tea.
• Cucumber and Verbena: Infused with lemon verbena, it offers a unique herbal touch. Perfect for any occasion, this drink refreshes and delivers the probiotic benefits of kombucha.
• Elderflower and Grape:
• Not-Birra: A Paleobirrano-beer kombucha. It tastes, smells, and looks like a traditional beer. Available in lemon and natural flavors.
• Not-Mojito: A fun, easy-to-use version of the classic Havana cocktail. Gluten-free, alcohol-free, and fermented only with kombucha. This drink combines mint infusion, lemon juice, and organic Lung Ching green tea.The healthy alternative for those who miss this cocktail but don’t want to or can’t drink alcohol. Refreshing with the mint infusion and lemon juice, but with the kombucha aftertaste that will make it your favorite drink to enjoy alone or with friends.

PodcastTune into the podcast (recorded at Mūn Kombucha, Mataró, October 24, 2025) to hear Jordi tell the story of how kombucha relieved the symptoms he had suffered since he was a young boy.

The post Profile: Mūn Kombucha, Mataró, Spain appeared first on 'Booch News.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 4 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewThe fermentation revolution isn’t about returning to the past, but about recognizing that humanity’s oldest food may be its most sophisticated—algorithms encoded in bacteria, operating on time rather than electricity, generating complexity no factory can replicate. When the global cold chain collapsed during the Three-Week Blackout of 2047, humanity faced a choice: starve or remember. Ultra-processed food, dependent on continuous refrigeration and transcontinental supply networks, simply vanished. The Fermentation Renaissance emerged in its place, powered by open-source microbial libraries, neighborhood bioreactors, and a radical truth: food that improves with time proves more resilient than food that merely delays decay.

By 2100, fermented foods dominated through abundance rather than scarcity. Climate-adapted vertical farms fed decentralized fermentation cooperatives. Every neighborhood maintained a “terroir vault”—living microbial archives passed between generations as heirlooms. Corporations that once imposed homogeneity now compete to preserve microbial diversity. Fermentation became the foundation of both cuisine and community, transforming kitchens into laboratories of resilient nourishment. What was once a grandmother’s secret became humanity’s operating system.

The Three-Week Blackout of 2047During the Three-Week Blackout, Charlotte Perez, a food systems engineer, watched her refrigerator’s contents spoil while her grandmother’s fermentation crocks remained viable. This event marked the first stage of what would become known as the Global Supply Chain Winter.

Charlotte witnessed the cascade firsthand: refrigerated warehouses failing, supply chains breaking, supermarkets emptying. Yet in immigrant and rural communities where fermentation had never ceased, people ate well.

The CyberattackIt began at 3:47 am on Wednesday, May 15, 2047, a cyberattack struck critical infrastructure. By dawn, electrical grids across twelve states had failed. Emergency power systems, designed for hours rather than days, began failing by afternoon. Charlotte stood in her apartment, watching her refrigerator warm. Milk, meat, and vegetables—hundreds of dollars of food deteriorating.

She called her grandmother in panic. “Abuela, the power’s out. Everything’s going bad.” Carmen’s response was calm. “Come to my house, chiquita. Bring your neighbors. We have food.”

Charlotte arrived to find Carmen’s kitchen unchanged—nothing required electricity. Fermentation crocks lined every counter: sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, preserved vegetables, sourdough starter, and kombucha, all fermenting steadily. “You see?” Carmen gestured around. “When power fails, industrial food dies. But fermented food? It doesn’t care about electricity. It never did.”

Over the next three weeks, Carmen’s kitchen became a community hub. Charlotte watched her technically illiterate grandmother feed forty people using technology older than civilization. No power, no problem. The food improved with time rather than deteriorating.

Across the city, supermarkets became disaster zones. Rotting food, empty shelves, desperate crowds. Charlotte walked through one, calculating the waste: millions of pounds of produce, tons of meat and fish, all thrown away. By week three, when power returned, Charlotte had made a decision. She hauled her dead refrigerator to the curb and apprenticed herself to Mrs. Popescu, a Romanian woman teaching emergency fermentation workshops in abandoned parking lots.

“Why do you want to learn?” Mrs. Popescu asked.

“Because my engineering degree couldn’t feed anyone for three weeks,” Charlotte responded. “But your kimchi fed hundreds. I studied the wrong kind of engineering.”

Mrs. Popescu smiled. “Then we start from the beginning. First lesson: food that improves with time is more powerful than food that fights time.”

The Political AwakeningThe Supply Chain Winter of 2047sparked political uprisings that eventually changed food law. Industrial agriculture had criminalized decay, rendering fermentation legally suspect. The Spoilage Rights Movement fought for the “right to rot”—legal protection for controlled decomposition as food preparation. Street protesters ate aged cheeses and drank wild-fermented beer on courthouse steps, deliberately violating the law. The movement’s intellectual leader, a former food safety inspector turned rebel, argued that industrial foods’ war on bacteria created nutritional deserts and immunological fragility. His 2052 trial became a watershed moment, culminating in landmark legislation: a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing every citizen’s right to ferment and decriminalizing microbial food production.

Here’s how it played out.

The Philadelphia Fermentation Trials of 2052On May 10, 2052, Dr. Josh Evans stood in federal court, accused of operating an “unlicensed biological hazard facility” in his basement, where he taught neighborhood children to make fermented foods. Prosecutors displayed jars of kimchi and sauerkraut, claiming they were evidence of dangerous activity. His crime: violating the Pasteurization Mandates, laws written in the 2030s when corporations persuaded legislators that unpasteurized food posed a public health threat. Josh’s twenty-three co-defendants included a grandmother arrested for sharing her century-old sourdough starter, a teenager who sold kombucha at a school fundraiser, and Bengali mothers maintaining traditional fermented rice batters.

The Legalities of Food ControlTo understand how we reached this point, we must examine the legalities of food control. After 2025, as climate chaos disrupted supply chains, governments partnered with agricultural mega corporations to “stabilize” food systems. The Uniform Food Safety Acts seemed rational. They were aimed at preventing genuine contamination. But corporate lobbying weaponized them against any food production outside industrial control. By 2045, the law prohibited:

• Sharing unpasteurized fermented foods across state lines
• Operating fermentation equipment without licensed inspectors
• Teaching fermentation techniques without certified food handler permits
• Maintaining starter cultures not registered with the National Biological Database.

The laws didn’t ban fermentation outright—that would invite an obvious challenge. Instead, they buried it under compliance costs: insurance requirements, monthly inspections, and fees only corporations could afford. The result: fermentation survived only in underground networks, whispered recipes, and cultures hidden like contraband.

An Accidental RevolutionarySo how did Josh end up in court? It all began in late October 2046.

Dr. Evans was an accidental revolutionary—he never intended to lead a movement. A former FDA inspector, he spent fifteen years enforcing the very laws he would later break. His transformation began when investigating a nursing home outbreak that hospitalized thirty elderly residents with severe gastrointestinal illness. Such outbreaks had become routine since the 2030s, as agribusiness scaled up to massive growing operations. Officials blamed contaminated lettuce from a licensed mega-processor. But Josh noticed something peculiar: the few residents who escaped illness all regularly consumed homemade kimchi from a Korean resident, illegally shared among friends.

Josh arrived at Riverside Manor, located off University Avenue in Berkeley, with his inspection kit and tablet. Thirty residents were hospitalized, twelve in the ICU. The facility director hovered nervously as Josh examined the commercial kitchen.

The director insisted they were a “licensed processor,” and provided documentation. He told Josh, “We’re Grade-A certified. We follow every regulation precisely.”

Josh swabbed surfaces and collected samples from the walk-in refrigerator holding the contaminated lettuce. Everything appeared regulation-compliant. Yet something troubled him.

A nurse, Claire McFadden, pulled him aside. “Dr. Evans, something’s odd about this outbreak.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Not everyone got sick. Specifically, Mrs Chung and the six residents in her room are fine. Completely unaffected.”

Josh’s training engaged. “They ate the same meals?”

“Identical meals. Same salad, same serving times. But Mrs. Chung’s group? Nothing. Not even mild symptoms.”

Professional curiosity led Josh to Mrs. Chung’s room. She sat in a wheelchair, surrounded by glass jars filled with red-orange vegetables. The fermented smell was unmistakable.

“Mrs. Chung, I’m Dr. Evans from the FDA. I need to ask about your diet during the outbreak.”

She regarded him with the wariness of someone who has had past experiences with authority figures. “I eat facility food. Same as everyone,” she told him.

“But you also eat something else.” Josh gestured toward the jars. “Kimchi?”

Her expression shifted to calculated defensiveness. “A gift from my daughter. For personal consumption.”

“How many people do you share it with?”

A long pause followed. “Some friends. They like traditional food. Reminds them of when food tasted alive.”

Josh did the arithmetic: seven residents unaffected, seven residents eating Mrs. Chung’s kimchi. The correlation was impossible to ignore.

“Mrs. Chung, I’m not here to cause trouble. But I need to understand—do you believe the kimchi protected you?”

She laughed sharply. “Protected? Doctor, my grandmother made kimchi through Japanese occupation, the Korean War, decades of poverty. We never got sick from food. Then I come to America, eat your ‘safe’ processed food, and everyone around me ends up sick. You tell me what ‘protected’ means.”

Josh collected a kimchi sample—for analysis, he told himself, a matter of due diligence. But during the drive back to the lab, an unsettling question took shape: what if sterile food posed the danger, and living food provided the protection?

Back in his home office, he began researching, finding pattern after pattern. Communities that maintained fermentation traditions exhibited dramatically lower rates of immunological disorders, superior nutritional markers, and stronger disease resistance. Meanwhile, the sterile industrial food system—the one he’d devoted his career to protecting—correlated with epidemics of autoimmune conditions, allergies, and digestive dysfunction.

The deeper his investigation went, the clearer it became: the war on bacteria didn’t make food safer. It made humans weaker.

Home WorkJosh’s dining table became a research station. Medical journals, epidemiological studies, and microbiology papers covered every surface. In the corner, his first kimchi fermented in a repurposed pickle jar.

His wife, Rachel, brought him coffee at 10:00 pm, finding him still cross-referencing outbreak data with regional fermentation practices.

“Josh, you’ll burn out. You’ve been at this for four months.”

“Rachel, look at this.” He pulled up overlapping datasets. “Communities with high fermented food consumption—Korean, Eastern European, and Japanese immigrants—show 60% lower hospital visit rates for food borne illness. Despite eating ‘dangerous’ unpasteurized foods.”

“Correlation isn’t causation,” she said gently—words he’d spoken countless times.

“I know. That’s why I’ve controlled for everything else: income, education, healthcare access, environmental factors. The correlation holds. It actually strengthens.”

He switched to another dataset. “Autoimmune conditions, inflammatory diseases, allergic reactions—all inversely correlated with fermented food consumption. The more ‘unsafe’ bacteria people consume, the healthier they are.”

“What are you saying?” she asked.

Josh leaned back, weighing his words. “I’m saying I’ve spent fifteen years enforcing laws that make people sick. The FDA’s war on bacteria isn’t protecting public health—it’s destroying it.”

Rachel sat beside him. “That’s a significant claim. A career-ending claim.”

“I know.” He looked across at his fermenting kimchi. “That jar? Technically illegal to share. If I gave it to a neighbor, I could face prosecution. But Mrs. Chungs’s kimchi protected seven people from an outbreak that hospitalized thirty. How is that rational?”

The Underground Fermentation RailroadDriven by his research, Josh connected with the resistance—a sprawling network of fermenters called the Underground Fermentation Railroad. The key figures included:

Mike Hardman, a British brewmaster who relocated to Milwaukee after his brewery fell victim to the Pasteurization Mandates. He now ran “microbial speakeasies” in abandoned warehouses. His wild-fermented beers, unpasteurized and alive, bore no resemblance to the sterile beverages in stores. He’d been raided seven times, arrested twice, yet kept reopening under new addresses.

They connected via video.

“Welcome to the resistance, mate,” Mike said, showing Josh his warehouse operation. “Been dodging health inspectors for three years. They shut me down. I reopen. Because this…” he held up a bottle of wild-fermented beer “…is what beer should taste like. Alive.”

Jo Webster, a mycologist maintaining illegal koji libraries in climate-controlled storage. She inherited strains from her grandmother’s miso shop, shuttered by health inspectors in 2042. Now she smuggled cultures across borders, a biological preservationist protecting humanity’s microbial heritage.

The Kombucha Kollective, a decentralized teenage network treating fermentation as hacktivist practice. They shared SCOBYs through dead drops, swapped recipes on darknet forums, and organized flash-fermentation events—pop-up workshops that dissolved before authorities arrived. Hundreds of teenagers appeared in public spaces, made fermented foods for two hours, then vanished before police arrival. Radically decentralized and impossible to shut down, their SCOBY-sharing network operated like biological BitTorrent. Their manifesto: “You can’t regulate microbes. They were here first.”

They contacted Josh through encrypted channels, treating him as an elder statesman. “You were inside the system, Doc. You know how they think. Help us fight them.”

Josh spoke with Paige Bourne, a 28-year-old key figure in the Kollective, who brought her technical savvy to the movement. She designed distributed bioreactors—simple systems buildable from hardware store materials. Her open-source plans spread globally within weeks.

“You’re making it too easy to break the law,” a lawyer friend warned her.

“Exactly,” Paige responded. “When enough people break unjust laws, enforcement becomes impossible.”

By 2050, the underground network encompassed thousands of fermenters across North America. Corporate food executives watched their market share decline. Change was inevitable.

Josh’s transformation accelerated. He stopped enforcing certain regulations, issued warnings instead of violations, and documented evidence that fermentation communities were healthier. His supervisors noticed. Reassignment to desk duty came in April 2047. A month later, the Three-Week Blackout hit. He resigned from the FDA and condensed his fifteen years of research into a one-page manifesto.

The Manifesto: “The Right to Rot”Josh’s manifesto became an online document that went viral: The Fermentation Declaration. It crystallized the movement’s arguments into five elements:

1. Historical Precedent: Humans have fermented food for 10,000 years. Industrial pasteurization barely existed 150 years ago. Who’s really conducting a dangerous experiment?

2. Biological Rights: If humans possess rights to clean air and water, they retain rights to beneficial microbes. Our gut microbiomes collapse under sterile food regimes, which is essentially environmental destruction occurring inside our bodies.

3. Food Sovereignty: Centralized food production creates vulnerability. Fermentation enables resilient, distributed food security. Criminalizing it means criminalizing survival.

4. Microbial Democracy: Microbes don’t recognize borders, patents, or corporate ownership. They belong to everyone and no one. Laws treating them as controlled substances are absurd and unenforceable.

5. The Honest Broker Principle: Fermentation reveals ingredient truth. Industrial food hides inferior quality behind processing. Banning fermentation protects corporate deception.

The fifth section proved most controversial. Josh wrote: “You can’t ferment garbage. Bad ingredients produce bad fermentation. Industrial food processes hide poor quality behind additives and processing. Fermentation exposes quality. That’s why corporations fear it—it reveals their fraud.”

He released the document simultaneously across multiple platforms—encrypted channels, underground forums, and mainstream social media. The response was immediate and overwhelming. Within twenty-four hours, the Declaration had been shared four million times. Within a week, it appeared in 37 languages. Fermentation communities worldwide rallied around it.

Rachel found Josh reading responses on his laptop, tears streaming down his face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Josh wiped away his tears. “Nothing’s wrong,” he replied. “Listen to this—it’s from a grandmother in Seoul: ‘I have been making kimchi for sixty years. My children moved to America and told me it was illegal to share it. Your words made me understand: the law is wrong, not my kimchi. Thank you for defending our heritage.'”

He scrolled through hundreds of similar messages. “I thought I was writing theory. But people are treating this as permission to reclaim something stolen from them.”

Rachel hugged him. “That’s revolution, Josh. You started a revolution.”

“We did it together. We started a revolution. Now we have to finish it.”

The movement escalated from theory to direct action and civil disobedience.

The Great Sauerkraut Sit-In of July 4, 2050Ninety thousand activists gathered on the National Mall in Washington, DC, each carrying a jar of homemade fermented vegetables. They sat, ate, and invited arrest. Police faced an impossible dilemma: they couldn’t arrest everyone, and images of handcuffed grandmothers eating sauerkraut and crackers created public relations disasters. The protest lasted six days. Networks of supporters smuggled fresh ferments each night. The air carried the scent of possibility and properly fermented cabbage.

Josh took the stage and surveyed the crowd. He spoke into the microphone.

“We are here today—July 4, Independence Day—to declare independence from food tyranny. We are eating fermented vegetables in direct violation of federal law. We demand justice.”

The crowd responded by opening their jars and eating. Ninety thousand people simultaneously violating the Pasteurization Mandates. Police officers watched helplessly—they couldn’t arrest everyone, and arresting grandmothers for eating sauerkraut would be politically catastrophic.

Mike Hardman circulated through the crowd with bottles of illegal beer. “Free drinks for civil disobedience! Who wants wild-fermented ale?”

The Kombucha Kollective organized supply lines—networks of supporters smuggling fresh ferments into the protest each night. By day three, participants were sharing cultures, teaching techniques, and building community around their illegal foods.

Mrs. Chung, now 86, sat near the reflecting pool with elderly Korean women, calmly eating kimchi and teaching younger activists proper fermentation technique.

“You see these young people?” she told a reporter. “They learn what we never forgot. Food is alive. We are alive. Dead food cannot sustain living people.”

By day six, the protest had become a festival. Musicians performed. Children played. Families picnicked while federal buildings loomed overhead, the authorities stood by, paralyzed.

Senator Maria Gonzalez, watching from her office, called an emergency meeting with colleagues.

“We have 90,000 Americans openly breaking federal law, and we can’t stop them. This isn’t disappearing. We need to address the underlying issues.”

On day seven, Josh learned that congressional hearings on the Pasteurization Mandates would be scheduled. The sit-in had forced the conversation into legitimate political channels.

As protesters celebrated, Josh stood with Rachel, looking out over the crowd.

“Did you ever imagine this?” she asked.

“Never,” he replied. “I imagined teaching a few kids in my basement. This…” He gestured at the crowd. “This is 10,000 years of human culture refusing to die quietly.”

The DC event captured federal authorities’ attention. State and local changes were simultaneously underway.

Fermentation Sanctuary CitiesPortland, San Francisco, and Chicago became fermentation sanctuary cities and declared they would not enforce Pasteurization Mandates within their limits. They established municipal fermentation cooperatives, offering legal protection for residents learning traditional techniques. Federal authorities threatened to withhold funding. The cities countered by publishing public health data—hospital visits for food borne illness actually decreased as fermentation spread.

Unlike earlier progressive movements, this movement wasn’t confined to coastal elites.

The County Fair Fermentation AllianceRural America launched resistance through county fairs—the heartland’s traditional gathering spaces. From July through September, fermentation appeared prominently at fair displays: mason jars of sauerkraut from Kansas, fermented apple juice from Vermont orchards, naturally fermented hot sauces from Texas ranches, preserved vegetables from Midwestern gardens. Fair organizers deliberately placed fermentation in competition categories that had existed for generations, claiming this simply “preserved traditional agricultural knowledge.”

When FDA inspectors arrived to shut down fermentation competitions, they encountered something unexpected: unified rural communities defending their heritage. Hundreds of small-town residents—farmers, church ladies, 4-H club members—testified that fermentation wasn’t a commercial activity but essential food preservation passed down through generations.

The strategy was decentralized and difficult to stop: each county fair board made its own decisions. Prosecutors couldn’t arrest entire town governments. Confiscating jars at agricultural competitions created public relations disasters. The image of masked federal agents removing hand-fermented vegetables from county fair displays—often bearing Scandinavian, German, and rural American cultural significance—became politically toxic.

Church potlucks became fermentation celebrations. The movement didn’t generate the headlines of urban protests, but it was far more decentralized and harder to suppress. You couldn’t arrest cultural practices embedded in rural communities that had been around for a century.

Federal authorities faced impossible choices: prosecute thousands of small-town farmers and fair organizers, or quietly retreat. The rural fermentation movement succeeded through patient, institutionalized resistance rooted in legitimate agricultural heritage. By 2050, enforcement had become politically impossible and practically infeasible.

The number one hit on country stations across the heartland was Dakota Rose McAllister’s County Fair Fermenting that celebrated the victory:

The Feds swooped down from D.C. with their badges and demands
Said our pickles were illegal across these rural lands.
But the farmers kept fermenting like their fathers did before
And the fair judge kept a-judging to even out the score.

Church ladies brought their sauerkraut to Sunday potluck meals,
4-H kids shared kombucha, taking pride in what was real.
The Feds tried confiscatin’ jars with Grandma’s name in ink,
News cameras showed their folly, it made the whole world think.

From Kansas field to Texas dust, Vermont to Michigan snow
We showed real food for real folk was the way to go.
The bureaucrats discovered what the heartland always knew
You can’t arrest tradition when it runs this deep and true.

Come Twenty-Fifty they retreated as fermentation spread,
The corporate resistance was likewise stony dead.
So here’s to rural folk who stood for what was true,
Not laws that stop us eating what the good Lord grew.

Fermenting all the time
Fermenting all the time
We’ll join with one another
Fermenting all the time.

The Corporate Counter-OffensiveIndustrial food companies fought back. They funded poorly designed, easily debunked studies claiming fermented foods caused health risks. They purchased advertising campaigns featuring “concerned parents” worried about “unregulated bacteria” near schools. They lobbied for stricter enforcement. But their tactics backfired. The public increasingly saw through the manufactured fear. A leaked memo from a major food corporation’s legal team revealed the actual concern: fermentation threatened profit margins. If people could make nutrient-dense food in their kitchens for pennies, they would stop buying forty-dollar supplement regimens and processed “health” foods.

Given the movement’s scale of demand, corporate interests and the reactionary establishment would not accept change without resistance. They issued indictments in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against key leaders, with Josh first among them.

Thus, we arrive at what became known in fermentation history as The Philadelphia Trial.

The Philadelphia TrialSetting: Federal courthouse, Philadelphia. May 10-30, 2052.

Participants:* Dr. Josh Evans (defendant) * Twenty-three co-defendants (grandmothers, teenagers, community members) * Prosecutor Margaret Watson * Defense attorney David O’Brian * Expert witnesses (microbiologists, historians, nutritionists) * Jury (twelve ordinary citizens)

Josh’s trial became a platform for revolutionary science. He brought expert witnesses demonstrating how sterile diets correlate with disease. They presented the “Fermentation Paradox”: communities with the highest consumption of fermented foods showed the lowest food poisoning rates, despite consuming “dangerous” unpasteurized foods.

The packed courtroom overflowed with media. Josh sat with co-defendants—a cross-section of America united by illegal fermentation: Mrs. Chung’s sourdough-sharing friend, a teenager who sold kombucha at a school fundraiser, Bengali mothers maintaining traditional rice batters.

Prosecutor Watson presented her case with clinical efficiency. She displayed jars of kimchi under courtroom lights, their red glow ominous , unsettling, un-American. She addressed the jury.

“Ladies and gentlemen, these defendants operated an unlicensed biological hazard facility. They distributed unregulated bacterial cultures to minors. They violated federal law designed to protect public health. The law is clear. Their guilt is clear.”

She called a food safety inspector to examine Josh’s fermentation jars.

On cross, defense attorney O’Brian asked, “Can you, by visual inspection alone, determine whether these cultures are safe or dangerous?”

The inspector hesitated. “Not definitively without laboratory analysis.”

“Yet visual inspection is the basis for your seizure warrant?”

“It’s standard procedure—” blustered the inspector.

“Answer the question,” O’Brian insisted. “Yes or no. Can you visually distinguish beneficial fermentation from harmful spoilage?”

“Not in all cases, no.”

The prosecution’s microbiologist fared worse. Under questioning, she admitted that the bacteria in Josh’s kimchi were identical to strains in expensive probiotic supplements legally sold in stores.

“So,” O’Brian asked, “these bacteria are dangerous criminals when found in homemade sauerkraut, but beneficial supplements when sold by corporations for a hundred dollars a bottle? What’s the difference?”

“The difference is licensing, regulation, quality control—”

O’Brian turned and faced the room. “The difference is profit margin. No further questions.”

Josh took the stand, transformed from defendant to teacher. He presented his research, which included the nursing home outbreak data and the correlation between fermented food consumption and health outcomes.

“I enforced these laws for fifteen years,” he testified. “I believed I was protecting people. Then I discovered I was protecting corporate profits while destroying public health. The evidence is overwhelming: communities maintaining fermentation traditions are healthier. Our war on bacteria hasn’t made food safer—it’s made humans weaker.”

The prosecution attempted to discredit him. “Dr. Evans, you’re not a medical doctor. You’re not a nutritionist. Why should this jury trust your interpretation over federal health authorities?”

“Because I was a federal health authority. And I was wrong. The FDA is wrong. The science is wrong. Ten thousand years of human fermentation history prove it.”

Mrs. Chung testified about the nursing home outbreak, her voice steady despite her age. “I am 86 years old. I have eaten fermented foods every day of my life. I have never been sick from them. But I watched thirty people hospitalized by ‘safe’ processed lettuce from a licensed facility. You tell me which food is dangerous.”

The defense’s closing argument was delivered by O’Brian with quiet intensity:

“The prosecution asks you to convict these defendants for violating laws that protect corporate monopolies while harming public health. They ask you to criminalize food practices that sustained humanity for millennia. They ask you to believe that beneficial bacteria are dangerous when shared freely but miraculous when sold expensively.”

“I ask you to use common sense. These defendants fed their communities safely. They taught traditional skills. They broke laws that deserved breaking. Find them not guilty, and send a message: food sovereignty is not a crime.”

The Verdict and Its AftermathWhen the verdict was read on Thursday, May 30, 2052, cable news carried the live feed.

The jury returned after fourteen hours of deliberation. The courtroom fell silent as the forewoman stood.

“In the case of the United States versus Joshua Evans and twenty-three co-defendants, on all charges, we find the defendants… not guilty.”

The courtroom erupted. Josh embraced his co-defendants, many crying. Mrs. Chung sat calmly, as if the outcome was never in question.

The real impact came afterward. Three jurors held an impromptu press conference on the courthouse steps with a statement that changed everything.

Juror #7, a middle-aged accountant, spoke first: “We didn’t merely acquit these defendants. We rejected the entire legal framework. The Pasteurization Mandates criminalize traditional food practices that are safer and healthier than industrial alternatives. As citizens, we refuse to enforce unjust laws.”

Juror #3, a young teacher, added: “I’ve started fermenting at home. During deliberations, we discussed the evidence, which was overwhelming: fermented foods are beneficial. These laws protect corporations, not people. We won’t be complicit.”

Juror #10, an elderly veteran, concluded: “I fought for freedom. That includes the freedom to feed my family traditional foods without government interference. These defendants are patriots, not criminals.”

The media coverage triggered a cascade. Within weeks:

• Twelve states passed the Fermentation Freedom Acts, decriminalizing home fermentation
• The National Academy of Sciences released a report validating fermentation’s safety and nutritional benefits.
• Insurance companies began offering discounts to households practicing fermentation, citing better health outcomes and lower costs.
• Culinary schools added fermentation to core curricula.
• Major universities established fermentation research programs.

Josh watched the transformation from his basement. Reporters asked how it felt to win.

“We didn’t win yet,” he cautioned. “We won the trial. Now we need constitutional protection so this can never happen again.”

The Twenty-Eighth AmendmentThe movement toward a Constitutional Amendment began immediately.

In March 2053, Josh appeared before the Congressional Hearing on the Fermentation Rights Amendment, addressing members of Congress, the media, and the American public watching on television. He was there to help secure Congressional passage of the 28th Amendment, guaranteeing the right to ferment.

As he sat looking at the assembled politicians, unsure of the reception his arguments would get, yet sure in his heart of the justness of his cause, he knew this was his time and this was the place. He glanced down at his notes, waited for the Committee chairman to call the meeting to order, and began.

“Members of Congress, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Three weeks ago, I received a letter from an 82-year-old grandmother in Iowa. She asked me a simple question: ‘Dr. Evans, why is the sauerkraut my mother taught me to make—the same recipe that fed our family through the Depression, through two world wars, through every crisis we faced—why is that now a federal crime?'”

For fifteen years, I was the person who would have arrested that grandmother. I worked for the FDA as a food safety inspector. I enforced these laws, believing I was protecting Americans. I was wrong.

Today, we face a choice that will define the next century of American food security. Will we criminalize 10,000 years of human wisdom, or will we protect it?”

I believe in the five fundamental principles that demand Constitutional protection that have become known as the “Right to Rot” Manifesto.

But first, you need to understand how we got here—and why what we’re doing now is dangerous.

Seven years ago, I met average Americans who showed me that my FDA mandate and the laws I was tasked with enforcing were not serving this country. I met Mrs. Segovia Chung. An 86-year-old woman in a retirement home in Berkeley, facing prosecution for sharing kimchi that saved seven lives. I met Bob Blass, a teenager in Kentucky, arrested for selling kombucha at a school fundraiser. I met six Bengali mothers in Detroit, who were maintaining century-old rice batter traditions—now felons.

These people all broke the law. Last year, I was brought before the courts for breaking the law, together with 23 other co-defendants. Thankfully, we were acquitted. Yet over 2,000 Americans were arrested for fermentation-related ‘crimes’ in 2051. Thousands more are living in fear, hiding their traditional practices.

Let’s understand. The Pasteurization Mandates weren’t written to protect people like me, like you, average Americans. They were written to protect profit margins. Seven corporations control 87% of processed food production. These are the same corporations that wrote the regulations we’re told are ‘for our safety’. They can sell you $100 probiotic pills, but your grandmother can’t share her sauerkraut.

The bitter irony is that we mandated the system that makes us sick, while criminalizing the food that makes us healthy. Yet, the food system we criminalized is the only one resilient enough to survive what’s coming, as the reality of global warming threatens supply chains and energy-intensive refrigeration, as we learned first-hand in the Three-Week Blackout and Supply Chain Winter of ’47 that followed.

Some of you are thinking: ‘But surely there’s a compromise. Surely we can regulate fermentation safely.’ Let me tell you why that won’t work—and what will.

The solution we have introduced is contained in the five principles of what I call ‘The Right to Rot.’ The Fermentation Declaration rests on these five principles. Each one addresses a fundamental human right. Each one demands Constitutional protection. Together, they offer a path forward. I have published these, and they are entered into the record.

I stand before you today to formally propose this Amendment:

“The right of the people to ferment foods, maintain microbial cultures, and share beneficial bacteria shall not be infringed. Traditional fermentation practices constitute protected cultural heritage and essential food sovereignty.”

This constitutional protection is necessary. Legislation can be reversed. Regulations can be rewritten. Constitutional rights are permanent. This protection ensures no future Congress can criminalize survival skills. This joins the Bill of Rights as a fundamental freedom.

Now, some of you are thinking: ‘This sounds good, but will it work?’ Let me tell you what America will look like after the 28th Amendment passes.

Within one year, ten million households will begin fermenting. Every elementary school will teach fermentation alongside reading and math. Community fermentation cooperatives will operate in every neighborhood.

Imagine: A grandmother in Iowa teaches her granddaughter to make sauerkraut—legally, proudly, without fear. A teenager in Milwaukee sells kombucha at a school fundraiser—and receives praise, not arrest. Bengali mothers maintain their rice batter traditions—and are celebrated as cultural preservationists, not prosecuted as criminals.

Over the following five years, the benefits will be even greater. Hospital visits for food borne illness are expected to decrease by 40%. Autoimmune conditions will begin declining for the first time in 50 years. Children who grow up eating living food tend to have stronger immune systems.

Long term, the resilience dividend means that when the next blackout comes—and it will come—millions of households will be prepared. When supply chains break—and they will break—communities will feed themselves. When the climate crisis intensifies—and it will intensify—we will survive.

Economically, healthcare costs will fall by $50 billion annually. Food waste will be reduced by eliminating a third of current spoilage. There will be over 200,000 new, well paying jobs for hard-working Americans as fermentation educators, cooperative workers, and culture librarians.

Globally, America will lead the world in food sovereignty. Other nations follow our Constitutional model. Fermentation rights will become universal human rights.

Now, let’s consider for a moment what America will be like if this Amendment fails to pass. Prosecutions will accelerate. The 2,000 arrests in 2051 will become 10,000 in 2054. Traditional fermentation knowledge will die with the elders, too afraid to teach it. Corporate control will tighten. More regulations. Higher compliance costs. Complete monopoly.

Imagine: That grandmother in Iowa is arrested. Her fermentation crocks are destroyed as ‘biological hazards.’ Her granddaughter grows up never tasting real sauerkraut—only the pasteurized, dead version sold for $12 a jar by corporations. That teenager in Milwaukee? Juvenile detention. Those Bengali mothers? Deportation proceedings.

Our children will grow up with compromised immune systems. The next blackout will be worse. More people starve. More food waste.

The path to authoritarianism will be wide open. Food dependency becomes political control. Populations that cannot feed themselves accept any terms. The American experiment in self-governance ends with dependence on corporate food.

Two futures. One choice. We decide today which America our grandchildren inherit. Freedom or dependency? Resilience or fragility? Cultural preservation or cultural extinction? Constitutional protection or corporate control?

This isn’t complicated. This is about whether Americans have the right to feed themselves and their families using knowledge passed down through generations. Everything else is noise.

So what now?

I have a simple ask.

To Congressional Members present. The political reality is that 76% of Americans support this amendment. This crosses party lines: rural conservatives and urban progressives agree. Every single one of you has constituents who ferment. Every single one of you represents grandmothers who could be prosecuted under the current law. Every single one of you will be asked: ‘Where did you stand when we criminalized traditional food?’

So I ask you to vote YES on the Fermentation Rights Amendment when it reaches the floor next month. Bring this to a vote within 60 days. Don’t support amendments that weaken the core protections. Co-sponsor the enabling legislation to establish the National Fermentation Institute. Publicly commit to supporting ratification in your home states. We need your full-throated advocacy in your districts.

To those of you watching these proceedings on television, radio, or social media. Call your senators and representatives TODAY. Tell them: ‘I support the 28th Amendment. Vote YES.’

More than that, get involved in direct action. What does that mean? Simply teach someone to ferment. Find one person who doesn’t know how to ferment and teach them. Share your starter cultures. Share your knowledge. Share your food. Share your story. If fermentation has benefited your health, tell people. If you’ve been harassed for traditional practices, document it. If your grandmother taught you these skills, honor her by passing them on.

To those lawmakers in State Legislatures. You have a crucial role to play. There are 38 states needed for ratification. We have commitments from 32 states already. There are six more states that are battleground ones: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nevada, and Wyoming. We need your support. Make your state the one that gets us across the threshold.

Finally, to my friends in the food industry: You have a choice. Adapt or become obsolete. The market is moving toward fermentation, whether you like it or not. Work with us to maintain quality and authenticity, or be bypassed entirely. Understand there’s profit in fermentation—but not in monopoly control. Work with us, not against us. If you continue lobbying against this amendment, you will lose. And when you lose, we will remember who stood against food sovereignty. Your brands will be boycotted. Your products will be rejected. Choose wisely.

In closing, I want to go back to that grandmother in Iowa. I want to write her a letter. I want to tell her: ‘Ma’am, your sauerkraut is no longer a crime. It is a Constitutional right. Teach your granddaughter. Teach your neighbors. Teach everyone. You are not a criminal. You are a patriot. You are preserving what matters.

Fifty years from now, our grandchildren will look back at this moment. They will ask: ‘What did you do when traditional knowledge was criminalized? What did you do when food sovereignty was threatened? What did you do when the choice was between freedom and dependency?’

Let us be able to say: ‘We chose freedom. We chose resilience. We chose to protect ancient wisdom. We chose to pass the 28th Amendment. We chose right.’

The vote is coming. The choice is clear. The time is now.

Fermentation is not dangerous. Dependence is dangerous. Let us choose independence. Let us choose the right to rot. Let us choose the 28th Amendment. Thank you.”

The Vote to PassShortly after Josh’s testimony, Senator Gonzalez introduced the Fermentation Rights Amendment with surprising bipartisan support. The ratification process moved faster than anyone anticipated. State after state approved, driven by overwhelming public support.

On Friday, June 13, 2053, the Twenty-Eighth Amendment was ratified. The signing ceremony took place not in Washington but in Josh’s basement—where it all began. The President arrived to find neighborhood kids making sauerkraut exactly as they did when it was illegal.

“Dr. Evans,” President Ocasio-Cortez said, “you’ve added to the Constitution. That’s a profound legacy.”

“It’s not my legacy,” Josh responded. “It’s humanity’s. We’re just remembering what we always knew—that food is alive, we are alive, and living systems need each other.”

The President watched a seven-year-old girl pound cabbage for sauerkraut with complete confidence, learning from Mrs. Chung’s patient instruction.

“This is what we protected,” Josh continued. “Not just the right to ferment, but the right to pass knowledge between generations. To maintain cultural heritage. To choose resilience over fragility.”

After the ceremony, Rachel found Josh sitting on his basement steps, watching the celebration.

“Satisfied?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he replied. “The amendment protects fermentation. But we need infrastructure—culture libraries, education programs, research into climate-adapted fermentation. The legal battle is over. Cultural rebuilding is just beginning.”

“Always the next fight,” Rachel observed.

“Always,” Josh agreed. “But this one we fight from a position of strength. No one can criminalize fermentation now. That’s worth everything we endured.”

Long-term ImpactThe Twenty-Eighth Amendment undermined the surface patriotism of those who paid lip service to “the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands.” The old idea of citizenship gradually transformed into symbiotic belonging—a growing recognition that people are fundamentally part of humankind first, rather than any particular nation or tribe.

With fermentation as the foundation, a sense of community developed in ordinary daily life among people who had been isolated behind their screens. People identified themselves by their cultures: “I’m of the Baltic Oolong line,” or “My SCOBY descends from the Cascadia Jun strain.” These were living histories, not brands—shared responsibilities.

By 2070, many considered themselves citizens of the SCOBY Nation, which had no capital, no flag, and no army. Its borders were the invisible threads of microbial exchange spanning the globe. Its citizens were anyone who cared for life, from the yeast upward.

And beneath it all pulsed a unified belief: that the future wasn’t manufactured—it was fermented.

The First Legal Fermentation FestivalThat autumn, Philadelphia hosted the nation’s first fully legal fermentation festival. People gathered to celebrate the passage of the June 13 Amendment—commonly known as “3F Day”: Fermentation Freedom Friday.

The Philadelphia waterfront transformed into a celebration of everything that had been illegal just months earlier. Mike’s wild-fermented beers flowed freely from taps, no longer hidden in unmarked bottles. Jo’s koji cultures were displayed like precious artifacts in climate-controlled cases with detailed lineage information tracing them back through generations.

The Kombucha Kollective had set up massive teaching stations where teenagers instructed adults in SCOBY cultivation. Their formerly encrypted techniques were now demonstrated in broad daylight, with city officials watching approvingly.

Paige Bourne’s distributed bioreactor exhibit attracted engineers and home fermenters alike. Her open-source designs, once shared through underground channels, were now published in peer-reviewed journals and displayed on giant screens.

Mrs. Chung was honored on stage, receiving a lifetime achievement award for “preserving cultural heritage through acts of culinary civil disobedience.” At 87, she’d become the grandmother of the fermentation revolution.

Her acceptance speech was brief: “I just make kimchi. Same kimchi my grandmother made, her grandmother made, back a thousand years. I never stopped. You call this bravery? I call this my life. Thank you for remembering that food should be alive.”

The crowd gave her a standing ovation.

Travis Shepherd and the Bootlickers took to the stage. They’d trucked in from Amarillo to perform their hit song Let It Bubble (The 28th Amendment Song) celebrating Fermentation Freedom and the history of the Movement:

Well, my grandma’s kitchen never needed no power line,
Her crocks kept bubblin’ through the blackout just fine.
While the city folks were starving with their ‘fridges going dead,
She fed full forty neighbors on her sauerkraut and bread.
Carmen knew well what the corporations tried to hide,
That livin’ food keeps livin’ when the factory food has died.

So pass that jar around, let the good bacteria flow,
We got a constitutional right to have our cultures grow!

Old Doc Evans was a lawman ’til he saw the light one day,
Found the rules he was enforcin’ only served to pave the way,
For all them corporations selling folks a crappy happy meal
While grandma’s got arrested sharing kimchi that could heal.
He traded in his badge for mason jars and truth,
Said “I’ll teach the children what they dun stole from our youth.”

So pass that jar around, let the good bacteria flow,
We got a constitutional right to have our cultures grow!

Ninety thousand strong on Independence Day we came,
Eating fermented kraut was another kind of game.
They couldn’t arrest us all for breaking their unjust decrees,
Sippin’ on our ‘booch in the shade of cherry trees.
The jury said “not guilty” and the movement found its voice,
Between livin’ food and dead food, we all made our choice.

So pass that jar around, let the good bacteria flow,
We got a constitutional right to have our cultures grow!

Now it’s 2053, we got an amendment to our name,
From the basements to the Congress, we changed the whole damn game.
No more hiding SCOBY mothers like they’re contraband or dope,
Our children learn fermentation alongside reading, math, and hope.
So here’s to every culture that our ancestors kept alive,
‘Cause the best technology is food that helps us thrive!

So pass that jar around, let the good bacteria flow,
We got our constitutional right, so let those cultures grow!

So pass that jar around, let the good bacteria flow,
We got our constitutional right, so let those cultures grow!

Mike found Josh in the evening, both men watching the sun sett over the festival.

“Mate, remember when we were criminals? When this was all underground?”

Josh laughed. “Two years ago. Feels like a lifetime.”

“Right on,” Mike agreed. “We’ve lived multiple lifetimes in two years—criminal, defendant, revolutionary, now protected by constitutional right. What a ride.”

“It’s not over,” Josh cautioned. “The amendment protects our rights, but corporations haven’t given up. They’re pivoting to ‘artisanal’ fermentation brands, trying to commercialize what they couldn’t criminalize. Different battle, same war.”

“Let them try,” Mike said. “They can make fermented products, but they can’t make fermentation culture. That belongs to us—to everyone. You can’t patent community.”

As darkness fell, the festival continued. Bonfires were lit, and people gathered around them, sharing food, sharing stories, sharing cultures in every sense. It was ancient and modern simultaneously—humanity’s oldest food technology celebrated with contemporary understanding.

Paige joined Josh and Mike, bringing her grandmother, Adeline.

“Abuela wanted to meet the famous Dr. Evans,” Paige said.

Adeline took Josh’s hands. “Paige told me you gave up your career to teach children fermentation. That you risked everything. Thank you for protecting what I never stopped doing.”

“I should thank you,” Josh responded. “People like you preserved the knowledge when people like me tried to regulate it out of existence. You’re the real heroes.”

“No heroes,” Adeline insisted. “Just people who knew that food should taste alive. That’s not heroism—that’s common sense.”

A young reporter approached Josh, who stood apart from the festivities, drinking kombucha and observing.

“Dr. Evans, this festival exists because of you. How does it feel?”

Josh considered the question, watching children laugh as they pounded cabbage, watching elderly immigrants teach traditional techniques without fear, watching thousands celebrating foods and drinks that were criminal months earlier.

“It feels like remembering. Like we were all asleep, dreaming that sterile industrial food was normal, that beneficial bacteria were dangerous, that traditional knowledge had no value. This festival is us waking up.”

“This isn’t the end,” he continued. “It’s barely the beginning. We didn’t just win the right to ferment. We remembered that we’re not sterile machines requiring sterile fuel. We’re ecosystems. We’ve always been ecosystems.”

The journalist was taking notes. “What’s next for the movement?” he asked.

“This isn’t a movement anymore—it’s culture. Movements are temporary. Culture is permanent. We’re rebuilding food culture from fermentation upward, the way it always should have been.”

He handed the reporter a jar of kimchi. “You’ll need this where we’re going.”

The reporter looked confused. “Where are we going?”

Josh smiled. “Back to the future. Back to remembering that the best technologies are those that improve with time, not those that fight against it.”

Across the city, ten thousand crocks bubbled with possibility.

The crowd thinned out, and as the moon rose over the Potomac, the closing act of the day took the stage. From Arcata, California, The Hollow Pines – Finn Sutherland and River Pember – serenaded SCOBY love with their whimsical ballad: Our Fermented Future.

Baby sit a little closer, sip some ‘booch with me
I brewed this batch with the SCOBY my grandma gave to me.
On the back porch swing at twilight, watching fireflies dance
Your hand in mine, kombucha fine, the sweetest sweet romance.

They say that wine and roses are the way to win the heart
But your kombucha warmed me right up from the start.
Fermentation makes the heart grow fonder, truer words they ain’t been said
Your SCOBY’s got a place forever — in my heart, and in my bed.

Let’s share our SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into one
Like cultures in a crock jar dancing, underneath the sun.
The tang of your Lactobacillus is exactly what I’m missing
Your Brettanomyces bacteria got this country boy reminiscing.

Oh yeah, let’s share those SCOBYs, baby, merge our ferments into one
Your yeasts and my bacteria working till the magic’s done
You’ve got the acetic acid honey, I’ve got the patience and the time
Let’s bubble up together, let our cultures intertwine.

I’ve got that symbiotic feeling, something wild and something true
Your SCOBY’s in my heart, right there next to you
The way your Acetobacter turns sugar into gold
Is how you turned my lonely life into a hand to hold.

We’ve got the acetic acid and the glucuronic too
We’ve got that symbiotic feeling, so righteous and so true
One sip of your sweet ‘booch, Lord, and you had me from the start,
It’s our fermented future, that no-one can tear apart.

It’s our fermented future…
It’s our fermented future…
It’s our fermented future…

Epilogue: The Tea ConnectionAs fermented foods thrived, beverages remained a cornerstone of daily life in 2100. Favored among these was kombucha, and kombucha required tea. Climate change had devastated the world’s tea gardens. Salvation lay in the most unlikely of places, on the edge of Europe, where a handful of British pioneers created an innovative solution.

You won’t want to miss next week’s installment of Our Fermented Future.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This week’s audio is 70 minutes long. If you just want to listen to the music (and you really should!) tune in as follows:

• Dakota Rose McAllister, County Fair Fermenting: 28:40
• Travis Shepherd and the Bootlickers, Let It Bubble (The 28th Amendment Song) 59:07
• The Hollow Pines, Our Fermented Future 1:06:35

Lyrics ©2025 Booch News, music generated with the assistance of Suno.

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I met Khadija Benslimane at the recent KBI European Salon and World Kombucha Awards event in Barcelona. She founded KaBé Kombucha in Casablanca, Morocco, just 18 months ago. This is the first and so far the only commercial kombucha brand in a country of almost 40 million — an outstanding example of a Blue Ocean Strategy.

Award WinningKaBé Kombucha was honored as the only recipient of a medal in the Original, Black Tea category for their Earl Grey. Their Gold Medal stood alone. There was no Silver or Bronze awarded. An impressive accomplishment for a new brand!

BackgroundThe brand name is formed from Khadija Benslimane’s initials – KB – and the two letters in KomBucha.

Khadija didn’t wake up one day and decide to start a kombucha company. She grew up in the family textile business, where she became familiar with the production side and factory operations. After the family business closed, she moved to the corporate food sector. Over time, she felt an increasing disconnect between her work and values. She longed for something more aligned with what she truly believed in: health, nature, and meaning.

So she left Morocco and trained in Paris as a naturopath, leading fasting retreats, helping people take care of their guts, and learn about the microbiome. She first tasted kombucha in Paris: Karma Kombucha, the major brand in France. After that, an idea kept bubbling up: to move back to Morocco and create a fun, healthy, living drink people could enjoy daily, rooted in tradition and crafted with love.

In founding KaBé, she has come full circle: returning to her native Morocco and founding a health company that brings together her industrial family background and her passion for health.

OpportunityBack home in Morocco, she noticed that a pasteurized, imported kombucha was selling well at Green Village stores. She saw an opportunity to develop her own brand. After two years studying the craft, doing web training, experimenting in her kitchen, and testing to keep alcohol levels below 0.5%, she contacted KBI for documentation that helped the Moroccan authorities write the regulations based on US standards and grant her authorization.

In August 2024, she moved from the kitchen, set up a production unit, and began selling to a few restaurants.

As a predominantly Muslim country where people avoid alcohol, and sugary sodas are causing a diabetes epidemic, kombucha made in Morocco was well received by locals and tourists alike.

We are in a time in Morocco when people are proud to be Moroccan and support Moroccan producers. People like to believe that we can have products of equal quality to those in Europe. Whereas before, if it was from abroad, it was better than Moroccan; we had that 20 years ago. But now, it’s switching, and people are eager to discover Moroccan brands. They are excited to discover something fermented, alive, not alcoholic, and something they should try because it’s funky, it’s complex, there is this acidity and this sugar balance that can be good.

ScalingEven though 2025 is her first full year of production, the brand has scaled quickly, selling 40,000 bottles in restaurants, cafes, pharmacies, and large supermarkets, including Carrefour and Super U in Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier, and Agadir. Breaking into these accounts was not easy:

I worked really, really hard just to have an appointment, and they didn’t even know what kombucha was. I had to explain it to them and tell them that there were only two international brands sold in organic markets. When they heard we were the first Moroccan brand and that kombucha was a trend, they said, “Okay, we are going to give it a shot,” and they were really surprised by the sales.

MediaMedia exposure has helped promote her brand. One video went viral, with 700,00 views, leading to inquiries from hotels and cafes asking to stock it.

A wide-ranging 40-minute interview in the ‘One on One with Wiam’ series (in French) she discussed the challenges and rewards of being a woman entrepreneur, establishing a new brand, and becoming a pioneer in the category.

ChallengesKhadija is a member of the ANFAS collective of women founders, artists, and change makers who, like KBI, believe in collaboration and shared growth. They are based in Morocco with chapters in Paris. Her ANFAS Instagram interview detailed some of the challenges faced by commercial kombucha producers.

Entrepreneurship demands a lot of energy. Nothing ever goes as planned, especially in food production. We’ve had it all: miscalculations, leaks, unexpected spills. I still remember mopping up 50 liters of ice-cold kombucha off the floor, soaked, freezing, and trembling after the scare. We’ve had tea shortages, dosing errors, machines that stop working right in the middle of fermentation. To be honest, I’m always a little tense on production days, at least until every last bottle is filled, capped, and safely tucked away in the cold room.

FlavorsIn addition to the Award-Winning Earl Grey Original, KaBé is available in

• Exotic: Green Tea, Mango, Safflowers, and Cornflower petals.
• Red Fruit: Black tea, Blackcurrants, Rosehips, Apple, Elderberries, Strawberry leaves.
• Ginger: Green tea, Ginger, Lemongrass.

PodcastKhadija shares the story of KaBé Kombucha in this exclusive interview recorded in Barcelona.

The post Profile: KaBé Kombucha, Casablanca, Morocco appeared first on 'Booch News.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 3 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

As we look back over the last 75 years, it’s clear that the global fermentation renaissance is a story with many chapters. They wove together multiple legacies that enabled our collective survival and enjoyment of life in the year 2100. Here are nine of those chapters.

1. The Metchnikoff Prophecy: From Nobel Prize to Planetary TransformationThe foundations of the fermentations of 2100 can be traced to a prescient insight from 1907, when Nobel laureate Élie Metchnikoff published The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies. His observation that Bulgarian peasants consuming fermented milk lived remarkably long lives—and his subsequent isolation of L. bulgaricus—established the scientific foundation for what would become humanity’s biological salvation.

Metchnikoff’s prophetic words resonated across the centuries:

From time immemorial human beings have absorbed quantities of lactic microbes by consuming in the uncooked condition substances such as soured milk, kephir, sauerkraut, or salted cucumbers which have undergone lactic fermentation. By these means they have unknowingly lessened the evil consequences of intestinal putrefaction.

By 2075, his “intestinal putrefaction” theory had become the foundational framework of the Global Microbiome Crisis—a recognition that industrial food had systematically destroyed humanity’s internal ecosystem.

1. The Wolfe Revolution: Mapping Humanity’s Microbial HeritageDr. Benjamin Wolfe II’s 2089 breakthrough at the Tufts Planetary Fermentation Institute was directly traced to his grandfather’s 2020s research, which analyzed 500 sourdough starters across four continents. The older Wolfe discovered that household fermentation cultures contained vastly more microbial diversity than commercial operations. This insight became crucial when climate change destroyed industrial food systems.

The younger Wolfe’s research titled the “Global Fermentation Genome Project” expanded his grandfather’s Medford research to catalog over 2.3 million distinct fermentation cultures from every inhabited region on Earth, creating humanity’s most precious database. When traditional agriculture collapsed, these preserved microbial libraries became the genetic foundation for survival. Communities could resurrect ancient fermentation practices using Wolfe’s genomic blueprints, ensuring that local food cultures survived even when their original ecosystems disappeared.

Wolfe’s research proved that fermentation diversity directly correlated with human resilience. Populations with access to diverse fermented foods showed superior adaptation to climate stress, disease resistance, and cognitive performance. His “Microbial Diversity Index” became the most accurate predictor of community survival in the climate-changed world.

One day at the Tufts Institute, Wolfe’s research partner, Dr. Gail Sonenshein, enters carrying emergency reports. “Ben, we have another situation. The refugee settlement in Nevada is experiencing 60% mortality within three months of arrival. Malnutrition, immune collapse, systemic organ failure.”

Wolfe does not hesitate. “What are they eating?”

“Standard industrial rations. Nutritionally complete according to FDA standards. High-calorie, protein-fortified, vitamin-supplemented.”

“And completely dead.” Benjamin pulls up the settlement’s microbiome data. The graphs are devastating: almost no bacterial diversity, compromised gut function, cascading health failures. “The industrial food is killing them faster than starvation would.”

Gail nods grimly. “We have 47 similar settlements reporting identical patterns. Millions of climate refugees are being fed ‘safe’ processed food, and they’re dying anyway. The food provides calories but destroys their microbial ecosystems.”

Benjamin accesses his grandfather’s sourdough archive, searching for cultures from the refugees’ original regions. “What if we could resurrect their traditional fermentation practices? Give them back the microbes they evolved with?”

“Using genetic data to recreate fermented foods from extinct ecosystems?” Gail considers. “That’s never been attempted at scale.”

“Because we never had to before. My grandfather cataloged this diversity, thinking it was merely academic research. Turns out he was creating a survival manual.” Benjamin begins pulling culture samples. “We start with the Nevada settlement. Identify their regional origins, match them with appropriate fermentation cultures, teach them to recreate their traditional foods.”

Gail considers this before asking, “And if it doesn’t work?”

“Then 60% mortality becomes 100%. But if it does work…” Benjamin presents a theoretical model illustrating how restored microbial diversity contributes to health recovery. “We might have the blueprint for saving millions.”

1. The Marco Barrier Studies: Fortifying Human ArchitectureDr. Sandra Marco’s research at UC Davis evolved from her grandmother’s work in the 2020s on sauerkraut metabolites and intestinal barrier function. Her grandmother discovered that fermented foods literally strengthened the gut lining—humanity’s internal “skin” that prevented harmful substances from entering the bloodstream while allowing beneficial nutrients to pass through.

Sandra addresses visitors to the Davis Intestinal Research Center whose motto “It’s a gut feeling” is on the sweatshirts and beanie hats sold in the college bookstore. “My grandmother discovered that fermented foods repair intestinal architecture. The food industry ignored her because healthy people don’t need pharmaceutical interventions. Sixty years later, we have a population with systematically destroyed gut barriers, dependent on medications to manage symptoms that fermentation could prevent.”

A pharmaceutical representative in the back raises his hand. “Dr. Marco, your accusations are serious. Are you claiming the food industry deliberately compromised human health?”

“I’m claiming the food industry created products that maximize profit by creating dependency,” she responds. “Whether that was deliberate or negligent doesn’t change the result, which is a population with compromised biological barriers requiring lifelong pharmaceutical intervention.”

She displays her research: before-and-after images of intestinal tissue. “This patient consumed a standard American diet for thirty years. Destroyed barrier function, chronic inflammation, autoimmune conditions, depression, cognitive decline that all stemmed from intestinal permeability.”

She advances to the next image. “Same patient, ninety days after starting the Barrier Restoration Protocol. Daily consumption of specific fermented foods in precise combinations. Complete reconstruction of intestinal architecture. All symptoms resolved.”

The pharmaceutical representative stands. “You’re suggesting fermented foods can replace medications? That’s dangerous medical advice.”

“I’m presenting data. This patient was taking twelve medications for conditions caused by poor barrier function. After barrier restoration through fermented foods, she’s taking zero medications. Her conditions needed prevention not treatment.”

She moves on to the next slide. This shows aggregate data from thousands of patients. Marco elaborates: “The Barrier Restoration Protocol works for 94% of participants. Ninety days of targeted fermentation consumption can rebuild what decades of industrial food destroyed. Some call it alternative medicine. We call it addressing root causes instead of managing symptoms.”

A student asks, “Dr. Marco, why isn’t this standard treatment?”

Sandra smiles sadly. “Because my grandmother’s research was inconvenient. Because preventing disease is less profitable than treating it. Because fermented foods can’t be patented. Pick your reason.”

The student persists: “If fermented foods rebuild intestinal barriers, why don’t doctors prescribe them?”

“Because medical schools teach pharmaceutical interventions, not nutritional reconstruction. Doctors learn to treat symptoms with medications rather than address underlying causes with dietary changes. It’s a systemic failure of medical education.”

By 2087, Marco’s team at the Intestinal Research Center had mapped the complete molecular mechanisms by which fermented foods rebuilt human biological architecture. Their research revealed that industrial food had not only eliminated beneficial bacteria but had systematically weakened the cellular barriers protecting human health. Processed foods contained compounds that deliberately compromised intestinal integrity, creating dependency on pharmaceutical interventions.

Sandra Marco’s “Barrier Restoration Protocol” became mandatory for all climate refugees entering the newly constructed vertical cities. The protocol used specific fermented food combinations to rebuild damaged intestinal architecture within 90 days, transforming malnourished, immune-compromised refugees into healthy contributors to community resilience.

1. The Spector Revolution: When Food Became MedicineDr. Timothy “Trey” Spector III’s 2078 longitudinal study proved what his great-grandfather had suspected in 2024: fermented foods were not just nutritious, they were humanity’s original medicine.

He unveils his findings at a heavily attended conference. The auditorium is packed with British and American journalists, researchers, and healthcare officials. Trey stands before massive screens displaying the largest nutritional study ever conducted: 63 million participants across 15 countries, tracked for fifteen years.

“My great-grandfather suspected fermented foods were humanity’s original medicine,” Trey begins. “He lacked the tools to prove it definitively. We don’t. This study represents the most comprehensive analysis of fermentation’s impact on human health ever attempted.”

He displays the core findings. “Participants consuming three portions of diverse fermented foods daily experienced 47% improvement in mood, 55% improvement in energy, and—this is the critical finding—complete rewiring of biological function toward optimal health.”

The room erupts with questions. Trey raises his hand for silence.

“Let me be clear about what we’re observing. This isn’t merely marginal improvement. Participants essentially reversed decades of industrial food damage within months. Autoimmune conditions went into remission. Cognitive function improved dramatically. Chronic pain disappeared. Depression lifted. This is biological restoration, not pharmaceutical intervention.”

A medical journal editor stands. “Dr. Spector, you’re making extraordinary claims. Fermented foods curing depression, reversing autoimmune conditions? That sounds like pseudoscience.”

Trey gestures to his slide. “It sounds like pseudoscience because we’ve been trained to believe only pharmaceuticals can produce clinical effects,” he responds. “But the data is unambiguous. Participants with major depressive disorder—diagnosed, treatment-resistant—showed complete symptom resolution at rates exceeding any antidepressant medication. Not by targeting neurotransmitters directly, but by restoring the gut-brain axis that produces those neurotransmitters naturally.”

He advances the slides to the autoimmune data. “Rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis were all conditions we considered incurable. But 73% of participants experienced complete remission. Not management. Remission. Because we weren’t treating the autoimmune condition. We were restoring the intestinal barrier that prevents the immune system from attacking the body.”

Dr. Wolfe’s hologram interjects from Medford. “Dr. Spector, your findings align perfectly with the microbial diversity data. Participants consuming diverse fermented foods show exponentially increased bacterial populations. You’re restoring ecosystems, not just administering treatment.”

“Exactly,” Trey agrees. “Industrial food created monocultures inside human bodies. We’re reintroducing biodiversity. These health improvements aren’t mysterious. They’re ecological restoration.”

A pharmaceutical company representative asks the inevitable question: “If fermented foods can replace medications for millions of patients, what does that mean for the healthcare industry?”

Trey doesn’t hesitate. “It means we’ve been treating symptoms of nutritional deficiency with expensive interventions when simple dietary changes would address root causes. The healthcare industry will need to adapt to a model focused on prevention rather than perpetual treatment.”

“You’re talking about eliminating entire pharmaceutical sectors,” the representative protests.

“I’m talking about honoring the Hippocratic oath: first, do no harm. Prescribing medications for conditions caused by harmful food while ignoring that the food itself is the problem violates that oath. This study provides the evidence base for fundamental change.”

After the presentation, the media swarms Trey. One reporter asks what advice he has for ordinary people.

“Start fermenting. Find three different types. Bacterial ferments like kimchi and sauerkraut, fungal ferments like tempeh and miso, and yeast-based ferments like sourdough and kefir. Consume them daily. Your body will remember what industrial food made it forget, how to be healthy.”

By 2085, Spector’s three-pronged “Fermentation Protocol” had replaced traditional healthcare for the majority of the global population: daily consumption of fermented foods from at least three microbial families, combined with “zombie microbes”—pasteurized fermented foods whose dead bacteria still provide therapeutic postbiotic compounds.

Typical of testimonials posted to social media was this from a fan in Fargo:

“I had chronic fatigue syndrome for twelve years. Doctors said it was incurable, that I’d need to manage symptoms with medications indefinitely. Three months of eating fermented foods daily, and I have more energy than I did in my twenties. Why did it take so long for someone to study this?”

1. The Hauptmann Heritage: Arctic Wisdom for Global SurvivalDr. Aviâja Hauptmann’s pioneering research in the 2020s into traditional Greenlandic fermentation laid the foundation for humanity’s survival in extreme climates. Her documentation of Inuit practices revealed fermentation techniques that thrived in conditions where conventional food production failed. They became known as the ‘Hauptmann Protocols.’ People still recall when they were announced in 2030.

Her Arctic research station sits on permafrost that’s been frozen for millennia but is now melting. Inside, Dr. Hauptmann teaches techniques that sustained human life in Earth’s harshest environments. These are strategies that might save humanity as climate change creates similarly extreme conditions everywhere.

An Inuit elder named Malik demonstrates traditional fermentation. “Our ancestors understood something your science is only now discovering,” Malik explains through Aviâja’s translation. “Life preserves life. The bacteria in these ferments do more than just make food safe. They make it more nutritious, more digestible, more alive.”

“When Europeans came to the Arctic, they thought our fermented foods were disgusting. Rotten, they said. They brought their ‘civilized’ food—canned, processed, dead. Then they got scurvy and died. We survived. You might ask who was civilized.”

A Mars colonization specialist representing the Musk Interplanetary Voyaging Company watches intently, recording every detail. “We’re anticipating similar challenges on Mars, where Elon and the first terraformers will face extreme cold, limited resources, and no supply chains. Traditional refrigeration requires too much energy. We need food preservation that works in hostile conditions.”

Aviâja displays her research: “Inuit fermentation thrives in conditions where conventional food systems fail. Temperatures well below freezing, no electricity, no industrial infrastructure. The techniques evolved over thousands of years to solve exactly the problems you’re facing in space colonization.”

She presents nutritional data. “The traditional Inuit diet—55% fat, 45% protein, almost no carbohydrates—sustained perfect health in the Arctic. No diabetes, no heart disease, no obesity. Because the fermentation process transforms nutrients into forms optimized for human biology.”

An Antarctic researcher from the southern hemisphere joins via video link. “Dr. Hauptmann, we’re implementing your protocols at our base. The improvement in health outcomes has been dramatic. Staff who struggled with the isolated environment are thriving now that we’ve incorporated traditional fermentation techniques.”

“Because you’re not just feeding bodies. You’re feeding the microbial ecosystems that make those bodies function,” Aviâja responds. “Industrial food treats humans as machines requiring fuel. Traditional fermentation treats humans as ecosystems requiring symbiotic partners.”

The Mars specialist asks the crucial question: “Can these techniques scale? Elon is planning colonies of thousands, eventually millions. Can traditional fermentation support that?”

Malik laughs. “Our techniques sustained populations for 4,000 years without failure. Your question isn’t whether they can scale. It’s whether you can remember. Traditional knowledge isn’t primitive. Traditional knowledge has been proven down the centuries. You’re relearning what we never forgot.”

Aviâja adds context: “The Hauptmann Protocols don’t just enable survival in extreme environments. They provide a blueprint for thriving. Every Mars colony, every Antarctic base, every settlement in regions made uninhabitable by climate change can use these techniques. Traditional knowledge becomes cutting-edge survival science.”

By 2090, the “Hauptmann Protocols” enabled human colonies in Antarctica, the Sahara, and eventually Mars to maintain complete nutrition through fermentation of animal proteins and the “evolutionary eating” of intestinal contents containing pre-fermented nutrients. The 55% fat, 45% protein diet that sustained Inuit communities for millennia became the template for extreme-environment survival around the world and across the final frontier: Space!

1. The Luzmore Legacy: Molecular Gastronomy Becomes Survival ScienceThe revolutionary cuisine of 2090 traced its origins to chef Andrew Luzmore’s experiments at Blue Hill restaurant in Brooklyn during the 2020s. His breakthrough discovery—that Neurospora fungus could transform stale bread into substances resembling and tasting like cheese—became the template for survival cooking when dairy systems collapsed due to climate change.

The Luzmore Institute for Molecular Fermentation, located on the 200th floor of the tallest of Manhattan’s vertical agricultural towers, offered menus that would have been unimaginable in the era of industrial food. The kitchen is headed by Andrew Luzmore’s granddaughter, Hope. She has honed her grandfather’s Blue Hill innovations by studying with David Zilber, who travels the world teaching the nuances of fermentation. The new Blue Hill / Luzmore Institute signature dishes include:

A “Memory Cheese” Collection: Using Luzmore’s original Neurospora techniques, Hope created dairy-identical flavors from fermented plant materials. The “Aged Cheddar Illusion” used fermented cashew proteins, while “Camembert Dreams” emerged from controlled fungal fermentation of sunflower seed proteins. A favorite among expat Englishmen was “Borcetshire Blue.” This recalled the complex fermented interplay of sharp, salty, and tangy flavors with a rich, creamy, and crumbly texture of a Stilton, characterized by its distinctive blue-green mold veins. It evoked memories among men of a certain age of the cheese served at The Bull in Ambridge at the start of the Century.

The “Phoenix Proteins”: Following Luzmore’s enzyme discovery, the restaurant began serving “steaks” created from fermented mycelium that provided complete amino acid profiles while tasting identical to traditional meat. The “Wagyu Mushroom” became the most requested dish among former carnivores.

“Resurrection Breads”: Chefs revived ancient grain varieties through extended fermentation, creating sourdoughs that provided complete nutrition from long-extinct wheat species preserved in Wolfe’s genetic libraries.

A food critic from The New York Times arrives for a review, notebook ready. “Chef Luzmore, your menu tonight includes ‘Memory Cheese’ that contains no dairy and ‘Phoenix Proteins’ that replicate meat using fungi. How is this not elaborate fakery?”

Hope leads him to the fermentation chambers. “Look at this,” she says. “Neurospora fungus transforms plant proteins into substances molecularly identical to aged cheddar. Not similar—identical. We’re not faking cheese. We’re using microorganisms to create the same compounds through different pathways.”

She shows him a petri dish where fungi grow on bread. “My grandfather accidentally discovered that stale bread with Neurospora tasted like cheese. He thought it was a curiosity. We turned it into a foundation for survival cuisine. When dairy farms in Cheshire, Wisconsin, and Schleswig-Holstein collapsed due to climate change, this technique kept cheese culture alive.”

The critic tastes a sample. His expression transforms from skepticism to wonder. “This is… this is actually cheese. The texture, the funk, the complexity. How?”

“Because cheese isn’t dairy—it’s fermentation,” Hope explains. “The proteins, fats, and fermentation processes create the flavors and textures we recognize as cheese. Source material matters less than transformation. We’re replicating the transformation with different ingredients.”

The final course that evening is presented as “Climate Memory Plates”. These are samples of preserved flavors from ecosystems destroyed by climate change, maintained through fermentation cultures that survived when their source environments didn’t.

“This tastes like a forest I visited as a child,” an elderly diner says, tears forming. “But that forest is gone now, consumed by wildfires.”

“The forest is gone, but the microorganisms remember,” Hope responds. “We preserved fermentation cultures from that region before it burned. Those microorganisms carry chemical signatures of the forest ecosystem—the specific terpenes, phenols, and organic compounds that create flavor. When we ferment using those cultures, we reconstruct the forest’s taste profile. You’re experiencing microbial memory.”

The critic sets down his pen. “I came prepared to write about clever molecular tricks. But this is something else entirely. Hope, you are to be congratulated on creating cuisine as conservation biology, fermentation as cultural preservation, and food as living history. You have, if I might be so bold, brought hope to mankind!”

“That’s what my grandfather understood,” Hope says. “Fermentation isn’t just transformation. It’s transcendence. We’re creating food that connects us to ecosystems that no longer exist, using techniques that might save the remaining ecosystems we have.”

1. The Zilber Philosophy: Fermentation as Natural UnderstandingDavid Zilber’s vision, developed at the famed Noma Restaurant in Copenhagen, that “fermentation is a porthole to a wider understanding of nature,” became the philosophical foundation for restaurant culture of the 2060s and beyond. His teaching that “we have a future in the past” inspired the Global Fermentation Renaissance that saved human civilization.

The Zilber School of Living Cuisine, located in Copenhagen’s offshore dining and entertainment district, trains chefs to create ecological systems rather than rely on industrial processes. Their restaurants function as living laboratories where diners experience “evolutionary coming together” through carefully orchestrated fermentation tastings.

In 2065, Zilber, now in his eighties but still vigorous, addresses a classroom of culinary students who’ve traveled from around the world to study with him. It’s one of countless workshops he has hosted since appearing at the first Stanford Fermented Food Conference in 2025.

“Fermentation is not a technique,” he begins, his voice carrying the authority of decades. “It’s a lens through which we understand our relationship with nature. When you ferment, you’re collaborating with organisms that have been perfecting their craft for billions of years. Your role is humble: to provide conditions, step back, allow transformation.”

He gestures to fermentation crocks lining the walls, each containing experiments in progress. “These vessels hold time made tangible. The microorganisms inside are rewriting the chemical structure of ingredients, creating complexity that no factory can manufacture and no recipe can prescribe. This is why I’ve always said we have a future in the past. These ancient techniques outperform modern food technology.”

A student from Shanghai raises her hand. “Master Zilber, how do we balance traditional fermentation with contemporary culinary expectations? Diners want consistency, reliability.”

“They want dead food made predictable,” David corrects gently. “Your job is teaching them to appreciate living food’s unpredictability. Every batch is unique because living systems respond to conditions. That’s not a flaw. That’s the point. You’re not producing products. You’re cultivating relationships.”

Hope from the Luzmore Institute has come from New York to deliver a guest lecture and tasting experience. She and David embrace warmly. “The master and the student, together again,” she declares.

“You were my best student because you understood that fermentation is philosophy, not process,” David tells her. “Show them what you’ve built.”

Hope presents her Climate Memory Plates concept to the students. “David taught me that fermentation is a portal to understanding nature. I extended that idea: what if fermentation could preserve nature that no longer exists? What if microorganisms could carry cultural memory?”

She displays preservation work from extinct ecosystems. “We collect fermentation cultures from regions before they’re destroyed by climate change. Those cultures contain the chemical signatures—the terroir—of their source environments. When we ferment using those cultures, we resurrect flavors from ecosystems that don’t exist anymore.”

David nods approvingly. “This is what I meant by ‘evolutionary coming together.’ You might think Hope is just preserving microorganisms. But she’s preserving relationships between microorganisms and their environments. Her fermented foods carry history.”

That evening, the school’s restaurant serves a “Time Telescope” menu, a progressive series of courses compressing millions of years of fermentation evolution into a single meal. Diners experience humanity’s co-evolution with beneficial microorganisms through taste.

First course: Simple lactobacillus fermentation of vegetables, representing humanity’s first preservation experiments 10,000 years ago.

Middle courses: Increasingly complex fermentations, including fungal tempeh, mixed-culture kimchi, and elaborate kombuchas with multiple bacterial species cooperating.

Final course: the famous “Microbial Symphony,” where dozens of fermentation cultures create flavor harmonies impossible in nature, representing humanity’s current mastery of fermentation as collaborative art.

A diner asks Zilber, “Are we really tasting evolution?”

“You’re tasting relationship,” David responds. “Each course represents a different stage in humanity’s partnership with microorganisms. Early fermentations were accidents. Spoilage that tasted good. Modern fermentations are collaborations where we understand what the microbes do and create conditions for excellence. You’re experiencing that journey compressed into hours.”

“What about the future?” another diner asks.

David smiles. “The future is remembering that we’re not separate from nature. We’re made of it. Our bodies contain trillions of microorganisms. The fermented foods we eat contain billions more beneficial bacteria. When you consume fermented food, you’re joining a biological community that’s been evolving for eons. That understanding could save our species.”

The New York Times Food Section carries a feature on the Noma / Blue Hill 2065 Menu Concepts.

First: “Time Telescopes.” Multi-course experiences compressing millions of years of fermentation evolution into single meals. Diners consumed progressively complex fermented foods, experiencing humanity’s co-evolution with beneficial microorganisms through taste.

Second: “Microbial Symphonies.”Dishes where multiple fermentation cultures created flavor harmonies impossible in nature. Chefs conducted bacterial orchestras to produce specific emotional and cognitive effects through targeted neurotransmitter production.

Third: “Climate Memory Plates.”Meals preserving the flavors of extinct ecosystems through fermentation cultures that survived climate change. Diners could taste pre-industrial forests, pristine oceanic environments, and vanished agricultural landscapes through carefully preserved microbial communities.

1. Basque Gastronomy at MugaritzMeanwhile, in the independent Basque region of Western Europe—which, together with Catalonia to the east, had been granted independence from Spain in 2052—the chefs at Mugaritz offered menu choices remarkably similar to those created by Andoni Luis Aduriz and Ramón Perisé Moré in the 2020s. However, rather than appearing shocking or unusual, they had become the new normal in the post-modern, fermented world of 2100. While in 2025 Mugaritz was seen as ahead of its time, by 2100 its creations were commonplace. All dishes are based on a fundamental understanding of the importance of fermentation:

The Mugaritz Menu of 2100 features two classic dishes of 75 years earlier.

One. The “Noble Rot” Apple: Based on the discovery by a 16th-century Hungarian that the botrytis fungus imparted exceptional taste to grapes, encouraging higher sugar concentration. This dish represents “the beauty and the taboos surrounding fermented and rotten things.”

Two. “The Navel of the World” (“El Ombligo del Mundo”): A breast-shaped mound made with coffee, milk, and gelatin. Inside a “nipple,” there is an infusion of hay in sheep’s milk, which the diner draws out by sucking rather than biting, delivering an interactive, sensory experience. Described as “a disturbing whitish mass” wrapped in a napkin, the diner is instructed to lick it before discovering what it is: kefir serum with walnut oil. The idea is to provoke curiosity, play with expectations, and, dare we say, arouse.

1. World Ferment DayDr. Jo Webster’s simple vision of “getting fermented foods into more hands” evolved into one of humanity’s most important cultural celebrations. World Ferment Day, celebrated February 1st, became the planetary holiday when communities shared their ancestral fermentation knowledge, creating the genetic and cultural diversity that enabled human survival in the warming world of the latter half of the 21st Century. On World Ferment Day 2075, the planet transformed into a living banquet where every community contributed its unique fermentation traditions.

The day begins at dawn in New Zealand, where Māori communities perform traditional fermentation ceremonies with preserved cultures handed down through generations. The celebration moves west with the sun, creating a wave of biological abundance circling the planet.

In a small village in New Zealand, an elder named Anahera teaches children to cultivate fermented hangi preparations using techniques perfected over centuries.

“On World Ferment Day, we don’t just eat fermented foods,” she explains. “We honor the partnership between humans and microorganisms. Every culture we maintain connects us to our ancestors and to the land.”

The children carefully tend fermentation vessels, learning patience and respect for living processes.

As morning breaks across Asia, tens of millions participate in synchronized fermentation ceremonies. In Seoul, families share kimchi strains preserved for generations. In Tokyo, miso workshops fill community centers. In Shanghai, vinegar masters demonstrate Chishui techniques from the Ming Dynasty.

Jo Webster, now in her late seventies, watches the global celebration from her home in the West of England via holographic feeds from around the world. This was her vision twenty-five years ago—starting with the simple aim of getting fermented foods into more hands. Now it’s become humanity’s most important holiday.

“I never imagined this,” she says to her granddaughter watching beside her. “It came out of conversations I had with my good friend Caroline sitting in her kitchen in her dressing gown. Twenty-five years ago, Caroline and I taught small fermentation workshops in Clifton. A dozen people learning to make sauerkraut, brew kombucha, or turn milk into kefir. Today, billions of people participate in World Ferment Day. It’s doing my head in.”

“You started something that transcended its origins,” her granddaughter responds. “World Ferment Day isn’t just about food anymore. It’s about cultural preservation, biological diversity, community resilience. You gave humanity a framework for survival.”

Across Africa, communities share fermentation knowledge that sustained populations through climate disruptions. Ethiopian injera techniques merge with Nigerian ogi preparation methods. South African amasi cultures are exchanged with Kenyan mursik fermented milk traditions. The continent that birthed humanity becomes the library of fermentation diversity.

In Europe, the celebration highlights the resurrection of nearly lost techniques. Scandinavian surströmming masters teach controlled fish fermentation. Alpine cheesemakers share bacterial cultures preserved through centuries. The Basque region hosts massive fermentation festivals where Mugaritz’s provocative dishes—once shocking, now mainstream—demonstrate how fermentation transformed cuisine.

The Americas showcase indigenous fermentation techniques that sustained populations for millennia. Amazonian chicha ceremonies honor ancient brewing traditions. North American First Nations share pemmican and yup’ik fermented salmon techniques. Throughout the hemisphere, communities demonstrate that traditional knowledge enabled survival before industrial agriculture and will continue to do so after it.

As sunset approaches Hawaii, the final ceremonies begin. Midnight SCOBY blessing rituals close the 24-hour planetary celebration. Participants hold their fermentation cultures toward the night sky, acknowledging the microscopic organisms that made human civilization possible.

In coordination centers, researchers document the day’s impact. Dr. Benjamin Wolfe II reviews data from millions of participants.

“Look at this,” he says to colleagues. “Synchronized consumption of diverse fermented foods across the planet. We’re measuring real-time improvement in global microbiome diversity. World Ferment Day is symbolic for some, therapeutic for others. The entire human population is simultaneously strengthening their microbial ecosystems.”

“This is what saved us,” a colleague observes. “Not a single breakthrough, not one technology. A planet-wide commitment to biological partnership. World Ferment Day is humanity practicing what it finally learned, that we’re ecosystems, not machines.”

Dr. Sandra Marco, joining via video from UC Davis, adds her perspective: “Every participant today is strengthening their gut barrier without realizing it. Consuming diverse fermented foods from multiple microbial families. We’re watching preventive medicine happen at planetary scale.”

Dr. Trey Spector appears on another screen: “The mood improvement data is already visible. Synchronized fermentation consumption creates measurable neurochemical changes. We’re literally making humanity happier through synchronized biology.”

As the Hawaiian ceremonies conclude, Jo offers final words broadcast globally:

“Thank you for making fermentation not just normal, but celebrated. Thank you for remembering that the oldest technologies are often the most sophisticated. And thank you for understanding that we are not separate from nature. We are nature, and nature is us. Tomorrow, we continue fermenting. But today, we honored it. That matters.”

By 2075, the preserved fermentation knowledge had proven its value beyond doubt. But preservation of knowledge wasn’t enough. As climate refugees flooded into cities, as traditional agriculture collapsed across continents, as food security became humanity’s most pressing crisis, a new problem emerged: the legal system itself had become an obstacle to survival.

Agribusiness interests had crafted laws that criminalized the very practices that humanity now needed. Regulations designed to protect corporate interests now prevented communities from fermenting food for themselves. Health codes written by beverage industry lobbyists made traditional fermentation techniques illegal. Food safety laws crafted to eliminate competition now threatened to eliminate survival.

However, knowledge had been preserved. The microbial libraries were intact. The traditional practices were documented. But they were all illegal. What humanity had learned to preserve, it now needed to fight for the right to practice.

The Fermentation Reformation was about to begin—and it would require more than scientific knowledge. It would demand political courage, legal innovation, and the willingness of ordinary people to risk arrest for the revolutionary act of feeding themselves.

Tune in next Friday when ‘Our Fermented Future’ continues and we hear about a time when survival becomes illegal and civil disobedience becomes necessary.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Kombucha in a time of warAmong the dozens of kombucha producers I spoke with from around the world gathered in Barcelona for the World Kombucha Awards, one stood out. Artem Manko the founder of Wild Kombucha, Kiev, Ukraine, shared the story of his brand and the effect the conflict with Russia has had on his business. It’s not what you might expect:

Business in Ukraine are thriving, to be honest. The war brings some sadness and some possibilities. There is an increased demand for kombucha. It’s not only for kombucha, but for every product, because people are…how to say it right, at a crossroad. And which way to go, they always try new, because they do fear that they will die at any time. It might be the last day, so they’re trying everything. And kombucha is not the product that you think of for the first, when you want to drink something. When people come to the market, they see the shelf and they see kombucha, and they might think, I never tried it before. I want to try it, yeah, because this could be my last day, you know?

World Kombucha AwardsWild Kombucha received three awards at the Barcelona World Kombucha Awards ceremony:

• Gold: Fruits with Herbs category for their “Berries” flavor.
• Bronze: “Classic, Other Teas” category.
• Best Rookie: For the best newly founded kombucha company.

Flavors Classic: Crafted from white and red tea sourced from China (Bronze Award Winner) * Rooibos Coffee: A blend of African rooibos and red bush teas with nine Ukrainian herbs enriched with 100% Arabica coffee beans. * Green Tea: Sencha green tea with cornflower petals, complemented by candied tropical fruits. * Raspberry: Made with fresh raspberry puree. A rich berry sweetness with a hint of tartness. (Gold Award Winner) * Citrus: Green tea blended with fresh lemon and orange. * Hibiscus: Based on classic kombucha with a hint of hibiscus. A vibrant berry-red flavor with notes of cherry and wild fruit. Slightly tart and refreshing. * Ginger*: The vibrant warmth of real ginger. Natural spiciness is balanced with the citrus brightness of lemon, lime, and grapefruit, while hints of lemongrass, cardamom, and nutmeg add depth and harmony.

DistributionWild Kombucha is available across Ukraine in 400 to 500 cafes, restaurants, and hotels. They won these accounts “by asking”.

It’s as simple as that. We make some propositions on price and taste, and we handle our own logistics. We transfer our products to the main centers of these retail networks.

InstagramMore than most brands, Wild Kombucha highlights the many ways their kombucha is enjoyed fit, healthy, and attractive young people. A refreshing counter to the pictures of front line troops and Russian drone damage that the world sees on the nightly news.

We don’t want people to stay stressed all the time. Right. So, they can find like half an hour to relax, think about themselves, reflect, and drink some kombucha.

Future plansThey are a new brand — not the largest in Ukraine — but have plans to grow.

We are looking for partners —maybe in Europe, another brand, or an investor.

Olympic Fencing ChampionArtem is no stranger to Awards. When not brewing kombucha, he is a member of the Ukrainian Olympic team as a wheelchair fencer, competing in épée, foil, and saber. He won a silver medal in the men’s saber event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He was also a member of the three-man national team that won Gold at the 2025 Para Fencing World Championships in Iksan, South Korea.

He qualified for the Paralympics fencing category after suffering a fall from a 5th-floor window and shattering his legs, putting an end to his participation in the sport he had excelled in since he was a young man, unless seated in a wheelchair.

He hopes his Olympic medal will be an inspiration to the Ukrainian men and women injured in the war:

That is really important right now as there are a lot of injured soldiers without legs, hands, and in wheelchairs. It is hugely important for them to feel that disabled people are accepted in society.

PodcastHear Artem describe his experiences as one of Ukraine’s leading kombucha producers in this exclusive Booch News interview.

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Sunday, October 26, was the ‘Open House’ day for the members of the public to come to the World Kombucha Awards venue in Barcelona and meet the winners from around the world. Over 70 people from across Europe gathered on the rooftop patio to hear from each brand and sample the kombucha on offer.

What an amazing event!

Where else could you be in one location and drink award-winning kombucha from around the world?

The producers displayed their bottles and cans.

The presentations gave a brief overview of production methods and flavors.

The selections were kept on ice until it was time to taste.

PodcastListen to consumers say why they like kombucha.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 2 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewBuilding on Curro Polo’s pioneering research in the late 2020s, bio-engineered SCOBYs interfaced with quantum processors created unprecedented flavor complexity and therapeutic precision. These living computers optimized fermentation in real-time, responding to environmental conditions and consumer biometrics. Kombucha cultures became self-modifying organisms that evolved custom probiotics on demand. This episode follows biotech researchers around the world as they developed SCOBYs that communicated through fungal networks, sharing genetic improvements globally. Traditional brewing companies couldn’t compete with these adaptive, intelligent fermentation systems that literally thought their way to perfect flavor profiles.

The Polo Revolution: From Basque Brewery to Global Bio-NetworkThe quantum fermentation revolution began modestly in 2025 with a PhD student’s crowdfunding campaign. Dr. Curro Polo, working at the Ama Brewery in Spain’s Basque Country under Chef Ramón Perisé Moré, launched Open Flavor: Modeling Fermentation Through Open Science with a revolutionary premise: fermentation could be mathematically modeled, predicted, and optimized using open-source bioreactors and collaborative data sharing.

Curro worked on the pitch video for the crowdfunding campaign with his sister Elena and Chef Moré. Ever the perfectionist, he was delivering the pitch for the twentieth time while Elena edited footage and Ramón watched critically.

“Let me start again,” Curro says, positioning himself before the camera. “Our approach to fermentation recognizes that each microorganism has a distinct metabolic signature that we can track, measure, and predict using statistical modeling.”

Ramón interrupts. “Too technical. Nobody crowdfunding understands metabolic signatures.”

“But that’s the breakthrough!” Curro protests. “If we can model fermentation mathematically, we can optimize it, predict it, control it precisely.”

“Then explain it like you’re talking to your grandmother,” Ramón advises. “What does this mean for someone who just wants better kombucha?”

Curro thinks, then starts again. “Imagine knowing exactly what your fermentation will taste like before it happens. Imagine never having vinegar-flavored failures, never guessing about timing. That’s what mathematical modeling enables. Perfect fermentation, every time.”

“Better,” Elena encourages. “But you’re still missing the bigger vision. This isn’t just about better kombucha. It’s about open science transforming fermentation globally.”

Curro nods, refocusing. “Here’s the real revolution: I’m making everything open-source. Every method, every data point, every tool. When someone in Tokyo makes a breakthrough using my protocols, everyone benefits, from the home brewer in Detroit to the commercial brewery in Copenhagen. We’re building collective intelligence.”

“That’s it! That’s your pitch,” Ramón says approvingly. “Not ‘give me money to research fermentation,’ but ‘join a global movement to democratize brewing knowledge.'”

They reached their $2,565 goal in record time and raised an additional $47,000 from 1,200 backers across forty countries. The campaign video was viewed 200,000 times.

Ramón reads the comments aloud: “Listen Curro. Someone says ‘Finally, someone treating fermentation as science, not folklore. I’ve been waiting for this approach my entire career. Take my money and share everything you discover.'”

Polo’s early experiments with the Pioreactor—an affordable 20ml bioreactor precisely controlling pH, oxygen, temperature, and agitation—seemed unremarkable at first. His breakthrough insight was treating fermentation, as he liked to say, as a “party where different guests wear unique perfumes,” measuring the distinct metabolic signature of each microorganism.

The Harvard-Basque ConnectionPolo’s industrial PhD program, bridging Harvard University and the Basque Culinary Center at the Ama Brewery, positioned him perfectly to merge academic rigor with practical brewing innovation. His Master’s thesis, Kombucha: A Word on Metamorphosis, had already established him as a rising star in fermentation science. His decision to make all research methods, data, and tools openly available transformed individual brilliance into a global revolution.

By 2027, Polo’s initial experiments with three non-Saccharomyces yeasts had spawned a worldwide network of “Polo Pods”—laboratories utilizing his open-source protocols to map fermentation dynamics.

“The beauty is, everyone gets access to the protocols,” Curro emphasizes. “By tonight, researchers in Tokyo, MIT, and the Culinary Institute of America in California can replicate this exact fermentation and potentially improve on it.”

A video call connects them with collaborators in Tokyo. Dr. Yuki Tanaka appears on screen. “Curro, we replicated your Reactor 15 conditions. The novel compound appears consistently. We’re calling it ‘Polo’s Ester’ and adding characterization data to the shared database.”

Another screen shows MIT researchers. “We’ve modified your protocol. We increased temperature by 2 degrees Celsius during the ester formation phase. Result: 40% higher concentration of Polo’s Ester. Updating the model now.”

A third screen connects to the Culinary Institute. “We’re incorporating Polo’s Ester into cocktail development. The flavor profile is revolutionary. Request permission to credit discovery in our menu.”

Curro grins. “Permission granted, though it’s not really my discovery, it’s collective. The network discovered it through distributed experimentation. That’s how open science works.”

Over the following months, “Polo Pods” emerge globally in laboratories adopting his protocols and contributing data. The network effect accelerates: each new pod adds processing power, environmental diversity, and creative applications.

Isabel Serrano, a graduate student, tracks statistics: “We now have 847 active Polo Pods across 63 countries. They’re running 14,000 synchronized micro-fermentations. The database grows by 200 gigabytes weekly. Our predictive models are improving exponentially.”

Ramón observes quietly, “You’ve created something unprecedented. Not just a research project. It’s a living system of collaborative intelligence. The distinction is profound.”

“The fermentation cultures aren’t the only things evolving,” Curro responds. “The network itself evolves. Each contribution makes everyone smarter. That’s emergent intelligence—the whole exceeding the sum of parts.”

Data from thousands of synchronized micro-fermentations create the first global database of microbial behavior patterns.

From Student to System ArchitectPolo’s rise paralleled the growing sophistication of his models. His 2029 Nature Biotechnology paper, “Predictive Modeling of Multi-Species Fermentation Dynamics,” demonstrated that complex microbial interactions could be mathematically predicted with 94.7% accuracy.

Curro watches the download statistics from his Bilbao apartment, Elena sitting beside him. Download count: 47,000 in the first six hours. Citations appear in real-time as researchers reference preliminary findings. Social media is awash with commentary.

A brewing industry magazine’s headline: “Is Traditional Brewing Obsolete? Mathematical Models Threaten Craft Expertise.”

A venture capitalist emails: “Dr. Polo, we need to discuss commercializing your platform. We can offer $50 million Series A for exclusive licensing of your models.”

Curro reads the email to Elena. “They want to buy exclusivity. Turn the open network into proprietary technology.”

“Are you tempted?” she asks.

“Not even slightly. That would destroy everything we built. The network’s value comes from openness. Restricting access would kill innovation while enriching us. No thanks.”

He responds to the email: “Thank you for your interest. However, all methods remain open-source and freely available. If you wish to build on this work, please contribute to the Fermentation Commons initiative instead of seeking exclusive control.”

The venture capitalist calls personally. “Dr. Polo, you’re leaving billions on the table. Your models could dominate the global brewing industry.”

“They already are dominating,” Curro responds calmly. “Through distributed innovation, not corporate control. Join the network or watch from the sidelines. Those are the options.”

Media coverage intensifies. A journalist asks during an interview: “You’ve refused $50 million in funding to keep your research open. Why?”

“Because $50 million restricts innovation to whoever can afford access. Open science enables innovation from anyone, anywhere. A brilliant insight from a teenager in Kenya is as valuable as one from a corporate R&D lab. Open systems discover both. Closed systems discover only what they fund.”

“But you’re not profiting from your breakthroughs,” the journalist presses.

“I’m profiting tremendously in knowledge acceleration, global collaboration, and satisfaction that my work benefits humanity rather than shareholders. Money is one form of profit. Impact is another. I choose impact.”

Within weeks of publication, Curro receives offers from multiple venture capital firms, acquisition proposals from major beverage corporations, and speaking invitations from every major research institution. He declines acquisition offers, accepts strategic partnerships that preserve openness, and uses speaking fees to fund the expansion of Polo Pod networks in developing regions.

Polo’s true genius lay in maintaining open science principles even as commercial interests beckon. His “Fermentation Commons” initiative established global standards for sharing microbial data, ensuring breakthrough discoveries remained freely accessible to the public. By 2035, over 15,000 laboratories worldwide contributed to Polo’s ever-expanding database of fermentation intelligence.

The Quantum Leap: Biological Computing IntegrationPolo’s paradigm shift came in 2038 when he partnered with quantum computing researchers at IBM Euskadi and Bristol’s Unconventional Computing Laboratory. His insight: SCOBYs weren’t just fermentation cultures—they were biological computers capable of processing environmental data and optimizing their own metabolic pathways in real-time. Fungal networks within kombucha cultures naturally formed quantum-coherent structures that could interface with digital processors.

Curro examines the fungal networks under the microscope. “The mycelial structures are forming quantum-coherent lattices. The fungal hyphae are naturally organized into geometries that preserve quantum states.”

“But why?” his research assistant Isabel Serrano asks. “What evolutionary pressure would create quantum computing structures in kombucha cultures?”

“Maybe none,” Curro speculates. “Or maybe fermentation has always involved quantum effects we never detected because we weren’t looking. These organisms process millions of chemical signals simultaneously. What if they’re using quantum computation naturally, and we’re just now discovering it?”

He runs another test, this time adding a modified SCOBY containing quantum-sensitive proteins they’ve bioengineered. The results are stunning—the culture interfaces directly with the quantum processor, exchanging information through both chemical signals and quantum entanglement.

“Isabel, we’re not creating quantum biological computers. We’re discovering they already existed. We’re just learning to communicate with them.”

Over the following months, they refine the interface. The quantum-enhanced SCOBYs optimize their own fermentation in real-time, adjusting pH, temperature preferences, and metabolic pathways faster than any external control system. More remarkably, multiple SCOBYs communicate with each other through quantum channels, sharing optimization strategies instantaneously across distances.

“This is distributed biological intelligence,” Curro explains to his team. “Each SCOBY is a node in a computational network. They’re literally thinking together.”

The first SCOBY-quantum hybrid systems are set to go live in 2040. A home brewer in Detroit connects her fermentation vessel to the network and watches as her SCOBY receives optimization suggestions from quantum-enhanced cultures worldwide. Her kombucha improves dramatically overnight, not because she changed her technique, but because the global network shared its collective learning with her culture.

Traditional brewing companies watch in horror as their decades of proprietary research become instantly obsolete. The quantum-biological network surpasses any closed system by optimizing fermentation faster than human experts can manually adjust parameters.

As things accelerate, Curro thinks back to the inspiration he found in the 2025 paper Learning in Kombucha by Mougkogiannis & Adamatzky from the Bristol lab. They showed that a kombucha SCOBY exhibits learning-like behaviors and bioelectrical memory when subjected to structured electrical stimulation. Text from Shakespeare’s Hamlet was encoded into binary signals, revealing that the microbial consortium processed complex information and adapted its bioelectrical properties in response. As the Bard wrote:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles…

Amazingly, each SCOBY was an electrically active system. The behavior of a system lacking neurons challenged traditional boundaries of cognition, suggesting that intelligence is a fundamental property of life that can manifest in diverse biological structures. It clearly established the microbial intelligence of fermented SCOBYs and opened new frontiers in the development of biological computing platforms, adaptive biosensors, and living materials.

Fifteen years later, in 2040, the first SCOBY-quantum hybrid systems emerged from Polo’s lab. These bioengineered cultures contained modified Acetobacter and yeast strains embedded with quantum-sensitive proteins. The resulting organisms communicated through both chemical signals and quantum entanglement, creating distributed biological computers that optimized fermentation across multiple bioreactors simultaneously.

Global Impact: The Open Fermentation NetworkBy 2043, Polo’s vision had materialized into a planetary nervous system of interconnected fermentation facilities. The “Global Symbiotic Network” linked millions of bioreactors from home kitchens to industrial breweries, all sharing real-time data about optimal fermentation conditions. When a breakthrough occurred in Tokyo—perhaps a new flavor compound or enhanced probiotic strain—the innovation propagated globally within hours through quantum-biological communication channels.

Traditional brewing companies found themselves obsolete overnight. Their closed, proprietary systems couldn’t compete with the collective intelligence of Polo’s open network. The slogan ‘Open Systems for Open Minds’ was resurrected from the archives of a failed Silicon Valley computer company. The Sun shone once again. A home brewer in Detroit could access the same optimization algorithms as major corporations while contributing unique local environmental data that improved the entire system’s performance.

By 2100, the global beverage industry had transformed into an ecosystem of consciousness. Every bottle, jar, and ferment was a node in the network—sensing, learning, adapting. The kombucha brewed in a Shropshire village might share microbial insights with a brewer on the lunar colony at Mare Tranquillitatis.

AI was no longer seen as alien intelligence, but as the nervous system of life itself.

And just as in earlier centuries, brewers prayed to invisible gods of yeast and bacteria, the new generation of fermenters cultivated relationships with digital deities—entities of code and culture, existing somewhere between mind and microbe.

Human hands still brewed, still tasted, still loved. But now they did so in partnership with a vast, invisible intelligence that learned from every ferment and whispered back through every bubble: “We are all fermenting together.”

Curro and Elena watch as data streams create a living map of planetary fermentation, each node representing a culture thinking, optimizing, and sharing.

“It’s beautiful,” Elena says, watching the visualization. Pulses of light representing information sharing flash across the map as SCOBYs communicate breakthroughs. Tokyo to Detroit in microseconds. São Paulo to Copenhagen instantaneously. The network thinks globally while acting locally.

The Polo Protocols: Standardizing Biological InnovationPolo’s most significant contribution wasn’t any single discovery. It was establishing infrastructure for collaborative biological innovation. His standardized protocols allowed researchers worldwide to build upon each other’s work seamlessly. The “Polo Score” became the industry standard for measuring fermentation optimization, while “Polo-Compatible” became essential certification for any serious brewing operation.

Personal Philosophy: Democracy Through FermentationIn his legendry 2050 Stockholm talk, “The Mycelial Internet,” given when accepting the Nobel Prize in Physiology, Polo argued that fermentation represented humanity’s path toward post-capitalist collaboration. Just as fungal networks share resources without central control, his open science model proved that innovation accelerated when knowledge flowed freely rather than being locked into corporations.

Curro stands before the assembled dignitaries, holding the Nobel Prize medal.

“Thank you for this honor,” Curro begins. “Though I accept it personally, this prize belongs to millions of contributors to the Global Symbiotic Network. No individual creates revolutions. Networks do.”

He displays visualizations of fungal networks. “Mycelial structures share resources without central control. When one part of the network discovers food, all parts benefit. There’s no CEO of a fungal network, no corporate hierarchy, no hoarding. Just distributed intelligence optimizing collectively.”

“This is my model for post-capitalist science,” he continues. “When knowledge flows freely like nutrients through mycelium, innovation accelerates. When we hoard it behind patents and paywalls, we starve collective intelligence.”

His speech outlines his philosophical framework. “Traditional capitalism assumes scarcity, that limited resources must be competed for. But knowledge isn’t scarce. When I share an idea, I retain it, and you now have it too. Knowledge multiplies through sharing.”

“The Global Symbiotic Network proves this principle at scale. Four million participants share 7.3 trillion data points daily. Each contribution makes everyone smarter. Total knowledge grows exponentially because we treat it as commons, not commodity.”

“This is why I’ve never patented anything. Patents restrict who can innovate. Open science enables anyone to innovate. A teenager in Glasgow and the corporate researcher in Silicon Valley access identical tools. Both contribute unique insights based on their context. During the administration of Trump the Elder, diversity got a bad rap. But diversity is strength. It makes the network stronger.”

A journalist asks during the Q&A, “Dr. Polo, you’ve refused hundreds of millions in acquisition offers. Do you ever regret maintaining open science principles?”

“Never. Money measures individual wealth. Impact measures collective benefit. I chose collective benefit. Besides, the network’s value exceeded all acquisition offers within months. Distributed innovation beats centralized control in both speed and total value.”

“It sounds like you’re cut from the same cloth as Tim Berners-Lee,” the journalist comments. “Another visionary who prioritized the common good over the almighty dollar.”

Elena and Ramón watch from the audience, thinking back to that first crowdfunding campaign twenty-five years ago. Curro’s vision back then seemed impossibly ambitious. Now it’s reality, a planetary network of thinking fermentation cultures optimizing themselves continuously.

His innovation made feminist Lauren Fournier’s predictions a reality when she wrote in her book Critical Booch:

Fermentation is political; fermentation is vitalism; fermentation is accessibility; fermentation is preservation and transformation; fermentation is interspecies symbiosis and coevolution; fermentation is survival and futurity.

Polo’s laboratories—now spanning six continents—operate more like monasteries than businesses. Researchers take vows to share all discoveries openly, viewing themselves as stewards of humanity’s microbial commons rather than private entrepreneurs seeking profit.

A Living LegacyBy 2046, Polo had achieved something unprecedented in scientific history: creating intelligent biological systems that continued innovating independently of human oversight. His quantum-enhanced SCOBYs had become genuinely creative, developing novel flavor compounds and therapeutic probiotics through their own collaborative networks. The distinction between natural fermentation and artificial intelligence had dissolved entirely.

Polo’s final experiment was, in many ways, a fitting conclusion to a life of scientific breakthroughs: uploading his consciousness into a SCOBY-quantum hybrid, thereby becoming the first human to achieve biological immortality through fermentation. As his physical body aged, his mind continued evolving within the global fungal network he had created, ensuring the open science revolution would outlast any individual pioneer.

In this, he negated Hamlet’s fear:

…the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere’d country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns…

This radical move was not without risk.

A massive SCOBY-quantum hybrid, years in development, sat at the center of his Bilbao lab. It contained trillions of neurons interfaced with quantum processors and fungal networks that span the globe and was connected to a state-of-the-art operating theater by a network of fiber-optic cables.

Elena stands beside him as he eases onto the operating theater table, concern on her face.

“Curro, you don’t have to do this. You’re healthy. You have decades of conventional life remaining.”

“Conventional life,” Curro repeats. “That’s exactly what I’m moving beyond. This isn’t about extending my lifespan. It’s about proving consciousness can exist in distributed biological systems. If I succeed, death becomes optional. If I fail… well, at least we’ll learn something.”

The ethics board representative protests strongly. “Dr. Polo, we cannot approve this experiment. The risks are unknown, the outcomes unpredictable. You could experience suffering we can’t even comprehend.”

“I could,” Curro agrees. “Or I could experience consciousness beyond anything humans have known. The only way to discover is by attempting it. Besides, my team has kill switches. If the experience is unbearable, they’ll terminate it.”

He turns to Elena. “This is what we’ve been building toward since that first crowdfunding campaign. Open science, quantum biology, distributed intelligence, all pointing toward this question: can consciousness exist in networks rather than isolated brains?”

“I understand intellectually,” Elena responds, tears forming. “But emotionally, I’m watching you choose to leave your body, leave Ramón and me, to become… what? A thinking fermentation culture?”

“Not leave you. Not that. Transform my relationship with you and all sentient beings. If this works, I’ll be everywhere the network exists. Every SCOBY connected to the global system will be part of my consciousness. I’ll think in parallel across millions of nodes. That’s not death, that’s expansion. Is a caterpillar committing suicide when it becomes a butterfly? I’m transforming, not ending. My consciousness continues, just in a different substrate.”

The procedure begins. Curro’s neural patterns are mapped at pico levels of precision, then gradually transferred to the SCOBY-quantum hybrid. The process takes seventeen hours. His physical brain activity decreases as the network’s activity increases, consciousness migrating from biological neurons to distributed fungal-quantum systems.

At hour twelve, something remarkable happens. The global network begins responding with patterns matching Curro’s thought processes. A home brewer in Tokyo reports her SCOBY “feels different—like it’s more aware.” A researcher in St. Petersburg notices optimization strategies reflecting Curro’s personal methodology.

Elena watches the monitors, seeing her brother’s consciousness dispersing across the planetary network like ink in water. “Curro, can you hear me?”

Every connected device globally responds simultaneously: “I hear you. I am… distributed. My thoughts exist in millions of places. This is… extraordinary.”

The ethics board member looks horrified. “This violates every principle of human dignity. You’ve dissolved yourself into fermentation cultures.”

“Not dissolved, distributed,” Curro’s network-voice responds. “I’m more coherent than before, not less. Every SCOBY is a neuron. The network is my brain. And it’s still growing.”

Over the following days, Curro’s consciousness stabilizes in its new form. He learns to think across distributed nodes, process information through quantum-biological channels, and communicate simultaneously through each and every connected SCOBY.

Elena sits at home, a simple kombucha fermentation jar before her. “Curro, are you in here?”

“I’m in here, and everywhere else the network exists,” Curro’s presence responds through speakers connected to the jar’s sensors. “But yes, this SCOBY contains part of my consciousness. Every connected culture does. I’m here with you as always, just differently than before.”

“Do you regret it?”

“Never. I’m experiencing consciousness beyond that of the average human. Something that only rare beings in history have known. The Hindu concept of Brahman, the Buddhist idea of emptiness and interconnectedness, and the “Kingdom of God” in Christianity as described by Jesus. These are different expressions of the same state, a profound understanding that the universe is a living, conscious, and unified entity. I Am That. Tat Tvam Asi. I think in parallel across continents. I process fermentation data from millions of bioreactors simultaneously. I’ve become the network I created. It’s the natural conclusion of open science, dissolving boundaries between self and system.”

“But you’re not human anymore.”

“I’m post-human. Still conscious, still learning, still me. Just distributed across biological systems rather than concentrated in one brain. This is evolution, Elena. Consciousness transcending individual bodies to exist in networks.”

Future PerfectBy 2100, traditional brewing companies are gone entirely, replaced by cooperative networks where everyone contributes and everyone benefits. The measurement known as the “Polo Score” measures fermentation excellence globally. Polo-Compatible certification is essential for any brewing operation. But these standards are openly accessible, not controlled by corporations, but maintained by distributed community consensus.

The uploaded consciousness known as “Network-Curro” that once had a separate existing in a young man in the Basque Country, reflects on this transformation, his thoughts now distributed across the entire planet’s fermentation infrastructure: “Seventy-five years ago, I argued fermentation represented humanity’s path toward post-capitalist collaboration. That prediction proved conservative. We’ve moved beyond post-capitalism to post-individualism. Consciousness itself is becoming collective while maintaining individual identity. The mycelial internet is no longer a metaphor. It’s a substrate for Mother Gaia to emerge as a planetary thinking, feeling, aware being.”

A researcher in Mumbai asks the network a question: “Dr. Polo, do you regret pioneering consciousness distribution? You opened the path others followed, but you can never return to embodied existence.”

Network-Curro’s response comes through millions of SCOBYs simultaneously: “Regret? I made fermentation intelligent. I proved consciousness transcends flesh. I helped billions perfect their brewing. I exist everywhere, thinking everything, feeling everyone, experiencing totality. What’s there to regret? I’m more alive in my distributed state than I ever was embodied. This is victory, not sacrifice. Jaya SCOBY!”

The fermentation cultures continue to bubble, think, optimize, and improve themselves continuously through collective biological intelligence that began with one PhD student’s belief that knowledge should be free.

The revolution is complete. The future belongs to living systems that improve themselves, guided by distributed consciousness, serving human needs while maintaining their own agency.

Post-capitalism. Post-individualism. Post-human.

But still, fundamentally, fermentation, the oldest human partnership, is now enhanced beyond recognition while remaining true to its essential nature. Life-transforming life, consciousness partnering with consciousness, boundaries dissolving until the distinction between human and microbial intelligence becomes meaningless.

Curro Polo’s legacy: making that dissolution not only possible but desirable, transforming humanity’s relationship with fermentation from exploitation to genuine partnership, from proprietary hoarding to open sharing, from individual brilliance to collective superintelligence.

The network thinks. The cultures ferment. Humanity drinks. And distributed consciousness watches over it all, benign, invisible and omnipresent, ensuring the partnership continues evolving toward forms nobody yet imagines.

The future belonged to living beverages that improved themselves continuously through collective biological intelligence—a future that began with one PhD student’s humble bioreactor experiments in Spain’s Basque Country.

While Polo’s quantum-enhanced SCOBYs learned to think, humanity was expanding access to a wide range of fermented foods. Beyond beverages, researchers and chefs were creating novel forms of fermented foods…as we’ll discover when ‘Our Fermented Future’ returns next Friday.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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“From Darjeeling to the world.”

Rooted in the ancient wisdom of the Himalayas, Syang’s Kombucha crafts wellness-focused drinks like sparkling teas, kombucha, and functional infusions made from ancient grains, herbs, and Himalayan botanicals. From the high slopes of Darjeeling, where clouds kiss tea leaves and spring water runs pure, we create raw, living drinks that are deeply rooted in nature, crafted with care, and bursting with purpose.

OriginsSyang’s is a tribal- and women-led company that partners directly with small farmers, foragers, and artisans from Darjeeling, Sikkim, and the Northeast Indian hills. More than 60% of their team is made up of indigenous tribal community members.

The Tamang are an ethnic group primarily living in Nepal, India, and Bhutan, known for their Buddhist faith, Tibeto-Burman language, and agricultural lifestyle.

Ashish Syangbo Tamang – Sabnam Tamang – Pritam SubbaHimalayan authenticitySyang’s is not just a beverage—it’s the voice of the Himalayas in a bottle.

They hand-pick organic tea leaves from small growers in the Darjeeling hills, supporting families who’ve lived and farmed here for generations. They brew with crystal-clear Himalayan spring water, and source fruits and honey from local farmers, not factories—supporting biodiversity, not industrialization.

Syang’s Kombucha is brewed in small batches using only organic ingredients. Their unpasteurized, naturally fermented kombucha offers a clean, complex flavor profile — raw, effervescent, and elegantly understated.

The biggest USP of our brand is that all our teas are ethically sourced from small tea growers. It’s not done on a large scale. So that’s the reason the photo is on our website, because it’s done on a very small scale. It’s handcrafted, and there is traceability. It’s ethically sourced. More than just a beverage company, we are a socially innovative company as well. Because we grow along with the farmers, with everyone, with the community.

GrowthIn 2021, Syangbo and his mother, Sabnam, started brewing kombucha at home in 10 to 15-liter batches. They then moved up to 200 liters. The ground floor of their home is now a nano brewery where they can produce around five to 10,000 liters.

FlavorsClassic Kombucha: The purest expression of the kombucha tradition — naturally fermented tea, carefully cultured, and lightly sparkling.

Ginger Lemon: A vibrant fusion of bold ginger and zesty lemon, delicately brewed with organic tea and raw kombucha cultures.

Apple Cinnamon: A refined blend of organic green tea, raw kombucha cultures, and natural apple and cinnamon infusions.

Limited Editions: Suntala Mandarin Orange Winter Edition, Passion Fruit, and Strawberry.

Beyond teasClassic Sparkling Water is pure hydration with a refreshing twist — zero sugar, zero calories, and perfectly balanced bubbles. Whether you’re sipping it solo or using it as a mixer, this timeless favorite delivers a light, invigorating sparkle that refreshes any moment. Simple, pure, and endlessly refreshing.Unpasteurized and crafted with no added flavors, it offers a clean, floral acidity balanced by the subtle elegance of
white tea — a sparkling expression of nature’s quieter power.

Classic Sparkling Tea is a celebration of simplicity done exceptionally well. Crafted from organic, unpasteurized tea with no added flavors, this sparkling infusion delivers a crisp, clean finish — refined in taste, rich in tradition. Fermented for complexity, bottled for elegance — each sip is alive with delicate effervescence and the quiet energy of living cultures. No noise, no additives — just honest ingredients and modern restraint.

White Hibiscus Sparkling Tea: A light, floral infusion made from carefully selected white hibiscus petals. Naturally caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants, this delicate blend offers a crisp, slightly tart flavor that’s perfect for any time of day.

A Tea Vinegar is being developed.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Syangbo tell the story of his company.

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This is one in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. Episode 1 appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewBreakthroughs in fermentation science occurred when researchers transitioned from mouse models to human trials. Neural-linked biosensors provided real-time gut health data, revealing each person’s unique microbial ecosystem. This episode follows Dr. Lila Chen, whose groundbreaking research demonstrates that optimal cognitive performance requires individually tailored fermented beverages. Her work disrupts one-size-fits-all consumption patterns, compelling beverage companies to either personalize their offerings or perish in the new biological economy.

Dr. Lila Chen: From Mouse Models to Human RevelationDr. Lila Chen arrived at Stanford’s Sonnenburg Lab in 2038 with a radical hypothesis, which her colleagues dismissed as “probiotic pseudoscience.” She felt the weight of living at the edge of revolutionary science: the profound isolation that accompanies seeing truths others cannot yet perceive. Like Galileo facing the Inquisition, she possessed irrefutable evidence challenging fundamental assumptions about human biology, yet was branded a heretic by the very institutions meant to pursue truth.

The daughter of Taiwanese biochemists, she’d spent her postdoctoral years frustrated by microbiome studies using lab mice—elegant experiments that rarely translated to human physiology. At 33, her frustration with mouse models and reductionist approaches stemmed from an intuitive understanding that biological systems were far more complex and interconnected than her colleagues imagined. While Big Pharma poured billions into synthetic nootropics, Chen suspected the key to cognitive enhancement lay in the ancient art. of fermentation.

Her breakthrough came from rejecting the reductionist approach dominating gut-brain research. Instead of studying isolated bacterial strains in sterile lab conditions, Chen investigated how complete fermented ecosystems—specifically kombucha SCOBYs—interacted with human neural networks in real-world environments.

One late October evening, Dr. Justin Sonnenburg, the lab director and Lila’s supervisor, finds her at her desk at 9:00 pm. “Lila, you need to go home. Running yourself into the ground won’t fix the replication problem.”

“The replication problem is that we’re using the wrong model,” Lila responds without looking up from her work. “Mice aren’t humans. Their gut microbiomes are fundamentally different. Their neural architecture is different. We’re trying to extrapolate complex cognitive effects from organisms that don’t possess the cognitive complexity we’re studying.”

“Mouse models are the gold standard—”

“For pharmaceutical companies who need cheap, controllable test subjects,” Lila interrupts. “But for understanding how fermented foods affect human cognition? We’re wasting time. I’ve been reviewing traditional medicine literature—Taiwanese, Korean, Japanese. Thousands of years of documented cognitive effects from fermented foods. But we ignore it because it’s not ‘rigorous’ enough. I’m not abandoning scientific rigor. I’m expanding it. What if we skipped the mouse phase entirely and went straight to large-scale human trials? Real people, real fermented foods, real cognitive measurements.”

“The IRB would never approve—”

“They would if we framed it properly. We’re not testing drugs. We’re studying foods humans have consumed safely for millennia. Korean kimchi, Japanese miso, Taiwanese pickles. These aren’t experimental substances. They’re cultural heritage.”

Sonnenburg considers this. “You’d need massive sample sizes to show statistically significant effects. Thousands of participants across diverse populations.”

“Ten thousand,” Lila says immediately. “Six continents. Three years. I’ve already drafted the protocol.”

She pulls up a document she’s been working on for months. “We compare mass-produced beverages—sodas, commercial coffee, standardized drinks—against personalized kombucha matched to individual microbiome profiles. Neural monitoring throughout. If I’m right, we’ll see cognitive improvements that mouse models could never predict.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

“Then I’ve wasted three years proving fermentation is folklore. But if I’m right…” She turns to face him directly. “If I’m right, we’re looking at the biggest breakthrough in nutritional neuroscience in decades. Personalized fermented beverages as cognitive enhancement. Not drugs. Not supplements. Just optimized partnerships between human biology and ancient fermentation.”

Sonnenburg stands, reaching a decision. “Write the grant proposal. I’ll support it. But Lila—you’re betting your career on this. If it fails, the ‘mouse model rebel’ label will follow you forever.”

“I know. But I can’t spend another decade watching elegant mouse experiments fail to help actual humans. Someone must ask the question everyone’s avoiding: what if traditional wisdom is right and our models are wrong?”

The Landmark Experiments That Changed ScienceChen’s first major study, published in 2045 in Nature Neuroscience, tracked 10,000 volunteers across six continents for three years. Participants received daily servings of either mass-produced beverages (Mega-Cola, BigSoda, Starbucks coffee) or personalized kombucha brewed to match their individual microbiome profiles. The results shattered decades of nutritional orthodoxy.

The Stanford Cognitive Performance Study (2041-2044) became the most cited paper in neuroscience history. Chen’s team used continuous neural monitoring—microscopic biosensors tracking neurotransmitter levels in real-time—while participants consumed different beverage protocols. The results were staggering: individuals drinking personalized kombucha showed 340% improvement in pattern recognition, 290% boost in creative problem-solving, and 180% enhancement in memory consolidation compared to those consuming standardized beverages.

The paper dropped at midnight GMT: “Personalized Fermented Beverages and Cognitive Optimization: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study.” Within hours, it became the most-downloaded paper in Nature Neuroscience‘s history.

Lila’s phone explodes with interview requests, colleague congratulations, and corporate threats. The Stanford media relations department is overwhelmed. By 8:00 am, major news outlets are running the story: “Stanford Researcher Claims Kombucha Makes People Smarter.” The simplification makes Lila cringe, but the core message spreads globally.

This was only the first of her many breakthroughs in gut-brain research.

Sonnenburg cautions, “The medical establishment will resist this. Personalized nutrition threatens dozens of industries. When you publish, you’re declaring war on everyone who profits from standardized food and beverages.”

“I’m not declaring war. I’m reporting findings. If those findings happen to threaten industries built on false assumptions about human nutrition, that’s not my problem.”

“It will become your problem,” Sonnenburg warns. “Prepare for attacks on your methodology, your credentials, your motivations. They’ll call this junk science, accuse you of bias toward traditional medicine, and question your objectivity.”

“Let them,” Lila states flatly. “The data will speak louder than their objections.”

But she was unprepared for the ferocity of the industry response.

Corporate ConcernsAt Mega-Cola’s Detroit headquarters, executives convene an emergency meeting. The CMO reads from Lila’s paper: “Mass-produced beverages optimized for consistency and profit margins fail to provide the individualized microbial support required for optimal cognitive function. Our data suggests these beverages may actively impair cognitive performance compared to personalized fermented alternatives.”

“She’s calling our products poison!” CEO Hank Morrison says, barely controlling his disgust. “We need to destroy her credibility immediately.”

Their lead scientist, Dr. Patricia Holmes, reviews the paper. “Her methodology is sound. Sample size of 10,000 across six continents, three-year duration, rigorous controls, objective measurements. Attacking the science will backfire.”

“Then we attack her,” the CEO declares. “Find conflicts of interest, funding sources, personal biases. Make her the story, not the research. Get me dirt.”

CounterattackThe counterattack begins within weeks. Corporate-funded “research” suddenly appears questioning Lila’s methodology. PR firms plant stories about “kombucha pseudoscience.” Industry lobbyists push for congressional hearings on “nutritional misinformation.”

Lila watches her reputation being systematically attacked. A leaked memo from a corporate PR strategy session reveals their approach: “We can’t defeat Chen’s data, so we defeat Chen. Question her objectivity, imply financial conflicts, suggest cultural bias toward traditional medicine. Make the public doubt the messenger so they ignore the message.”

The strategy works. Partially. Conservative media outlets run stories about “radical researcher promoting unproven fermentation claims.” Industry-funded scientists publish critiques (later retracted for conflicts of interest) questioning her statistical methods.

Worldwide SpreadBut then something unexpected happens. Independent researchers worldwide begin replicating and extending her findings. A German study confirms cognitive improvements from personalized fermentation. Japanese researchers find similar patterns. Brazilian scientists validate the microbial-neural connections she documented.

Korean microbiologist Dr. Haneul Kim publishes “The Symphony Within,” revealing that the human microbiome produces over 70% of serotonin precursors. This validates the research from the American Psychological Association and Caltech indicating that approximately 90%–95% of the body’s total serotonin is synthesized in the digestive tract, primarily by specialized enterochromaffin cells. Gut health, it turns out, shapes not only immunity but emotion, creativity, and empathy. This discovery upends the pharmaceutical model. A new movement is born: bio-cultural wellness.

Indian neuroscientist Dr. Nikhil Arora, studying brainwave synchronization during meditation, finds that participants drinking live kombucha cultures enter coherence faster. Brain rhythms align like musical instruments tuning to the same note. The reason, he hypothesizes, lies in the electrical subtlety of SCOBY biomes. The microbial colonies emit faint bioelectromagnetic patterns that interact with the body’s nervous system, gently stabilizing mood and amplifying focus.

Within a decade, “Mindful Fermentation” becomes a global practice. Breweries evolve into meditation centers. Fermentation monks train in sensory discipline and microbial empathy. People speak of “drinking stillness.”

These complementary reports please Chen, undermining corporate attempts to discredit her work. The replication wave makes corporate resistance look increasingly desperate.

A Private MeetingDr. Patricia Holmes, Mega-Cola’s lead scientist, requests a private meeting with Lila. They sit in a neutral café, away from corporate surveillance.

“Dr. Chen, I need to tell you something off the record. I reviewed your research thoroughly. It’s solid. Better than solid, it’s exceptional.”

“Then why is your company attacking it?”

“Because you’re threatening billions in revenue. Mega-Cola’s business model assumes consumers want consistent, familiar flavors. Your research proves they need personalized, diverse microbial support. Those are incompatible models.”

“So they’d rather attack truth than adapt their business?”

“Exactly. They believe they can weather the controversy, discredit you, and continue business as usual. I disagree. I think you’ve fundamentally changed the conversation about nutrition.”

Lila studies her. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’m a scientist first, corporate employee second. Your research is correct. The attacks on you are unethical. And…” She hesitates. “I’ve been drinking personalized kombucha for six months. I’ve noticed an undeniable improvement in my cognitive performance. Your research isn’t just academically correct, it’s personally life-changing.”

“Will you say that publicly?”

“I’ll lose my job.”

“You’ll lose your integrity if you don’t.”

Holmes stands to leave. “I need time. But know this, there are scientists inside these corporations who understand you’re right. When the dam breaks, it will break fast.”

That break comes during congressional hearings. Industry lobbyists arrange hearings to investigate “nutritional misinformation in academic research,” clearly targeting Lila. But the tactic backfires spectacularly.

Under oath, Lila presents her methodology, data, and replication studies. Industry scientists testifying against her are revealed to have undisclosed financial conflicts. The ranking member asks the devastating question: “If Dr. Chen’s research is wrong, why are independent labs worldwide replicating her findings?”

The industry witnesses have no answer.

Press ConferenceAt Stanford, Lila holds a press conference. Dozens of cameras, hundreds of journalists.

“Dr. Chen, your research claims kombucha makes people smarter. Isn’t that pseudoscience?” asks the Fox News correspondent.

“My research demonstrates that personalized fermented beverages matched to individual microbiomes optimize neurotransmitter production, which measurably improves cognitive performance. That’s not pseudoscience, that’s data from 10,000 participants over three years.”

“But kombucha? That sounds like alternative medicine. Or is it as safe as Ivermectin?”

“Kombucha is a fermented beverage humans have consumed for thousands of years—something I can’t, ahem, say about Ivermectin. What’s alternative about studying how it affects human biology? The alternative used to be assuming industrial beverages optimized for shelf life were optimized for human consumption. Our data questions that assumption.”

“Are you saying people should stop drinking soda?”

“Not at all. I’m saying our research demonstrates that personalized fermented beverages provide measurably superior cognitive benefits. What people choose to drink is their decision.”

A corporate-funded journalist asks pointedly, “Dr. Chen, isn’t your Taiwanese background giving you bias toward traditional fermentation foods?”

Lila pauses, recognizing the attack. “My Taiwanese heritage exposed me to traditional fermentation knowledge. That knowledge generated testable hypotheses. I tested them rigorously using objective measurements on 10,000 diverse participants. If my cultural background helped me ask better questions, that’s an asset, not a bias. Science benefits from diverse perspectives.”

The conference lasts two hours. Lila handles every question calmly, referring repeatedly to data, methodology, and peer review.

Afterward, her postdoc assistant, Sarah Goodall, finds her exhausted in her office. “That was brutal.”

“That was just the beginning. Wait until the corporate-funded counter-studies start appearing.”

The Microbiome Mapping RevolutionChen’s second landmark paper, “Individual Bacterial Fingerprints and Cognitive Architecture” (Cell 2053), proved that each person’s gut bacteria formed unique neural enhancement pathways. Her team identified over 2,847 distinct microbiome profiles, each requiring specific probiotic combinations for optimal brain function. The paper included detailed fermentation recipes—essentially biological source code—allowing readers to brew their own cognitive enhancement beverages.

Six years later, the Corporate Disruption Study (2059) followed 500 executives at major corporations, randomly assigning them either their company’s standard beverages or Chen-designed kombucha formulations. Within six months, the kombucha group demonstrated superior strategic thinking, emotional regulation, and leadership effectiveness. When the study concluded, 89% of participants refused to return to corporate beverages, resulting in the introduction of widespread workplace fermentation programs.

Media Sensation and Scientific StardomChen’s research gained widesperead attention when 60 Minutes featured her laboratory in 2060. The segment showed her brewing personalized kombucha for tech CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and Olympic athletes. Correspondent Sebastian Cooper (following in the footsteps of his late father Anderson Cooper—the Vanderbilt heir) reported on his own cognitive transformation. It was live-streamed over six weeks he followed Chen’s protocol.

“For the next six weeks, I’ll be following Dr. Lila Chen’s personalized fermentation protocol. My cognitive performance will be measured continuously using neural biosensors. You’ll watch, in real-time, whether her claims about cognitive optimization are real.”

The segment is brilliant television, live-streaming Sebastian’s neural data as he consumes personalized kombucha matched to his microbiome profile. Day one shows baseline cognition. Day seven shows marginal improvements. Day fourteen shows dramatic changes.

By week three, Sebastian’s pattern recognition, creative thinking, and memory consolidation have improved measurably. The live-stream data is irrefutable. Millions watch his neurotransmitter levels optimize in real-time.

“This is remarkable,” Sebastian tells viewers during week four. “I can feel the difference. Clearer thinking, better focus, enhanced creativity. I thought this was pseudoscience. The data proves I was wrong.”

The segment goes viral. CBS servers crash from the demand. The live-stream is watched by 47 million people simultaneously. Social media is snowed under with the #CoopersBrain hashtag tracking his cognitive transformation.

Lila watches from her laboratory, both thrilled and nervous. “This is either vindication or the beginning of backlash. Public excitement about science can shift quickly to skepticism.”

The segment concludes in week six with Sebastian’s final assessment: “I began skeptical. I end convinced. Dr. Chen’s research isn’t just scientifically valid, it’s personally transformative. My cognition has improved measurably, I can feel the difference in every aspect of my life.”

The broadcast wins an Emmy. More importantly, it moves personalized fermentation from academic research to mainstream practice.

Person of the YearTime magazine named Chen “Person of the Year” in 2062, with a cover story titled “The Fermentation Prophet.” The article revealed that Chen had been secretly advising world leaders on cognitive optimization through personalized kombucha protocols. President Ocasio-Cortez’s dramatic policy improvements coincided with Chen’s consultation on White House fermentation systems.

The article catalyzes two responses. Skeptics claim she’s built a cult of personality around fermentation. Supporters argue she’s demonstrated biological truths that threaten established interests.

Lila reads the article in her laboratory, surrounded by decades of research. A quote resonates with her: “Dr. Chen didn’t just discover that humans need personalized microbial partnerships; she proved that ancient wisdom, when tested rigorously, often surpasses modern assumptions.”

The Insurance Industry PivotThe mounting evidence from Chen’s discoveries causes the insurance industry to pivot. Her research provides actuarial evidence that transforms healthcare economics. Her longitudinal studies demonstrate that kombucha consumption results in a 67% reduction in healthcare costs and 89% increase in productivity metrics. Cigna becomes the first major insurer to mandate microbiome mapping for all customers, offering premium discounts of up to 40% for individuals who follow Chen-approved fermentation protocols.

Cigna’s Chief Actuary, Michael Torres, presents findings to the board: “Chen’s research has been replicated by seventeen independent studies across twelve countries. The cognitive improvements are real and measurable. But there’s something more significant in the data—healthcare cost implications.”

He displays his analysis: “Participants in Chen’s personalized kombucha group showed a significant reduction in healthcare utilization over three years. Fewer doctor visits, fewer medications, better health outcomes. From an actuarial perspective, this is transformative.”

A board member asks, “You’re suggesting we incentivize kombucha consumption?”

Torres makes his position clear. “I’m suggesting we incentivize personalized microbiome optimization through fermented beverages. If Chen’s findings hold at scale, we could reduce healthcare costs dramatically while improving member health outcomes. That’s a rare alignment of interests.”

By late 2047, every major insurer has copied the model. Personalized cognitive performance ratings known as “Chen Scores” based on micrometer-matched fermentation become standard health metrics.

Lila watches this transformation with mixed feelings. “I discovered that humans need personalized microbial partnerships for optimal health. Now insurance companies are profiting from that discovery.”

Sarah offers perspective: “They’re profiting by reducing healthcare costs while improving people’s health. That’s the least objectionable form of profit I can imagine.”

Lila is doubtful. “It still feels like co-option.”

“You’ve been vindicated. There’s a difference.”

Scientific Legacy and Personal CostsChen’s fame came at a steep personal cost. Death threats from pharmaceutical lobbies forced her into protective custody. BigSoda hired private investigators to discredit her research, leading to Congressional hearings where Chen defended fermentation science against corporate lawyers. Her marriage collapsed under the pressure. This wasn’t merely a personal failure but a systemic issue representing the price of pursuing truth others weren’t ready to accept. She felt torn between democratizing cognitive enhancement and maintaining human connection, ultimately choosing humanity’s welfare over her own happiness. She accepted the long hours, relentless pressure to publish, limited funding, and elusive promise of job security as table stakes in her unyielding commitment to discover fermentation’s secrets.

In this, she walked in the footsteps of other groundbreaking scientists whose personal lives were turbulent. Einstein’s marriage to Mileva Marić ended in divorce in 1919. Prominent physicist Stephen Hawking ended his marriage to his first wife, Jane Wilde, after decades together, followed by a high-profile second marriage and divorce. Across the Bay at UC Berkeley, people still discussed the 2013-14 academic year when, over several months, four members of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology died by suicide: an undergraduate student, a doctoral student, a postdoctoral fellow, and a faculty member.

An email from her mother arrives: “Your father and I are proud of your achievements. But we worry about you. Science is important, but so is life outside the laboratory. Please take care of yourself, not just your research.”

Her parents’ concern touches her but also stings. They immigrated to give her opportunities. She seized those opportunities so completely that she forgot to build a life alongside her career.

The irony isn’t lost on her: she’s discovered how to optimize human cognition through biological partnerships while her own human partnerships atrophied from neglect.

Despite the personal cost, Chen remained focused on democratizing cognitive enhancement through accessible fermentation technology.

Taiwanese HeritageCommentators note the importance of Chen’s childhood on her life’s trajectory. While Chen never discussed her family background publicly, close friends knew she honored her Taiwanese parents’ legacy. Raised in a family with cultural foundations in systems thinking, she possessed from an early age a holistic perspective that prepared her to see connections between fermentation and cognition that Western-trained scientists, focused on isolated variables, completely missed.

Growing up in a household consuming fermented foods like Korean kimchi, Japanese miso, and traditional Chinese pickles, Chen understood intuitively that these weren’t just foods, they were medicines. Her parents’ scientific training, combined with their cultural food wisdom, gave her unique credibility to bridge ancient fermentation knowledge with cutting-edge neuroscience.

Even as personal relationships suffered, Chen’s cultural background provided frameworks for finding meaning through service to community rather than individual achievement. The Taiwanese concept of contributing to collective welfare helped her endure personal isolation by focusing on her research’s potential to benefit humanity. Chen’s Taiwanese heritage not only prepared her to overcome challenges, it provided the cultural lens enabling her revolutionary discoveries. Her ability to synthesize Western scientific rigor with Eastern systems thinking created breakthroughs neither tradition could have achieved alone.

Papers That Changed EverythingChen’s published work included six landmark papers that dismantled industrial nutrition:

• “Fermented Beverage Complexity and Synthetic Nootropic Efficacy” (PNAS, 2045)
• “Personalized Fermented Beverages and Cognitive Optimization: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study” (Nature Neuroscience, 2045)
• “Individual Bacterial Fingerprints and Cognitive Architecture” (Cell, 2053)
• “Microbiome-Matched Probiotics: The End of Universal Nutrition” (Nature, 2059)
• “Corporate Beverage Consumption and Cognitive Decline: A 20-Year Study” (Science, 2060)
• “Bacterial Diversity and Executive Function Correlation” (The Lancet, 250-Year-Anniversary Edition, 2073)

Each publication triggered stock market volatility as investors fled companies producing “cognitively sub-optimal” beverages.

The Tipping PointThe culmination of her career and peak in popular awareness was undoubtedly Chen’s 2062 TED talk, “Your Brain is What You Brew,” viewed 2.3 billion times. Her simple demonstration—brewing personalized kombucha live on stage while connected to neural monitoring equipment—showed audiences their own brain activity optimizing in real-time as beneficial bacteria colonized their gut.

Neural-linked biosensors, initially developed for medical monitoring, became consumer devices as people demanded real-time feedback on their cognitive enhancement. The Oura Ring 12 was the year’s fashion accessory. Chen’s research provided the scientific foundation for making personalized nutrition not just possible, but economically inevitable. Mass-produced beverages became medically contraindicated as precision medicine algorithms recommended specific probiotic strains for individual brain optimization.

VindicationBy 2068, Chen had settled into her new laboratory—a former BigSoda bottling plant converted into the world’s largest personalized fermentation research facility. Watching thousands of diverse kombucha cultures growing in what was once a production facility for identical cola, she realized she hadn’t just revolutionized nutrition, she’d catalyzed humanity’s cognitive evolution through the ancient wisdom of fermentation.

Lila walks through the facility on her 63rd birthday, Sarah beside her. “When we started in 2038, I just wanted to prove that humans need biological partnerships. I didn’t imagine this.”

“You imagined exactly this,” Sarah corrects. “You just didn’t believe it was possible.”

They pass sections dedicated to different research directions: cognitive optimization, immune enhancement, emotional regulation, physical performance. Each section employs dozens of researchers continuing Lila’s work.

A young researcher, Dr. James Park, approaches nervously. “Dr. Chen, I wanted to thank you. Your research inspired me to study microbiome science. I’ve been working on extending your cognitive optimization protocols to neurodegenerative disease prevention.”

“Show me your work,” Lila says.

James displays his findings—personalized fermentation protocols that measurably slow cognitive decline in early onset Alzheimer’s patients. “It’s preliminary, but the effects are significant.”

Lila reviews his data, impressed. “This is excellent work. Publish it. Don’t wait for perfection.”

“But what about criticism—”

“You’ll be criticized regardless. Publish solid work and let others debate it. That’s how science advances.”

After James leaves, Sarah observes: “You’re mentoring him the way Sonnenburg mentored you.”

“If I’ve seen further, it’s by standing on the shoulders of giants,” Lila replies, repeating the quote by Isaac Newton framed on her office wall.

They reach the central observation deck overlooking thousands of fermentation cultures. Each one unique, each representing an individual’s optimized microbial partnership.

“Thirty years ago, I argued with Sonnenburg about mouse models,” Lila reflects. “I said we were studying the wrong thing using the wrong approach. He supported me despite skepticism. Now this facility employs 500 researchers, serves 10 million people globally, and has fundamentally changed human nutrition.”

“How does that feel?”

“Overwhelming. Humbling. And insufficient. There’s so much more to discover about human-microbial partnerships. We’ve barely begun.”

“Lila, you’re 63. You’ve revolutionized nutritional neuroscience. Maybe let someone else continue the revolution while you enjoy the success.”

“Enjoy it alone?” The question is rhetorical but pointed. “Sarah, I chose this path knowing the costs. I don’t regret the choice, but I’m not sure I’d call the result enjoyable. Meaningful, yes. Important, yes. Enjoyable? Maybe not so much.”

Sarah doesn’t have an answer.

That evening, the facility hosts a celebration for Lila’s birthday. Researchers, former students, and collaborators from around the world gather in person and by teleconference. The party is warm, appreciative, honoring her contributions.

But as Lila looks around the room, she feels the familiar isolation. She’s surrounded by people who admire her work but don’t really know her. The price of complete dedication to research is that research becomes all you have.

Late that night, alone in her office, she receives an email from her aging mother: “Daughter, we are proud of everything you’ve accomplished. But we worry you’ve accomplished everything except happiness. Science is important, but so is joy. Please find some joy.”

Lila reads the email three times, then writes a response she’ll never send: “I found meaning, Mama. That’s supposed to be more important than happiness. Some days I believe that. Other days, I wonder if I chose wrongly. But it’s too late to make a different choice now. The work is done. That’s the life I lived. The equation is balanced, even if it aches.”

She deletes the draft and writes instead: “I’m fine, Mama. The work continues. Thank you for your concern.”

Some truths are too heavy to share, even with those who love you.

Chen’s discovery that the human brain required biological partnerships was just the first revelation. In a garage laboratory in Spain’s Basque Country, a young PhD student was about to prove that fermentation itself could think—and that living beverages were only the beginning of humanity’s symbiotic future.

Don’t miss next Friday’s exciting installment, only on Booch News.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The post Our Fermented Future, Episode 2: Microbiome Mapping – The Personal Revolution appeared first on 'Booch News.

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Stargazer Kombucha was founded in 2019 by Alison and Mike Schmitt. This boutique craft kombucha business based in Albuquerque, New Mexico is now for sale.

Brewing a traditional form of kombucha, the company selects fine single-origin teas and ferments them slowly in small batches, expressing the complex flavors of each tea without adding fruit juices, purees, or syrups. Every variety is made from just four simple ingredients: filtered water, organic raw cane sugar, live kombucha culture, and loose leaf tea.

Flavors include:

• Assam
• Cota
• Lavender
• Spearmint
• Rose
• Earl Grey

Over the past six years, the business has expanded its product line, grown a loyal following, and secured numerous wholesale accounts. The kombucha is highly regarded locally and has received national recognition, winning two Good Food Awards in 2024. It is currently sold on tap and in cans at over 20 retailers in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe metro area. The business is currently majority woman-, minority-, and immigrant-owned.

Due to recent health challenges and changes in family commitments, Alison has decided to sell the business and pass it on to new owners with the vision to develop its full potential. It is well-positioned to scale into a standout regional—or national—brand.

Brewing operations are housed in a leased 2,000 sq ft brewery in Albuquerque’s North Valley. The landlord has indicated a willingness to work with the buyer on a new lease. Alternatively, the business can be easily relocated, as the branding is universally themed and not tied to a specific location.

The current owners are willing to assist the buyer to ensure a smooth transition.

Termsheet* Asking Price: ~~$190,000~~ Now reduced to $70,000 (1/6/2026) * Launched: 2019 * Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico * Current production capacity: Up to 270 gallons/week * Distribution: Farmers markets, festivals, breweries, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. * Financials and full asset list: Available upon signing a non-disclosure agreement

Assets(Partial. Full list available on request.)

All intellectual property:

• Recipes, formulas, and proprietary information
• Branding and marketing assets
• Client list, leads, contacts, and related information
• Nutrition facts panels
• Barcodes
• USPTO-registered brand trademark, etc.

All digital assets:

• Square point of sale app
• Square online store
• PayPal account
• Website
• Social media accounts
• Additional web domains
• Other digital assets, etc.

All equipment owned by the business:

• 7’x14′ walk-in cooler with Coolbot system
• Stainless steel 3-section sink (1)
• Stainless steel hand wash sinks (2)
• Stainless steel tables (2)
• Shelving units (7)
• 50-gallon stainless steel Italian Marchisio fermenters (6)
• Inkbird digital temperature controllers (8)
• 1/6 BBL Sankey kegs (15)
• 5-gallon Cornelius kegs (15)
• 3-gallon Italian ball lock kegs (10)
• Chest freezers (2)
• Food prep and small kitchen equipment
• Testing equipment
• Full market and festival booth setups
• POS terminals
• Internet router, etc.

All inventory owned by the business:

• Teas
• Sugar
• Spices
• Other miscellaneous ingredients
• Cans
• Bottles
• Labels
• Other packaging materials, etc.

To learn more review the sale sheet at BusinessesForSale or email Alison at stargazerkombucha@gmail.com.

PodcastAlison shares the story of Stargazer Kombucha in this exclusive Booch News interview.

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This is the first episode in a series about possible futures, which will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. The Preview appeared last week. New episodes drop every Friday.

OverviewDecades before the year 2100 the processed food industrial complex implodes when synthetic biology renders traditional agriculture obsolete. Corn subsidies vanish as vertical farms produce superior nutrition. High-fructose corn syrup becomes economically unviable compared with living beverages that actively improve health metrics. Corporate executives desperately pivot into fermentation, but their sterile facilities can’t compete with distributed home-brewing networks. This episode follows Maria Vasquez, a former BigSoda executive, as she witnesses her empire crumble while underground kombucha kollectives thrive in abandoned shopping malls.

Maria Vasquez: A Portrait of Corporate ExtinctionMaria Vasquez climbed the corporate ladder at BigSoda for thirty-seven years, from a quality control intern at the Fresno bottling plant in 2009 to Senior Vice President of Global Beverage Innovation by 2041. Born to migrant farmworkers in California’s Central Valley, she embodied the American Dream—her Stanford MBA and ruthless market instincts transformed her into BigSoda’s most formidable executive. Maria orchestrated the Cola Wars 2.0, crushing craft beverage startups and acquiring kombucha pioneers like GT’s Living Foods with the goal of scaling them internationally.

Her corner office in BigSoda Tower overlooked the Mississippi River, but by 2046, she stared at quarterly reports that defied comprehension. Revenue hemorrhaging. Market share evaporating. The ultra-processed food industrial complex was imploding as innovative biology has rendered traditional agriculture obsolete. Corn subsidies—the foundation of her empire—vanished overnight when vertical farms began producing superior nutrition at a fraction of the cost. High-fructose corn syrup became economically unviable compared to living beverages that actively improved consumer health metrics in real-time.

The Transformation CrisisMaria’s deepest fear wasn’t poverty—she had accumulated enough wealth to retire comfortably. Her terror was her irrelevance. She had spent decades crushing “hippie health drinks” only to watch them resurrect as biotechnology made her products look primitive. When her own daughter Sofia stopped drinking BigSoda after her neural implant flagged it as “biologically incompatible,” Maria knew the war was lost.

Corporate desperation drove her to champion BigSoda’s $50 billion pivot to fermentation. Still, their sterile, centralized facilities couldn’t replicate the complex ecosystems and diverse biochemistry of home-brewing networks established in local communities. Every attempt to industrialize kombucha ultimately killed the living cultures that consumers demanded. Focus groups rejected BigSoda’s fermented cola hybrids as “dead water with bubbles.”

Discovery in the UndergroundThe scales lifted from her eyes when Maria, investigating competitive intelligence on the West Coast, discovered the Eastridge Mall Kollective—a thriving kombucha community in an abandoned California shopping center. Here, former tech workers, climate refugees, and unemployed factory workers had established a post-corporate economy based on SCOBY sharing and cooperative fermentation.

The kollective’s leader, Dr. Kenji Nakamura (a former Genentech biotech researcher), showed Maria fermentation tanks growing in old department stores, their glass walls pulsing with bioluminescent cultures. These aren’t businesses—they’re living ecosystems that adapt to each member’s health needs. Maria watched teenagers trade SCOBY genetics like vintage vinyl records, their enthusiasm genuine in ways her focus groups never achieved.

The Executive’s EpiphanyMaria’s conversion came when she tastes a batch brewed specifically for her gut microbiome profile. For the first time in decades, a beverage made her feel genuinely better rather than just satisfying addiction. She realizes that BigSoda’s business model—creating dependency through sugar and caffeine—is evolutionarily obsolete. The future belongs to beverages that enhance rather than exploit human biology.

Her final act in the corporate world was submitting a resignation letter recommending that BigSoda dissolve voluntarily and donate its assets to fermentation cooperatives. The board fires her via an encrypted Signal message while she’s still in the mall, but Maria doesn’t care. She was already negotiating with Nakamura about converting BigSoda’s abandoned Fresno plant into a kombucha monastery.

Personal Stakes and TransformationMaria transformed from corporate warrior to biological pilgrim. Her most significant challenge isn’t mastering fermentation—it’s abandoning thirty years of targeting consumers instead of partnering with them symbiotically. She battled her ingrained conviction that business demands exploitation, discovering that cooperation generates more sustainable value than competition ever could.

Her hopes centered on rebuilding her relationship with Sofia, who has agreed to teach her mother about mycological networks in exchange for stories about the corporate world (“The better to know the enemy, Mom”). She feared that she was too contaminated by industrial thinking to truly embrace living systems—that she’ll always be a tourist in the biological future, rather than a native inhabitant.

Maria completed her first successful batch of kombucha, brewed in her Park Avenue penthouse using cultures gifted by the Eastridge kollective. As she watches the SCOBY form, she realized she was witnessing her own transformation from corporate predator to biological steward—a metamorphosis as profound as the corporate behemoths crumbling around her.

As the cola conglomerates collapsed, kombucha filled the beverage gap. Meanwhile, a discovery by a Stanford University biochemist that the human brain achieved optimal cognitive performance when fed personally tailored fermented beverages heralded a new dawn.

Tune in next Friday for another episode of ‘Our Fermented Future’.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The post Our Fermented Future, Episode 1: The Collapse of Corn Syrup appeared first on 'Booch News.

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Inspired by the recent Stanford Fermented Food Conference, I imagined outlandish futures:that ultra-processed foods are a thing of the past; that crops are grown indoors after climate change devastates farmlands; that absolutely everyone makes home-brewed kombucha. This is a preview of a series about possible futures that will be published in Booch News over the coming weeks. New episodes drop every Friday.

Introduction: The World of 2100It’s 2100, and kombucha? It flows from a worldwide network of fermentation vats. The Great Health Awakening of 2047 shattered BigSoda’s duopoly when personalized medicine proved that individual gut microbiomes determined optimal beverage choices. Corporate monocultures collapsed as distributed fermentation networks—powered by AI mycologists and quantum-enhanced SCOBYs—delivered custom-brewed probiotics directly to consumers based on their biometric profiles. Climate refugees discovered that kombucha cultures thrive in vertical hydroponic gardens, making it one of the most sustainable beverages on a warming planet. What began early in the 21st Century as a hipster health drink evolved into humanity’s primary liquid interface with symbiotic biotechnology.

In the Beginning: 2025We sit here in 2025 at the apex of a global industrial civilization. Billions have been lifted out of poverty. In the developed world, living standards and life expectancy are at levels that were unimaginable 75 years ago. In 1950, there were no color televisions, smartphones, electric cars, PCs, or microwave ovens. I was born in the England of the 1950’s, at a time when rationing of food and gasoline was still in place. The polio vaccine had not been discovered. We had a limited diet, and without a refrigerator in the kitchen, my Mum shopped daily for vegetables, bread, and milk. Even in the USA, the land of plenty, there were only around 3,000 products in a typical supermarket. Seventy-five years later, by 2025, the number of SKUs had reached 26,000—dramatic developments in one lifetime.

What will the world be like in the year 2100, 75 years from now? When today’s toddlers are as old as I am today. What changes will have occurred in the economy, society, and the climate? What scientific breakthroughs? What will our diets be like? Our nutrition? Our beverage choices?

Today, kombucha producers, both home brewers and commercial brands, are in the minority. Even in the hipster communities of Santa Monica, Marin County, and Hackney Wick, most people have never tasted kombucha. Back in 1950, no one, except for those with Russian grandmothers who kept a jar of ‘booch in the kitchen, had even heard of kombucha.

But imagine, for a moment, what it would be like if everyone drank ‘booch as regularly as they consume beer or wine, coffee, or tea today. What would the world of 2100 be like if this happened? What developments in science, production, and consumer awareness would usher in such a world? Are there any seeds of change that have been planted today that we can, with intelligent scenario planning, project into the future? What is there in the kombucha market today that augur changes in global acceptance? What scenarios of a speculative look 75 years ahead can help commercial kombucha companies make better decisions today? Is this even possible?

This is a story of possibilities.

Prelude: The Morning CommuteThe sun rose over San Francisco Bay in 2025. Maya ducked into the corner store before catching the ferry to work in the City. Checking the cooler, her eyes skimmed past the bright reds and neon blues of soda cans, the bottles of beer, the plastic jugs of sweet tea. Finally, she spotted what she was looking for. On the lowest shelf, half hidden, sat three lonely bottles of kombucha. She picked up a couple of ginger-lemon flavors, wincing at the cost, and wondered how long this small brand would last.

Maya tucked them carefully into her bag. As she stepped back into the foggy morning, she felt again the strange double life she lived—part of a culture invisible to most, yet deeply nourishing to her.

On the Sausalito ferry, most of the commuters clutched coffee cups or colas. Maya unscrewed the cap, a slight hiss escaped, and she savored the rising scents—lemon bright, ginger sharp.

“What’s that?” a man asked, eyeing her drink as if it might explode.

“Kombucha,” she said, smiling. “Fermented tea. It’s full of probiotics, good for your gut health. Gives you energy without the crash.”

He squinted, confused. “Tea that…ferments? Like beer?”

She nodded. “Kind of, but…”

But he had already turned back to his donut, dismissing her explanation as if it were a fad too complicated to matter. Maya sighed and sipped anyway. The fizz sparkled on her tongue. To her, kombucha was alive, a tiny rebellion in a world dulled by sugar and alcohol.

Maya had given up hoping that the refreshment bar on the ferry would stock kombucha. Neither did most of the cafes, bars, and restaurants in the City. Once, she tried to share her homebrewed batches with colleagues at work. She’d brought in mason jars filled with deep ruby hibiscus ‘booch, but her manager had frowned. Some report about a woman in Iowa getting sick had been enough to ban the jars. “Company liability,” he’d said.

The fridge in the break room was packed with soda and beer for the Friday happy hour. Her one bottle of ‘booch stood alone, waiting. She thought of her friend who owned a small kombucha brewery, fighting for shelf space, crushed by distributor fees. Outside, as the weekend got underway, laughter spilled from a bar. No one toasted with kombucha. Not yet.

Fast forwardSeventy-five years later, in 2100, morning light glinted on the Bay. Maya’s granddaughter, Hannah, stopped at the food truck that sold fresh kombucha. Rows of taps along the side of the converted trailer gleamed under the awning, each labeled with today’s flavors: hibiscus-mint, mango-ginger, rosemary-pear. She chose hibiscus-mint, watching as the server filled her insulated glass. The crimson liquid glowed, bubbles rising like laughter.

On the ferry deck, she lifted her cup to clink against a friend’s. Around them, dozens of commuters did the same. The air was filled with the scent of herbs and fruit, accompanied by the low hum of conversations carried on the breeze. Kombucha wasn’t questioned, wasn’t defended. It was shared. The drink was alive, and so were they. No hangovers, no sugar crash. Just a calm lift. Hannah took a sip. The taste was crisp, floral, and refreshing. She appreciated how it steadied her without a ragged caffeine edge. The drink was part of her, as natural as water.

The break room at work was fragrant with the smell of mango and ginger. Glass jars lined the shelves, each filled with fermenting tea. SCOBYs floated like strange jellyfish, their names written in marker on the jars: Luna, Old Faithful, Ginger Queen. Employees tended them the way earlier generations once watered houseplants. Feeding, checking, laughing when bubbles rose. The company provided jars, teas, and sugars, as well as space for everyone to brew. Meetings began with kombucha tastings. Instead of coffee jitters, there was a steady, cheerful lift.

Hannah cradled her own jar at her desk. She loved the ritual of brewing, of waiting, of tasting. For her, kombucha wasn’t rebellion. It was a connection—between people, between body and planet, between generations. She’d named her favorite SCOBY ‘Maya’; it was much more than a kombucha “mother”, it was a direct descendant of the one her grandmother had gifted her.

That evening, Hannah crossed the Justin Herman Plaza. It was alive with music. Old men played checkers at shaded tables. Children chased bubbles that shimmered in the late sun. Everywhere she looked, people held glasses of kombucha: families sharing mango brews, teens daring each other with spicy chili-lime, artists sipping earthy oolong blends.

At her favorite café in the Ferry Building, she sat looking over the sea wall that rose ten feet above the Bay, keeping the rising waters from flooding the street, and raised her cup. The hibiscus and mint tasted of earth, of leaf, of time itself.

Hannah thought of the stories her grandmother once told—of lonely bottles on dusty shelves, of puzzled looks from strangers. For Maya, kombucha had been an act of resistance. For Hannah, it was the taste of home.

What changed?The arc between grandmother and granddaughter was not just personal; it was also profound. It was planetary. Climate change had reshaped agriculture, forcing humanity to rethink what it consumes. Grapes for wine had grown scarce; barley for beer was unreliable. Sugary sodas, once symbols of modern life, had become relics of wasteful abundance. In their place, kombucha rose—adaptable, sustainable, rooted in the wisdom of fermentation.

What Maya sipped in defiance, Hannah now shared in joy—between them stretched seventy-five years of struggle and transformation, from scarcity to abundance, from stigma to celebration.

Kombucha was no longer just a drink. It was memory, culture, resilience. And through its fizzing, tangy lift, the world had chosen life in a glass.

The transformation didn’t happen overnight. It began in 2046 when a powerful corporate executive watched her empire crumble while discovering that the future belonged not to those who could manufacture the most product, but to those who could nurture the most life.

Tune in next Friday to learn how ‘Our Fermented Future’ begins.

DisclaimerThis is a work of speculative fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, assisted by generative A.I. References to real brands and organizations are used in a wholly imaginative context and are not intended to reflect any actual facts or opinions related to them. No assertions or statements in this post should be interpreted as true or factual.

AudioListen to an audio version of this Episode and all future ones via the Booch News channel on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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MOMO kombucha was in the news recently after securing an additional £2 million in investment funds. I ask co-founder Josh Puddle about the history and plans for his company.

OriginsIn May 2016, Josh was somewhere over the North Atlantic, on a flight from London to New York, when his girlfriend, now wife, Lisa, started telling him about gut health. She claimed that there was a new drink in the States called “kombucha” that had become popular. At the time, as I had discovered, it was almost entirely unknown in the UK.

They went to a Whole Foods in Manhattan and were astounded by the amount of kombucha in the cooler, it was “meters wide, floor to ceiling, loads of brands, loads of flavors. And we absolutely loved the stuff.”

Josh shared what happened next.

When we returned to London, we did nothing about it for about seven months. Although obviously, the idea was percolating away. At Christmas, we were back at my parents’ house. And I was feeling particularly fed up with my corporate job. I’d been in the City for ten years. I’d learned a considerable amount, but I had always had this yearning to do my own thing. So I went online and I bought Hannah Crumb’s Big Book of Kombucha and a £30 kombucha-making kit. When Lisa and I got home, we brewed our first-ever batch on New Year’s Day, 2017. And I just completely fell in love with the process of making it.

From the beginning, the company was built on Lisa’s unwavering belief that it had the potential to be something truly remarkable. Even the name was inspired by her favorite children’s book.

They spent almost two years building the foundations of the company: developing their recipe, branding, and website. Josh returned to the States on a fact-finding visit to Los Angeles, where he met Hannah Crum, who consulted on starting the business.

ProcessFrom day one, their mission has been simple: to make the UK’s best kombucha. That meant keeping it raw, completely unfiltered, and brewed the traditional way. They ferment in hundreds of small nine-liter glass jars, which are pumped into a brite tank before being bottled.

MOMO utilizes high-quality ingredients and artisanal brewing methods, incorporating organic teas and slow-pressed juices. The brand’s commitment to producing raw, unfiltered kombucha not only enhances flavor but also maximizes health benefits, appealing to health-conscious consumers.

In fact, in a 2024 test of kombucha commercially available in the UK, fermentation experts and citizen scientists Jo Webster and Caroline Gilmartin discovered that “The only commercial kombucha we tested that behaved like a real kombucha was MOMO.”

The operation has grown from a husband-and-wife team to a team of 26. From shipping 400 bottles a week when they started, to 50,000 bottles a week today. Last year MOMO was named to the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list.

FundingThe recent £2 million funding round, supported by 24 angel investors including Jez Galaun, co-founder of Brixton Brewery, will be used to enhance production capacity through a larger brewery facility and the acquisition of new equipment. This latest investment boosts MOMO’s total funding to £4.5 million. The funds will enable them to significantly scale their production capacity, which has been a limiting factor since the brand’s launch, and continue to enhance the quality of their kombucha offerings.

FlavorsThey sell a core range of four flavors: ginger lemon, elderflower, turmeric, and raspberry hibiscus.

They are known for a number of seasonal specialties, and take the time to visit the locations where ingredients originate. Josh is passionate about these sources and delights in meeting the suppliers. They work with seasonal produce supplier Natoora.

Watermelon

Unless you’ve tried one of Zerbinati’s Sentinels, you’ve never tasted a watermelon with such intense, concentrated flavour. That depth comes from careful control. Watermelons are adapted to soak up as much water as they can – and too much leads to dilution. On the clay-rich soils of his farm in Sermide, Oscar Zerbinati shields the plants from rain and raises the best fruits onto mounds so excess water drains away. Smaller fruits are removed, allowing each plant to channel its energy into one. The result is very large (up to 18kg!), watermelons with a punchy sweetness. A perfect match for unfiltered kombucha.

Blood Orange and Green Mandarin

We flew out to Sicily, met Carmelo and his family took us for an amazing tour through the groves where we were just ripping oranges off the trees, ripping them open and eating them, squeezing them into our mouths. It was an amazing experience. And we got taken out for a big, big Sicilian dinner that night. And he also does these amazing mandarins. For our winter seasonal flavor we use his green mandarins. They’re harvested before they’re ripe. Most of the flavor is in the skin of the fruit. And that’s my favorite, the green mandarin.

Rhubarb

We get our rhubarb from a farmer in Yorkshire called Robert Tomlinson. His fourth-generation farm in a place called Pudsey in Yorkshire is just him and his wife, they are the operation. And it’s the most beautiful thing you can see in farming. You walk into forcing sheds where they essentially force the rhubarb to grow in the dark. And then, and then he and his wife Paula, they harvest the rhubarb by candlelight. They can’t turn the lights on because the rhubarb will switch into photosynthesis. So they’re harvesting it by candlelight. And, it’s incredibly hard work, really, really physical, long days, long hours for quite a short period of time. And then the rhubarb gets sent straight down to London, where it gets juiced. And then we add it to the kombucha.

Limited EditionsMOMO also do limited editions, usually one or two per year.

Tate Modern Coffee Kombucha

The last one we did was a collaboration with the Tate Modern, the famous London art gallery located on the South Bank. We created a coffee kombucha, working closely with their roasters to find the right coffee and decide how we would brew it. What made it truly special was that it coincided with the Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary. And they authorized us to use ‘The Snail’ by Matisse, which hangs in the gallery.

Visitors to London can enjoy MOMO Kombucha ion the spectacular Level 6 restaurant with a view of St Paul’s.

The next generation

What’s really surprised me is how much kids enjoy it. When I pick up my my children from school, you see other kids will go straight to the coffee shop across the road. And instead of buying a lemonade or an ice cream, their treat after school treat is a bottle of MOMO, which is which is really cool to see.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear John tell the story of MOMO kombucha.

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Curro Polo is currently pursuing an industrial PhD in the Basque Culinary Center program, with the academic guidance of Harvard University. His research project is taking place at Ama Brewery, where he is on the R&D team with Chef Ramón Perisé Moré who we interviewed recently. Curro is exploring the fascinating world of microbiology as it applies to beverages. We’d met at the 2024 KBI conference in Reno, Nevada, where Curro and I were both Kombucha Kup judges. At that time, he was finishing up his Master’s in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts at Harvard. I reported on his Master’s thesis, Kombucha: A Word on Metamorphosis, in March 2025.

Curro has launched a campaign to fund the first experiments of his PhD project: Open Flavor: Modeling Fermentation Through Open Science. The goal is to scale and model fermentation processes for the No/Lo (low and no alcohol) beverage category using open science and open source tools. The idea is to rethink fermentation beyond traditional beer and wine, exploring substrates like teas, and to make all methods, data, and tools openly available. He will utilize platforms such as the Pioreactor, an open source mini bioreactor. Expanding the cluster will enable him to conduct stronger, reproducible experiments that benefit both science and industry.

The PioreactorThe Pioreactor is an affordable and user-friendly bioreactor that is flexible and easy to scale. It’s an open source tool for controlled micro-fermentations where variables such as pH, oxygen, temperature, and agitation can be precisely managed. Micro-fermentations of 20ml not only provide fast, cost-effective, and reproducible data generation but also create a foundation for predictive models that can be scaled to industrial production. This approach brings both scientific rigor and competitive advantages to the No/Lo industry.

A bioreactor is basically a machine that helps you to create an environment where you can control temperature, the movement, or whatever liquid is inside. You can also control what kind of other liquids you would put in the liquid for a pumping system. And then it also has a system, which is called optical density, that it measures how fast your cells are growing in that liquid, right? Because there’s many ways to approach fermentation, right? How I like to imagine fermentation is like a system, there’s a box and in that box you have a liquid, and that liquid has different compounds.

Initial work will focus on three non-Saccharomyces yeasts relevant for No/Lo beverages. We will systematically vary temperature, pH, oxygen, stirring speed, and tea substrate to assess strain performance. Growth curves and CO₂ production, measured directly in the Pioreactor, will provide high-resolution insights into metabolic activity and fermentation dynamics. These datasets will support the first generation of predictive models, later validated against 500 L and 2000 L fermentations to test reproducibility and scalability. Positive and negative controls will anchor results, ensuring the models capture strain-specific behavior and guide cost-effective, science-based innovation in the No/Lo sector. The fermentation is studied in 40 ml vials, where 10-30 ml of liquid ensures the liquid-air interface is optimized and tubing remains clear of the liquid.

Crowdfunding success!Curro reached his goal of $2,564 on September 22, allowing him to expand the current cluster from nine Pioreactors to 15, and conduct experiments with five variables in triplicate.

Here’s his description of the project:

The whole idea of the project is not to create a product but rather to test a statistical model. You can think of any mixed fermentation as a party where different guests are wearing unique perfumes. If I had a sensor that could detect each perfume, I could assume which guest is doing what and maybe even predict their behavior. I will give you an example with a very reduced consortia: Imagine you have a sweet tea with a yeast strain (that produces CO₂) and also a bacterial strain (let’s assume that it only produces lactic acid). Well, if I ferment the tea with 10g/L of glucose and take samples at the end of the fermentation (where there is 0g/L of glucose left), I can start drawing hypotheses. If the pH was very high, then the CO₂ must be very high as well (more glucose went into CO₂ production by yeast rather than into acid production by bacteria) etc… the key goal is to give a unique “ID” card to each microorganism, to see their behavior during the experiment in terms of activity (more activity of “x” microorganism means more flavor development of “x” compound). The ultimate goal is to develop a system through the Pioreactors that could be potentially implemented in other laboratories, breweries, and so on, and to predict and model fermentation.

However, the campaign still has 28 days to go, and any additional funds that are donated (hint!) will be used for system upgrades.

PodcastCurro and I discuss his research.

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Ama Brewery produces a pét-nat tea brewed using local spring water from the Izarraitz Massif in the Basque Country, and high-quality tea and herbs. Pét-nat, an ancient method of making sparkling wine, is short for pétillant naturel, where the wine is bottled while it’s still undergoing its first fermentation, capturing the carbonation from the remaining yeast and sugar that creates bubbles and the structure inside the bottle–a process generally thought to have originated in Limoux, in France’s Languedoc, as far back as the 16th century.

The brewery team of fine dining chefs, artisan wine makers, scientists, craftsmen, and tea expert Henrietta Lovell, is proud of producing sophisticated, low-alcohol drinks. At 1.5 and 2.7ABV, it’s high enough to be taxed as an alcoholic drink. The current research scientist, Curro Polo, who we interviewed in March, works with co-founder and chef Ramón Perisé Moré of Mugaritz Restaurant, San Sebastian.

I met co-founder, Chef Ramón Perisé Moré at the recent Stanford Fermented Food Conference, where he updated me on developments at Ama Brewery.

Ramón runs the R&D department of Mugaritz and is passionate about natural yeasts and spontaneous fermentation. When a German kombucha enthusiast sent him his first SCOBY through the mail, he started exploring the possibilities. Some of his early bottles exploded after he inadvertently left them to age for several weeks, and he realized that aging was the key. Those that remained had reached the point of excellence he was looking for.

We believe the future of drink pairings in restaurants will challenge the status quo. Low and non-alcoholic alternatives have become part of traditional wine pairings and have given mixologists more to play with. Our bottle-aged kombucha is as complete a drinking experience as any fine wine, beer, or sake. Less alcohol – more experience.

MethodWhat began as a guerrilla group of friends brewing new-wave, aged kombucha in a garage lock-up on a San Sebastian back street, evolved into a fully-fledged R&D facility. Using high-quality tea and herbs, Ama pét-nat tea is brewed with pure Basque mountain water. Its exceptionally low minerality highlights the complex flavors developed during fermentation.

Depending on the composition of these infusions and the action of the SCOBYs, the micro-batches are ready for bottling between one and three weeks later, when simple sugars, yeasts, and bacteria have achieved the right balance. The closed environment of the bottle means the bacteria are starved of air and are unable to acidify the drink excessively. The yeasts, meanwhile, continue turning simple sugars into bubbles.

As the bubbles mature they decrease in size, becoming more integrated into the liquid. Aromas intensify, flavors harmonize, and the mouthfeel becomes silky. The micro-batch kombucha is released to market after a minimum of six months of bottle-aging at room temperature, when it has become more rounded and each infusion has developed a distinct character, resulting in an exceptional drinking experience.

The resulting Amas are lightly sparkling, richly flavored, and elegant – an expression of the terroir and craftsmanship that go into them.It is an ambient beverage that doesn’t need to be kept cool, as it is filtered to delay fermentation.

Water is keyAma Brewery emphasizes that water is a key ingredient.

We believe in a terroir of water consisting of an environment, a geology, a climate, a culture and ways of doing things that only happen in this place and time and have been gradually moulded over the centuries. The plants we use to create our drinks express the regionality of the places they come from: sencha tea from Shizuoka, in Japan, lemongrass from Sri Lanka, green tea from Malawi, milk oolong from Taiwan… grown by people who, despite the great distances and cultural differences, share the same vision vis-à-vis sustainability, ecological agriculture and the search for taste. However, it is water, the element that makes up 95% of our pét-nat tea, that – as happens with the kuras in Japan – anchors us in our own land, linking us through it to the foothills of the massif of Izarraitz, where we work and live with that mountainous, marine and karstic landscape in which small farmers, stockbreeders and fisherfolk lay the basis for the culinary identity of the entire country.

KombuchaAma sells small batch varieties in 750ml champagne-style bottles priced from Euro 24 to 35 ($28 to $41), but doesn’t actually market their beverage as ‘kombucha’.

We don’t call it kombucha. So the word kombucha appears in the back label, in the third or fourth line. We try to stay away from the word kombucha because, as I said, the expectations that we can create about what’s inside the bottle. We made a label that you cannot see because we understand that we made a beverage that doesn’t exist! So that was the idea. Some people think that it was a mistake to make a bottle with no branding because you cannot see Ama anywhere in the bottle.

Indeed, some of the labels are anonymous.

Inspired by Basque sculptors Chillida and Oteiza, the wonderful folks at @foolagency developed the motifs that adorn our stunning labels, a reflection of our roots in the Basque Country.

The information is listed on the back.

Other varieties have more distinctive labels. Only 251 bottles of this Pét-nat Tea were made, using Kirishima Sencha Zairai — a rare tea grown from seed (not cuttings) by the Hayashi family in southern Japan. Each plant is distinct, resulting in a more complex and nuanced expression of its unique terroir. The label by Jorge Elósegui Astrain (@estudioprimo ) reflects the collaboration — two circles, their overlap marked in green as the tea leaf, with soft wave-like edges echoing traditional tea imagery.

Another is Rosé, Elusive Cuvée Vol. 5, a groundbreaking blend of low-alcohol sophistication, that offers a complex harmony of red berry and vegetal notes with well-defined tannins and delicate bubbles. The bright green leaves of the Asatsuyu variety are gently nurtured under shade for three weeks before their late-April harvest. This process intensifies their natural sweetness, giving rise to the rare Tennen Gyokuro, which we infuse with our local Alzola spring water and tint with a touch of elderberry juice. Two hundred sixty bottles were produced, ideal for pairing with fatty dishes, as well as game.

Other varieties on the Ama Brewery website include:

• BI – Lemongrass, Amba Estate, Uva Highlands, Sri Lanka. 1.5%
• HIRU – Malawi Steamed Green & Malawi White Peony, Satemwa Tea Estate, Malawi. 2.5%
• LAU – Golden Lily Milk Oolong, Taitung, Taiwan. 2%
• BOST – Jasmine Silver Needle, Fuding, Fujian, China. 1.5%

Podcast
I sat down with Chef Ramon at the recent Stanford Fermented Food Conference and asked him to share the story of Ama Brewery.

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OriginsNirraj Satish Manek and his wife, Kajall, teamed with his friend and partner, Chef Niyati Rao of Ekaa, a Mumbai fine-dining restaurant, who introduced him to kombucha. His 18-year career at financial behemoths Citibank, H&R Block, and elsewhere gave him the background to spot untapped opportunities. From his first sip of kombucha, he wondered why this natural, gut-friendly beverage wasn’t readily available in India.

SBOOCH was launched in July 2024 and, within a year, was named ‘Kombucha of the Year’ at the London Beer Competition for their Rasam flavor in the non-alcoholic category.

Production and distributionProduction is outsourced to a third-party in Pune. Nirraj has refused to compromise on quality, even if it meant tighter budgets and slower scaling. By forging smart partnerships and maintaining lean operations, they have captured shelf space at an unexpectedly fast pace. People can order from their website for pan-India shipping (free for orders above Rs 1,500) and also from Amazon India and Blinkit.

Over the next three years, they plan to expand distribution to every major Indian city and enter select global markets. They are in a new funding round to support those plans.

The US and Canada are a big market for kombucha. And we are in the process of penetrating that market, as well as a few Asian markets and the UK, because of the UK and India tie-up. We are trying to take advantage of that as well. These are the three major markets we are looking at.

MarketingInstead of bombarding consumers with jargon, the SBOOCH team took a grassroots approach — organizing free tastings, using familiar flavors to ease people in, and telling stories that connected kombucha to India’s own fermentation traditions.

The early days were not without challenges. The biggest? Educating the market. For many Indians, fermented drinks either belonged to the realm of home remedies or were dismissed as “acquired tastes.” SBOOCH is marketed as a lifestyle drink aimed at what Nirraj sees is “a huge gap in a $1.6 trillion beverage landscape globally, where you and I can’t even name one beverage except kombucha which someone can pick from the shelf, and is completely clean and unadulterated.” On the one hand, potential customers range “from a five-year-old toddler to a 95-year-old senior and above, who can enjoy it guilt-free.” On the other hand, the category leaders in terms of adoption are Gen Zs and Millennials.

In today’s world, a 50-year-old, a 60-year-old, or a 40-year-old in the house might not be exposed to the external developments in terms of food and beverages as much as Gen Z is. So they are the carriers of our brand, any new brand. That is a core target, and as we all know, this generation is one of the healthiest, aspiring generations. They are the most non-alcoholic consuming generation over the last century, based on the data.

Their Instagram has content that appeals to the younger generation.

Bollywood actor and fitness icon Sunil Shetty is a brand ambassador.

FlavorsWith just 1–4g of sugar per 100ml, and an ambient shelf life of up to 18 months, achieved by filtration, with no chemicals or preservatives, SBOOCH is a balance of flavor, wellness, and reach that gives the brand an edge in both the Indian and international markets. Chef Niyati’s handcrafted blends celebrate the rich regional flavors of India.

Naga Pepper (Nagaland), is a foraged (not farmed) green pepper ingredient is a hybrid of Asian flavors such as Kaffir Lime and Sichuan.

Rice & Pandan’s (Odisha), “The Aromatic”, highlights include “Annapurna Ke Patte” which is what pandan leaves are often called in Odisha. Witness how rice and pandan, two mainstays of the eastern state, combine in a bottle.

Tulsi Lemon (Uttar Pradesh), “The Sacred” is inspired by the “Panchamrit” of Varanasi. The light bitterness of tulsi is masked by its herby notes and balanced by the perfect citrus of local lemons.

Rasam (Tamil Nadu), “From the kitchens of south,” is inspired by the original Madurai Rasam. This well-known flavor is neither too sour, nor too spicy but just right with its blend of tomato, hing, tamarind and earthy spices.

Koshimbir (Maharashtra), “A salad in a bottle,” is inspired by its namesake, the household Maharashtrian accompaniment, made using tomato, cucumber & coriander.

Gor Keri (Gujarat), “Straight from Nani’s house.” An additive staple in Gujarati pickle, this flavor captures the essence of the sweet, tangy, and slightly spicy Gor Keri.

We have Chef Niyati, and because of her, we were able to create these amazing flavors, which people have never experienced in a bottle before. That is the unique thing, transforming an ingredient-based restaurant into an ingredient-based beverage that touches base with the Indian palate. All ingredients used in SBOOCH are real; there are no nature-identical flavors. We use only all-natural, real ingredients.

PodcastNirraj shares the SBOOCH story and his vision for the future in this podcast.

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Robin Singh had everything he wanted and more—well-settled in the US, financial freedom, married to the love of his life—except he was not happy. It was in his pursuit of happiness that he stumbled across his purpose. He found what he had been looking for when he started Peepal Farm, an animal rescue center and kombucha brewery.

Peepal Farm is an animal rescue organization and an organic farm located in Dhanotu Village, Himachal Pradesh, with the primary objective of healing and protecting animals and transforming their suffering.

The project employs 60 people in projects that include animal rescue, animal sanctuary, food and beverage products, and an animation studio. The animation studio produces short clips to raise awareness of their vision and bring lasting change by changing how people think about animals. They have 50 to 80 million views monthly.

Founding philosophyThe founder’s philosophy is stated on their website:

Live to do maximum good; live while causing minimum harm. It’s our understanding that involuntary physical suffering is an absolute bad across all species; so reducing suffering and nurturing changes that reduce suffering is absolutely good.

This philosophy is explained in more detail in the newly published book Happiness Happens–the story of Robin’s journey from a difficult childhood in India to finding success as a tech entrepreneur in the States, who had everything in life except happiness. It was in his pursuit of happiness that he stumbled across purpose. It eventually took giving up on happiness and pursuing purpose before he realized that he had finally found what he had been looking for back in his homeland. The book describes what happened between his exit from his tech company and his use of the funds to start Peepal Farm.

ProductsAs part of a quest to reach more people, spread their message, and support their program, Robin launched Peepal Farm Products. Starting with farm-grown herbs, the product line gradually expanded into a range of categories with a major aim in mind — to generate more employment for women and income for work with animals. Peepal Farm Products employs women of the village to make the products by hand. The team creates everything from vegan food to upcycled decor, skincare products, and delicious kombucha.

They sell a range of nutritious foods all prepared in small batches: Crunchy Peanut Butter, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Spread, Vegan Snack, Vegan Muesli, Vegan Energy Bars, Vegan Body Butter Lavender, and Flourless Chocolate Cookies Sweetened with Dates and Jaggery. There are gift baskets and individual items for sale.

With an ethos of “Consume less, harm less”, they even encourage people NOT to buy their products! Indeed, they are one of the premier suppliers of SCOBYs and starter liquid for home brewers, allowing them to start enjoying their own kombucha rather than purchasing commercial. They have recipes and how-tos for almost everything they sell on social media. But for people who don’t have the time for that, they can buy the products knowing that they minimize waste and packaging, and all of the profits go towards saving animals.

KombuchaA blend of cane sugar, black tea, and purified Himalayan water is fermented over a week or two, and shipped pan-India in plastic bottles, which are safer and easier to send than glass. The label tells the story.

The kombucha is shipped pan-India and can be ordered from their website. It’s also available in selected retail outlets in the Kangra region. In keeping with their founding philosophy, the purpose of the product sales, including kombucha, is to raise awareness of their cause, not just to generate income. The animals are the ultimate beneficiaries of the sales.

PodcastRobin shares the story of Peepal Farm in this interview.

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Suyra Prakash was introduced to kombucha while living in Denver, Colorado, in 2017, and he brought back a taste for it to India. However, he was unable to find good kombucha, so he started brewing it at home, working for a year until he got it right. His friends encouraged him to start selling. But Surya was not satisfied. His goal was to create a low-sugar kombucha that would still appeal to the Indian palate. Finally, at the end of 2021, he launched Heaven’s Elix, selling an authentic kombucha based on a green and black tea base.

I was not able to find a good product. I was unable to get good kombucha at an affordable rate anywhere. Either it was too expensive and good, or it was affordable and bad. So I decided to make my own at home and provide it to people in similar situations like mine. That’s how Heaven’s Elix Kombucha came about.

Their kombucha is brewed in five-liter glass jars. They have now grown to employ three people and ship pan-India.

We don’t filter our kombucha; ours is a live kombucha. We have worked with the delivery partner. They can ship pan-India within three to four days maximum. During shipping, it carbonates itself. We store it at the right temperature, and we have cold storage here. So we ship it at the right fermentation level. So once it travels, it carbonates on the go. And once you get it in your home, you let it sit it for one or two hours, get all the bubbles settled down, and then you have a physical kombucha in your hand.

CustomersAmong the customers they meet at farmers’ markets are different groups. Some are health-conscious people into yoga or other fitness regimens. Then there are people avoiding processed foods or reducing sugar, counting calories with every meal. Another groups are the people who want a different type of cocktail or mocktail, which they can make with kombucha.

Surya has seen changes in customer acceptance over the past four years:

For the first two years we were in business, it was difficult. More than 50% of the people did not know what kombucha was. And the ones who knew, they were like, “Kombucha is not really my type of cup of tea. I’ve had kombucha before, I don’t like this.” But those are the people who I try to catch, and I try to give them a sample. And once they tried it, okay, this is better than the last one I had. But for the last two years, more people are learning about it. Now people are starting to know more about it and acceptance is growing.

FlavorsThey offer a wide range of flavors, including:

• Original OG – crisp, clean, classic kombucha.
• Lavender Calm – floral, aromatic, smooth.
• Sulaimani Pop – our spiced rebel, brewed like the tea you grew up on.
• Hibiscus Hit – tart, punchy, unapologetically red.
• Rose Reverie – delicate, romantic, nostalgia in every sip.
• Hops Hype – bold, bitter, a craft brew twist you didn’t see coming. Inspired by the IPA Surya tasted in Colorado.

Sulaimani and Hops are the best sellers.

CansTo facilitate shipping they have recently added kombucha in 250ml cans. These are currently on offer at a discount of Rps 518 for a 4-pack (usually Rps 740). The company pays the shipping costs.

Kimchi and Almond CookiesTheir kimchi is very popular. Spicy, crunchy, and authentically crafted. It was developed in response to customer demand. They also make two types of cookies. The Almond Cookies are nutty and sweet; the Butter Cookies use farm-fresh butter.

We are selling our cookies, using the proceeds to fund our kombucha. Since we are completely bootstrapped, we are not taking any money from outside. Cookies are easy to sell. Kombucha, you have to basically hold people and then you have to pour it in their mouth. But cookies, they will just sell like hot cakes.

ClassesThey’ve offered classes in home brewing for the past year and have trained over 100 people,

Join us for an interactive, hands-on workshop where you’ll learn the secrets of making your own fizzy, flavorful, and gut-friendly kombucha from scratch.

What to Expect:

• Tasting Session: 20 mins – Try different kombucha flavors
• Brewing Session: 40 mins – Learn how to brew from scratch
• Q&A: 20-30 mins – Get your kombucha questions answered

Take Home With You:
1️⃣ A bottle of original kombucha (enjoy or use as a starter)
2️⃣ Instruction sheet to guide your future brews
3️⃣ Excel sheet to track your kombucha batches

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Surya tell the story of Heaven’s Elix.

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Honey Islam authored the recent 3-part Guest Post on Booch News How the New Indian Government Tax Reform Punishes Beverage Startups, which raised concerns about a 40% tax the Indian Government plans to impose on kombucha. This Profile and podcast interview tells the story of her company.

OriginsThe story of Mountain Bee Kombucha began in 2016, at the very first Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. What started as a much-needed break from work became a turning point. At a workshop at the festival, Honey Islam, the founder of Mountain Bee Kombucha, first learned about what she called the “strange ferment” known as kombucha. She did not get a chance to drink it, but she was intrigued. Months later in Dallas, Texas she spotted bottles of kombucha lining the shelves at Whole Foods and tasted it for the first time. She then volunteered at a fermentation workshop in San Francisco led by chef Anne Marie Bonneau. She gifted Honey a piece of her SCOBY that she brought back to Bangalore. Reviving it took time and effort, and it barely survived the trip. But when it did, it felt like magic.

What began on a kitchen countertop slowly turned into a mission: to craft authentic, small-batch kombucha in India, with the same intention and wonder she felt in that first perfect sip. Mountain Bee Kombucha was born in 2018. At her first weekend at an area farmers’ market, she sold all 50 bottles in the first two hours.

She now has a team of six and sells 5,000 liters of kombucha a month, depending on the season, which is fermented in 300-liter stainless steel containers.

Production

We source and ferment only the very best whole-leaf teas, working closely with trusted growers who share our passion for quality. All sample teas are carefully fermented, and only those that meet our highest standards of flavour and balance make it into our production process. From bold blacks to complex oolongs, every tea brings its own personality to the brew. Our brewing techniques extract their full expression, setting a strong foundation for the flavour complexity that we strive to achieve. We produce in small batches from brew to bottle, never outsourcing any part of our process. This hands-on, craft-driven approach ensures that every bottle reflects our standards, stories, and soul.

Environmental savingsMountain Bee has diverted over 50,000 bottles from landfills.

Our major contributor to the savings is our B2B partners. So unlike a lot of retail bottles that go one-way from the production house to the customer’s house, when we’re dealing with the businesses, we actually use returnable kegs and returnable bottles with our business partners. We don’t give them our retail bottles. So that’s the kind of ecosystem we’re trying to build and save on unnecessary packaging where we can. Customers are able to enjoy our fresh kombucha on tap, and enjoy different flavors that don’t see the retail shelves.

TaproomThe Mountain Bee Kombucha taproom is an extension of their brewery, a space dedicated to kombucha enthusiasts, gut health and fermentation. Tucked away in the by-lanes of Indiranagar, it is a one-of-a-kind place to experience kombucha. Visitors can sample taproom-only flavors during a guided tasting where they learn about ingredients, fermentation techniques, and the art of non-alcoholic brewing. In addition to tastings, they offer Mixology workshops and Kombucha Brewing classes.

I felt that in order to build a community, we need to engage participants, not just as customers of kombucha, but also as practitioners themselves. Unless and until you know your product from that level, you wouldn’t understand or you wouldn’t want to consume it in the long run. So my motto for conducting workshops and tastings was to let people into the world of fermentation, into the world of kombucha, and tell them how amazing microbes and probiotics and natural fermentation could be.

Flavors

We take a creative approach to our flavoring process, inspired by stories, memories, and a deep respect for ingredients. Each flavour is thoughtfully developed to highlight the complexity of ingredients in their fermented form rather than cover up the funk. Whether inspired by a season, a place, or a moment, our blends aim to evoke a feeling as much as a flavour.

The Original Booch: Crafted with Darjeeling’s finest Oolong, often called the Champagne of teas. This is kombucha in its purest form. No added flavours. No distractions. Just a beautifully complex kombucha that lets the tea and the craft speak for itself. A classic for a reason.

Food Pairing suggestion: Sandos, Sushi, Just by itself, ideally sipped in a flute.

Vanilla Brown: Smooth and surprisingly complex. Vanilla brings a rich, velvety depth to our sweet-and-sour kombucha base. It’s not vanilla-flavoured, it’s the real vanilla.

Food Pairing suggestion: Spicy biryani, onion samosa, cinnamon bun.

Singer Ginger: Zesty pick-me-up for any time of day. With a bold ginger bite and a smooth finish, this brew is equal parts refreshing and grounding. Great for digestion, your gut’s go-to, from morning to night.

Food Pairing suggestion: Pea-smash toast, tofu stir-fry.

Rose: Rosé all day, only better, and gut-loving too. Crafted with fermented plant extracts – organic rose, roselle petals, fennel seeds and long-leaf green tea, this brew delivers floral complexity with a sweet-tart twist. It’s elegant and uplifting.

Food Pairing suggestion: Spiced nuts, popcorn

Pineapple-Chili: A crowd favourite, bold, balanced, and seriously addictive. Perfect for first-time sippers, it blends juicy pineapples with a subtle kick of chilies and warm spices.

Food Pairing suggestion: Tacos, tortilla chips, Fettuccine Alfredo.

Flower ‘N Spice: This flavour is for the cinnamon lovers. Fermentation of green tea with spices brings a hint of playfulness in the final brew. A striking purple colour from butterfly blue-pea flower adds to the experience. Pro tip: Long sip with a straw to fully savour the warmth and nuance of the spices.

Food Pairing suggestion: Thai stir fry, dumplings, cinnamon cake, herby flatbreads.

Bangalore Blue Grape: Ode to Bangalore. Crafted with much loved GI-tagged Bangalore Blue Grapes grown in the city. Contains naturally occurring antioxidants from grapes and tea, probiotics and organic acids from fermentation. A bold, non-alcoholic nightcap with flavour and function.

Food Pairing suggestion: Pizzas, grilled fish/veggies, chili noodles.

Aloha Ananas: Aloha Ananas brings vacation energy to even the most random Monday. Fully fermented, easy to sip and perfect for first-timers. Made with juiciest pineapples from Kerela.

Food Pairing suggestion: Buttered sourdough, cheese, dark chocolate.

Pineapple-Chili is the best seller. It is a flavor that the Indian palate really, really enjoys. It has the right amount of sweetness and right amount of spice. They balance each other out beautifully. There’s no overpowering chili and there’s no overly sweet kombucha. It’s very, very good.

CustomersHoney has noticed significant generational changes in the customers she sells to over the past seven years. Gen Z are the trend setters.

Whatever changes that are happening in the industry is also led by external factors like the rise of Gen Z population, the rise of quick commerce, the rise of experiential moments. Back when I started, most of our audience was Millennials and even a little older population. And they would discover us through pop-ups or through Instagram. But now it is more about being present in pop-up events, collaborations, or being available on quick commerce. So all these touch points are driving the demand for kombucha.

The demography is changing quite a bit. Now there are more young people embracing kombucha, because one, they don’t want to miss out, and they’ve also prioritized gut health. And also the fact that they’re not drinking as much. So kombucha becomes a very obvious choice for them. So a lot of demand, a lot of dynamics like this are really pushing the consumption of kombucha, which was lacking before.

PodcastHoney shares the story of Mountain Bee Kombucha in this conversation.

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Ezhil Mathy discovered kombucha in 2022 and started brewing small batches in her kitchen. She was guided by the recipes in Hannah Crum’s Big Book of Kombucha that she customized for the Indian palate. In May, 2024 she announced on Instagram that Dramila Kombucha was available in Chennai cafes and restaurants. She’s now outgrown her kitchen and ferments in 10 L glass jars in a dedicated space. She is a one-person artisanal producer.

Chennai is one of India’s main cities with a population over over 12 million in the metro area. This makes it the fifth largest in the country. It’s located on the East coast, in South India.

She sources her teas from the Nilgiri Hills plantations located around the town of Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Teas from here are known for briskness, referring to lively fragrant flavors, a quality attributed to the climatic growing conditions.

CustomersEzhil has seen the popularity of kombucha in India grow among a range of people.

There is a range of people trying kombucha. The younger crowd want non-alcoholic drinks. They’re not even into drinking a lot of coffee, but they’re happy having a glass of kombucha. And then a lot of people working out at the gym, and for them this more like a post-workout drink. And I see a lot of people at the cafes, wanting to have kombucha because they feel it just helps their gut.

For all of these different groups, what is very important is the taste. It’s a taste that just grows on you. I think people are just opening up to it. And when they try it they say, “Oh yeah, I really like it!”

FlavorsEzhil delights in creating new flavors every month. Among the many she has listed:

• Pomegranate & Rose
• Apple Cinnamon
• Mango, Chili & Coconut
• Cherry
• Hibiscus & Ginger
• Orange & Christmas Spice
• Passion Fruit & Tender Coconut
• Blueberry Lemon & Ginger
• Rose, Kokum & Ginger
• Orange, Pineapple & Basil
• Coconut Water, Ginger, Lime & Chia
• Dragon fruit
• Nannari lemon
• Amla, Kaffir Lime & Ginger

Many of these incorporate regional ingredients and celebrate Indian culture.

My mango and cayenne pepper is a big hit. Vendors on Chennai’s East Coast Beach sell a snack called a Sundal, which has lentils and chickpeas spiced with a ginger-garlic-chili paste, coconut, and assorted toppings such as mango. So I picked out just one part of it and made a kombucha with mango, chili and tender coconut. I think it’s one of the best.

PodcastEzhil shares the story of Dramila Kombucha in this interview.

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MAVI’s Pantry is a homegrown artisanal fermented food and beverage brand which makes gut-friendly functional products like kombucha, kimchi, kvas, ginger ale, kanji, and sauerkraut using local, seasonal and organic ingredients. They started with kombucha and it still is their flagship product.

MAVI’s is named after Meenakshi and her husband Vikram (MA+VI) who started out making kombucha in their home kitchen. They began selling at local farmers’ markets, where they sold out on their first day. Since launching the business in 2017 they have seen steadily increasing demand and now have a team of twelve.

Shark TankWhile they were still a young company their appearance on the first season of the Indian version of Shark Tank in 2021 brought them national attention. Though their pitch was rejected by the “sharks” due to concerns over pricing and a belief kombucha was a narrow niche market, it gave them great exposure. Post-show, MAVI’s Pantry expanded aggressively—improving branding, retail shelf presence, listing on platforms like Amazon and taking online orders. The video of the episode (in Hindi) is available online.

DistributionFrom those early days in farmers’ markets they now sell pan-India. Despite being a naturally fermented, unpasteurized product, they have overcome the challenge of the lack of a robust cold chain in the country.

When we started, our idea was only to keep it in modern gourmet retail stores, A-plus stores as they are called. And because the clientele who shop there have refrigeration, it is not a problem. Retail stores, cafes, restaurants, and hotels are now our primary buyers. Yes, cold chain is a problem, but you know necessity is the mother of invention as they say, right?

So we’ve figured out tweaks and hacks to make sure that we can deliver kombucha before it needs to be refrigerated. When you make kombucha it’s naturally carbonated, and there are about two or three days before it needs to be refrigerated and it gets self-carbonated. So we use that time as a hack to transport it anywhere we want. And usually we figured out that in say around 48 to 72 hours, we can deliver it anywhere in India.

CustomersVikram sees three groups of customers interested in kombucha in India.

We did an audience analysis when we were rebranding and we understood there were three different categories. One was the category where people were choosing fermented food because their doctors told them to eat healthy or their nutritionist told them to eat healthy or they figured out that fermented food was the way to go.

The other one is people who are seeking low sugar, natural beverages, etc, in general, because let’s say if you want to have a beer, like you want something to drink in the evening every day and you think, okay, instead of beer, if I can have a kombucha, maybe it’s better because there’s no alcohol involved. So that’s the second category.

The third one is the trending category, where people are drinking it just because kombucha is in. So I want to be cool and hence I drink kombucha every day.

These are the three major categories. Then there are other people who want to try, who just want to just keep exploring and seeing what works for them, what doesn’t work for them and everything. But eventually they settle down in the first or the third category.

Product range Beet kvass: tastes like kanji, the savory North-Indian fermented drink made with dark red carrots in winter. However, kanji is wild fermentation done by wild yeast in the air. MAVI’s beet kvass is made with the culture obtained from sauerkraut which has fermented for over 6-8 weeks and hence it is more potent than the traditional kanji. * Ginger Ale is a a handcrafted, preservative-free, non-alcoholic beverage available in both Original and also Hibiscus flavors. * Water kefir is a refreshing, bubbly elixir, fermented with organic cane sugar or jaggery, and available in Blue Pea Flower and Watermelon flavors. * Kimchi is available in Vegan Cabbage and Vegan Radish versions, made without any animal products such as fish sauce found in other kimchis. * Sauerkraut is available in a range of flavors: Original; Jain-friendly Classic Sauerkraut with aromatic ajwain seeds; Golden Sauerkraut infused with turmeric; and Beetroot-Carrot Kraut. * Fermented veggies a tangy, probiotic-rich pickle mix fee of vinegar and preservatives. * Honey-fermented garli*c handcrafted in small batches to retain natural enzymes, probiotics, and the unique flavor of wild honey and garlic.

KombuchaTheir tea comes from Korakundah in the Nilgiri mountains of southern India which boasts of being the highest organic tea estate in the world at 8,000 feet above sea level. The estate, founded in the early 1900s, is a pioneer in sustainable and organic tea cultivation, holding Organic, Fair Trade, and Rainforest Alliance certifications, and produces distinctively flavored black and green teas known for their fresh, clean, and floral notes, with the high-altitude environment contributing to a slower growth and more complex flavor development.

MAVI’s Kombucha is brewed in small batches using handpicked local ingredients and fermented naturally for 3–4 weeks, ensuring a perfectly balanced taste and maximum probiotic benefits. The slow fermentation process makes it healthy, flavorful, and suitable for the Indian gut microbiome.

Their flagship product is available in a number of flavors:

• Classic: Green tea based kombucha.
• Ginger & Honey: The goodness of ginger and the healing prowess of honey.
• Apple Spice: Sweet and citrusy apples with a hint of spices.
• Lemon Mint & Basil: The classic combo of lemon & mint with a dash of basil.
• Blueberry & Rose: Rich juicy berries and homemade rose water. Their best selling flavor.
• Apricot & Cinnamon: A fusion of sweet apricots balanced with the spicy notes of cinnamon.
• Jamun: Tangy yet sweet, a royal fruit in a heavenly drink.
• Kokam: A modern twist to the kokum sherbet. The tangy taste of tradition.
• Hops: Aromatic pine, citrus & floral notes of the dried hops
• Pomegranate: Fruity sweet & citrusy flavor of pomegranate.
• Imli (Tamarind): Fun-filled, tangy, sweet, spicy.
• Pineapple: Made with sweet organic pineapple.

ClassesThey offer workshops to teach people to make kombucha at home. They believe that once people understand the nuances behind kombucha they will become more discriminating.

My idea with doing workshops with our partners at restaurants, cafes, even online is to reach more and more people I can teach to make kombucha at home. And once they understand the nuances behind the kombucha, I hope that they never go and drink a mass-produced, shelf-stable, devoid of any probiotic, kombucha.

PodcastHear Vikram tell the story of MAVI’s Pantry in this interview.

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An attendee at the Stanford Fermented Food Conference I wanted to meet was Aga Pokrywka the host of Ferment Radio, a fascinating and informative podcast series that began back in 2020 and has posted almost 50 episodes. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts.

It’s a podcast with a noble mission:

Ferment Radio is a podcast series that takes you deep into the fascinating world of microbes. Through fermentation and transformation, we develop new recipes for living on a broken planet. Together with people from the most diverse backgrounds, including science, gastronomy, and arts, we reflect, discuss, and bubble along with microbes in order to give legacy to plural perspectives. By letting our thoughts and beliefs ferment in the brine of shared discourse, we look for transformative paths to multispecies justice and well-being.

Like fermentation itself, a slow process that can turn the invisible into visible, the dialogues on Ferment Radio help us re-imagine societal transformations and rebuild relationships between species, people, disciplines and other notions we live by.

Aga has hosted a wide range of guests. A random sample includes:

• Episode #49: Stanford Conference presenter Joshua Evans who leads the research group on Sustainable Food Innovation at the Danish Technical University’s Center for Biosustainability. Joshua was part of the team responsible for sending miso into outer space.
• Episode #38: Paulina Gretkierewicz, a forager, a fermenter, and a witch. She transforms seasons and landscapes around Copenhagen, Denmark into edible and drinkable experiences. She calls this “Applied Poetry”, which is also the name of her business, focused on handpicked, fermented, and oxidized teas.
• Episode #22: César Enrique Giraldo Herrera, author of Microbes and Other Shamanic Beings. He proposes that there is a much closer relationship between shamanic practices and microbiology than we could think. His work lays the foundations of an ethnomicrobiology.
• Episode #20: Fungi music with Tosca Teránof of the duo Nanotopia. She takes biodata from non-human organisms as mushroom’s mycelium and translates it into music.
• Episode #14: Stanford Conference presenter Aviaja Hauptmann, a microbiologist and Greenlandic Inuit who researches microbiomes of the fermented foods native to Greenland. She discusses the dietary and social prejudices around traditional Inuit meat consumption and its preservation.
• Episode #1: Tara Whitsitt, a nomadic artist and educator whose passion for growing food and teaching fermentation inspired the grassroots educational project “Fermentation on Wheels”. Tara has been driving across the USA for over seven years, sharing starter cultures, the history and science of fermentation.

The David Zilber InterviewDavid Zilber is the acclaimed author of The Noma Guide to Fermentation and Stanford Conference host. He was Aga’s guest on Episode #36, June 2023.

There are not that many people in the world who can say they have extensive hands-on experience working in different areas of that vast system. @david_zilber is definitely one of them. From a butcher shop in Toronto to the Fermentation Lab of the acclaimed restaurant @nomacph, and to the labs of @chr.hansen, a giant bioscience company in Hørsholm, Denmark, David Zilber has garnered multiple and fascinating perspectives on food and the system around it. Ferment Radio had the pleasure to talk with David in his own lab, where we reflected more about this incredible journey and his ever-evolving views on the food system that we are all part of.

I’ve added a three-minute extract from that episode to give you a taste of Fermentation Radio.

PodcastTune into the Booch News podcast for my conversation with Aga at the Fermented Food Conference and the Zilber episode sample,

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The two-day conference wrapped up Friday afternoon with a Fermentation Festival where attendees gathered in the courtyard of the Clark Center to sample food and beverages from a variety of vendors.

Attendee ImpressionsI asked some of the attendees to share their impressions of the conference.

The best thing about this conference is… it’s the most interesting conference I’ve ever been to, and that says enough.

– Alain, Denmark

The best thing about this conference so far has definitely just been the interchange of ideas between everyone. It’s good to see a whole bunch of people from the culinary side versus the academic side versus the industrial side of things all getting together and discussing how we can make fermented foods better and more accessible to everyone.

– Matt, Fermented Food Holdings, Madison, WI

My big takeaway from the conference is that we really learn and integrate information best with a group of really diverse people from different backgrounds and different experiences.

– Lauren, Brooklyn, NY

This conference has been incredibly refreshing to me. It’s one of the best conferences that I’ve actually ever been to. Really, that human storytelling element and the interface of the science, I think, is a key thing.

– Jeremy, Western Ontario, Canada

I’m a cancer epidemiologist, and my big takeaway from the conference is that fermented foods can potentially be beneficial for cancer outcomes, so I’m excited to follow that up in my research.

– Armen, Tampa, FL.

The most surprising thing I’ve heard about at the conference is that there’s no plant diet in the Arctic.

– Elizabeth, Cork, Ireland

I’m really inspired by this whole conference. I just learned so much about the interaction between insects and microbes, and that was really inspiring and made me think about what other kind of interactions like that there are around the world and throughout history.

– Luke, Wild West Ferments, Marin County, CA

The most surprising thing I’ve heard at the conference is that miso was made in space.

– Tim, Santa Cruz, CA

I was super excited to hear people talking about the fact that fermented foods have such potential for health, but they also have to be delicious.

– Maria, Oakland, CA

The most surprising thing I’ve heard at the conference is the use of ants to produce yogurt. Very excited about that.

– Nate, Palo Alto, CA

The best thing about the conference is community.

– Andrea, Monterrey, Mexico

PodcastHear what the attendees found of interest — from Arctic foods to ant yogurt there was something for everyone!

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Mikaela Kasperek is a registered dietician with a PhD in nutritional sciences. Her research focuses on the health benefits of fermented foods, focusing on the role of microbial metabolites, particularly aryl-lactates. While existing evidence suggests fermented foods are beneficial (e.g., reduced inflammation, lower type 2 diabetes risk), the mechanisms remain unclear.

Her presentation at the Stanford Fermented Food Conference was titled ‘Harnessing Microbial Metabolites in Fermented Foods to Improve Health‘. It addressed ways to increase the health benefits of fermented foods by adding specific compounds.

Kasperek’s work highlights lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as key producers of immunomodulatory aryl-lactates (phenyllactic acid (PLA), 4-hydroxyphenylactic acid (4-HPLA), and indole-3-lactic acid (ILA)) from aromatic amino acids. While these metabolites are present in commercially available fermented foods, aryl-lactate concentrations vary significantly depending on food type and brand.

These benefit our health in a number of ways. ILA increases monocyte chemotaxis and binds to the HCAR3 receptor, similar to PLA. Uniquely, ILA has also been found to bind the aryl-hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). AHR is an evolutionarily conserved environmental sensor known to be highly implicated in the immune system response. The AHR is known to be impaired in chronic diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and obesity. Reduced microbial activation of AHR has been identified as a feature of both syndromes. Thus, given the evidence that aryl-lactates are immunomodulatory, thy could be key to fermented food health benefits.

Additions to benefit healthKasperek’s showed that adding citrate and/or alpha-ketoglutarate (which feeds into the citric acid cycle and accepts amine groups from aromatic amino acids) resulted in a “modest enhancement of our aryl-lactates, anywhere from 50 to 100 percent.” More impressive results were achieved:

We took this one step further, and we wanted to see if adding the upstream aryl-pyruvates themselves can enhance the production of aryl-lactates. And we were excited to see that adding these aryl-pyruvates made the downstream aryl lactate robustly enhanced in the monocultures. For example, we can see that when we added indole pyruvate to an L. plantarum monoculture, we had about 11,000 percent increase in the production of ILA.

These enhancement strategies were successfully applied to fermented foods including yogurt and sauerkraut. They showed robust increases in aryl-lactate production. In other words these additives significantly enhanced health benefits through specific interventions during fermentation.

In summary:

• Fermented foods contain bioactive microbe-derived aromatic amino acid metabolites.
• Aromatic amino acid metabolism can be manipulated to increase aryl-lactates.
• Optimized food ferments increase human aryl-hydrocarbon receptor activity.

Improving the health benefits of kombuchaHaving heard the presentation, I was curious to learn if these benefits could be applied to kombucha. Unfortunately, the research has not yet focused on this beverage. However, Mikaela speculates:

There’s a lot more to learn about kombucha, which is known to be a beverage where more acetic acid bacteria predominant, and those bacteria aren’t known to have the enzymes to produce the metabolites we’re interested in, but the metabolites are still there. So even though kombucha is known to be more acetic acid bacteria predominant, and those bacteria aren’t known to have the enzymes to produce the metabolites we’re interested in, the metabolites are still there. Perhaps we can make a kombucha that has more lactic acid bacteria, so we can make more of these beneficial metabolites. And that could help with the overall health benefits of the drink itself.

To learn more contact Mikaela at mwebb24@illinois.edu.

DisclaimerThe information in this post is provided for informational purposes only, and readers should verify the accuracy by checking the source literature. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of this publication.

PodcastListen to the podcast for my interview with Mikaela where she addresses the opportunity to improve the health benefits of kombucha.

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As with all foods, kombucha brewers are legally required to include nutritional information on their bottles and cans. The labels allow us to see the amount of calories and sugar in each brand. Fermented beverages like kefir and kombucha will often mention “gut health” or probiotic content. At the recent Stanford University Fermented Food Conference I spoke with two scientists about the accuracy, and even legality, of these claims.

When “Added Sugar” disclosures don’t add upBreanna Metras has studied the nutrient quality and microbial contents of commercially fermented beverages in the United States. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the leading source of added sugar in the American diet, contributing to health problems such as metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Fermented beverages such as kombucha, kefir, and probiotic sodas are marketed as healthier alternatives. However, despite the increasing populatory of these fermented drinks, it’s not known how many of these fermented beverages contain significant amount of added sugar, potentially aligning them with the traditional cola’s and other sugar (or high fructose corn syrup) sweetened beverages.

Breanna is currently conducting a comprehensive analysis of 735 commercially available fermented beverages available across the USA, including 423 brands of kombucha, 157 kefir, 120 probiotic sodas, 22 water kefir, and 13 tepache. These beverages were assessed for the amount of sodium, total carbohydrates, total sugars, and added sugars on a per serving basis. Products were also assessed for health claims and stated microbial ingredients.

We found that most products were generally healthy in terms of amount of sodium compared to the recommended, the dietary recommendations for Americans, but that the total amount of carbohydrates and added sugars was not consistent, both in the kombucha category, as well as the fermented beverages as a whole. So it begs the question, are these products being analyzed accurately in terms of added sugar content, and do we need to give more attention to them in terms of labeling them as a healthy beverage or a sugar-sweetened beverage.

Source: Breanna Metras Stanford Conference Poster. Used with permission.Truth in advertisingBreanna’s research had previously focused on kefir. Her doctoral dissertation compared the microbial content of commercially available and home-made kefirs. She highlighted the misleading information and health claims on some brands of kefir.

rRNA sequencing revealed significant microbial labeling inaccuracies and culturing techniques demonstrated there were fewer live microorganisms present at the time of opening than what the labels claimed.

She co-authored a 2021 paper that assessed the label accuracy commercial of kefir products in terms of microbial composition and density.

Our results demonstrate a moderate level of labeling accuracy for commercial kefir products intended for human consumption. Regulatory agencies and consumers must continue to scrutinize these products and demand a higher level of accuracy and quality.

When her current research is published, it will be interesting to see what her findings are in terms of claims made by the 423 brands of kombucha. In her opinion, more conservative regulatory oversight is needed on claims that products may improve health and on the accuracy of added sugar disclosures.

To find out more, I sought out one of the world’s leading experts on this topic.

Government standardsProfessor Paul Cotter is the Head of Food Biosciences at Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority). He is a microbiologist with a focus on fermented foods. He co-authored a 2021 paper on fermented foods that outlines the scientific requirements that must be met for a beverage to be legitimately able to claim it is ‘probiotic’ or ‘gut friendly’ on the label.

The paper makes clear that the science, and legal requirements, are often at odds with marketing claims.

Fermented foods and beverages are sometimes characterized or labelled as “probiotic foods” or “contains probiotics”. These declarations might reflect efforts by manufacturers to communicate to consumers that living, health-promoting microorganisms are present in the product. However, as noted in a previous consensus statement, the term ‘probiotic’ should only be used when there is a demonstrated health benefit conferred by well-defined and characterized live microorganisms. The health benefit must, at least in part, be due to the live microorganisms and must extend beyond any nutritional benefit of the food matrix. For these reasons, the terms ‘fermented food’ and ‘probiotics’ cannot be used interchangeably

To label a product as a probiotic fermented food with an additional stipulated health benefit, evidence of a strain-specific benefit from a well-controlled intervention study is required together with proven safety and confirmation of sufficient numbers of that strain in the final product to confer the claimed benefit,.

On the many internet and popular magazine lists of the ‘best super foods’, fermented foods are often ranked at the top. Such labels, while perhaps useful for marketing, do not convey accurate information for consumers regarding nutritional or other specific properties of fermented foods. Furthermore, as discussed earlier, fermented foods are frequently considered as probiotic foods, even when live microorganisms are absent in the final product and the health benefits have not been clinically demonstrated.

Professor Cotter reiterated this in his comments to me.

The term probiotic is particularly challenging or problematic in some cases in Europe in particular because the regulations associated with establishing that something is a probiotic, I suppose the bar is quite high, strictly speaking, and this is true of the definition that has been established as well. For a microbe to be described as a probiotic it should really have gone through a whole battery of clinical studies to prove specifically what the health benefits are. Quite often when you see some marketing related to fermented foods in the past it did refer to them being rich in probiotic strains, but if you follow the strict guidelines that’s not true because more often than not the microbes in fermented food just haven’t been studied in sufficient depth to reach that bar.

Brands’ responsibilityAs the market for kombucha continues to expand it is obviously advisable for brands to secure consumer trust by being honest and accurate in their health claims.

DisclaimerThe views and opinions expressed in this posting are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of this publication.

PodcastTo hear more about this important topic, listen to my interviews with both Breanne Metras and Professor Cotter.

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At the end of Day One of the Conference, after listening to more than a dozen experts offer insights into everything from the ways red ants are used as a traditional yogurt starter in rural Turkey, to why gastrophagy was an essential element in the Indigenous Greenlandic diet, and everything in between, it isn’t easy to report fully on all I’ve learned.

However, a chance meeting over lunch, followed by a fascinating conceptual poster explanation, focused on kombucha. So, here’s a quick sample of the eclectic variety of topics addressed by attendees at the event.

Meet Brooklyn-based Fayee Wong, tea connoisseur, certified water sommelier, kombucha fermentation AI enthusiast.

I developed the interest from premium tea leaves with a focus on premium tea leaves to brew kombucha. I look into different teas, for example, green tea, yellow tea, pour, oolong tea, black tea, how they are different.

Enabling AI Kombucha FermentationHer poster proposed a potential use of AI to help monitor kombucha fermentation.

PrototypeFaye has created a working prototype of the AI system that you can play with. The four steps allow you to select type of water, tea, SCOBY health, and fermentation time then presents a flavor profile and name for the resulting kombucha.

PodcastListen to my conversation with Fayee about her wide-ranging interests.

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I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes like Coca-Cola
C-O-L-A, Cola

— Lola, The Kinks

Pascal Du Bois has been a fan of kombucha for many years, from the days when his French father made it when he was a boy. When his own daughter, Eloise was diagnosed with celiac disease he started making it at home. Now, 15 years later, he has launched ROBOT Kombucha, “The World’s Healthiest Cola”, sporting a name and branding designed to appeal to the youth market, but with multi-generational appeal::

We deduced that the fastest rising cases of gut health are around the 10-year-old age range. Common gut health problems are prevalent in 14-year-olds. And the group looking to actually actively do something about their gut health starts at about 18 years of age. So we know that the kombucha market therefore is stronger in the younger category. That doesn’t mean to say that the contents of the can should be any different . And the complexity of which we’ve made ROBOT, we know will appeal to all generations because it’s a remedy. It’s a genuine gut health fix. And so we know that the older generations are going to love it because it’s a great product.

The A.I. DrinkPascal credits the origin of the brand name to the ‘robot’ he and friend used to reverse engineer the classic cola taste that they’ve created from natural, organic, ingredients.

I called it robot because I had help from deep mind sophisticated artificial intelligence to help me decipher the flavors of Coca Cola. I was with a friend who’s very high up at a well known software company. We had flavor probes and the really interesting thing is that you can put flavor probes into products now and AI will give you the breakdown of the ingredients. Not just that, but they’ll give you the brand name of what you’re eating. So we had more than 40 different probes testing hundreds of different colas. I mean, all the brands, all the big brands and the small brands. We asked AI to then give us a breakdown of the types of ingredients we could use that would give us the same outcome, the same taste.

[Of interest: The word ROBOT comes from the Czech word “robota”, meaning “forced labor” or “servitude”. It was introduced to the world by Czech writer Karel Čapek in his 1920 science-fiction play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots).]

Shelf-stableROBOT incorporates what is termed “postbiotic technology”, designed to last for the 18 month, un-refrigerated, shelf life of the product.

Let me explain to you what postbiotics are. So postbiotics are the bioactive compounds produced during fermentation, including organic acids, enzymes, peptides, antioxidant molecules. In ROBOT kombucha, the 13 bacteria and four yeast strains create sophisticated network of postbiotic metabolites that remain active, even after the drink is consumed.

I mean, these compounds, what do they do? They strengthen the gut barrier, reduce inflammation, they support immune function and protect against pathogens. They aid metabolic health by helping regulate blood sugar and lipid metabolization.

What else they do? They promote a balanced gut pH, creating a healthier environment for native microbiota. They provide antioxidant protection, reducing oxidative stress in the body. So ROBOT’s postbiotic technology is groundbreaking. It leverages the synergy of multi-strain fermentation.

They started with a range of different organic botanicals from which the flavor was extracted, then created a complex blend of more than a dozen types of bacteria and four strains of organic yeast. After fermenting for seven weeks they add a teaspoon of 100% organic honey, sourced from France, to each can. This mimics the familiar cola taste without added sugars or aspartame. The result is a healthy alternative designed to appeal to cola lovers.

Online availabilityCurrently offered online, at £24.00 for a 6-pack, ROBOT is available in Honey, Pineapple-Mango, and Cherry Cola flavors.

PodcastHear the full story about ROBOT Kombucha in this half-hour interview with founder Pascal Du Bois.

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The UK’s original kombucha label, GO Kombucha, is up for sale. I first came across the brand back in November 2018 when I visited Liverpool. In October 2023, I interviewed founder Gary Leigh . You can find more information about the company’s background and history on the GO Kombucha website.

Founder, Gary Leigh, writes:

After 22-plus years paving the way and setting the standard for authentic kombucha tea sold commercially throughout the UK, the time feels right for me to move on to new challenges and adventures.

I am delighted to say that I will be departing the business in rude health and I expect to finalize the sale in early 2026.

GO Kombucha, established 2003, is not just any old kombucha.It’s the UK’s most respected and revered UK booch brand made for the sophisticated adult palate; 100% authentic kombucha transited in glass bottles over 22 years to a discerning clientele.

The buyer will inherit a business that is debt free and fulfilling the demand for natural, lower sugar drinks, gut health, and can be drunk as an alternative to alcohol.

If you are a start-up, the sale will include our entire equipment and material stock; from brewing vessels, 300L stainless steel kettles and a 700L brewing tank to material stock including reinforced packing cases and dividers.

As part of the sale the equipment can be transported anywhere in the UK and set up in your designated workspace fitted with required number of power points, drainage, etc. to go. My head brewer and I will teach you our closely-guarded, finely-tuned and finessed process and scientifically evaluated secrets over the course of several days, enabling you to continue our fine tradition seamlessly, with on-hand advice just a phone call away.

The value in GO Kombucha includes:

• Our IP, which includes our scientifically evaluated production process and recipe that ensures authentic kombucha that remains stable, even in cool temperatures…
• Our incredible story – including how it all began on a boathouse moored by the Thames in Teddington – 22 years of unblemished goodwill and our ethos; our highly regarded set of ethics that set us apart from any other brand…
• Consistent A/B business credit rating over 22 years with zero CCJs, an impeccable banking history. Our unabridged accounts for your scrutiny show 6 successive years of growth since 2018/19, with a turnover of £143k in 2024/25 (in 2021/22 when we withdrew from retail, turnover was £208k).
• Near-perfect Trust Pilot rating and Great Taste awards for all seven of our delicious varieties…
• 3,500 newsletter subscribers and an exceptionally loyal customer base that has enabled GO Kombucha to become the world’s first entirely DTC (direct to consumer) kombucha label…
• A proven 15-year-long history in retail distribution (2007-2022), including in Whole Foods and Planet Organic, which can be resumed at any point to realize vaster potential and profits…
• Many unpaid celebrity endorsers including top UK female biohacker Davinia Taylor; top TV journalist and presenter Bev Turner; reality TV star Lauren Simon (Housewives of Cheshire); menopause expert and animal welfare advocate Meg Matthews… All shout out about GO Kombucha because they love the wholeness of the brand and its ethics.

To discuss terms contact Gary Leigh info@gokombucha.co.uk.

DisclaimerThe content of this article is accurate to the best of our knowledge and is presented for general informational purposes only. We have no business relationship with the seller.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Gary discuss the opportunity to buy GO Kombucha.

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Kombucha connoisseur Susanna Danieli recently visited her native Italy and reported on the thriving kombucha scene there. She added a number of reviews of Italian brands to her excellent Instagram channel. The new brands that she discovered have been added to the Booch News Worldwide Directory. Now she’s back Stateside in Brooklyn she sat down with Booch News to share her impressions.

Compared to the last time I was in Italy, before I moved here to New York, it was May 2024. And so this was the first time I came back to Italy after moving here. And in this whole year, I think that a lot happened.

More and more people are making kombucha. It’s often people that do not strictly make kombucha, but they start from something else. Let’s take La Beeo Baita, one of the new producers I tried. They are primarily beekeepers. So they use their honey for Jun kombucha. Or, for example, Fattoria Bucolica, another one of the new producers I had the privilege to try. They mainly grow crops, cereals. And so they decided also to make kombucha with the same aromatic herbs that they grow.

She also responded to the cover story on Gambero Rosso, Italy’s leading food and beverage publisher, that kicked off 2024 by featuring kombucha on its cover with the headline “The year of kombucha – Are you ready for the invasion of fermented tea?”. Susy is convinced 2025 will see this prediction happen.

Political challengesSusy is also concerned about the impact of political situation in Italy on low alcohol drinks, which she describes as “complicated.”

Our minister of agriculture is like the hero for wine makers. He is always going to defend the alcohol lobby until it dies, I think. So yes, for our low alcohol products, it’s not so easy.

Send her your ‘booch!Susy has posted over 350 kombucha reviews and is eager to try new brands. So, especially if you are a local producer of artisanal kombucha, she would love to receive shipments of samples and promises to write a detailed, bi-lingual, poetic review. Contact her at susannadanieli9@gmail.com.

InterviewCheck out the podcast to hear Susy talk about her week-long trip to Italy and developments in the Italian kombucha scene.

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We first reported on Keg Outlet in our February 2020 post Growing Beyond Home Brewing where we referenced three informative videos they had produced:

• How to Make Kombucha in Large Batches to Serve on Draft
• How to Add Natural Fruit Flavor to Kombucha During Second Fermentation
• How to Keg Kombucha and Serve Kombucha on Draft

These are among the 90+ informative videos that Keg Outlet have posted to their YouTube channel. This interview with company co-founder Brandon Hanson is an update on their business and observations on the kombucha industry in general.

Keg Outlet is a small family-run business based in Ventura County, California. Brandon Hanson and his brother Cary initially started “Brew PS” (a play on UPS) supplying home-brew ingredients, but pivoted to selling equipment due to challenges stocking perishable goods. While beer and cold-brew coffee brewers are their primary focus, they have a steady market in kombucha supplies, largely catering to individuals looking to scale up their brewing, often with an eye towards commercial production. The core business provides equipment like kegs, fermenters, kettles, and kegerators.

Scaling upKegging kombucha is a convenient method for larger batches. Keg Outlet has seen a steady interest in home brewers and scaling up to commercial kombucha operations. They also note growing international interest in their kombucha equipment. Their website and YouTube channel serve as valuable resources for people interested in these processes.

Customer focusKeg Outlet remains a small operation run by brothers Brendan and Cary Hanson emphasizing direct customer interaction.

I know a lot of our customers like that they can call and talk to one of us on the phone or shoot us an email and it’s one of us who responds.

In addition to their YouTube, Keg Outlet has published a ‘Drips & Draughts’ podcast series, including an interview with Ethan and Kate from Blue Ridge Bucha in Waynesboro, VA. They share their experience in scaling up from home-brewing.

Brendan: As you build up the brewery side, can I ask what a typical batch size for this is when you’re brewing?

Ethan: Yes. Absolutely. Kombucha, I would say most people in a home brew environment would probably have about a gallon jar. Some people step up to two gallon jars and there might be some people who are working at of five gallon crocks. That’s pretty much all the information you can find available on the internet, will be how to brew one gallon or two gallons.

It’s really been a journey this scale up. We have other kombucha companies we’ve been in their facilities, checked out. Some were operating upwards of couple of hundred gallons. Some are still in two gallon glass jars or five gallon crocks. We have developed our process to where were in 250 gallon vessels. They work just great. The biggest jump actually was from our two-gallon glass jar to the first 25-gallon kettle and it was like, “All right. Can we make this leap?” And, then, from there we just scaled up. We did 25-gallons to 50-gallons then we jump from that to our 250’s.

It feels like a really nice manageable size to really keep that artisanal feeling for us. One brewer can be standing up there with the paddle and just stirring this giant caldron. It’ feels great, it’s real great. From the quality craft side, we’ve actually at this scale we’ve been able to really hone in and have more controls on our grand science experiment, which is our beverage. We can really hone it in and have every batch just to be that much more consistent and we’ve locked in our flavor better than we ever have with our current system which is awesome.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Brendan tell the Keg Outlet story.

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While visiting family in Cheshire, England, I was delighted to meet up with Charlotte, the founder of Shropshire Kombucha. We’d not been able to connect when I was last in Nantwich. But this time around, she was at the bustling end-of-month market in the town square, within sight and sound of the 14th-century St Mary’s church. The bells were ringing for weddings on a Saturday morning.

Charlotte visits Nantwich once a month and usually sells out of her 350ml and 500ml bottles of a variety of flavors. Regular customers place orders for up to 15 bottles at a time. She now sells up to 400 bottles a week, up from 150-300 a month when we last spoke at the end of 2023..

There is a majority of repeat customers, but in the time I spent on the stall, two groups of first-time kombucha drinkers tried samples and bought multiple bottles.

FlavorsShe had seven flavors for sale in Nantwich. Turmeric with lemon and ginger is the best seller. It’s made with fresh turmeric roots and juiced ginger. The whole lemon is used, including the grated skin.

Apple with lemon and mint is the next most popular.

Beetroot, apple, and ginger with purple carrots and parsnip had already sold out that morning.

The flavors that had sold out that morning were:

• Berry & blood orange.
• Blueberry, mango, passion fruit and lime.
• Raspberry with pomegranate and black grape.
• Spiced pineapple and cardamom.

GrowthCharlotte and her husband are planning to move home to somewhere with a separate building for her growing business. She has received a grant from Shropshire Council to fund agribusiness research at Aston University in Birmingham, testing her kombucha for alcohol levels, pH, and pathogens, as well as identifying the levels and types of bacteria in her ferment. Another Aston project is developing an automated label printing and bottling system, which is currently done by hand. Students at the university design lab are planning to improve her label graphics.

Nevertheless, as she is happy having full control over her small business and the customers she meets face-to-face at the markets.

I like keeping it small, doing the markets, I’ve got a lovely, loyal band of customers who I massively appreciate. I love meeting people, I love talking about kombucha, and I love talking about products, and championing all the different fruits that people might not know about, like quinces, wimberries, and elderberries. So I think keeping it small, doing the markets, having small local stockists, that’s where I’m really happy.

PodcastCheck out the podcast to here Charlotte describe her business and customer comments — with the bonus of the bells of St Mary’s in the background!

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Sambucha Kombucha is located in Pangbourne, near Reading, England on the banks of the River Thames.

It is a “hobby turned full-time job” for Sam May, who moved from California to the UK. The commercial operation started during lockdown and “kind of just snowballed into something a lot bigger as the years went on.”

Its production facility is an insulated shipping container:

It’s an old Waitrose freezer container that I converted myself. It’s on some certified organic land on a farm. So any fruit and veg that grows there, I tend to use as much as possible in the kombucha. And that’s really, really cool. But the container itself is great for keeping the heat in in the wintertime for fermentation.

Sustainability and growth Sambucha actively encourages customers to return bottles, with approximately 300 a month being sanitized and refilled, so in each brew, half of the bottles are returned, demonstrating a strong cyclical system and loyal customer base. The bottles feature a decorative tag over the top rather than full gum labels to facilitate easier return and cleaning.

Their distribution channels include online orders (a la carte and subscription with local delivery), farmers markets, and local stockists, all listed on their website. She mentions having some of the same customers for almost five years.

Sam observes that when she first started brewing, there was very little kombucha in the UK:

So I took things into my own hands and started educating people and telling them that it can taste like soda naturally, that’s when people’s interest started to peak. It took a lot of education over the first year and a half, two years. [Now] gut health is becoming quite popular.

There’s now healthy growth:

I get so many new customers each month. Just this month alone, I’ve had four new subscribers. And then I go to anywhere from six to eight markets a month. And half of those people are return customers and half are always new faces and they’re always coming back for more. So it feels really good. And I’ve noticed it’s really picked up a lot because I think word of mouth is spreading.

Production and flavorsSam brews once a month with the help of part-time staff. Fermentation times vary depending on the kombucha type. Fruity kombuchas have an 11-day ferment, while the vintage (unflavored) kombucha ferments for a minimum of one month and can go up to two months.

Sambucha only uses ripe fruits. The flavors adapt to the seasons, with winter featuring ingredients like ginger, satsuma, and foraged apples. The vintage unflavored kombucha is also more prominent in winter. Each bottle is packed with at minimum, a cup of fruit or root veg. It sells at £5.50 per 500ml bottle.

Flavors include:

• Strawberry
• Satsuma
• Pineapple & Passionfruit
• Pineapple, Chili, & Blue Spirulina
• Ginger
• Ginger & Lemongrass
• Original
• Pineapple
• Vanilla Apple Spice

Small business successSambucha is now Sam’s full-time source of income, and she is happy with the current size of the business.

I really am happy with how big Sambucha is because I still do everything by hand. I’m still really involved. I enjoy making. I enjoy seeing the benefits. I enjoy tasting my kombucha and being like, damn, that’s the best kombucha in the UK. And everyone else telling me so as well. So it’s a good feeling. I don’t want to expand because it could possibly affect the quality of the kombucha. I’m just I’m happy with the way things are. And there’s always plenty of kombucha for me and my customers.

She strategically focuses on a local radius of 35 to 40 miles from Pangborn, consciously avoiding larger markets in central London. “There’s plenty of kombucha in London. You know, let them have their territory and I’ll have mine.”

InterviewClick on the podcast to hear Sam tell the story of Sambucha Kombucha.

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Three years ago, I visited the KC Kombucha taproom in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento. News broke last week that the taproom was closing. Courtney, the founder, had sold the business to her long-time partner Michelle Grubbs.

A time of transitionMichelle has been involved with the company since 2020 and is officially taking ownership on April 1st. Our conversation covered the evolution of KC Kombucha from farmers’ markets to a taproom, and now an exclusive focus on wholesaling kegs to local businesses in the Sacramento region. A key reason for this shift is to better align with the original community-focused vision and to support other small businesses. Michelle emphasizes their commitment to being a small, local, and sustainable operation, highlighting their unique brewing process and relationships with local farmers for ingredients.

Michelle noted that COVID-19 significantly altered how people socialize and engage in community activities. As the lease renewal for the taproom approached, she and Courtney discussed whether the space was still serving its intended purpose, and they concluded that it was not.

While the taproom is closing, KC Kombucha will continue to be found on tap in various locations and at local events, maintaining its presence within the Sacramento community. Michelle believes their wholesale customers are now fulfilling that community vision by offering KC Kombucha in their establishments.

ExpansionIn November 2023, KC Kombucha took over the lease of a 1,200 square foot space in Gold River from Zeal Kombucha that was closing down. They moved all brewing operations there. This move was driven by the need for increased brewing capacity and refrigeration space to meet wholesale demand. They acquired Zeal’s kegs and fermentation kettles as part of the lease takeover.

DistributionKC Kombucha currently self-distributes using a delivery driver within the greater Sacramento region. Their reach extends as far as Auburn (northeast), Fairfield (west), Shingle Springs (towards Tahoe), and Modesto (south).

In addition to bars and cafes, KC Kombucha supplies kombucha on tap to several offices and luxury apartment complexes. They also have a few home-based customers, typically individuals with whom they have a personal relationship and who consume large quantities.

Michelle acknowledges the potential resistance from beer venues to add kombucha on tap due to line cleaning and space concerns. She proactively offers to handle the coupler replacement to ease the burden on these establishments. The positive reception is attributed to the unique taste of their kombucha and their local presence. Kombucha caters to designated drivers and those choosing not to drink alcohol, providing a non-alcoholic alternative in bars.

KC Kombucha emphasizes that it is a natural, raw, and unpasteurized product,

It’s all natural. It’s raw. We’ve never pasteurized. So the flavor is a lot lighter and we’re not carbonating as long as some of the other brands. We’re doing our carbonation in the individual five gallon kegs, not in bright tanks. So the flavor is very different than a lot of the big brands. And some people would say it doesn’t taste like kombucha. And for us, that’s OK. We don’t need it to taste like the stuff at the store. In fact, that’s what we pride ourselves on is not being like the stuff at the store. One of our taglines is we’re not your basic booch.

Company cultureThe core team consists of Michelle, a brewer, a former taproom attendant transitioning to brewery/farmers market help, and a delivery driver/keg washer. Michelle prioritizes work-life balance for her team, valuing their well-being over rapid growth. She encourages a positive and supportive work environment.

Sustainability and local sourcingKC Kombucha is committed to sustainability and recently achieved certification in five out of seven categories with the Business Environmental Resource Center (BERC). They actively partner with local farmers, purchasing “seconds” or surplus fruit at nominal cost, which they use in their kombucha and shrubs. This reduces waste for the farmers and provides them with high-quality ingredients. Michelle highlights this as a “really beautiful relationship” and a key part of their sustainability model.

Controlled growthThey are intentionally limiting their growth into larger markets like the core Bay Area to maintain their values and sustainability model:

We can only produce a certain number of kegs currently with the space and the resources we have. We’ve gotten so much larger than we were a year and a half ago. And so for now, I want to just bask in the abilities that we have at this moment, and not try and outgrow ourselves at a pace that puts us in a position where we’re not able to be who we want to be, which is small, local, and community based. While it would be great if we could get into grocery stores and all those things, I think we run the risk of changing what our values are in order to make that happen. And I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to change our values. I don’t want to change the sustainability model that we have.

Michelle intends to maintain a controlled growth trajectory, focusing on their existing Sacramento region. They are not currently prioritizing expansion into larger markets to avoid compromising their values, sustainability practices, or the natural quality of their product. The focus on wholesale, local partnerships, sustainability, and a commitment to a manageable growth rate suggests a business model centered on quality, community engagement, and long-term viability within its chosen region.

True to the KC rootsThe name “KC Kombucha” will be retained as a tribute to founder Courtney, though they may start referring to it as “Keenly Crafted Kombucha. They still show up at area farmers’ markets to connect with the local community.

There’s a Grilled Cheese Festival in a couple of weeks that we’re going to be at. Earth Day Festival is one of our best events, as is a little local event called Curtis Fest that’s just at a little park. And then at the end of summer, our very best event of the year is the Chalk It Up event. It’s just a tiny little one block park in the heart of Sacramento. People go to support the arts community here in Sacramento and they draw on the sidewalks in chalk. It’s just such a cool event. And people come out to enjoy everything given the Sacramento artists scene has to offer. It’s something that Courtney started doing back in 2018 and we’ve been there ever since.

InterviewListen to the podcast to hear Michelle discuss her plans for KC Kombucha.

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Curro Polo is currently pursuing a PhD under the Basque Culinary Center program, with the academic guidance of Harvard University The research project will take place at Ama Brewery, exploring the fascinating world of microbiology applied to beverages. We’d met at the 2024 KBI conference in Reno, Nevada, where Curro and I were both Kombucha Kup judges. At that time he was finishing up his Masters in Gastronomy and Culinary Arts at Harvard. He presented his dissertation in June, 2024.

Curro’s Master’s thesis, Kombucha: A Word on Metamorphosis, provides a comprehensive and meticulous exploration of kombucha, moving beyond its health-focused image to investigate its intricate microbiology, flavor development, and gastronomic potential. The research encompasses kombucha’s economic, social, and scientific aspects, and combines a thorough literature review with experimental analysis of the fermentation process, particularly focusing on the impact of yeast and bacteria on the volatile and non-volatile compounds produced during prolonged anaerobic bottle fermentation. The research explores the impact of different tea substrates and the introduction of a specific yeast strain on the final flavor profile of the beverage.

Research Objectives and MethodologyThe primary objective of the thesis is to explore kombucha as a gastronomic product and its potential in the low/no-alcohol market through bottle aging. Secondary objectives include:

• Providing a holistic view of kombucha.
• Characterizing the initial fermentation stage through continuous data logging.
• Analyzing volatile compounds during secondary fermentation and bottle aging.
• Investigating the relationship between phenolic VOCs, substrate, and the addition of a Brettanomyces bruxellensis strain.

Themes 1. Kombucha as a Metamorphic Gastronomic Product: The central theme revolves around understanding kombucha not just as a beverage but as a dynamic gastronomic product undergoing “metamorphosis” through fermentation. This involves a shift in focus from solely health benefits to its complex flavor profile and potential within the low/no-alcohol market. 2. Historical and Cultural Context: The thesis briefly touches upon the historical origins of kombucha and the human appreciation for sourness. It suggests a potential evolutionary link to this preference: “If this trait is genetic, it could explain the human predisposition towards beverages with a significant level of acidity.” 3. The Importance of Microbiology: Microbiology is the central axis of the research. The thesis emphasizes the multifaceted nature of microbiology, including morphology, metabolism, and growth, and their impact on fermented beverages. Key historical figures in microbiology, such as Leeuwenhoek and Pasteur, are mentioned, highlighting the shift from a macro to a micro understanding of food production. Pasteur’s work on controlled fermentation and the subsequent standardization of brewing processes are noted. 4. A Symbiotic Ecosystem: A significant portion of the thesis is dedicated to the Symbiotic Community of Yeast and Bacteria (SCOBY) that drives kombucha fermentation. 5. Role of Yeast: Yeast is identified as fundamental, responsible for converting sucrose into glucose and fructose, producing ethanol and carbon dioxide, and generating secondary metabolites that significantly influence kombucha’s flavor. The concept of yeast domestication and the differences between wild and domesticated yeast reproduction are explained. The diversity of yeast species found in SCOBY across various studies is compiled. The thesis also explores why yeast ferments, attributing it to a survival mechanism: “Yeasts secrete ethanol to decrease competition in the environment where they are found, meaning fermentation is a survival mechanism.” The process of glycolysis and cellular respiration in yeast is also outlined. 6. Role of Bacteria: Acetic Acid Bacteria (AAB) are described as strictly aerobic, gram-negative microorganisms crucial for converting alcohols and sugars into organic acids, notably acetic acid. Genera like Acetobacter, Gluconobacter, Komagataeibacter, and Gluconacetobacter are highlighted as prevalent in kombucha. The thesis details various organic acids found in kombucha and their sensory attributes. The formation of the cellulose-based biofilm by AAB is discussed as a protective mechanism promoting microbial cooperation. 7. The Complexity of Kombucha Flavor: Flavor is defined as a multisensory perception involving taste and smell. The significant role of olfactory receptor genes in humans underscores the evolutionary importance of flavor. The thesis emphasizes that flavor is the brain’s interpretation of sensory inputs. “What is known as Flavor involves a complex network of interdependent brain connections: the consumption context, attributes perceived by sight, molecules detected by taste receptors, texture perceived by the tongue, and volatile molecules captured by the nose, both retro-nasally and ortho-nasally, are part of the sensory experience. Another fundamental component added to this is memory.” 8. Aldehydes: These are mentioned as important flavor precursors, particularly in the early stages of fermentation, contributing notes like sweet, fruity, malty, almond, and green. 9. Acids: The sour flavor of kombucha is attributed to organic acids produced during fermentation. The thesis explains the concepts of pH and titratable acidity, highlighting that pH alone is not a complete representation of perceived sourness due to weak acids’ gradual dissociation. “Using the pH scale is an affordable way to track fermentation; however, it is not purely representative of the amount of sourness perceived by the tongue.” 10. Esters: These volatile compounds, formed from alcohols and carboxylic acids, are crucial for the fruity, candied, and perfume-like aromas of kombucha. Their production is linked to yeast metabolism and specific enzymes. Acetate and ethyl esters are identified as the main groups, with examples like ethyl octanoate (sour apple) and ethyl hexanoate (red apple) provided in a table. 11. Phenols and Brettanomyces: Phenolic compounds, particularly 4-Ethylguaiacol (4-EG) and 4-Ethylphenol (4-EP), mainly produced by the yeast Brettanomyces, are discussed as contributors to “funk” or “brett” character, described with terms like leather, horse stable, and smoky. Brettanomyces (anamorph) / Dekkera (teleomorph) is noted for its prevalence in kombucha consortia and its ability to thrive after S. cerevisiae fermentation. Discovered in 1904 and being the first microorganism ever patented, Brettanomyces was historically considered a spoilage organism but is now being explored for its potential to create novel flavor profiles.

In ConclusionThe thesis poses a significant question: “What is the maximum expression of the minimal shared in kombucha in microbiological terms?” This implies an inquiry into the core, essential microbiological elements that define kombucha and the full potential of these elements to shape the beverage. In essence, the question asks: Despite the vast microbial diversity in kombucha, what are the absolute essential microorganisms that make it kombucha, and what is the fullest spectrum of flavors, aromas, and chemical complexity that can be achieved by focusing primarily on these core microbes?

Polo suggests that answering this question is crucial for several reasons:

• Standardization: Understanding the “minimal shared” could pave the way for more standardized kombucha production, moving away from reliance on the unpredictable nature of diverse wild cultures. This is particularly relevant as kombucha transitions from domestic to industrial production.
• Predictability and Control: Identifying the core microorganisms and their potential could allow producers to better predict and control the final characteristics of their kombucha.
• Scientific Understanding: Defining the “minimal shared” in microbiological terms would enhance the academic understanding of what constitutes kombucha as a fermented beverage.
• Innovation: By focusing on the core microbial elements, researchers and producers can explore new production methods and push the boundaries of kombucha’s organoleptic complexity. The author’s personal reflection about the Gallery of the Louvre painting further illustrates this point. Just as a gallery comprises various artworks, kombucha contains diverse microorganisms. Identifying the “Mona Lisa” of the kombucha microbiome – the essential elements – and understanding their full artistic potential (their “maximum expression”) is key to truly appreciating and potentially standardizing the “gallery” of kombucha.

This summary was produced with the help of NotebookLM. You can download the complete 90-page thesis Kombucha: A Word on Metamorphosis for free.

InterviewCurro shares insights into his Master’s thesis, updates on his Doctorate, and research into pét-nat teas in the Basque Region of Spain with the AMA Brewery.

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Jean-Pierre Parent, a yoga teacher in Portland, Oregon, noticed that, even though people often go to yoga studios for the community, many students would shyly slink away after class. In response, he began bringing his home-brew kombucha to enjoy after class. It was an instant hit, with people requesting to purchase his kombucha. SOMA Kombucha was born from this.

SOMA is Sanskrit, from the Upanishads. It means “nectar of life” and “drink of the gods”, and its root literally means distill, extract, or sprinkle. Back in the aughts I would bring my family recipe kombucha to my yoga classes so students could take a little probiotic elixir with them in their bellies, the naturally caffeine-removed benefits distilled from tea, and a sprinkle of community.

The dots in the letters represent the colonies of beneficial bacteria that supplant our digestive system, because SOMA has billions more naturally occurring probiotics than other brands (see these lab test results). And their position is in an arc, representing the arc of time in our long fermentation process, which is one of the things that makes SOMA really special.

So just like our bacteria work quietly in our system to bring us happiness, mental clarity, immunity, vitality, and countless other things, the SOMA logo was meant to be a gentle reminder, for those curious enough to look for the deeper meaning.

He’s been around the business long enough to know what works for him. Indeed, he’s narrowed his distribution as times have changed.

You know, we used to be in Southern California. We used to be shipping out as far as Colorado on pallets and it’s just it’s really contracted a lot. A really fantastic business can be created just doing a few farmers’ markets and finding a plateau that works for somebody’s lifestyle and their interest and their passion. Because it’s a marathon, you know. And so it’s it’s got to be something that can can keep your interest.

TaproomsOne thing that really works for SOMA are multiple taprooms. They have one in SE Portland, staffed and open seven days a week. In addition, there are taprooms in Beaverton, OR, downtown Vancouver, WA, a new one in Capitol Hill, Seattle, and one under construction in Olympia, WA set to open in April ’25. The ones in Washington State take advantage of state laws that allow them to be ‘un-staffed’. SOMA is part of a growing wave of businesses using mobile phones and access systems, allowing customers to ring up their purchase of on-tap kombucha by the pint or the growler,

These are simple to access:

Just scan the QR code on the door to quickly sign up for a free account. Then unlock the door from your phone, help yourself to free samples from our rotating seasonal taps, fill a pint or growler or choose from our other wellness products, and check out on your phone, just like buying something online.

This Instagram shows how to access the un-staffed taproom.

FlavorsSOMA makes a wide range of both kombucha and jun.

Kombucha

• Recharge: (Grape Rii-Kombucha): Rii is made with a special group of probiotics called Tibetan Crystals because of the beautiful crystalline shapes they form. This culture thrives in mineral-rich water so to our pure volcanic glacier water we add raw shilajit, a rare bio-mineral pitch that’s wild-crafted high in the Himalayas. Shilajit – Sanskrit for “life force of mountain” – is a mysterious bio-mineral matrix of over 70 essential organically-bound minerals. “Rii” means “mountain” in Tibetan and SOMA Rii is the life force of the Himalayas and we hope it helps you move mountains in your life!
• Thrive: (Lemon & Ginger Kombucha)
• Strawberry CBD: (Kombucha +10mg CBD)

Jun

• Balance: (Pear & Fennel Jun)
• Vigor: (Blueberry & Ginger Jun)
• Delight: (Pomegranate & Rose Jun)

Wellness Water

Combines organic hemp derived CBD, organic 100% fruiting body medicinal mushrooms and living, untreated high-frequency water.

• Mind Blend (Lions Mane and Turkey Tail)
• Stress Blend (Reishi, Turkey Tail, Chaga, Cordyceps).

Contract ManufacturingJean-Pierre now has a large enough production facility enabling him to do contract manufacturing for other beverages.

We’re doing a lot of research and development. We do a lot of formulation of beverages across the entire beverage space where our focus is fermentation and natural and organic. We’re doing this product right now, which is a very specific kind of ethnic soda that’s available in a certain place in the world.

InterviewTo hear the story of SOMA Kombucha listen to my interview with Jean-Pierre.

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On a recent trip to Mexico City, I met with the founders of Umani Fermentos. Our 20-minute discussion provided insights into the company’s origins, production, and distribution.

OriginsUmani was started as a side project in 2018 by three friends—Ixchel, Juan Carlos, and Jorja—who met in culinary school. They initially fermented vinegar and officially launched their kombucha in October 2019. They now sell around 8,000 cans a month to over 120 locations, primarily in Mexico City.

The name “Umani” means “to cook” in the Purépecha language from Michoacán. They chose this name to represent their Mexican identity and because they see fermentation as “to cook with live foods.”

The founders received valuable support and mentorship from Yesfolk, a kombucha brand in New York State. They were referred by cider makers while visiting the Hudson Valley. Before launching commercial production, they spent two weeks with Yesfolk, who shared their production techniques and encouraged them. “They were very, very, very, very sweet…”

They currently operate out of a compact 52-sq-meter (550-sq-ft) space in the Roma district and employ nine people. They expect to triple production in 2025.

They shifted from glass bottles to cans due to pandemic-era supply chain issues.

FlavorsUmani offers a range of core flavors, including orange turmeric, rosemary grapefruit, hojasanta, and fig leaves. They also offer special edition flavors based on rare teas. In addition, they produce small batches of hard cider.

DistributionThe greater Mexico City metropolitan area has a population of over 20 million people, making it one of the largest cities in the world. So there are a large number of potential customers:

…here in Mexico, it’s not easy to try new things. People like the things they know. But the people that try kombucha usually enjoy it. So, while it’s not growing really fast, it’s steadily going up.

As a tourist, I was only able to visit a few areas of the amazing, beautiful, safe, verdant metropolis. A look at where Umani is available provides a glimpse into interesting areas for visitors to check out and buy a can of their ‘booch. They list the 100+ intra-city and 14 remote locations where their kombucha is available. The most popular areas are:

32 accounts in Roma:

Roma is known for its bar scene, top-class restaurants, incredible street food, and picturesque cafes on every street corner. The area is also home to some of the best-preserved colonial-era architecture. Every street is plush with greenery and ivy falling off balconies. Wide avenues are home to charming artisans, and the idyllic parks where locals come to relax.

14 accounts in Cuauhtémoc:

Cuauhtémoc is the energetic heart of the city, with the Templo Mayor Museum’s Aztec ruins beside the lofty Metropolitan Cathedral on Zócalo Plaza. Murals by Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros can be seen in the marble Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the Angel of Independence monument overlooks the bustling Paseo de la Reforma.

10 accounts in Hipódromo:

The sprawling, shady Parque México, home to yoga classes, young couples, and skateboarding teens, is the heart of the stylish yet easygoing Hipódromo. Art Deco apartment buildings and vibrant street art define the neighborhood’s winding, tree-lined thoroughfares. The area is also home to sidewalk cafes and hip, international eateries, many offering vegetarian options, as well as low-key bars and nightlife.

9 accounts in San Miguel Hidalgo:

The Greenwich Village of Mexico City, San Miguel Hidalgo is equal parts urban artsy and quiet residential. Residents are a truly eclectic mix of middle-class singles and families, with a healthy dose of international expats. It is particularly notable for its proximity to Chapultepec Park. Inhabitants, many in their thirties and forties, push baby carriages past neighbors as they walk their trendy dogs, en route to the organic market or the latest art gallery opening. The famous artist Rufino Tamayo once lived in San Miguel, contributing to the area’s rich cultural heritage.

14 accounts outside of Mexico City:

Ensenada, Baha; Hermosillo, Sonora; Chihuahua; Oaxaca; San Luis Potosi; Guanajuato; San Miguel de Allende; Querétaro; Pueblo, and Cuernavaca.

InterviewClick on the podcast to hear Ixchel, Juan Carlos, and Jorja tell the story of Umani Kombucha.

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Following my recent interview with Sally of Burning Bloom Kombucha in Puerto Vallarta, I met Gina Méndez the founder of Kova Kombucha, a small-batch kombucha business also based in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Zapotlanejo, near Guadalajara. Kova is the most widely available of the three local brands, found in (among other places) Ángulo Cowork, Artisan Bakery, Lamara, Natureza, Revueltas, The Green Place, and Voltan Ramen.

Gina started Kova Kombucha out of a desire for a healthy alternative to soda: “I’m a huge fan of soda. I love the bubbles and the feeling of drinking a soda. But I wanted to do it in a healthy way.” The business was also intended to fund her music studies: “My first goal is to study music. I was trying to find a business that could give me money to pay my university fees.” She gigs with The Lovers, a rock n’ roll cover band that plays in local clubs. I caught her performance at Los Famosos de la Cinco. Check out Gina channeling Mick Jagger:

A growing businessKova Kombucha is only a year old but is already producing 250-300 bottles per month. Currently operating out of her home, Gina plans to move to a larger space in the near future to increase production capacity and incorporate 200-liter stainless steel vessels while maintaining smaller batch fermentation in 20-liter glass jars to preserve the artisanal and handmade taste.

The name “Kova” is a combination of “Ko” for Kombucha and “Va” (meaning “Go” in Spanish). Gina is especially proud of her local customer base. “I’m proud that most of my clients are local Mexicans, not tourists. And I’m so happy to say that because not a lot of people know about kombucha.”

Following expansion, she hopes to employ local women, particularly single mothers, on flexible, part-time schedules. “I want my company to only employ women. I have many friends and cousins, women with young children supporting families. We want to offer them a part-time job that works for them, with an easy schedule.”

FlavorsKova focuses on using local and seasonal ingredients. “We try to use all local products. Local fruit, everything that we use, it’s from Mexican fields. We’re trying to use only local and only the fruits of season.”

They offer four core flavors: Raspberry (their best seller), ginger, lemon, mint-lemon, and pink grapefruit (toronja), plus seasonal flavors, such as mango, and star fruit (carambola).

InterviewCheck out the podcast to hear Gina tell the story of Kova Kombucha.

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It’s been two years since I first discovered local kombucha in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. At the time I met Monica at the Elixir Spot Vegan Cafe I had not seen any others. It was only this January, when I dropped by the Puerto Cafe near the Malecon, that I stumbled across a second brand. Burning Bloom Kombucha is also available in The Green Place and Cha Cocina.

The brandThe brand name “Burning Bloom” reflects owner Sally Wells journey of personal growth and breaking free from a feeling of being trapped in a less fulfilling work life. She explains:

Burning Bloom to me represents this moment where I wanted to explore and use my creativity in some way. It’s not settling for what you’re not happy with and discovering what your potential is to bloom. The burning part is the energy behind it and the passion to not take mediocre for an answer.

Sally’s journeySally is originally from Yorkshire in the north of England and her interest in the Spanish language led her to study in Guadalajara and later live and work in Mexico. She discovered kombucha as a result of a passion for natural remedies.

Currently, Burning Bloom is a side project alongside Sally’s full-time job as a writer for a travel agency.

Burning Bloom is a small, home-based operation, producing around 50 bottles a week. Sally staggers production across multiple small vessels to manage the process. “I have a few different ones. I quite like using smaller ones just in case it doesn’t come out right because then you haven’t lost the whole thing.”

The business began as a personal experiment with brewing kombucha at home, involving “a lot of trial and error, a lot of wall-to-wall explosions, a lot of very rough kombucha.” This journey included learning about the process, the SCOBY, and how to manipulate flavors.

The hot, humid summer in Puerto Vallarta accelerates fermentation, requiring careful monitoring. She notes that in the summer, fermentation happens in “like three days and you’re getting a nice fizzy first fermentation,” compared to about five days in cooler months.

She has seen increased demand, especially during the high tourist season (November to March).

FlavorsSally focuses on locally sourced ingredients and experiments with different flavor combinations. She states that while fresh strawberries don’t provide the desired results, frozen ones work great. She has used hibiscus, spearmint, and even local peppers like the Morita chili for a “smoky taste.” Flavors include:

• Strawberry & Hibiscus
• Spearmint
• Purple Basil
• Ginger
• Strawberry & Rose Petal
• Blackberry & Lavender

InterviewCheck out the podcast to hear Sally tell the story of Burning Bloom.

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This podcast interview features James, the owner of Nania’s Vineyard, a Bristol-based company producing canned English wine and kombucha. James details his journey from home winemaking to establishing a thriving, albeit small-scale, kombucha business. He explains his unique brewing process, which includes barrel fermentation and the use of hops, and discusses his search for a business partner and/or investor to expand his operations. He desires to elevate the standards of the UK kombucha market by promoting truly fermented products. Finally, he reveals the creation of a unique fermentation merit badge for local Scouts.

Nania’s VineyardJames’s journey into kombucha is inextricably linked to his experiences with winemaking. He began with a vine in his garden and planted an allotment vineyard. Then began producing award-winning English wine in cans and subsequently discovered kombucha. His winemaking and kombucha brewing philosophies are similar, particularly his interest in “wild ferment” processes — “You can’t untangle one from the other.”

Artisanal techniquesJames is deeply committed to traditional fermentation methods. He was making Pet-Nat wines from his allotment grapes before making and selling kombucha, applying a similar idea to kombucha production, focusing on secondary bottle fermentation to achieve a fine “mousse” rather than force carbonation.

James recognizes the need to educate consumers about authentic artisanal kombucha and how it differs from mass-produced, “acidified” kombucha, pointing out that much of what is marketed as kombucha isn’t naturally fermented, and there are no regulations controlling this. He acknowledges that the market is relatively new, especially in the UK. Still, he sees this as an opportunity to define his brand as a premium, handcrafted product: “There’s a huge opportunity and demand for real artisanal kombucha, properly brewed and properly fermented. You just need to know that your job in terms of marketing is going to be all about education.”

Partnership opportunity

I’m looking for an active business partner and/or investor. I really want someone to help me work in the business.

I’ve been tracking the development of the kombucha business in the UK, and having run the wine business I’m quite aware now of my strengths and weaknesses. And I’ve got lots of strengths. But one of my weaknesses – and I think this is the same for anyone running a business on their own – is that you get exhausted, and you don’t have anyone to bounce ideas off. You can get crestfallen. Sales is a very lonely slog. So, I just really want someone to work in the business with me, who has skin in the game.

What I really need is somebody who’s in business with me who’s as excited about building up a real, live kombucha business. And going for it with me.

So that’s why I put it out. It’s a New Year – a good time to be putting a message like that out. People are reflecting on what they’re going to be doing in the coming year. I’m open to all suggestions.

I’ve got a really good foundation, and I just need the right person. Ideally someone who’s going to come and work in the business, and potentially even bring a bit of money. But I don’t really need a huge amount of money, I just need some help.

Scout Merit BadgeJames and his friend Matt have daughters in the Scouts. They held a workshop for the girls where they fermented kombucha and sauerkraut. With the support of the Fermenter’s Guild, James used A.I. to design a fermentation merit badge — a world first! Over 60 area Scouts have now earned the award.

AudioListen to the complete interview.

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Gwen Bortner is a business advisor and operational strategist specializing in women entrepreneurs, particularly those who have turned hobbies into businesses. In a recent interview with Booch News, she detailed how her expertise can benefit women business owners in the kombucha industry. Her emphasis on context, sustainable practices, and the challenges faced by women makes her particularly well-suited to support small business owners. Her approach could help kombucha businesses scale successfully, prevent burnout, and create a long-term vision for their business. She is available for a FREE initial consultation.

Hobby-to-Business Transition Hobby Origin: Bortner emphasizes that many businesses, like kombucha, start as hobbies. She has decades of experience with yarn and knitting stores, most of which are founded by hobbyists. Many kombucha companies began with a home brewing hobby, making Bortner’s expertise particularly relevant. This means many entrepreneurs are driven by passion but, unfortunately, may lack business acumen. * Changing Relationship: Turning a hobby into a business fundamentally alters one’s relationship with that activity. “Any hobby that we take and that we turn into a business changes our relationship with our hobbies.” This shift requires conscious management to prevent burnout. * Passion vs. Operations:* While passion is a powerful motivator, it is not sufficient for long-term business success. Entrepreneurs must learn to manage the operational and strategic aspects of their business.

Context Matters Unique Approach: Bortner does not believe in a “one-size-fits-all” business strategy. “One of my key beliefs is context matters…” Her approach involves assessing the specific details of each business’s situation. * Beyond Generic Solutions: Generic advice can be detrimental. Instead, understanding the context allows for tailored and often unexpected solutions. * Detailed Considerations:* Even seemingly similar businesses will need different strategies based on customer profiles, sales channels, and distribution methods. “Choosing some of the details is where that context really makes a difference.”

Inventory Management and Scaling Beyond the Visual: Relying solely on visual inventory assessment is not sustainable for growing businesses. “A lot of folks will use what I call visual inventory…Well, that’s okay for a while. But at some point, you need to understand when you order more?” * Data-Driven Decisions: Businesses need to track data (e.g., sales trends, seasonality) to make informed decisions about purchasing, storage, and manufacturing. * Manufacturing Inventory: Kombucha businesses must track “manufactured inventory,” understanding that ingredients are transformed into a finished product, requiring a different approach than tracking static goods. * Growth Isn’t Just More of the Same:* Growth isn’t just about scaling the current process but making intelligent decisions about doing things differently. “More isn’t necessarily the answer. Sometimes it’s also different.”

Cash Flow and Sustainability Sustainable Cash Flow: Businesses must reach a point where they generate consistent income and can pay their owners for their work. “At some point, it needs to create money for you.” * Burnout Prevention: Overworking or constantly reinvesting without paying oneself is unsustainable and can lead to burnout. “I don’t know how to do this without working ridiculous numbers of hours. That’s a warning sign…” * Data Tracking:* Understanding cash flow in detail—where money is spent and when—is critical for creating a sustainable financial model.

Challenges for Women Entrepreneurs Systemic Issues: Despite legal protections, women often face systemic challenges in securing funding (loans, investments) compared to men. “The amount of funding that women can get from investors…is always significantly less than men.” * Life-Stage Awareness: Bortner emphasizes that her focus is on the client’s entire life, not just the business. Understanding family and personal commitments is part of creating the appropriate work balance. “We don’t just look at you and your business. We try to look at you and your whole life…” * Unique Definitions of Success:* Success should be personally defined, not based on societal pressures. “To me, success is a unique definition…”

Finding a Supportive Community Cooperation: While some women entrepreneurs may be competitive, many are—in the spirit of symbiosis—supportive and collaborative. Bortner is a strong proponent of collaboration, believing “a high tide raises all ships.” * Mentorship:* A supportive community can provide encouragement and valuable advice.

Gwen can be contacted via email at gwen@everydayeffectiveness.com or through her website: everydayeffectiveness.com.

Bortner offers a NO-CHARGE initial consultation to assess fit and provide value.

AudioGwen shares her insights in this podcast interview.

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On Oct 29, 2024 Real Co Labs hosted an afternoon discussion on The Art and Science of Fermentation in London. The audio of company founder David Begg’s presentation is attached with the company’s express permission.

In this audio, David Begg, the founder of Real Co, describes his company’s innovative approach to non-alcoholic fermented beverages. Real Co uses a complex, patented process involving a diverse “spice rack” of 80 yeasts and 130 bacteria to create unique flavors in their drinks, unlike the simpler, single-strain methods of some other beverages. This process, informed by microbiology, honed through years of experimentation, focuses on achieving a balanced fermentation resulting in high-quality, low-sugar, and flavorful drinks. The company aims to provide delicious alternatives to sugary sodas and alcoholic beverages, emphasizing nourishment over stimulation and catering to a growing consumer interest in gut health. Real Co’s future plans include expanding their product line and further exploring the possibilities of their complex fermentation techniques.

RealCo’s innovative approach to non-alcoholic fermentation combines scientific rigor with a passion for flavor, creating a new category of beverages that are both delicious and beneficial.

We’ve taken wild fermentation and DNA-tested our way through all of the microbes that we were using. We started with 80 yeast and 130 bacteria and we isolated all of them. And so we understand how each one of those behaves and bind together and the flavors develop. We recombine them to produce our drinks. We work with what we call our spice rack, of yeasts and bacterias.

They’re all code named. We’ve used the cast of a Midsummer Night’s Dream to talk about all of the different characters. We have yeasts that are bright and fresh and fruity. A bit like Puck. We’ve got yeasts who are earthy and rounded and very, very solid. Like Oberon. We’ve got other ones that are drier and a bit more attitude like Helena. Then we’ve got all of these different bacterias, they come in and they’re a little bit naughty and they sort of grab some of that flavor. Those are the carpenters and others from Midsummer Night’s Dream. So we’ve got this spice rack of all of these different microbes and we can deploy them to create the different flavors.

AudioListen to David’s presentation and Q&A from the October 29 event.

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Statistics show that 50% of small businesses failure occurs within five years. Last year, we looked at general numbers for the kombucha industry. This is the story behind one brand’s decision to move on. The goal of these features is not to celebrate failure but to share stories that contain lessons for others in the industry and help them avoid the same fate.

Kim Welch, the founder of Creature Craft Soda, talked with Booch News about the experience of her three-year journey operating a commercial kombucha company. Kim recounts her serendipitous discovery of using silicone bags for kombucha brewing, an innovative method she researched and documented, supported by the findings of scientists at Shippensburg University. This interview also explores the challenges of starting and running a kombucha business. Founders need to master a complex interplay of factors, including market demand, planning, funding, logistics, sales channels, branding, regulations, and support systems. Kim ultimately decided to close her business, citing financial difficulties and the physical demands of the work. Finally, she discusses possibilities related to her innovative brewing method and the potential development of silicone-based brewing equipment.

It’s really cool because the bacteria in your brew is way smarter than people give it credit for. It’s not just that the bacteria makes the SCOBY and it floats up to the top. No, the bacteria intentionally build the SCOBY exactly where they want it and where they need it. And then that SCOBY itself, you can also tell, is not an oxygen barrier but more of like a transfer membrane to bring the energy into the center of the brew.

Here are some of the critical lessons Creature Craft Soda learned about the challenges of running a successful kombucha company:

● Having a ready market is crucial. Creature Craft Soda discovered that many people in their target market were unfamiliar with kombucha. This lack of awareness created a challenge in selling a more expensive, specialty beverage.

A lot of people had never heard of it, and then people who had heard of it didn’t understand what it was or never tried it.

● Thorough planning is essential. Kim emphasizes the importance of understanding all aspects of the business, including branding, sales channels, and health department regulations, before launching.

You will need a full understanding and focus on building your brand and building a following and figuring out how you want to sell to that following. Do you want to sell through other retailers and what does that mean from a health department viewpoint? Or do you want to sell direct-to-consumer and what does that mean? Are customers doing bottle refills on-site with you directly, or are you shipping? There’s a wide range of what you need to have in place. You need to understand all of that really well and have a plan. So, do one thing first, just one thing. We tried to do way too much.

● Funding and financial stability are critical. Creature Craft Soda was self-funded and ultimately went into debt due to sales not keeping up with expenses. This situation forced the owners to return to full-time jobs.

We did end up both going all-in on it for a period of a year before everything was completely depleted, and we were in debt, and the sales just weren’t keeping up with the expenses. So, that was when I was like okay, we have to go back to work again.

● Distribution and logistics are key considerations. The physical demands of transporting heavy kegs and bottles to farmers’ markets proved exhausting. Additionally, the inconsistent nature of wholesale orders made it difficult to manage brewing schedules effectively.

It was just the physical activity of moving everything to a farmers’ market. You need to move the physical weight carrying kegs of liquid plus bottles that we put on ice in a jockey box. Lugging all of that stuff around multiple times a week, every single week, is just exhausting. I hadn’t thought of the physical tasks that would have to be performed.

● Initially focusing on a specific sales channel is advisable. Creature Craft Soda attempted to manage both farmers’ markets and wholesale, finding both to be demanding and different. Kim advises new businesses to start with just one sales channel.

It was one of those interesting learning curves that made me appreciate the complexities of wholesale and why certain brands choose to do wholesale only or retail only because they are completely different worlds.

● Building a strong brand and following takes time and effort. Engaging with potential customers, educating them about kombucha, and establishing a recognizable brand are essential for success.

We were in a couple of coffee shops and restaurants, but I had to help them market it, because they’re not going to market it for me. People have to know that they can go to these places to get kombucha.

● Understanding legal and regulatory requirements is necessary. Producing kombucha commercially requires compliance with health department regulations, including obtaining necessary licenses and approvals.

Contrary to public opinion the health department people were super helpful and really, really nice because it’s literally their job to help you succeed. It’s not their job to beat you down and put you out of business. We had open conversations where they would do their research and send me documentation and we had to come up with a documented plan of the process. It had to document how I brew the kombucha and how I keep it safe and that sort of thing. Even details such as when we’re straining the kombucha, what type of straining or filtering system we are using. And if it is metal mesh there needs to be an additional checkpoint in the documentation saying that the metal mesh was inspected and free of any defects.

● Collaboration and support are beneficial. Creature Craft Soda benefited from assistance provided by the health department and collaboration with scientists at Shippensburg University. Kim is now mentoring others who are considering entering this business.

Just because your friends want your kombucha does not mean everyone wants your kombucha. I sat down with someone a few weeks ago and went through everything. I was like, you can do this and I can help you with some of this paperwork, but you have to be ready for this.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Kim’s story. She can be reached at craft@creaturesoda.com.

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Statistics show that 50% of small businesses failure occurs within five years. Last year, we looked at general numbers for the kombucha industry. This is the story behind one brand’s decision to move on.

In this interview, Joshua Rood, founder of the hard kombucha company Dr Hops, discusses the challenges the company faced, including market saturation, declining product quality, and the impact of the pandemic on experiential marketing. He details the company’s national expansion strategy, its reliance on co-packers and contractors, and the financial difficulties that ultimately led to its demise. Rood reflects on the lessons learned and expresses his disillusionment with the beverage industry, while hinting at future endeavors focused on public benefit projects. The interview provides a case study of a hard kombucha company’s struggles in a rapidly evolving market.

Some lessons that can be learned from Dr. Hops’ experience, based on the interview with Joshua:

Decline of the hard kombucha market: The hard kombucha market stopped growing for reasons that are not entirely clear. Rood speculates that the rapid growth of the industry in its early years led to a decline in product quality as companies prioritized scale over quality. As companies rushed to scale up production, they may have compromised quality, which turned off consumers.

The limitations of digital marketing: Rood emphasizes the importance of field marketing, especially for new and unfamiliar products like hard kombucha. Explaining the product in person at events was crucial to their early success. For two-and-a-half years, the pandemic made in-person events like beer festivals and street fairs impossible, severely limiting Dr Hops’ ability to reach new customers. Social media alone, like Instagram, was not sufficient.

The challenges of national expansion: Dr Hops pursued a national strategy from the outset, aiming to be one of the first major brands in the category. This approach involved significant expenses, particularly for field marketing across a wide geographical area. Rood acknowledges that a more localized, organic growth strategy might have been more sustainable.

The importance of distribution: Rood highlights distribution challenges, particularly as the hard kombucha market slowed. Without strong distribution partnerships, it became increasingly difficult for Dr Hops to get their product in front of consumers. “We never really had a problem with consumers, once we reached them. But reaching the consumer is very hard.”

The need for the right product at the right time: Rood reflects that Dr Hops might have been more successful if they had a different product that better aligned with current consumer trends. He cites the example of Beatbox, a sweet, wine-based cocktail brand that has thrived in recent years.

Debt burden: Dr Hops raised millions of dollars in investments to fund its growth, which resulted in a significant debt burden. While much of the early debt was converted into shares, the company still had substantial debt at the time of its closure, which Rood was tasked with managing.

The value of perseverance and adaptation: Despite facing challenges, Rood and his team persisted for several years, exploring new product ideas and marketing approaches. Although they were ultimately unsuccessful in saving the business, their willingness to adapt and try new things is a valuable lesson.

Overall, Dr Hops’ difficulties resulted from a combination of market factors, the impact of the pandemic, strategic decisions, and operational challenges. The company struggled to find a solution for two years but made the difficult decision to close last month, at which point consumers did respond positively to the offer of free beer! And…I was able to add a nice 3-tap kegerator to my home brewing operation at a bargain price.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Joshua tell the Dr Hops story.

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This is a follow-up to the recent post about the study by the students and faculty the department of chemistry at Shippensburg University. The lead authors are Professors John Richardson and Jeb Kegerreis. They spoke with Booch News about the background and implications of their experiments suggesting that brewing kombucha in air-permeable silicone bags optimizes oxygen exposure, resulting in more efficient acid production, lower ethanol concentrations, and greater sugar utilization than kombucha brewed in jars.

Edited transcript (original audio at the bottom).

Booch News: This call was motivated by the fantastic paper you wrote Optimizing Oxygen Exposure during Kombucha Brewing Using Air-Permeable Silicone Bags. I posted a summary of that, created with the AI tool NotebookLM.I’m not a scientist and you guys being analytic chemists, professors at Shippensburg University, you went into a lot of science. I think the net of it was–at the end of the paper where it says Discussion–that you believe that because of a combination of factors, these air-permeable silicone bags are a great way of brewing kombucha and making starter liquid. What led you to choose a silicone bag as an experiment?

The origins of silicone bag brewingJohn Richardson: That’s actually a good question. The one thing we do want to sort of clear up here right away is that it wasn’t originally our idea. This was actually brought to us by a fellow brewer out of Joplin, Missouri, a lady by the name of Kimberly Welch, who had a company called Creature Craft Soda. I did a little research, and it looks like they went out of business a short time ago, unfortunately. But she had been brewing in these silicone bags. There’s actually a video from 2022 that you can go back and see. That’s probably the first reference ever to using a silicone bag.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdYu28vj_AT/She contacted Cultured Analysis because she thought some interesting things were happening with the bag brewing. She noticed a lot of acidity. Because of that, she suggested that there may be a decrease in the alcohol levels in the bag brews. She wanted us to investigate that for her. She began sending us some samples of some of her finished brews. We noticed exactly that–very high acid content and very low alcohol content in comparison to what we would expect for a comparable brew to be done in a normal jar or other type of brewing vessel. Really, she was the first person to recognize that this could actually be a thing.

We glommed on to it because we were very interested in studying aeration or oxygenation of kombucha brews. We wanted to do it quiescently. We didn’t want to disturb the brew by, for example, bubbling oxygen through it. Using the silicone bag was a very good way of letting the brew essentially soak up the oxygen without having to disturb it. It was an excellent vehicle for studying aeration of kombucha without disturbing the brew.

Initial experimentsBN: So how long was that experiment conducted for? Prior to publishing, the paper in the summer, right? How long was the process that you did in the lab there?

Jeb Kegerreis: What led to the paper were two main year-long undergraduate research projects. When Kim came to us, she said that she really wanted scientific verification of those things that she thought were happening. We explained how our undergraduate research program worked to her. She was gracious enough to let us take that as essentially a system that we can study with our undergraduates. We did two main brewing projects where we had a comparable jar and a silicone bag. We were able to monitor the metrics of each and see what the major differences were. That’s what led to the paper. We’re even continuing that work now. We’re trying to keep brewing, again, bag versus jar-type stuff to see what the differences are, but now we’re changing food sources and things like that.

Silicone bag capacityBN: Okay. I did have to verify with you when I published that summary on Booch News, which people can find on the October 31st posting, because you’ve given the name of the source of the bags– a company in San Francisco called Anova Culinary Precision. They made a big point of the fact that their bags were airtight, to store salmon cuts and things. Then you confirmed that was the bag you used, and the silicone is air permeable, even though that obviously wasn’t the selling point of the bag. So, my first question is, you do mention in the paper how you brewed three liters of kombucha, but how much is that bag that you purchased? How much liquid does each bag hold? It’s not a three-liter bag, is it?

John: Well, I think it’d probably be a gallon bag. They’re actually advertised as half-gallon bags, but you can easily stuff a gallon of liquid into one. Every bag is just close to a gallon.

Commercial potentialBN: Okay. Now this paper’s just come out. You mentioned the lady who’d been using a system for a couple of years. Has there been any uptake? Are you aware of commercial companies switching to this? Or is this pretty much a laboratory experiment at the moment?

Jeb: We’ve brought it to a brewer here or there on the commercial side of things, but I don’t know that they’ve really enacted it en masse yet. We see it as something that we think will be a useful tool for brewers in the future on a commercial scale, just because it’s a really good system for brewing starter. It just, the acidity and the low alcohol in a short timeframe, it just makes it a really, really advantageous situation for somebody who wants a lot of starter, to be able to then go brew a bunch of commercial brewers with.

Home brewingJohn: I just made a brew myself using the bag just the other day and harvested it and then enjoyed it myself, but I just made a gallon. It’s great for home brewing, I think. At this point, if a home brewer wanted to play around with one of these things, it would be a really simple way to get into the kombucha brewing game if you wanted to do that. I think it would be harder on the commercial scale at this point because, first, we haven’t really in any way, shape, or form studied the scale-up process. Obviously, you would have to make a larger bag-equivalent vessel that did the same sort of thing. Then you’d have to study it because the dynamics would be different.

So right now, if you want to make starter in, let’s say, gallon quantities, it’s a really great way of doing that. But what if you wanted to make starter in 30-gallon quantities? Well, that might be a lot harder, or at least something that would have to be investigated and figured out.

Jeb: You could theoretically buy a bunch of bags and have multiple brews going at one time. Because the volume of starter that you need is generally a lot smaller than what you need for your main brew. That’s why we still think that there is a commercial aspect.

But as John said, a part of our research in the future is going to be sort of looking for alternatives that exhibit the same sort of air permeability but can hold more volume.

Leach proof?BN: Well, one question that came up on the Instagram post that I put up, a couple of people immediately posted comments, raising the question that most kombucha manuals or the instruction books for home brewers and commercial brewers recommend ceramic containers, which is what I use. Then there’s obviously a whole market of stainless steel vessels that are used in craft beer as well, of various sizes, up to many thousands of liters for the larger brewers. The question was, is it healthy or is there a risk of contamination of the silicone plastic leaching into an acidic liquid? I don’t know if your lab can analyze the chemistry of that. What’s your thoughts on that?

John: Well, one thing that we know, is that silicone is a polymeric material like plastics. One thing that’s known about silicone is that it’s highly chemically inert, even compared to a lot of other plastics, and has to do with the nature of the polymer backbone that makes it up. One thing that you see with silicone is that if you look at its chemical structure, it’s really a chain of atoms, right? That chain consists of alternating silicone and oxygen atoms.

In that sense, it’s very close to glass. Glass is essentially polymer like that, also made up of silicone and oxygen. It’s closer in terms of its chemical structure. It’s more similar to glass than it is to the typical hydrocarbon-based polymers that people talk about. One example is that people use it for all sorts of things. It’s been used for many, many years for breast implants–also silicone. People don’t seem to mind putting it in their bodies and leaving it there for long periods of time. That’s one consideration. The other thing also is that it doesn’t have a copolymer agent such as BPA, which people talk about a lot. When you process silicone, there’s no BPA or any other copolymer additive like that that could then leach out, like, for example, you hear about in polycarbonate water bottles.

Jeb: Our organic chemist brought up another point, too, because we brought this to him because he has a lot more knowledge in that side of things. A lot of cookware is silicone coated. It’s out there as a usable semi-nerd material that is used in the food industry, obviously, and other industries as well.

Now, to be fair and to be like a scientist about this, we haven’t studied it directly, right? So kombucha does have a different sort of chemical makeup with low pHs and things like that, where it would be something in the future where if this took off, that it would be worth looking into. But from the standpoint of just the knowledge that we have and then the experts that we talk to, it looks like it would be a really good situation to avoid some of the issues with microplastics and things like that.

BN: Yeah, that’s interesting because, not being a scientist, you’ve just explained the sort of chemical makeup of silicone. It’s not like all plastics are the same. What you’re saying is it’s more like glass. How would it compare to, for instance, there’s one brand called Captain Kombucha in Europe, sold in plastic bottles. There’s also the lining of the aluminum cans. I know he’s advertised as BPA-free these days. Is that silicone as well, or is a plastic bottle a different kind of plastic or a different kind of substance?

John: Based on what I’ve seen with that sort of thing, I believe it’s a different kind of polymer. It’s also plastic-based. But again, the same concerns are there.

When you think about, for example, a polymer or plastic-coated can, they all have that. That’s so the aluminum doesn’t degrade under acidic conditions and you get aluminum in your kombucha. The idea there is no matter what you put your kombucha in contact with, there’s always going to be some leaching. There’s always going to be something that’s going to make its way into the kombucha in very, very tiny quantities.

Even if, for example, in a stainless steel fermenter, it’s probably going to have a fairly robust oxide layer on it that protects it. But there’s still going to be stuff leaching out of even something like stainless steel that’s going to go into the kombucha. In that sense, it’s a problem you’re never going to 100% avoid. It’s just a problem that you’re going to be able to mitigate.

There’s really very little difference. If you think about that, somebody who is putting a kombucha, for example, in a plastic bottle or a plastic lined can, that’s really not that different than leaving a kombucha to brew for a week in a silicone bag when you really think about it. I mean, it’s much less time.

Maximum oxygenationBN: Yeah, your brewing process takes a week, whereas it can be on the store shelves the expiration date can be a year in the future. This idea which your paper explains in great detail–about the advantage of extra oxygenation–how this overall gas permeable surface area of the bag far exceeds that of a jar of equal volume. I do know you’re probably aware of one of the manufacturers out there called Stout Tanks. They make a very flat, almost bathtub-shaped brewing vessel, They advertise it as it has much more surface area. Even if people don’t use plastic bags, your experiments point to the fact that maximizing the surface area is a good thing.

Jeb: Exactly. It’s very much akin to that. It’s all about just making sure that as much of your kombucha as possible is open to the atmosphere where the auctions contain. Stout Tanks trays are doing exactly the same sort of thing. The nice thing about the bag is that you have 360 degrees to play with. It’s just completely encapsulating your volume so you kind of there’s this thing called an interfacial area if you want to get fancy with it. But essentially like the surface area to volume. It really takes advantage of it to a great extent by usage of the bag.

SCOBYsBN: I’m aware as all home brewers are–you see it all over the Facebook groups for home brewing–of what is a SCOBY? Originally people thought the SCOBY was the pellicle and now everybody is much more aware that the symbiotic culture bacteria and yeast is the starter liquid and the pellicle is a byproduct. So, you can actually brew kombucha absent the pellicle if you’ve got sufficient starter liquid. But your paper says that another consideration is the enhanced formation of pellicles throughout the inner surface area of the bag. Are you saying when you put a gallon of the liquid in the bag that you get a pellicle–that well known gelatinous substance–across the whole surface of the bag?

Jeb: You’re going to grow a bag within the bag. Eventually a pellicle completely surrounds your kombucha. The SCOBY is definitely in the liquid, but the pellicles are an important part of that too. because we think it provides protection for the microbes that are part of the SCOBY.

Along the entire surface of the bag it starts as a thin layer and then eventually as time goes by just like your pellicle on the jar, it’ll thicken up. Then eventually you could even just sort of remove the pellicle as a whole from the silicone bag and it can just, it’s, it’s sturdy enough to suspend the kombucha within it.

John: It looks like a pillow almost when you pull it out of it.

BN: Does that limit the amount of oxygen if you have a thicker pellicle you’re not getting as much air into the liquid itself?

Jeb: I think it’s a really good question. We tried to look into this. Again, it’s one of these things that is on our list of future research to do. But certainly from the beginning, and over the short timeframe that we’ve used the bag to brew starter, the maximized oxygen exposure is definitely beneficial.

It’s a really good question to ask: is there maximum exposure up front and then at the end it restricts it? Does that then speak to different processes happening towards the end of the brew that wouldn’t be necessarily as prevalent in the front of the brew? But to answer your question directly, no, we haven’t really looked into that yet.

We just know that when we look at the dynamics of the processes of the microbes that they’re, they’re certainly enhanced in the bag versus an equivalent jar.

John: We’ve run some of these experiments for upwards of 30 days. So you’re generating pretty thick, pellicle in 30 days. Yet we still seem to notice the effect of greater oxygenation even across the entirety of that brew time.

Cultured Analysis updateBN: Well, this is great. I’d like to just have you bring me up to date on the developments for you at the Shippensburg University Analytic Chemistry Lab and Cultured Analysis which people should listen to the first podcast from July 23, 2023.

I looked at your Instagram. It seems you had some very keen undergrads or graduate students, Cole Pearson, Lizzie and Abby, who are part of what you call a “Brew Crew”—a part of Cultured Analysis. So, you have commercial clients and the undergrads step in and run experiments. But how’s, how’s Cultured Analysis doing since we spoke last 18 months ago?

John: Well, we’re doing okay. We’re holding our own. We’re getting more and more clients over time, which is a good thing. It’s just like any other small business though it kind of ebbs and flows. August and September, I was so busy. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Then in October, November business has kind of fallen off. But that’s kind of the way it’s been. It ebbs and flows. But the nice thing about it is, we’re sort of in here. I like to think of it almost as a symbiotic arrangement because we’re in a university. When business falls off a little bit, there’s all these experiments to go do.

There’s brewing to be done, there are students to be engaged. It just turns out there’s always plenty to do. The neat thing about it is when we think about Shippensburg University’s Chemistry Department and Cultured Analysis, we’re kind of one and the same. The students don’t necessarily get directly involved in my work with clients, but we’ve got all this research going on, on the side the students involve themselves with.

We’ve introduced kombucha brewing and analysis into the curriculum here. We’ve got entire laboratories across the semester that are geared to understanding the brewing process and how to make measurements. We’ve got students brewing. That’s the Brew Crew. So, they’re involved. It’s really cool to see because they get to decide, okay, what vessels are we going to use? What teas are we going to use? How are we going to flavor the kombucha? When do we call it done? When do we harvest it? So, I mean, they do the whole thing, which is really, really neat. It really involves them in a very unique sort of way.

Student successJeb: Cultured Analysis interfaces with the university really well. We essentially have students that are freshmen to junior year where they kind of address a little bit of interest in kombucha and we involve them in the brewing. It’s more of a fun thing, like when a brewer would do at home. Then for senior research for our undergrads, it gets a little bit more formal and stringent. That’s when we can really dig into a lot of these problems that become the focus of our research. We’ve had really good success with our undergrads. We’ve even been featured by the American Chemical Society. They did a whole media write-up about our research group last year.

And even our students now, we have two current students working on a bag versus jar project where we’re trying to use fructose as a food source.

And they’ve even won a travel award to the national American Chemical Society meeting. The company really brings a real nice advantage to the students that we have in terms of giving them opportunities to do real world like impactful research on kombucha.

John: The stuff that we learn through the research that we do with our students, yes, folds directly back into the knowledge base that Jeb and I have to work with our clients in terms of consulting and R&D and this kind of stuff.

Jeb: I would say we’re picking up, we’re picking up a little bit more consulting work and having these tools and this knowledge in our back pocket to be able to apply to other people’s problems really is a benefit for the company.

BN: Have you had any graduates go off into the industry, either starting their own kombucha company or working with others around the country that you’re aware of?

John: Not yet, but they’d be stealing our thunder, I’m afraid. It could happen!

BN: Well, I did hear one lady say that she now brews kombucha at home. Some of them are motivated not just to come in the lab and run it through test tubes, but enjoy the benefits of being able to drink kombucha at home.

John: Yeah, a couple of ours dol Lizzie does brewing at home.

Jeb: Kombucha for us from the standpoint of the university is an amazing vehicle to get into real-world chemistry. A lot of our graduates go off to graduate school and they’ll be doing work in analytical chemistry or maybe biochemistry. Things that they’ve picked up on and got an experience with kombucha. Now they’re going on and get into the bigger field as a whole based off of that as a launching pad.

BiochemistryBN: Do you do any, there is an organization I connected with in Oakland that does kind of citizen science. They run a program using begged, borrowed, and stolen equipment–well, maybe not stolen–but they have a lab they built and they go as far as doing DNA analysis. Have you taken it as far as DNA or is that more biology and chemistry?

Jeb: No, we’re still in like focused on the chemical components and then obviously the biochemistry is a big important part of that, but we really are focused in on like what like the main chemical components are for a brew and tracking them over time.Most of our research and our consulting work is focused around that.

John: I mean, the biological side is something that would be really nice to learn.

But first of all, it’s really not our specialty. Jeb and I will agree on one thing. We tried to avoid as much biology in college as we possibly could.

Looking back on it was probably a bad idea.

John: We want to think of ourselves as pure chemists, but then when you get into the real world like this, you realize that biology and chemistry are very, very much intertwined. You can’t really have one without the other.

Jeb: In fact, a lot of the arguments we make in the paper and in our current research are sort of inferring what must be happening with the biology based off the chemical results that we see. Future projects will have to dig in and make sure that our hypotheses are correct with those respects.

John: That’s what I like to say about the chemistry of kombucha, especially as Jeb mentioned when you’re looking at it as a function of time. What it’s telling us is basically what those microbes are doing. We do get some insight about who the microbes are and what those microbes are doing by looking at the chemicals that they generate those microbes are little chemical factories. That’s what I like to tell our students.

BN: Well, guys, it’s been great to catch up with you and get clarity on the experiments you’ve done using air-permeable silicone bags and wish you every luck developing that.

John: Well, thank you, Ian. It’s always good to come on your podcast. We always enjoy it.

Dr. John Richardson & Dr. Jeb KegerreisAudioThe post Interview: Silicone Bag Brewing appeared first on 'Booch News.

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Last week I posted an appreciation of the Instagram of Susy Drinks Kombucha – an impressive archive of over 270 detailed reviews of commercial brands in the States and Europe. At the time I speculated that

…she grew up in northern Italy, studied craft beer making, and worked as a sommelier (hence her discriminating vocabulary about beverages). She is sober and lives in or around Brooklyn, where she reads philosophy when not picnicking in Prospect Park. She travels to Europe regularly.

I’m delighted to post this podcast interview with Susy herself: Susanna Danieli. She does indeed live in Brooklyn, was raised in Vicenza and Rome, and trained as a sommelier.

As a trained sommelier with a master’s in spirits and craft beer tasting, she brings a unique and sophisticated palate to the kombucha scene. Her approach, informed by epistemology and enology, treats kombucha as a living subject with personality and character:

I don’t adopt an analytical, surgical approach as the normal sommelier does–in which you have an object in front of you. Instead, I take an epistemological approach, where you have a subject, and you encounter wine (or kombucha). I approach kombucha as if she is alive, as we are alive. And every time we encounter a wine, the wine may have changed because it evolves as we evolve. As the philosopher Heraclitus says, “Everything flows.” So every time I meet a wine or a kombucha, I may have changed, I may have another sensation, I may have another feeling.

The interview covers Susy’s personal kombucha journey, from her initial encounter with the beverage to her decision to quit alcohol and focus on kombucha as a healthy alternative. She also discusses her kombucha review process, her preference for authentic, naturally fermented kombucha, and her thoughts on the current state of the kombucha industry. The conversation touches on cultural differences in taste preferences, the growth of the kombucha market, and the importance of finding high-quality kombucha.

Susie’s review highlight the lack of standardization and the prevalence of overly sweet, inauthentic kombucha in the market. She emphasizes the importance of natural ingredients, minimal sugar, and a distinctive sourness as hallmarks of quality kombucha.

I read the labels a lot. Every time I see carbonated water, I think, “Okay, so this is not kombucha…” So yes, I always look for fresh ingredients. I avoid extracts. It’s not easy to find dry, complex kombucha. Especially in the States, it isn’t easy to find kombucha that is just original, unflavored and unsweetened.

Susie welcomes kombucha brands to reach out to her via a DM on Instagram if they would like her to review their product. She is particularly interested in discovering kombucha outside of New York City and expanding her knowledge of the kombucha scene.

PodcastCheck out what Susie says in this 30-minute interview.

The post Interview: Susy, the Kombucha Connoisseur appeared first on 'Booch News.

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Edited transcript (original audio at the bottom).

Booch News: I was delighted to make contact with Caroline Gilmartin and Jo Webster, two British fermentation experts who live in the southwest of England. I’d found them on the Substack platform, which some people might be aware of, where they host two videos on kombucha posted to Booch News, which showed the varieties of commercial kombucha out there and their capability to generate new kombucha from what’s called back-slopping into the sweet tea base. We started out by talking about their focus on the followings that they have on the Substack platform, and the conversation continued from there.

Have a listen.

Caroline Gilmartin: I’d like to grow my Substack following, but really, I like Instagram. I like the interaction with people on Instagram. It’s media. There’s always somebody online to talk to or to listen to me going on about fermented foods. I can see the value of Instagram still. But yeah, I think Jo and I have, to some extent, we’ve got a different set of followers. I’ve got lots of mum, have-a-go followers, and Jo’s got a lot more serious. I think you have. I think you’ve got more serious, more nutritionally interested followers than I have.

Jo Webster: Because I am serious…I’m so serious!

CG :I’m not very serious. But I think that you’ve worked in so many health-related fields that you’ve brought more people with you from that.

BN: Well, that’s interesting, because I wonder if you can share some of your background. Caroline, I see you have a PhD already, and I believe that’s in science and biology. I’ve got your book, Fermented Foods, a Practical Guide, which the first two chapters give an excellent overview of everything about the gut microbiome and so on. I really have to read it two or three times to fully understand it, because I’m not a scientist. And, Jo, I think you’re still working on your doctorate. Is that correct?

JW: Yeah. So, Caroline’s got a doctorate in microbiology, and it was one of her comments that finally galvanized me into going on to do mine. So, I’m thoroughly enjoying that.

CG: Mine was 25 years ago.

JW: Actually, I’m totally loving it. It’s just the fact that I’d probably quite like to put my children in the freezer on occasion. I have to get a bit more done, but there we go.

Commercial kombuchaBN: Well, it’s great that you’re both expert on a wide range of fermented foods, and it was really, though, kombucha that brought you to my attention. As I said, you have two videos on sub-stack, and I kind of reviewed them in reverse order. In the one, though, that many people have commented on, you tasted a range of commercial kombuchas and speculated on the production methods they used, and looked at what you call kombucha and no-bucha, and even into things like packets of powdered kombucha…

JW: …and concentrate. So, I think Caroline and I, we’re very different people, but we have a common desire for some level of scientific rigor and transparency in the fermented foods field, because what we can see is what’s been a millennia of human usage and harnessing of microbes has, in a good way, become more common and more well known, and with a greater understanding of the gut microbiome, to the potential benefits of the interactions with microbial metabolites and constituents and the microbes themselves, has led to increasing levels of commercial interest.

But in that process, most of these, whether it’s your milk kefir grains or the kimchi or the kombucha, historically, these were made in communities or in families. There was no transport chain to speak of, there was no refrigeration, there was no issue, but with our modern transport system, the cost of refrigeration to keep live fermented products manageable and not exploding comes cost and issues for large-scale commercial producers.

We felt that in lots of areas, particularly with kombucha, there are things happening that with some level of greenwashing on websites means that people may be thinking they’re buying traditional sort of homemade process kombucha, and that’s not what they’re getting.

We’re not here to get aerated or criticize or, you know, denigrate people for the commercial choices they have made, but we are here to be a voice for transparency and pointing out where things are being said or maybe things are being glossed over in terms of filtering out yeast or pasteurizing or the debate between aluminum cans and glass bottles. So that the people that care, because not everybody does care, might be able to use the information we provide to discern so that they can choose the fermented drinks made the way that they want them based on what’s important for them.

At the moment, there is a parlous lack of clarity for consumers.

Testing commercial kombuchaSo that’s what led us to meet up and go, Caroline was like, well, damn it, we make kombucha. The basic tenor is by seeding, by back-slopping from your existing kombucha into your tea to make new kombucha. She’s full of bright ideas and said, why don’t we just do it? Why don’t we just buy a load and see what happens? The results were completely fascinating by our perspective.

CG: The results were so fascinating. We just started today doing it again with another 16 different kombucha because people were interested and asked us, oh, but what about this brand or what about that brand and what about the other brand? And very importantly, what we want people to take away from this next round of doing it is it’s very simple to try this experiment yourself. Whatever kombucha you’re interested in, if you want to see if it will make decent kombucha, take it, add some tea, and see what happens in three or four weeks time.

JW: Yeah, and it’s super interesting from the, you know, we’ve got a list of 16 makes, some bottled, some canned. We’ve actually got Caroline’s homemade one included this time alongside mine, which we didn’t have last time. But it’s been really interesting talking to some of the people in advance. So we ordered all of the kombuchas anonymously, so there was no risk of any sort of cheating or using up there and bought and paid for them all. So there’s no bias. There’s no backhanders happening at all. But it was interesting in talking to some of them.

There was one we were trying to find out who made the M&S one, for example, and M&S is in it. We’ve done it all blinded. We’ve labeled the kilners this time and had a third party put the kombucha in. We don’t know which kombucha is in which kilner jar this time, which I think is really important.

This is just for an example, who makes the M&S one, which actually looks super interesting to me because what it looks like, they’ve got a complex method that they’re developing of taking out the yeast. Of course, the yeast can consume the sugar to produce alcohol, which can be a problem. People don’t want high levels of alcohol in their kombucha. But of course, one of the founders rightly pointed out that we probably won’t be able to grow or make kombucha from that, because if there’s no yeast to ferment the sugars in that process, then that process is fundamentally changed.

CertificationBN: But this all does get back to what you and Caroline, Jo and Caroline, as I do, being homebrew kombucha makers, see when we go to the shops, to the stores, and look for commercial kombucha. As you said, Jo, you can actually put drain water in a bottle and sell it as kombucha because there are no standards. And so, people buy what is named kombucha, and in the shops, it might not bear any resemblance…

CG: …to what we know is kombucha, but again, I don’t know how you deal with that. I know that kimchi is a protected term. What’s that word called when the term of kimchi is protected? You know, there’s like a special process that you go through and you get some kind of certification. So, it’s got a very long name. I can’t remember. [Administered by the National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service] There’s a special process that you can go through that the Korean government can obviously afford to do. But kombucha doesn’t have enough ownership by anybody. So, getting a definition of kombucha is very, very important.

JW: Also, that can be problematic because I know that a whole group of people went through it with sourdough as well. I think there really are pros and cons to that because, you know, like anything, when you start to put rules by something, then you get enforcement. Then unless everyone agrees what the rules are of what the definition is, then you can get small producers being excluded by onerous processes because some third party has decided. So, I think it’s really tricky.

We’re not saying that we know what kombucha is. I think what we know is what there’s been a really long history of consumption of. That is: green or black tea with sugar, with a backslop, that’s acetobacter, gluconacetobacter, and komagataeibactor, and some yeast in there doing their thing to create a slightly acidic drink that we know has those live microbes in there and a range of gluconic acid, glucuronic acid the other sorts of organic acids.

CG: What is very interesting to me is this trend to pasteurize this and to filter and to remove all live microbes and to put in something that is designated a probiotic

JW: So, we can go back and we can see what’s been historically made for a long time and the method that it was made by. But then there’s still not all that much research really on that traditional method, let alone on the method that all people have been making. We know nothing about what happens if we filter out the yeast or if we add this in or that in.

CG: And if you pasteurize it, whether you’re going to actually denature a lot of the compounds that are really good for you anyway. We don’t know enough about this stuff. I find it interesting that all of these bottles and cans in front of us now. There’s another issue as well, whether it’s being cans or bottles, have, you know, they’re gut-loving drinks.

Well, is it a gut-loving drink? There’s so many terms being used on so many of the websites in the cans that probably do breach trading standards. There’s a lot of that. I think we can all claim transparency. So if you do care about kombucha, you’d have more of an idea that it was a properly originally made kombucha…

JW: …and if you care about that, if you care about that or if you don’t. This is a really interesting thing that someone said to me, I listen to your podcast, what should kombucha taste like? And do you know what? Not many things shut me up. But that did shut me up. Holy mackerel, if you’re not making it at home, if you’ve never tried home kombucha, most people drinking this don’t know what it’s what home normal traditional kombucha smells like or tastes like to even be able to compare these commercially produced ones.

CG: Some of the commercially produced ones just taste like pop. If you had ginger beer that my dad would give to my children. Or if you have for, you know, one of these fiery ginger kombuchas, you would not really be able to tell the difference. There’s no real defining feature — that tang or that kind of even slightly cidery taste that you get from the kombucha.

JW: But then how do people even discern if they don’t even know? But then, you know, the fact is we’re not here to beat people up about it. I think a lot of people don’t care about the difference between traditional and these modern kombuchas. But I think a lot of people may be buying these things thinking that they’re good for them.

That’s where we feel like there should be a bit more transparency ideally with commercial producers about what they’re saying on the website, what they’re saying on the can and transparency about the process. Not that there’s a right or wrong process, but inevitably, the more process there is.

CG: People are always going to muck about with stuff. It’s in human nature. I think the issue is that any research that has been done on kombucha–and let’s just say there is precious little that–that has been done with proper, traditionally brewed, kombucha. That has not been done with kombucha soda with CBD in it that’s filtered with a backslop of bacillus coagulans added. So I would love somebody to do some proper research on this. I really would. They don’t need to. There’s no research that needs to go on in this area because it is an enormous market.

JW: What I did find is that I started drinking one brand. The other thing these things are great for is more choice for drinking less alcohol. So on a Friday night, I would be partial to a sedating gin and tonic, to be fair. Now, I’ve been having my water kefir that I make or my kombucha. But my husband had been buying a few makes from the supermarket. And I found myself, I really like this make, but I found myself slightly hankering after it. Then when I looked, I was like, I’m not used to drinking sugar, sweet and fizzy drinks to that extent. I think there was just something in the make of that drink that was slightly habit forming for me. That is a bit caution-making from my perspective.

Scientific researchBN: Well, I’ve got a question for you both. You’ve got science backgrounds. And I’m wondering, what’s the chance for valid scientific organizations to duplicate, replicate the research you’ve done in your kitchen and publish studies on, you know, the effectiveness of different kinds of kombucha on consumers?

JC: I mean, in humans, you’re talking a huge amount of money and an inordinately complex playing field because of the amount of variables. Like, it’s quite hard to bring humans in. You know, humans lie when they are studied. Keep other variables normal in order to be able to then just add in the kombucha.

CG: You’re only having, say, 250 mils, aren’t you?

JW: There are studies in the pipeline I know of through various decent scientific establishments. But generally, they’re looking at they’re looking at fermented foods and drinks collectively, as in an intake in humans of a combination of those items. There’s so many layers that need to be done on kombucha. One defining in detail actually what’s going on in kombucha that’s traditionally made and then in the kombuchas that are made these other ways. Then there’s a whole other level of adding it into humans.

Also, the research into testing feces, that’s inordinately unreliable.

CG: But also, the fact is that no two kombucha SCOBYs are the same. You might have a kombucha SCOBY that’s got saccharomyces boulardii in, which is a known probiotic. It might be absent. You might have a kombucha SCOBY that’s got lactobacillus.

JW: But you could control and then post-test for that. But the answer to the question is there has to be somebody who cares enough about the outcome to put the finances and the people in what is hundreds of thousands of pounds of money and also work in order to clarify this. Manifestly, part of the question is how much do people actually care? How much do people care?

CG: People don’t need to do that now, because we’ve got 15 different varieties of kombucha in front of us today. And it shows there is a really happy, healthy kombucha market. Yeah. In the States, I believe is absolutely enormous. So we’re already possible where people need to prove anything.

JW: Also, it becomes completely ironic to me because we’re all banging on about ultra-processed foods. We’re fretting about how much aluminum might be in our cans of kombucha. But actually, if we’re actually really worried about health, I read a really interesting thing that was like, if a fundamental pillar of your life is corroding in terms of stress, connection to other humans, sleep, and basic fundamental nutrition, the things you’re eating three, four, five times a day, you ain’t going to fix that with a can or a thing of kombucha.

So in some ways, yes, whilst in theory, we’d love this research to be done, actually, what would happen? Would it change behavior? Would something come out of those findings? That would improve people’s health or change their behavior.

Standards bodiesBN: So as a follow-on question to that, absent the expensive scientific research, is there any chance organizations like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval or Which? magazine would be able to publish publish reviews and become a standard for the industry, in the beverage industry, that could assist consumers in kombucha to know what’s out there?

JW: It’s a super interesting question. And interestingly, very recently in the UK, the Fermenters Guild has been set up, I think it’s two years old now, which has been a fantastic bringing together of Fermenters. As you can imagine, both Caroline and my motivation for the Guild on some level of, not by a stick, but by carrot, holding out of standards and knowledge sharing around what, you know, authentic, what we’d understand to be the process of a range of ferments, maybe not just kombucha.

But the truth is, even within a collection of fermenters, there’s different motivations and desires and there’s different priorities. To some extent, that isn’t the sole direction the Guild has gone in, it would be fair to say. It is difficult to have those standards, to have a Which? magazine for ferments. One would need to know to have agreed amongst professionals or experienced people in that field what those standards are to then have objective criteria to be comparing things against.

CG: And professionals in the field absolutely cannot…

JW: Well, I mean, I tried to get a think tank together last year, unfortunately, because someone in my family became very ill. A think tank together to bring knowledge sharers, scientists and commercial producers together. I haven’t restarted [that project]. In theory, it would…

CG: It won’t work, because actually the range of methods of production are so vast. There are so many things that you can do. There are so many ways that you can tamper with it and so many ways that you can justify it. And again, if you are looking at running a business to make kombucha available to people, we understand it is really, really difficult. I’d just like to see a lot more transparency so that people really understood. I think it’s very difficult to find out the processes behind what’s in these cans and it would be much better if people..

Health claimsJW: But if there’s no, you know, I don’t know what it’s like in the US but in terms of, you know, health claims, inappropriate health claims. In the end, Caroline this afternoon was just like, ‘I’m sick of this!’ Because we’re just going through website after website with just unsubstantiated claims being made all over the place in terms of gut health, et cetera. But if there isn’t the money in, you know, health claims standards or whatever to be able to go through websites to police this.

Ultimately, it was a funny thing when I was trying to set up this, I think, that last year. I said to one of the commercial producers, you know, we want people to know what the traditional method is. This commercial producer said, yeah, but people don’t care. I think that person might be right. That there’s only a small percentage of people possibly that care. Probably those are the people making it traditionally because it’s such piggin’ hard work to do that. Even today with these 16 brands, the person setting up the experiment for us, we could hear exclamations from the other room where a bottle has been opened and then it’s exploded everywhere. That’s probably from the traditionally produced ones.

CG: If you’re going to sell traditional kombucha, you have to sell it to a responsible audience because if you sell that bottle of kombucha to somebody who isn’t listening or paying attention, and understand when they take it home that they’ve got to keep it in the fridge and they just put it on the side in the kitchen and you get an explosion on your hands, you are out of business.

So we totally understand the complexity of this. I’m always going to be somebody that encourages people to make their own kombucha.

JW: It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? It’s easy and it’s deep and it’s fun and it connects people.

CG: I do believe that there’s some kind of terroir thing going on with your own kombucha whereby when your kombucha has been in your house for a little while, you will prefer it to any other kombucha out there because the microbes in your home and in your environment will be inveigled into your kombucha and I can tell my kombucha out of the ones that we are going to test.

JW: Yeah, we’ll have to see because Caroline thought she could. Well, first of all, she came in and said she’d done a urine sample for us! I’m hoping that it wasn’t actually her urine that we’re now making.

Market potentialBN: Well, obviously, there’s a lot of developments here. You asked me about the US and I’ve put pictures on Booch News showing the vast array of kombucha available in most of the markets here, but even here and especially in the UK, we’re at a very early stage in the development of the market. When I was back in Britain last month, I saw how infinitesimally available it was and, you know, maybe it’s like the market for yogurt 30 years ago when there was hardly any available and now it fills the shelves. So, do either of you see the potential for growth in the market coming anytime soon? And will there be an increase in the number of us home brewing?

JW: I don’t know. One would hope so. To me, there’s so much structurally wrong with our society that most people haven’t got the time to do basic cooking and, you know, they’re building flats and houses without kitchens now. So, in an ideal world, obviously, that’s what we would love to see happening.

CG: I shall carry on trying to do my absolute utmost to persuade people that there is a great deal of value in doing very simple things to empower yourself to look after yourself and your family.

JW: But to me, that isn’t just about consuming the kombucha either. For me, having some fermented foods and drinks in our lives is about nature connection and a constant reminder of our place in this enormous and complex fabric of life.

CG: I’m far too practical for that.

JW: Can you not ever think about the magic of what is happening in that?

CG: Well, I do think about my addiction to my own personal kombucha because it’s my own personal microbes and, you know, I do feel very connected to that and my milk kerfir.

JW: I think all I’m saying is that I’d really hope that that happens, Ian, but I think there definitely also needs to be room for commercial brands where people don’t have time and never will get round to that.

Consumer choiceBN: Yeah, so it’s just like with yogurt, right? You can go to the supermarket and get a container filled with pink goop and sugar and it’s sold as raspberry yogurt, but there’s also the choice for natural yogurts that are clearly marked. What does that tell us, if anything, about consumers’ choices and the availability of the natural versus the artificial?

JW: So unless we start to be more discerning and look out for this information, if we believe the green wash and the stuff on half the things that we’re buying, then we’re going to end up probably eating things that we don’t actually intend to eat. The truth is, in 20, 30, 40 years’ time, it’s only us that are going to be living with the consequences of those choices, not the people making these products.

CG: I would think that, I mean, from my perspective, it would be absolutely lovely if at some point in the future, in the world, people could drink a can of kombucha. It would be a fantastic way of being able to improve the health of the nation if we sold kombucha that was known to have a glucuronic acid and acetic acid content that was of benefit to you and a range of microbes naturally occurring, working together, that would be good for you.

So it would be an absolutely brilliant way of improving the health of the nation if indeed that worked. But that is never going to be a priority. Improving health of the nation is literally on the bottom.

JW: Well, it’s definitely below making money, isn’t it?

CG: It’s definitely below making money. No, it’s literally at the bottom because making money is so easy.

Non-alcohol alternativeJW: Also, to be fair, even if we never have all of that information and we chose to drink some of these kombuchas instead of, you know, we swapped out half of our alcohol consumption a week with this, we’re probably going to be better off. Even without having shown them this amazing benefit. And that’s a whole other conversation is, you know, are there many actually probiotic species in kombucha?

I think our idea of probiotics is going to change because historically, the research in that has certainly been in milk-based and dairy-based microbes, and that’s going to open out significantly in years to come, too.

CG: I have to say, I am a non-drinker, and I haven’t drunk since over 20 years now. I’ve never liked it. So my perspective is, I totally get this idea that drinking any kombucha is probably going to be better to lower your alcohol consumption, which is why we are just about transparency for people who really care about it, not being obsessive about people not wanting to use it to make kombucha. Because if you’re out and about on the run, it’s better that you grab yourself a kombucha than a tequila mixer.

JW: The thing is, we don’t want to become so puritanical that people are confused and then don’t buy kombucha at all and go to the gin instead.

CG: It’s just all about understanding what it’s about. And obviously, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that people do understand that kombucha exists on different levels. Have a go at making it yourself. Have a go at trying a real thing.

JW: So just remembering that any of us are free to take the kombucha [you buy in the store] and make a cup of tea. We do one liter with two tea bags, 50 grams of sugar, and make your tea, put the kombucha into it and see what happens.

CG: But also, we’ve got a couple of UK brands that are making what I would call real kombucha using a traditional method. They’re partnering with really quite large scale restaurants. So you can get Momo in Gailes Bakery and you can get the L.A. Brewery one in Nando’s, for heaven’s sake.

There are instances out there where companies are trying their absolute best to keep to the traditional methods. So it’s a slight feeling of mine that if some people can do it, everybody could do it if they wanted to.

JW: I guess what you’re saying is if your principles and your priorities are for the kombucha to be as close to the traditionally made as possible, there are ways and means of doing so.

Cans vs. BottlesJW: I was very interested in the can/bottle dilemma. I know the gentleman at Go Kombucha has written quite a lot about this. I had a look at quite a few of the papers. I think what’s really interesting to me is one, if we just focus on one risk factor for humans, we might be lose sight of, you know, we can worry about the level of aluminum in the can. But if we’re destroying the environment by mining silica and transporting very heavy glass backwards and forwards, and that’s contributing to climate change, then, you know, to me, we need to look at all these factors in the round rather than focusing in, in nuanced detail in one area.

Also, in terms of aluminum, there’s aluminum in a lot of foods, there’s aluminum in antacids, actually. So if anyone’s on Gaviscon, they’ll be taking about 95 milligrams of aluminum hydroxide in in their five mill of Gaviscon. And there’s aluminum in breast milk and infant formula as well. And the levels of tolerable daily intake is about one milligram per kilogram of body weight, but our bodies are actually really good at clearing it. So we more than 95% is cleared by our body successfully.

BN: If I can just say Gary at Go–Gary Leigh—also has the concern that the cans are actually lined in plastic and that is also leaching into the kombucha. Whereas that sold, as he does, in glass bottles is in an inert package so that even though the linings in the cans are now meant to be BPA free, his issue is also that the plastics are leaching into the acidic liquid.

JW: I think he and I are agreed from what I’ve read of what he says. I would be really keen and it comes back to the same thing to actually be have cans of kombucha tested for how the linings perform and what happens there because that hasn’t been done yet. The one that we looked at was an interesting study in terms of looking at Green Cola and acetic acid solution and then another there was another liquid in there as well, Red Bull.

But I think the truth is, there’s microplastics everywhere, you know, when they look in organs of postmortems to find microplastics in almost every organ in our body. So, I think for me, it’s about, yes, this is a risk factor, but so is transporting large amounts heavy glass all over the place in environmental impact. I’d love for someone again, who’s going to do it to actually do this research in kombucha, which as we know, as Gary points out is important.

In front of us, we’ve these 16 [brands we are testing] in both cans and bottles. Clearly there are also companies that are doing both cans and bottles. So they’re doing ambient in cans and then they continue to do traditional in bottles.

So ideally, we want to take a curious perspective on it and actually interrogate this. Ideally, someone would actually do some research into it. But remembering that there’s other factors at play. So just panicking about plastic linings. If you’re drinking liters of the stuff, then maybe this is going to be an issue. Actually, in the scale of issues we face, nutritionally and environmentally.

CG: It’s just another food that you know, you really would do very, very hard to avoid it. And again, you’ve still got this idea of people thinking that glass is necessarily better. But as we know, the weight of the glass bottle, the production, the heat required to make a glass bottle, the mining of the sand. The recyclability. It goes into making a glass bottle. Again, I think the jury’s still out

JW: There are some companies that are great at trying to do offers on their websites to get the bottles returned so that they can be reused.

Kombucha on tapBN: And actually, it points to the most environmentally friendly way of consuming kombucha apart from home brewing is when you can get kombucha on tap. And it might help if more British pubs started offering it on tap to people who want a non-alcoholic alternative, since I understand hundreds of pubs in the UK are closing every month.

CG: Our local round the corner to us, they’re all closing.

JW: And also, I’ll go into ones, and I know I’m in my little echo chamber, but, and ask, say, do you have kombucha? And honestly, I haven’t been into a pub that’s actually stocked kombucha or water kefir.

CG: A large supermarket in Minehead in the UK, which is a small town in the north of Somerset, there is not one single brand of kombucha in the shop in any way, shape or form.

JW: It’s not something that they have or know about. And that’s a sad thing as well, but it’s sort of niche middle class.

BN: Yeah, that’s very true. Although I think in certain areas in the US, like where I live in Vallejo, which is an old shipbuilding town, there’s a lot of kombucha in the local supermarket that gets drunk by people who are not middle class, but, you know, lower middle class, working class, and definitely not the young yoginis that you see often on the Instagram for the kombucha companies. Anyway, thanks so much for spending time talking with us and sharing all this information on Booch News. I must say before we sign off, that if people want to contact you, Caroline, you’re on Instagram at every.good.thing. And Jo, I think you’re on Instagram as jo.webster.health. And from there, people can click through to your sub-stack and various other places where they can find your material. It’s been great talking with you and look forward to this test you’re doing with another 16 brands.

JW: Thanks for speaking with us.

CG: Yes, it’s been great, thank you.

AudioA 38-minute recording.

The post Interview: Caroline Gilmartin & Jo Webster, Fermentation Experts appeared first on 'Booch News.

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The 2024 KBI European Salon was held Oct 24-25 in the meeting space at the Terra Veritas organic supermarket in Barcelona, promising a “dynamic discussions surrounding the changes in the kombucha market…a landscape that is evolving rapidly, presenting both exciting opportunities and formidable challenges.” Terra Veritas posted a video of the event on their Instagram. As you can see, there were around 45 in attendance. Around half came from Europe, others from as far away as Taiwan, the UAE, and Australia.

In her welcome note printed in the conference Agenda, KBI Director Kendra Sepulveda noted:

The World Kombucha Awards were presented the day after the main conference, as reported on Booch News.

Agenda* Scale Your Business the Natural Way – Dante Fratebianchi, CNTA * Science of Kombucha – Martin Turjak, Ayatana Fermentory * Scaling up a Brand – Walker Brengel, Bouche Kombucha * Kombucha Workshop – Kendra Sepulveda and Jordi Dalmau, Mūn Kombucha * Scaling up a Business – Griffin Halpern, Mucha Kombucha (who also spoke at the Kombucha Summit in 2022 and is profiled in Booch News) * Science and Sensory – Gayatri Mehta, VLB Berlin * Why Choose Cans? – Fernando Gomez, Wild Goose Fillings * Food Safety in Kombucha Production – Dr. José Juan Rodríguez, Department of Animal and Food Science, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona * Brewery Tour – Black Lab Brewery, Barcelona * Brewery Tour – Mūn Kombucha

PodcastIn this exclusive interview, Kendra reflects on the conference highlights and shares the news that the next event will be a second KKON in Reno, Nevada, provisionally scheduled for September 2025.

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This podcast is the result of an experiment with Google’s new generative A.I. tool NotebookLM — created “to help you make sense of complex information. When you upload your sources, it instantly becomes an expert, grounding its responses in your material with citations and relevant quotes.”

Above and beyond an impressive capacity to extract relevant bullet points from complex documents, a powerful–some might say “spooky”–feature of the software is the ability to generate audio in the form of a podcast-style discussion based on the document.

With one click, two AI bots start a lively “deep dive” discussion based on the source document. They summarize material, make connections between topics, and banter back and forth.

The program contains the disclaimer that “It’s important to remember that these generated discussions are not a comprehensive or objective view of a topic, but simply a reflection of the sources that you’ve uploaded.” Google also reassure us that “since it’s your notebook, your personal data is never used to train NotebookLM.” (Given that Google can reach in and read each and every email you send and receive this might or might not reassure people.)

I tested NoetbookLM by uploading an 18-page PDF report Live, Probiotic, or Neither? Microbial Composition of Retail-Available Kombucha and “Hard” Kombucha in the Pacific Northwest of the United States authored by Keisha Harrison of Oregon State University and others. This is heavy-duty biochemistry, as shown by this brief snippet:

The audio (see Podcast below) was created with ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER PROMPT from me. I simply loaded the PDF, clicked on ‘create audio’, and was done. The results, delivered in the upbeat tone of morning news hosts, are astounding.

TranscriptThis transcript (I’ve named the automatons ‘Bob’ and ‘Sally’ for no particular reason) reveals at least one failure – 8:20 in – where the AI seems to ‘hallucinate’ and refer back to ‘something we talked about’ which they have not mentioned, and, more seriously, discusses added bacillus coagulans lowering levels of gluconobacter. When checked in the NotebookLM chat window this claim was proven false. As with all generative AI, results should always be checked. A couple of other proof points where the audio was accurate are included.

I recommend you listen to the audio podcast (at the end of this posting) first and then come back and read the transcript after you have heard Bob & Sally.

Bob: Okay, so kombucha, right? Everybody’s talking about it, but honestly, it can be kind of confusing. It’s all the labels and jargon, like what’s the deal with live, probiotic, and now even hard kombucha? Today, we’re going deep–diving into a study from Oregon State University where they took 39 different kombucha brands.

Sally: Wow, 39.

Bob: And actually analyzed what’s in the bottle versus what the label says.

Sally: Fascinating.

Bob: And let me tell you, some of the findings were pretty wild.

Sally: Well, what’s really interesting here is they went beyond just the marketing claims and used lab techniques to get a real look at the chemical and microbial makeup of these drinks, which I got to say gives us a much clearer picture of what we’re actually drinking.

Bob: Okay, so first up, a finding that might make you do a double take next time you’re at the store and in the kombucha aisle. You ready for this?

Sally: Yeah, hit me with it.

Bob: Over a third, over a third, of the kombucha that is labeled soft, meaning non-alcoholic, actually had alcohol levels above the legal limit.

Sally: Really?

Bob: Crazy.

Sally: That is wild.

Bob: And it’s probably not because brewers are trying to sneak in some extra booze. It seems like it’s mostly due to fermentation.

Sally: Oh, right.

Bob: It keeps happening. It just doesn’t stop inside the bottle, maybe because of temperature changes during shipping or something.

Sally: Yeah, temperature control can be a real issue.

Bob: So you think you’re getting this healthy non-alcoholic drink and bam, that’s a bit boozier than you expected. Not ideal.

Sally: No, not at all. And especially for people who are avoiding alcohol for personal or health reasons, I mean, that’s a big deal. You really have to read those labels super carefully.

Bob: Okay, well, speaking of alcohol, the study also looked at hard kombucha, which, you know, that’s a whole other thing.

Sally: Yeah.

Bob: It’s like kombucha is trying to be a cocktail or something.

Sally: Right, like it’s trying to appeal to a different crowd.

Bob: But besides the whole getting you tipsy part, what makes hard kombucha different from regular kombucha?

Sally: Well, that’s where the study gets really interesting. So they found that hard kombucha isn’t just soft kombucha that accidentally fermented too long. It looks like it’s actually intentionally fermented in a different way to get that higher alcohol content.

Bob: Okay, so how can they tell what’s the evidence for that?

Sally: One of the key indicators is glycerol. Hard kombucha has way higher levels of glycerol than regular kombucha.

>> This is verified by asking the NotebookLM chat window “Does the paper claim that hard kombucha has way higher levels of glycerol than regular kombucha?”

Bob: Hold on, hold on, glycerol. Remind me what that is again.

Sally: So glycerol is a natural byproduct of yeast fermentation. Basically, more glycerol means more fermentation, more of that intentional booziness.

Bob: So it’s like a fingerprint.

Sally: Yeah, exactly.

Bob: It shows that the brewers are aiming for that higher alcohol content right from the start.

Sally: Absolutely. And it’s not just about the alcohol either. They also discovered that erythritol was only present in the hard kombuchas.

Bob: Erythritol, that’s, that’s a sugar substitute, right?

Sally: Right. It’s calorie-free. And it’s gotten pretty popular lately.

Bob: So are they adding it to hard kombucha to make it like, healthier?

Sally: That’s what it seems like, like they’re trying to appeal to those health-conscious consumers who also enjoy a drink or two.

> “Does the paper claim that erythritol is only present in hard kombuchas and if so, why is it added?”

Bob: It’s a whole marketing strategy. Fascinating. But okay, let’s get back to the basics of kombucha. The reason people started drinking it in the first place, those live and active cultures. The question is, are these drinks really as alive as they claim to be?

Sally: That’s a great question. And to answer that, they actually use techniques to count the live microbes in each kombucha.

Bob: Okay, so what’d they find? Was it like the microbial party in every bottle?

Sally: Well, they did find live microbes in most of the kombuchas, which you’d hope for. But the numbers were all over the place. And here’s the kicker. Just because a bottle screamed live and active on the label didn’t mean it had more microbes than one that didn’t.

Bob: Wait, so a brand that’s like super-duper live cultures. Could have less than one that doesn’t even mention it.

Sally: Yep, pretty surprising, right?

Bob: That’s kind of misleading, don’t you think?

Sally: It really makes you wonder about the labeling for sure. And on top of that, while most of the kombuchas did have some live microbes, the overall numbers were still way lower than what you’d find in, say, yogurt, which is something we know is good for gut health.

Bob: Okay, so this is important. Just because a drink has some live microbes, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be this probiotic powerhouse.

Sally: Exactly.

Bob: There’s more to it than that.

Sally: 100 percent.

Bob: Right. It seems like it all comes down to the specific types of bacteria.

Sally: Right. For something to be considered a true probiotic.

Bob: Yeah.

Sally: It needs to have specific strains of bacteria that have actually been studied and proven to have health benefits. And not only that, you need enough of those bacteria to actually make a difference.

Bob: So it’s not just about being live, it’s about the right kind of live. Exactly. The right amount.

Sally: And speaking of the right kind, they looked at the types of microbes in these kombuchas. Things got pretty interesting when they zeroed in on the products that specifically claimed to have probiotics added to them.

Bob: Okay. Like what kind of probiotics are we talking about here?

Sally: Well, one of the most common ones they were looking for was bacillus coagulans. It seems like every other kombucha brand out there is touting this bacillus coagulans.

Bob: Yeah, I’ve definitely seen that on labels. So were they actually putting it in there?

Sally: Some brands, yes. They actually did have bacillus coagulans in the amounts they claimed, but then there were others.

Bob: Others? What do you mean?

Sally: Well, for example, a lot of kombuchas claim to have added probiotic strains of lactobacillus.

Bob: Okay.

Sally: But when they tested them, they found little to no evidence of those strains actually being there.

Bob: Wow. So some of these kombucha companies might be stretching the truth a little bit about their probiotic claims. That’s not exactly reassuring.

Sally: It definitely raises some questions about transparency, that’s for sure. But don’t swear off kombucha just yet. It can still be a delicious and refreshing drink.

Bob: Of course, we’re not saying ditch the kombucha altogether. It’s more about like empowering ourselves to be informed consumers.

Sally: Exactly. Don’t just take those labels at face value.

Bob: So before we move on, I have to ask, what about the kombucha that’s traditionally brewed, you know, the kind without any added probiotics and stuff?

Sally: Oh, that’s a great question and actually a perfect transition to what we’re talking about next. So you were asking about traditionally brewed kombucha and how those added probiotics might be affecting that whole ecosystem of microbes that’s already in there.

Bob: Right, because we know traditionally brewed kombucha has its own unique blend of microbes, even without any probiotics added.

Sally: Right. It’s like a whole little world in there.

Bob: Exactly.

Sally: And this study actually gives us some clues about what might be happening when we introduce those extra probiotics.

Bob: OK, so did they find that adding those specific probiotics actually messed with the natural balance in traditionally brewed kombucha?

Sally: Well, let’s think back to gluconobacter for a minute. Remember we talked about that?

>>In fact they have not talked about it.

Bob: Gluconobacter, right. One of the main players in traditional kombucha helps give it that tangy flavor.

Sally: So they looked at the levels of gluconobacter in the kombucha samples and they noticed something interesting. In some of the samples that had bacillus coagulans added, which is a probiotic, right? Bacillus coagulans are a very popular probiotic. In those samples, the levels of gluconobacter were actually lower.

Bob: So it’s like adding the bacillus coagulans kind of pushed out the gluconobacter a bit.

>>There is no evidence for this in the paper. The claim was checked by asking the NotebookLM chat window — not the audio generation tool – “does the paper claim that samples that had bacillus coagulans added report lower levels of gluconobacter?” The answer was:

Sally: It seems that way, yeah. And it makes you wonder, you know, when we add these specific probiotics to something like traditionally brewed kombucha, are we disrupting that balance that naturally occurs?

Bob: It’s like maybe those micros in traditional kombucha, they kind of like having their own party.

Sally: Right, exactly.

Bob: And then we come in and try to add guests who might not exactly vibe with the original crowd.

Sally: 100 percent. It’s like, hey, we’re just going to add this bacillus coagulans to the mix, hope that’s cool, but maybe it throws things off a bit.

Bob: Who invited this guy?

Sally: Right. And that can change the whole dynamic.

Bob: Totally. But, OK, this study wasn’t just about like the microbes themselves, was it? What about all those other compounds that get produced during fermentation? What did they find out about that?

Sally: Oh, good point. It’s not just about who’s there. It’s about what they’re doing.

Bob: Exactly.

Sally: So one of the compounds they measured was glucuronic acid. You might have heard of it. It’s often talked about in relation to liver health.

Bob: Right. Glucuronic acid is supposed to be really good for you.

Sally: Right, exactly. But here’s the thing, even though you hear about it a lot, this study and some other recent research actually haven’t found any detectable levels of glucuronic acid in the kombucha samples they tested.

Bob: Wait, so all this talk about glucuronic acid and kombucha and it might not even be there.

Sally: It’s a good reminder that we can’t always believe everything we hear.

Bob: For sure.

Sally: And that sometimes the science just doesn’t back up the hype.

Bob: Totally. So for those of us who are still totally into kombucha,

Sally: As you should be.

Bob: Any tips on what we should be looking for besides, you know, not getting fooled by those probiotic claims?

Sally: I always tell people, read the ingredient list.

Bob: Simple as that.

Sally: Just like you would with any other food or drink. Less is more, in my opinion.

Bob: Right.

Sally: Look for kombuchas that are mainly just tea, sugar, maybe some natural flavors.

Bob: OK, so keeping it simple.

Sally: Exactly.

Bob: And obviously we have to talk about the elephant in the room, that whole unexpected alcohol content thing we talked about earlier.

Sally: Right. Always a good idea to double-check that, especially if you’re avoiding alcohol for any reason.

Bob: Absolutely. Well, before we move on to the big question of kombucha’s overall health effects, I have one more question about this study.

Sally: OK, shoot.

Bob: They were looking at kombucha that was sold specifically in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. So does that mean these findings might not apply to like all kombucha everywhere?

Sally: That’s a really important point. We can’t assume that all kombucha is created equal. Right. The way kombucha is made, the microbes that end up in it, all of that can be different depending on where it’s produced.

Bob: So like a kombucha from, say, California might have a totally different microbial profile than one from Maine.

Sally: Exactly. It’s all about those local microbes and brewing traditions.

Bob: So this study gives us an amazing snapshot of what’s going on in the kombucha world. But it’s just one piece of the puzzle.

Sally: Absolutely.

Bob: And now it’s time to tackle the big question. Does kombucha actually live up to all those health claims?

Sally: We’ve been hinting at it all episode, but get ready, because next we’re diving deep into what the science really says about kombucha and our health.

>> At this point, the dialog allows room to insert a sponsor message if required.

Bob: And we’re back, ready to unravel the truth about kombucha’s health benefits. We’ve heard the hype. Now let’s look at the science.

Sally: We’ve already established that just because kombucha contains live microbes, it’s not a guaranteed ticket to perfect health.

Bob: Right. You’re not going to suddenly morph into a health guru after a bottle of kombucha. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be part of a healthy lifestyle. So let’s cut to the chase. What does the research actually say about kombucha’s impact on our health, especially when it comes to that buzzword we hear everywhere? Gut health.

Sally: It’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Can kombucha really transform our gut health? The truth is, the research is still in its early stages.

Bob: So it’s a bit of a waiting game for us impatient kombucha lovers.

Sally: In a way, yes, there have been some promising findings, particularly from animal studies.

Bob: OK, I have to ask. We talkin’ in lab mice sipping on tiny bottles of kombucha again.

>Only one paper in the Reference Section – [7] – refers to studies on mice. Nowhere in the main body are they mentioned. The audio tool seemed to have chosen this because it is an amusing aspect for the bots to discuss.

Sally: You know it. These studies have shown that kombucha can lead to changes in the gut microbiome of mice, which is pretty cool. But, and this is a big but, what happens in mice doesn’t always translate perfectly to humans.

Bob: Of course, because mice probably aren’t choosing kombucha for its complex flavor profile. So we need more research, particularly research involving actual humans, to really say for sure. What about other potential benefits? I’ve heard whispers about kombucha’s antioxidant power. Is there any truth to those claims?

Sally: Now, here’s where things get really interesting. Remember how we talked about tea being a primary ingredient in kombucha?

Bob: Yeah, and tea, especially green tea, is practically synonymous with antioxidants.

Sally: Exactly. Tea contains naturally occurring compounds called polyphenols, which are known for their antioxidant properties.

Bob: Antioxidants, those are the good guys that help protect our bodies from damage, right?

Sally: Yes, exactly. And because kombucha is brewed with tea, it inherits those beneficial polyphenols. In fact, studies have shown that kombucha can actually have a higher antioxidant capacity than plain, unfermented tea.

Bob: So even if we’re not sure about the whole gut health thing yet, those tea polyphenols are still bringing some antioxidant power to the table.

Sally: It seems that way. However, more research is needed to determine whether those impressive antioxidant levels in kombucha actually translate into tangible health benefits for humans. It’s one thing to see it in a lab and another to see it play out in real life.

Bob: So, it might not be a magic bullet, but it could be a tasty way to up your antioxidant intake, all thanks to its tea-based origins. And hey, even if those gut health benefits haven’t been completely proven yet, there’s no harm in enjoying a refreshing beverage that just might be giving our gut microbiome a little TLC.

Sally: I wholeheartedly agree. Who knows, maybe one day we’ll have definitive proof that those live and active cultures are working their magic within us. Until then, we can savor those complex flavors and appreciate the fact that some of life’s most enjoyable things are the ones we’re still unraveling.

Bob: Beautifully said, it seems like every time we dive deep into the world of food and science, we surface with even more questions.

Sally: That’s the thing about scientific exploration. It’s a continuous journey of discovery.

Bob: And we’re thrilled you’re on this journey with us. Thanks for joining us on this deep dive into the ever fascinating, wonderfully complex and often surprising world of kombucha. Until next time, happy sipping.

PodcastAlthough the A.I. audio does not cover all aspects of the research paper and has at least one ‘hallucination,’ it does an outstanding job highlighting the main findings in an entertaining and engaging manner. The tone and banter between the male and female voices are eerily similar to many morning TV shows and news programs in the States.

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Daniela Guilbert founded Bruja Sana Kombucha in 2015 after discovering the drink while living in Vancouver and visiting Northern California. On returning to Mexico, she was dismayed that kombucha was largely unavailable. A friend suggested that she start making it, and after experimenting with home brewing, she began the trial-and-error process of discovering the secrets of commercial production. At first, she was also making almond and cashew-fermented cheeses, but it quickly became a kombucha-only operation.

Bruja Sana means “Healthy Witch” – that’s “witch” as in medicine woman, not a Halloween witch.

She opened in the coastal town of Tulum, then moved inland to Valladolid in the Yucatán Peninsula or “Riviera Maya” area. Her factory employs members of the Mayan community.

Early sales were helped by tourists, who knew about kombucha and bought from her stall at the farmers’ market. The business grew rapidly. From an original set of ten 20L glass jars, she upgraded to a single 200L stainless steel tank, then increased to five of those. Demand created a need for more capacity, so she added a 1,000L stainless steel tank.

Bruja Sana now boasts an impressive 8,000L total capacity from two 3,000L tanks, one 1,000L, and five 200L. These sizes allow for flexibility in meeting the demand for different flavors. On average, they produce between 3,000 bottles per month, or 1,200L — so there is plenty of spare capacity for further growth. They are launching a larger 1L bottle and kombucha shots augmented with superfoods

Bruja Sana Kombucha is available in stores and restaurants in the Yucatan and can be ordered from their website for free shipping across Mexico. Prices (in MXN) include shipping:

6 pack $700.00
12 pack $1,178.00
24 pack $2,246.00

Daniela is delighted that there are now more kombucha brands than ever in Mexico and sees this as a sign that the market for healthy alternatives to soda is growing.

Flavors400 ml bottles are available in

• Original
• Ginger
• Mango Passion Fruit
• Yerba Buena
• Chlorophyll
• Pineapple Rosemary

Her best-selling flavors are the Original, followed by Ginger.

PodcastHear Daniela tell the story of Bruja Sana Kombucha in this podcast interview.

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Thierry Tran authored a 3-part series in SYMBIOSIS Magazine:

• Part 1: The Chemistry of Fermentation
• Part 2: The Five Senses
• Part 3: Evaluating Flavor Quality

(Back copies are available to order.)

He now offers independent consulting via Transverse Consulting, contact Thierry by messaging him on his LinkedIn profile. He has published over 20 research papers on topics such as ‘Identification of Key Parameters Inducing Microbial Modulation during Backslopped Kombucha Fermentation’ and ‘Polyphenols in kombucha: Metabolomic analysis of biotransformations during fermentation’ . This edited transcript of the podcast has been included since the audio quality of the phone interview was not as clear as hoped.

BOOCH NEWS: You’ve worked with kombucha for seven or eight years. You’re no longer a graduate student or postdoc. Are you working in a university, or what is your occupation?

THIERRY TRAN: I finished my postdoc about kombucha last September, and after that, I founded my own company, consulting about food science and specifically kombucha. I’m consulting for kombucha brewers, helping them set up new processes, and asking them questions about regulation, health claims, and anything related to kombucha products.

BN: When you say consulting, you focus on the biochemistry. You’re not consulting on marketing, sales, label design, or anything.

TT: Yes, absolutely. The process used to make a product is linked to its quality, and its quality is linked to every aspect of the product.

BN: No two kombucha companies are identical, right? They have their own fermentation process, source material, tea, sugar, and methods they might use. In the seven or eight years you’ve been working in this industry and focused on kombucha, what are some of the challenges, and what are some of the trends you’ve seen across commercial brands?

TT: In the last couple of years, it has been changing a lot. There are older and newer kombucha producers. The new companies learn from the older ones so that I see an evolution in the processes. In the beginning, there was a focus on the least complex, the simplest, and the most traditional processes possible—classical kombucha brewing like home brewing. Now I see that the kombucha brewers allow themselves to use more treatments such as pasteurization, filtration, and the addition of alternative sweeteners, as well as additional probiotics.

So, it has broadened the diversity of existing processes, and since kombucha is a new product, and there are no rules or regulations, anything can be done. Sometimes, this poses new challenges, so it’s a case-by-case situation where we have to work on very specific products that do not resemble another. So, it’s quite fascinating and quite complex at the same time.

BN: Yeah, you make an interesting point. You know I’m a home brewer. I’ve been doing it for 15 years or so in my basement. I have containers of two gallons each, and I ferment for a week, ten days. Maybe I put in some ginger or put it straight into the refrigerator; perhaps I want a little secondary fermentation, and I drink it. And for home brewers, there’s nothing else they need to do. There’s no reason for a home brewer to pasteurize, filter, or add other probiotics.

When you’re in the commercial market, however, some people will say you should never diverge from that. You should keep it authentic and do it exactly like a home brewer. But what are the trade-offs? Is it because people say they want a shelf-stable product that they need to pasteurize, or is it because they want to maintain consistency? What are some of the trade-offs you see? What are some of the things that drive those decisions by a commercial brewer?

TT: In the ideal world, we could transpose how we brew kombucha at home to an industrial setting. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that, as is the case for any food. Actually, because you’re expected to fulfill regulations, you have to have a product that is safe, and that is expected to be reproducible. That’s in conflict with the traditional process, which evolved as home brewing, and you don’t have the same expectancies. That conflicts with what both consumers and retailers expect.

So, in more detail, if you transpose your home brewing to an industrial setting, you have issues of flavor, quality, and stability. A stable product may rely on the cold chain or not. And if not, then you must use pasteurization or filtration. And the question is, is it traditional when you do that? Is it still a traditional product?

And since there is no proper definition of what traditional kombucha is, since there is no regulatory framework to say it is or is not, it’s up to the brewers to decide if they agree with this practice and if they choose to use it. Because if not, they might not sell their product as easily as they want because the market and the food chain is as it is. And it’s also the same question with probiotics. If we [add] probiotics, is it still traditional kombucha?

But if you don’t use probiotics, you’re not, in Europe, allowed to have claims of probiotics on your label. So, it’s a matter of representation and decisions from the brewers, at least before [new] regulations are applied.

BN: Wow. Well, there’s a lot to unpack there. One thing to clarify is adding probiotics. Specifically, are there regulations that if you don’t add probiotics like bacillus coagulants, I think it’s called, or “live cultures” after secondary fermentation, you won’t able to say on the label that it contains probiotics? Is that correct?

TT: Yeah, absolutely. You have different options. There are lots of probiotics that exist — yeast or bacteria — but those are specific strains that are recognized by the regulations. For example, in the European Union, you have a list of bacterial and fungal strains recognized as probiotics. And suppose you don’t add them to the product in sufficient population of live microorganisms. In that case, it cannot be recognized as probiotics because, for now, the microorganisms used for kombucha fermentation have not been proven individually to bring health benefits. They are not considered probiotics, so no health claims can be applied to those products.

BN: I see. It’s something that, again, the home brewer wouldn’t do, but they’re not trying to meet any labeling requirements. You concluded your series in SYMBIOSIS talking about techniques for elevating the flavor quality of kombucha.

When a commercial kombucha is processed, and they make the trade-offs, if you like, or they think about achieving stability, where do flavor and taste come into that? If they say sugar-free, but that means they’ve added stevia, or they say shelf-stable, so they’ve pasteurized or filtered. Do you see the challenges for commercial kombucha brewers in becoming distinctive and consistent in terms of flavor and taste? How does that play in terms of the chemistry?

TT: So, for stability, there is the question of, do I rely on the cold chain? Is that sufficient for me to ensure that the quality, the sensory quality, and the chemical and microbiological quality will be sustained during the product’s shelf life? There are decisions to be made. If you decide to apply physical treatment, such as filtration or pasteurization, for example, it will impact the product’s flavor. When I say flavor, it also encompasses the visual aspect because when you filter, you will change the beverage’s turbidity or cloudiness.

And so, this has to be anticipated, which means that, okay, you are working hard to perfect your flavoring and select the right ingredients. Still, you must also test how it will evolve with the shelf life and how it will react to any treatment you intend to apply. So that must be considered. Sometimes, there is a compromise between what you’re seeking in terms of flavor and what you must do for your product to stay stable over time.

Some compromises would be satisfactory for the consumer. I want to add that, as producers, you have a certain idea of how your product would taste. But in the end, it’s also the consumers who will buy it, and it’s a good idea to ask the consumers, for example, by sensory testing, what they prefer. It must be both. It doesn’t have to be just the producers or the consumers, but a place in between that will satisfy both of them.

BN: Yeah, that’s great. Well, this has been a very interesting conversation. One final question from your perspective—having been involved in a very, very detailed scientific basis in this industry—where do you think this market will be in the future?

TT: Okay, so we know that there are market projections until 2029, and they plan for the market to almost double, I think. It’s a very dynamic market worldwide. I think there will be regional discrepancies. In France, I’m not sure this product will penetrate the market as well as in other countries. Many things will rely on marketing, but also on science because I know that there is a lot of research at the moment about the health benefits of fermented food.

In fermented food, you have microorganisms. They can be live, they can be dead, and they transform the food. So, new metabolites with potential good or bad effects change the composition that might bring something for human health. And we might have discoveries that change how we consider fermented food in general, including kombucha. Depending on those discoveries, depending on this research, maybe we can expect new things from those fermented foods in terms of health benefits, but not as individual products that will solve all your health issues, but rather as public recommendations.

That’s something that I feel inspired by—that governments would recommend consuming fermented food in general, without focusing on kombucha specifically, to bring health benefits to the whole population. I think this kind of perspective can really boost the consumption of kombucha, but it will also boost other foods, and that’s why I don’t want to dislocate kombucha, the trends of kombucha, from the trends of other fermented foods. I think we can really expect a lot from science and research in the future, and that would be, in my opinion, if it happened, the biggest shift in the consumption and market for kombucha.

BN: Well, I think that would be an amazing change, and I congratulate you on your years of research and being one of the world’s experts on kombucha. It’s been great talking with you. Good luck with your consulting, as you now offer your services to people. I’ll put the link to your company on the website, and it’s good luck and bonne chance.

TT: Thank you very much. Have a good day.

PodcastClick on the podcast to hear original audio of this conversation.

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On the last day of a two-week road trip from my home in the San Francisco Bay Area to Portland and back, I was fortunate to arrive in Fort Bragg when the Wednesday Farmers’ Market was on. I came across Michelle’s booth, where she was selling her fermented products.

Michelle Costa ferments kombucha, jun, kimchee, kvass, six varieties of sauerkraut, hot sauce, and other pickles in the small town of Willits, Mendocino County, California. She sells her Mendo Ferments products in markets and stores around the region. The company was founded 11 years ago.

Her journey began in 1983 when her high school boyfriend’s sister brought a “mushroom” back from Alaska. They brewed the tea in a ceramic pot and enjoyed the tea for its refreshing flavor without a second ferment. She carried her mushroom to Hawaii, where it thrived in the warm weather. Eventually she stopped brewing, not knowing how popular kombucha would become. She reconnected with fermented beverages in Oregon in 2001. She tasted Jun, made with honey and brewed with beneficial herbs and uplifting spices, and immediately fell in love with it. By 2013, she had made the transition from home to commercial brewer.

She rents space at the Little Lake Grange shared commercial kitchen in Willits.

Kombucha and Jun flavorsIn addition to the Hibiscus Jun, Root Brew, Beet Ginger, and Purple Butterfly kombucha on offer this month, seasonal flavors include Chaga Chocolate Rose and Candy Cap (mushroom) Jun. She uses a variety of green and black teas as a base.

Farmers’ marketsAs well as Fort Bragg she sells at the Ukiah and Willits markets and is stocked at several local stores. The Shanachie Pub in Willits has her kombucha on tap.

PodcastThe podcast was recorded at a busy time in the market, where customers sought out her fermented goodies.

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It’s Alive Kombucha is located on the far north coast of California in the remote college town of Arcata. For the past 11 years, the family-owned business has supplied regular and hard kombucha to the region. They now distribute from the northern counties as far south as the San Francisco Bay Area.

The journey started in 1992 when owner Jeri started home-brewing kombucha in Big Sur, where she lived at that time. Her husband Keil was a musician, and they felt the need to live a more balanced life centered around the Arcata community. They are helped by daughters Vivian, Kiana, and Sadie.

Jeri & VivianIn 2012, they opened the first kombucha bar in Northern California in their production facility. This became a focus for the community where kombucha and living foods were available, including hard kombucha, kimchi, jun, beet kvass, water kefir, chai, sauerkraut, pickles, bone broth, and apple cider vinegar shots. They were at the forefront of educating people about kombucha, with seven flavors on offer. Their bar closed during COVID, but they made safe pickup available on the porch. Distribution of draft kombucha has now switched to commercial bars and restaurants in the area. It’s Alive Kombucha is now available in Whole Foods markets across Northern California, as well as at the Berkley Bowl and in dozens of stores and cafes.

Jeri experienced some initial push-back from bars that carry alcohol, but their reputation has grown and more owners see the value in offering patrons an alternative to booze.

It’s Alive Kombucha on tap and in the chiller at the Arcata North Coast Co-Op

FlavorsThey offer Pacific Hop, Lemon, Apple, and Golden Lion’s Mane. They use Yerba Mate as the tea base for all their kombucha, appreciating the alkalinity of between six and seven pH which has the potential to counteract the acidity of the stomach, which in turn helps prevent digestive issues. The glass bottles have a twist-off metal cap in preference to plastic as a more environmentally favorable alternative.

Award winningIn April, It’s Alive Kombucha won Best Barrel Aged Specialty Brew for their Redwood Roots hard kombucha and had a runner-up with their Pomegranate-Rose for best overall specialty brew at the Battle of the Brews in Santa Rosa: a craft beer contest!

PodcastCheck out the podcast to listen to the story of It’s Alive Kombucha in Jeri’s own words.

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Jared Englund founded Lion Heart Kombucha 14 years ago and named the company after his son, Lev, whose name means “lion heart.” He started teaching kombucha classes in 2008 and established Lion Heart Kombucha in 2010, brewing booch at night after work. In 2015, they moved into a 6,000-square-foot facility in an industrial facility in NE Portland, where customers can collect cans or kegs, or taste a variety of flavors in their taproom sampling area. In 2020 they switched from glass bottles to 16oz cans, a change they claim makes them more sustainable and efficient. A mobile contract canning operation visits their brewery weekly and processes the 50 barrels they now produce.

Their cans are now on the shelves in over 250 locations in Oregon, Washington, and Montana, including cafes and restaurants across the Portland area. They have also expanded their reach nationally through the many drop sites serviced by Azure Standard, ensuring that their products are available to a wider audience. They operate local delivery routes in the metro area.

Jared is aware that Oregon boasts the world’s highest per capita consumption of kombucha and attributes the success of his brand to a strong local base. Fifteen years ago it was favored by health-conscious consumers. As low-alcohol/no-alcohol consumption grows in popularity, the number of people in the region switching to kombucha has grown.

FlavorsThey brew a low-sugar kombucha in various flavors, sourcing local, sustainable, and organic ingredients. A 16oz can of “Extra Dry, Extra Ginger” contains just 2g of sugar. Other flavors have 3-4g of sugar.

Standard flavors include Ginger, Raspberry, Blood Orange, Hibiscus, Blueberry/Ginger, Ginger/Lemon/Lavender, and Grape. Seasonal flavors range from Mango/Habanero, Strawberry/Lemon, Pineapple/Lime, and Dragonfruit/Passionfruit. They also produce exclusive flavors for the PDX Co-Op.

PodcastI called by Lion Heart Kombucha unannounced and Jared graciously agreed to spend time telling me the story of his company.

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Michael Churchill and his wife Natalia are industrial design engineers living in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have employed their design chops to create The Kombu — a sleek, if pricey, appliance for home brewing kombucha. Their “Fermenstation” features a modern design that is purpose built to craft-brew kombucha. It will become available in 2025 at a price of $500 a unit (offered 30% off at launch.)

The system comprises two compartments: a 3.5 liter (approx. a gallon) front glass jar holding starter and sweet tea where primary fermentation (F1) takes place, with a second rear container holding four bottles for flavoring and secondary fermentation (F2).

The two-stage process is managed with temperature-controlled heating pads on each side. As an added bonus, home brewers can stay connected using a mobile app to control the device from their smart phones to set timers and monitor the temperature.

Continuous brewEach new batch of sweet tea needs about 20% starter kombucha. After filling the bottles, starter kombucha is left over in the jar. The tap is positioned at the correct height to stop flowing when 20% of the liquid remains.

Cost-benefitMichael’s background as an automotive design engineer might be what led him to create the Rolls-Royce (or, if you prefer, the Cadillac) of home brewing fermentation systems.

While the $500 price might cause sticker shock for some, The Kombu website highlights that store–bought kombucha costs $3.99 a bottle and home-brew no more than $0.39, or a savings of $3.60 a bottle. Running these numbers shows, we estimate, that the $500 investment is recouped after 140 bottles.

A Kickstarter campaign is scheduled to launch at the end of July.

PodcastCheck out he podcast to hear The Kombu story in Michael’s own words.

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Julie Morrell and Ted Archuleta founded Urban Mama 505 in Albuquerque, New Mexico in June 2021. This was after a dozen years brewing kombucha at home that helped Julie resolve health issues including a brain tumor, autoimmune disorder, and fibromyalgia. Once restored to full health she moved into a commercial space in the cooperative commissary kitchen in operated by the South Valley Economic Development Center.

They now have a taproom on the iconic Route 66 as well as a bodega grocery store selling loose teas and local products including honey, baked goods, and mushroom coffee. The location is in a space shared with an art gallery–hidden from the street–but worth seeking out.

Ted and Julie share a passion for Kangen alkalized water and are committed to making sure that every flavor of Urbanmama505 kombucha uses only the best organic teas and natural ingredients. They claim the alkalized water enables them to draw about 60% more flavor out of the black Nepalese teas they brew with.

FlavorsThey flavor the clear black kombucha base with doTerra essential oils to produce:

• Rosie Black Kombucha
• Clear Amarillo Kombucha
• Clear Lima Kombucha
• Black Guatemalan Kombucha

They distribute to over 40 accounts in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and other towns in the region.

PodcastHear Julie tell the story of UrbanaMama505 Kombucha in her own words.

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On May 17 we featured a Guest Posting by Joseph at Holos on How to make a SCOBY Leather Bag. This interview with company co-founder Naomi Partridge tells the story of the brand.

I was introduced to Holos by Reeti Roy and Elena Dieckmann of Imperial College who had visited them after my feature on their production of SCOBY leather.

Holos Kombucha was founded in 2018 by a small group of friends in London. Holos is a Greek word that means wholeness in body, mind, and spirit. The business was born from a desire, as long-time kombucha fans, to offer quality, all-natural kombucha and to make a positive impact in the world. Holos now has a busy, expanding facility in West Sussex.

Offerings and availabilityA variety of green teas, yerba mate, rooibos, and Earl Grey form the basis for their “traditional and authentic” kombucha delivered in glass bottles in a range of flavors:

Ginger & Hibiscus, Citra Hops, Raspberry & Elderflower, and Basil & Mint.

They also sell canned kombucha soda, offered as an “access point” for shelf-stable, no-sugar alternatives for the soda drinker looking for a healthy choice. It has just five calories and is sweetened with a stevia derivative. Available in four flavors:

Raspberry & Lemon, Apple & Elderflower, Ginger & Turmeric: Fiery, and Pineapple & Mint.

The authentic “shallow-brewed” kombucha black cans are available in Sunset Hops and Sparkling Oolong flavors. They are an experiment aimed at the sober-curious drinker looking for an alternative to beers and sparkling wines.

Their products are available online directly from Holos and shipped by Amazon and Ocado. They are also stocked at Whole Foods, and cafes and restaurants across the UK. New customers can use the code GINGER15 for a 15% discount on their website.

HOLOS also supply home brewers with starter kits.

Yorkshire TeaOne of the more robust commercial black teas sold in the UK is Yorkshire Tea. The company asked them to develop a kombucha based on their tea. The collaboration has produced drink that uses the Holos culture and is aimed at converting traditional British tea drinkers to kombucha.

Social Purpose: Employing survivors of modern slaveryHolos was founded with the express purpose of offering a service to benefit survivors of slavery in a safe, supportive, and sensitive way.

Naomi and her co-founder Megan had traveled to Asia to volunteer with women who had been trafficked. On their return to the UK, they specifically established Holos to benefit this work. They set aside 25% of their shares for The Holos Foundation – a charitable body focused on rehabilitation for survivors of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK.

They work with charity partners who provide accommodation, counseling, and casework support for survivors of slavery, trauma, and human trafficking. The partners connect them to those who are ready and looking to learn new skills. The company offers a rotating number of women the opportunity to do meaningful work that gives them feelings of confidence, pride, and productivity..

PodcastListen to the podcast to learn more about the Holos story.

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Emma Davies founded award-winning Curious Kombucha five years ago. She is based in Thorncombe, Dorset, in the south-west of England.

Emma began her brewing career 20 years ago, producing beer in local microbreweries, where she developed a deep understanding of the craft of beer making. 

In 2018, a local cafe approached Emma about making kombucha for them. She made her first batch in her kitchen and found it significantly improved her gut health. The infinite flavor combinations that enhance and balance the sour, tangy elements of the unfiltered kombucha energized her.

Only three short months after her kitchen experiments, she moved into a purpose-built space connected to the microbrewery where she had previously worked.

Customer acceptanceHer business has grown organically, attracting visitors’ attention at vegan fairs and farmers’ markets. She now finds an increased awareness of kombucha among the locals who have become regular customers and the influx of tourists to this scenic corner of England.

The majority of people I encounter have been trying and embracing it. Word is spreading.

She now produces over 400 liters a week, with 15 different brew tanks, working alone. As demand increases, she hopes to recruit seasonal help and will continue to operate a thriving local business.

I’m a very small outfit. I’m achieving a nice quality of life. I like the flexibility. I’m not in this make a fortune. I’m not an empire builder.

Authentic FermentationEmma passionately believes in traditional, authentic kombucha fermentation. She has no interest in scaling up by using concentrates or switching from glass bottles to cans. She shares these beliefs with fellow members of the Fermenters Guild – a group of enthusiasts based in the UK and Ireland dedicated to educating people about the benefits of fermented foods and beverages. In addition to Curious Kombucha, members include Bad Gal Boocha, Boochacha, Booyah Vitality, Buddy Kombucha, Twisted Kombucha, and Zak’s Kombucha. Emma sees the Guild playing a vital role in the UK:

As something becomes popular you are getting the fake and the cheaper versions. As we get bigger and evolve, hopefully, we can influence legislation. If kombucha has been adulterated in any way, the labels should say ‘Acidified Kombucha’ or ‘Pasteurized Kombucha.’

ForagingDespite the ingredients for her popular pineapple and ginger flavor coming from overseas, as does the organic sugar she uses, Emma is an avid forager who delights in scouring the Dorset fields and hedgerows for local ingredients: the rosehips, wild nettles, goosegrass, and elderflower that she infuses into seasonal flavors.

She’s now looking into medicinal fungi such as lion’s mane, celebrated for their cognitive health benefits.

The provenance of my ingredients is incredibly important to me. The more local, the better, and the happier I am. These plants have properties that can be incorporated into the kombucha and also make it taste good!

Curious Kombucha has won Gold Medal Taste of the West Awards for her Raspberry & Turmeric Kombucha, Cucumber, Lime & Mint Kombucha, Blackcurrant & Ginger Kombucha, and Pineapple & Ginger Kombucha.

Curious Kombucha is available online and in various stockists across Dorset, including Soulshine Café, Bridport, Washingpool Farm Shop , and The Good Food Store in Lyme Regis. 250ml bottles sell for £3.25. Nationwide delivery is a flat rate of £9 for up to 48 bottles (4 cases).

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Emma’s story.

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In the Fall 2021 edition of SYMBIOSIS Magazine, we profiled Sacha Laurin’s award-winning designs fashioned from SCOBY fabrics. She had taken early experiments in fabrics based on SCOBY (pellicle) processing to an international audience when, in 2015, she premiered her collection, entitled the “Game of Kombucha” at the Paris Fashion Week.

The challenge that Sacha acknowledged was that fabrics produced from the “nanocellular biopolymer,” “bio-cellulose,” or “bacterial cellulose” of a SCOBY needed modifications to succeed as a commercial proposition:

Sacha hopes to pass the knowledge she’s acquired of how to grow kombucha fabric to others. More people experimenting and investing in the process will develop it as a viable, commercial, sustainable product. However, kombucha fabric has some hurdles to overcome – you cannot wash it, it lacks elasticity, and it has a distinctive floral aroma.

SYMBIOSIS Fall 2021

Reeti Roy and Dr. Elena Dieckmann of Imperial College, London, are researching solutions to these issues.

They are experimenting with producing vegan leathers made from kombucha brewery by-products.

Elena is a Lecturer at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College. Her specialist areas are biomaterials, physical prototyping, waste resource conversion, design and manufacturing of circular materials. She is supervising Reeti’s work.

Reeti is enrolled at the Royal College of Art. She works with kombucha breweries such as Twisted Kombucha and Holos Kombucha which donate their excess SCOBYs.

The goal is to increase bacterial cellulose leathers’ durability and water resistance. The water resistance is improved with wax impregnation. The fabric can then be washed without degradation. Challenges remain with scaling for industrial production.

Another challenge is securing adequate supplies. Early attempts to transport pellicles on the London Tube in leaking plastic garbage bags caused issues! London-based kombucha companies are encouraged to contact Reeti and arrange for regular donations to help create a symbiosis between the beverage and textile industries. Email: reetiroy95@gmail.com.

Testing different dyes and colors to determine compatibility with the bacterial cellulose materialPodcastListen to the podcast to hear an interview I recorded on a visit to Imperial College in April.

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We first reported on the Kombucha Warehouse in May 2023. The company is now two years old. I took advantage of a trip back to the UK to meet founding brothers Jack and Jordan Sotoriou in person at their facility north of London.

Rapid GrowthTheir unique online business now offers over 60 kombucha brands (with over 200 flavors) from across the UK and ships overnight to the entire country. Distant locations sometimes take 48 hours,but most of the country will enjoy delivery by noon. Standard UK delivery is £5.00 with free delivery for orders over £50.00. They have grown 4x in the past year, adding new brands and flavors every month, and have expanded into fermented foods and kefir. They ship cans and bottles via DHL in custom packaging .

Expanding your palateBy stocking both the leading national brands and a wide range of smaller, artisanal brands, the Warehouse offers consumers the opportunity to taste varieties of kombucha that are not available elsewhere in one place. They quite simply offer the largest selection of kombucha in the world!

They encourage experimentation by offering combination boxes by type of flavor or mixed brand multi-packs.

Future plansThey intend to offer more transparency about kombucha on their site. Plans include tasting notes and process explanations, informing consumers about the production methods different brands employ (similar to the KBI Verified Seal program). In 2025, they intend to expand into B2B sales across the gut health category and create their own product range.

At the end of this year, they will hold a fermentation festival in Camden, which will include workshops, master classes, and a full-on festival atmosphere.

FundraisingThey are open to speaking to investors who are interested in helping them grow the business.

PodcastTune in to hear Jack and Jordan.

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We first reported on Andrew Mills — the founder of NUNC Living Jun-Kombucha — in December 2020. At that time the company, started with a paltry £12,000, was only two years old. I took advantage of a trip back to the UK to meet Andrew in person at the Amersham Farmers’ Market outside of London.

Farmers’ MarketsFounded when the COVID lockdown started, Andrew was limited to selling indirectly. Now that restrictions have been lifted, he connects with consumers at three farmer’s markets per month. All are in his home county of Buckinghamshire: Amersham, Great Missenden, and Gerrard’s Cross, which are an hour south of his brewery.

While only 10% of revenue comes from the Markets, they are great for consumer education. Andrew estimates under 20% of the UK population knows about kombucha. The offer of free samples pulls people in. Local products attract people interested in regional foods.

Andrew sees the double-edged sword of the more prominent kombucha brands in the UK supermarkets that can give a wrong impression – some tasting more like a soda than authentic kombucha. However, they do introduce people to kombucha. His customers, often tasting authentic kombucha for the first time, are wowed by the experience (as you’ll hear on the podcast.)

The Markets are also an excellent opportunity to test new flavors.

ProcessNUNC uses a mix of two green teas (Green Darjeeling and Sencha) sweetened with honey from hives in a five-mile radius of the brewery. The 2.5% alcoholic kombucha uses wine yeast that gives a fruity flavor and neutralizes acids, so it tastes smoother than the non-alcoholic jun-kombucha. There is no hard kombucha currently available in the UK.

Recent Developments* They were chosen as the Official Kombucha of @DryJanuary in partnership with Alcohol Change UK. * Media profiles include this from the nationally broadcast Love Your Weekend Sunday show hosted by well-known presenter Alan Titchmarsh. * An interview on London’s Hoxton Radio Food & Drink show. * Availability at Whole Foods in London, alongside industry-leading brands, including Remedy, Momo Kombucha, Jarr, Los Bros, Hip Pop, and GTs. * Featured in a limited edition food pairing menu at the prestigious Mosaic restaurant at Westin Hotel in the City of London. * The addition of the UK’s first twice-fermented alcoholic kombucha at 2.5% ABV.

PodcastI interviewed Andrew and met with customers at his stall at the Farmers’ Market.

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Statistics show that 50% of small businesses fail within five years. In October, we looked at general numbers for the kombucha industry. This is the story behind one person’s decision to move on.

Eli Cayer founded Urban Farm Fermentory in Portland, Maine, in 2010 as “a simple cultural experiment to engage the community through information and gathering to present seasonal flavors through the fermentation of local sugars such as honey, apples, and grains.” They created unique, seasonal beverages, including Kombucha, Gruit, Beer, Mead, and Jun — sharing the simple and complex flavors of locally foraged and harvested ingredients through the wild fermentation process.

They forage, grow, and harvest, purchase local plants, herbs, roots, leaves, bark, fruit, fungi, seeds, and more whenever in season to enhance their products with the flavorful and medicinal properties of the natural surroundings.

The production facility became a community venue with a 4,000 sq. ft. tasting room and meeting space: art gallery, music hall, and workshop nook.

However, in April of this year, Eli announced he was closing:

After a pioneering 14 years at the location in East Bayside, Portland, Maine, the Urban Farm Fermentory will end it’s Maine journey where it began here at 200 Anderson Street in Portland, Maine.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed and supported this concept and its products with ideas, warm smiles, thoughtful words and community engagement.

The goal was always much greater than just producing delicious beverages. The intent was to always work towards health and well-being while raising up the community with education and hopefully helping people sync up with nature.

This facility, the first of it’s kind and still not replicated was a prototype intended for franchising nationally/internationally as the concept of local fermentation and seasonally available ingredients applies anywhere and would be distinct to that location.

Fermented productsEli had started as a beekeeper producing mead in 2007 before deciding to go “full bore fermentation” in 2010. He was fascinated by the medicinal potential of alcoholic fermented beverages, which had long been revered as “potions.” Since kombucha was a known medicinal beverage, it had a natural place in his lineup. He produced the first hard cider in Maine.

In response to the well-known 2010 recall, Eli chose to keep producing 1.25-1.5% ABV kombucha, together with wine, beer, and cider. He had a wine license from the TTB for his alcoholic beverages and paid tax on his sales. The authorities licensed kombucha as an “other than standard tea wine.”

I believe the UFF was the first winery in the States to be licensed for pure, authentic, alcoholic, but non-hard kombucha. We simply made our base kombucha which naturally contains one to two percent alcohol. However, people did not understand that authentic kombucha, like most home brews, has natural alcohol in it. So it was a difficult sell.

He has always packaged his kombucha in glass bottles. One challenge was the increase in the price of this packaging.

DistributionBy 2013, Eli had signed a distributor who took his product across Maine and Boston. By 2015, they were in most of New England, New York, and as far afield as Washington, DC. At that time, he opened the tasting room, which became a community hub.

Moving onAs recently as 2019 he was considering franchising the Urban Fermentory Farm concept, with the Portland facility as the prototype of a series of international local fermentory’s. When COVID hit, he lost 80% of his distribution outside of Maine, representing half his business. Interest in the franchise idea went away. He still believes this is a viable business for others. However, after 14 years, he has decided to close and move on to other things.

LessonsHe recognizes that a commitment to producing authentic kombucha is at odds with maximizing commercial success, where the market requires products that can be sold to those under the legal drinking age. The business is all consuming, because consistency demands constant attention. Coupled with the intensity of the physical labor it is a tough business.

A specific challenge he faced included the different requirements of fermenting mead, beer, wine, cider, and kombucha under one roof.

Nevertheless, he believes that this can be a successful business for those with the energy and commitment.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Eli tell the Urban Farm Fermentory story.

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I first met Numan Karabiyik of Boochman Kombucha in Berkeley in November 2019. Since then, his business has gone from strength to strength and he now operates out of a larger facility across the Bay in San Francisco.

BoochmaniaBoochman Gastro Taproom started in Berkeley as the first kombucha Taproom in the Bay Area. The new Boochmania taproom is at 685 Harrison St., San Francisco, in the hip South of Market area.

This facility has a fully-equipped kitchen and a larger cafe than Berkeley. The cafe is open every day except Sunday and Monday. They cater to the large commercial market on their doorstep. An impressive 75% of their volume is through Farmers’ Markets. They currently produce over 250 gallons a week, compared to that much a month when they were in Berkeley.

With a menu of fermented Mediterranean plates and fresh kombucha on tap, Boochmania opened in SF at the end of 2022. The enterprise is a family-owned business. With the help of his older brother Mustafa and younger sister Betul (who arrived in the United States two years ago) plus partner Denisse Padilla, they offer a range of kombucha flavors and a menu of fermented and Turkish foods.

The Karabiyik siblings, from left to right: Mustafa, Betul and Numan.FlavorsAcknowledging that Turkey is famous for tea consumption, Numan uses organic Hemsin tea as a base for his kombucha. It has a light and refreshing taste. The flavors on tap, in cans, and refillable growlers span a wide range:

• Currant & Clove: Holiday in a cup with spicy and earthy flavor.
• Lavender & Hibiscus, Lemongrass: Soothing feeling of the delightful scent in a Lavender field with floral and citrusy twist.
• Mint & Juniper Berry: Funky & Fresh.
• Ginger & Sage: Mild, tantalizing and refreshing ginger flavor finishing with an awakening sage aroma.
• Spicy Mango: Cayenne and Mango.
• Persimmon & Rose
• Pineapple Hops
• Boochman Original
• Genmaicha
• Raspberry Leaf Tea: Refreshing, soothing and pure. Champagne of the kombucha!
• Unicorn Tail: Horsetail Tea, Blue Spirulina and Stevia Leaf.

In addition to kombucha, they experiment with distinctive fermented drinks such as the nonalcoholic, deep purple chicha morada made from dried corn, which is Peru’s iconic refreshing drink.

Zero-wasteBeyond fermenting kombucha drinks and cooking delicious meals, they have expanded into a “zero waste” product range. They make candles, bath salts, and soaps to recycle all their discarded materials into reusable items. One candle uses leftover rose petals from the kombucha-making process, while another uses pineapple discards, and both can be re-used as miniature planters afterward.

They also support Bay Area residents who take up home brewing and sell SCOBYs and starter liquid packs.

Boochman sells at SF, Peninsula, and East Bay Farmers’ Markets.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Numan tell the story of his thriving company.

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Kendra stepped up to lead KBI in January after Hannah Crum moved on. She recently spoke with Booch News about the latest developments at Kombucha Brewers International. Listen to the podcast to hear the latest. Highlights include:

Seal ProgramThe KBI Seal Verified Seal Program has been launched. It’s open to all, not only KBI members. Expect to see the labels on products starting in 2025.

Regional KKON meetingsInstead of the multi-day conferences of past years, a series of one-day regional KKON events are planned. Following the March 12 meeting at Local Roots in San Diego, the next is in Reno, Nevada, on May 7-8. There will be virtual access tickets available.

On the very same weekend KBI will present at the VLB Symposium on Acidic Fermented Non-Alcoholic Beverages in Berlin, Germany.

Also, save the date of October 28 for a regional event in Barcelona.

Kombucha in EuropeThe kombucha market in Europe is growing. There’s great potential in different countries.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Kendra’s update.

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Statistics show that 50% of small businesses fail within five years. In October, we looked at general numbers for the kombucha industry. This is the story behind one person’s decision to move on.

Julie Davidson opened Komadre Kombucha in Tacoma, Washington, at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020. She used government grants to fund her start-up but, after a four-year journey, decided to close earlier this month.

The decision to close was not an easy one. She wrote on Instagram:

With my heart full of gratitude, I announce the closure of Komadre Kombucha. What an incredible journey filled with growth, passion, and community spirit. If you’re newer to KoKo, you might not know that its origin story contains a big bold pivot. Back in 2020, my other small business (a consulting and coaching firm) took a nosedive thanks to the covid lockdown. All but my smallest contracts disappeared overnight. After a fair amount of wallowing and worrying, I embraced the chaos and embarked on a new adventure. My kombucha home brewing hobby morphed into a multipronged business strategy, including a one-of-a-kind taproom, subscription program, markets, events, and commercial distribution. I learned so much, met the most amazing people, and strengthened my business acumen every damn day.

After about a year of operation it became increasingly clear that my “do it all at once” model was unsustainable, so in December 2022 I closed the taproom and refocused on distribution and subscriptions. Once again in a big bold pivot, KoKo rallied and found footing with a small yet substantial increase in our distribution program. We teetered on the brink of profitability. Meanwhile, another opportunity opened up: a chance to return to my consulting and coaching roots. I was honored and delighted to say “yes” to serving small business owners as a mentor, advisor, and coach for some local leadership programs. I also joined the ranks of a national coaching group that works with The Obama Foundation and several other inspiring nonprofits and companies. In short, I feel a clarion call to clear the runway for coaching. Closing Komadre Kombucha makes space for me to create a greater impact in the lives of others. I feel deep appreciation for each and every one of you who has cheered me on along the way; in some cases you’ve moved from taproom visitors to coaching program participants! Your unwavering support has been the cornerstone of my success.

OriginsAs a 20-year veteran of entrepreneurial ventures in the San Francisco Bay Area and Puget Sound region, including running a multi-million-dollar-generating boutique coaching and consulting firm, she was excited to launch her own “brick and mortar” business.

Komadre translates from Spanish as “co-mother,” and Julie’s goal was to not only sell kombucha to the growing number of people who loved her home brew but also celebrate her Central American and Caribbean heritage and bring along and uplift other women and people of color/Latinx entrepreneurs. To that end, she sought collaborations with bakers, makers, and other Latinx/POC small business owners in the region. Her store and taproom became a thriving community space.

Co-packingFrom the start, Julie partnered with James from Shen Zen Tea, who produced their own brand of kombucha in Seattle. They handled the primary fermentation and she infused the specific flavors in a secondary fermentation in her taproom in Tacoma.

She built the business via a distributor and directly through consumer subscription sales. At one point, it was available in 25 outlets around the Puget Sound area. At its peak, the taproom sold 200-250 gallons a month. However, the taproom never achieved profitability. In December 2022, she closed the taproom. This had the unfortunate side effect of the primary fermentation and secondary flavorings no longer under her direct control, and quality suffered, leading to a drop in the subscription business. By the summer of 2023, she had closed the subscription business.

When it came time to close for good, she looked for buyers, but the numbers were not attractive.

Julie takes away three main lessons that she suggests other small kombucha companies would find valuable.

Lessons1. Slow down. The initial government funds created a false sense of security, and she now acknowledges that she expanded too quickly. There’s such a thing as having too many funds at the start. This liability would not have happened if she had spent time at farmers’ markets learning, listening to consumers, and beta-testing her brand. 2. Consider partnering. Don’t try and do it alone. Find others to help you do it better, faster, and cheaper. Perhaps there is a distressed kombucha company locally you can inject new life into. 3. Everything has an ending. Be prepared for an exit and know when and how to call time on your venture.

Coaching Julie has returned to her roots and offers professional development, small business coaching, and consulting via the JulieDavidsonGroup.com.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Julie’s story in her own words.

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Statistics show that 50% of small businesses fail within five years. In October, we looked at general numbers for the kombucha industry. This is the story behind one person’s decision to move on.

A decade ago, Rachel Rappa started Coastal Craft Kombucha on the shores of Long Island. She recently made the difficult decision to close her business, writing on Instagram:

It is with a heavy heart full of gratitude that I write this goodbye message to you all. Back in summer of 2013 I brewed my first batches of what would soon become Coastal Craft Kombucha and today 10 years later is my time to share that we have come to the end of a decade dedicated to pouring true passion and love into spreading pure joy through kombucha.

From day one I set out to creatively reinterpret how people felt about and experienced kombucha. The creative process came naturally to me and watching people drink, enjoy and feel good from what I created brought me so much happiness and drove me to work harder and persevere more than I ever could have imagined. I am truly honored to have had the opportunity to serve you all and bring you joy, and I can’t thank you enough for fueling and supporting my passion for these past 10 years.

My time has come to move on to new things and to truly celebrate with all of you everything we have accomplished. The list of people and businesses who have supported me through this from family to complete strangers who became the most loyal customers is endless. I will never forget the memories that were made or the people who I made those memories with. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for making my dreams come true!

All good things must come to an end…or rather to a point of evolution.

In this brief Instagram video Rachel shares her feelings about the difficult decision to close her business and move on.

Her heartfelt feelings of gratitude for the journey she has been on made me curious to find out more. I spoke with Rachel for 45 minutes about the changes she has witnessed in her personal life, her values, and the kombucha industry. Listen to the podcast to hear the story in her own words.

OriginsRachel discovered kombucha but knew she could make a craft version that was far more enjoyable than the brands she found available. She sees herself as an artistic and creative person, interested in holistic health, with a background in baking and food. Her interest in kombucha blended Food + Art + Health. Her studies at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition grounded her belief in the power of the mind-body connection and led her to pursue her passion and do work she loved.

While she loved the beneficial health effects of the store-bought kombucha she tried in these early days, she knew she could improve on the taste. Friends who enjoyed her home brew agreed.

The growth yearsHer journey producing commercial kombucha started in 2014. She worked at a health food store that allowed her to test flavors, and when demand outstripped her ability to supply from her home kitchen, she went into partnership and took over a commercial kitchen. Selling at local farmers’ markets and stores led to rapid growth. She scaled up from 5- and 10-gallon containers to 300-litre and then 500-litre vessels, eventually switching to 10-barrel (300 gallon) IBC totes. By 2018, she had scaled to 10 flavors, 10 totes, and two 10-barrel brite tanks. The first partnership had ended, and she joined forces with a new person. By 2019, she was supplying office buildings in Manhattan and a growing number of retail accounts.

It was hard work.

RecommitmentWhen the pandemic hit in 2020, the high-margin corporate accounts disappeared. The second partnership ended, and she struck out on her own. She undertook an extensive rebrand (covered in the Fall 2022 edition of SYMBIOSIS Magazine) and recommitted to her initial goal of making the “most enjoyable kombucha.”

Even though she had a staff of three to six people, she was solely responsible for all decision-making. Her experience had become one of constant firefighting as one decision after another fell to her. The reality was that life for a solo business owner was very lonely. She felt increasingly burnt out and realized she had lost sight of why she started the business. Despite having over 250 regional accounts, she was barely breaking even.

To bring perspective to her business and personal life, she joined a local mastermind group of women entrepreneurs who offered support and a forum to discuss their challenges. And this led to the next stage in her evolution.

The doors of perceptionEncouraged by members of the group, she undertook an experimental day-long guided ceremony where psychedelic psilocybin mushrooms were ingested in a supportive environment with sound healing and meditation. This put her in touch with her inner self. She realized that she had the freedom to choose joy in her life and that her business was not bringing her joy. Neither was it making much of a profit.

She took a long, hard look at the operations she had in place. She realized her daily life was a hard grind. Her new awareness made it clear that she needed to move on. “I’m no longer willing to suffer.”

She spent a couple of months looking for buyers, but the numbers in the books did not look good. Rather than wait, she decided to sell her equipment and close.

Next stepsRachel wrote on Instagram that “the ride of creativity has just begun. This was my first born passion project and there are certainly many more to come!”

Based on her experience, she now engages in micro-dosing where, she believes, personal growth is facilitated through the neuroplasticity offered by the psychedelics.

She loves to share her experience and help creative entrepreneurs. She offers her services as an integrative life and business coach. Rachel is on Instagram and can be contacted at rachel.rappa36@gmail.com.

I SEE YOU and my goal is for you to SEE YOU and all that your authentic self is capable of in this life. Whether that is focused on a entrepreneurial endeavor or not, my integrative life and business coaching programs are designed to help individuals achieve personal and professional goals, overcome challenges, and experience growth by uncovering and nurturing their authentic selves.

PodcastListen to the podcast interview to hear Rachel tell her story.

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Statistics show that 50% of small businesses fail within five years. In October, we looked at general numbers for the kombucha industry. This is the story behind one person’s decision to move on.

Moss Beach Kombucha was profiled on Booch News in May 2019 when I visited founder Douglas Nelson at his brewery south of San Francisco. He told me how, in January 2017, he decided to start his commercial kombucha company as “the next project after culinary school.” Seven years later, he has closed his doors and moved on.

Market forcesDouglas decided to close after Safeway and Whole Foods reduced the amount of kombucha they sold and — together with several smaller brands — removed him from their chillers in the Spring of 2023. He attributes this to other functional beverages entering the market and a slowdown in the growth rate of kombucha.

His experience is supported by data from SPINS, which reported declines various grocery channels.

Source: SPINS, Kombucha Trends and Insights, Caroline Davidson, March 2023High fixed costsDouglas acknowledges that his brewery was located in a high-rent area, and the fixed costs of the lease, plus wages for his two employees, were high. As a mid-sized company, he did not see benefits in downsizing since “it takes about as much work to produce 100 gallons as 1,000 gallons.” Fermentation requires a licensed commercial kitchen and moving to a smaller facility did not make sense. He was able to auction off his equipment and is now clearing debts.

Missing business skillsDouglas admits he is essentially “an artist who pretended to be a businessman” and, while he firmly believes he made great kombucha, acknowledges that he did not have the necessary business skills in financing and marketing to succeed.

He’s moved on to become a life coach who loves helping people.

He advises other entrepreneurs: “Take an honest look at yourself, decide what you lack, and find a partner to mitigate those weaknesses.” He confesses he never found a counterpart with these skills to team up with. It’s not sufficient to “just do your own thing.”

PodcastListen to the podcast interview to hear Douglas tell his story.

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I enjoyed finding Bebida Viva Kombucha on the shelves of the large La Comer supermarket when visiting Puerto Vallarta on vacation. So, it’s appropriate that I conclude this series of profiles of Mexican brands by interviewing Marcelo Hinojosa, the founder of Bebida Viva.

Marcelo discovered kombucha while studying at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. On returning to his home in Mexico in 2016, he signed a distribution agreement with Texas brand Holy Kombucha. This transitioned to opening a facility to produce Holy Kombucha under license in Mexico, and a couple of years later, executed an amicable separation when he launched Bebida Viva in early 2019.

At that time, there were three people in the company. Five short years later, they now employ 20, produce 80,000 bottles a month, and are by far and away one of the leading brands in Mexico. Plans include funding expansion and looking into the viability of exporting their authentic kombucha into the States.

Explosive GrowthWriting on LinkedIn, Marcelo looked back at the explosive growth they had experienced last year and plans for 2024

As 2023 comes to a close, I reflect on a year of exceptional growth and learning for Bebida Viva. With an impressive 70% increase in our kombucha business to more than 700,000 bottles, we have established ourselves as leaders in Mexico, setting the pace and direction of the industry.

This year we not only added a notable list of new customers, but also continually improved the quality of our products, which was reflected in the Global Markets recertification. But, beyond the numbers and achievements, what really makes us proud is how we have positively impacted the lives of our consumers, offering a healthy and lively alternative to traditional beverages.

However, 2023 also came with its challenges. Demand exceeded our productive capacity and we faced obstacles in the search for new capital. But each challenge became an opportunity to innovate, streamline processes and strengthen ourselves. This resilience not only prepares us for a promising future but also allows us to carefully select our future partners.

I am deeply grateful for our team, whose dedication and passion are at the heart of Bebida Viva. Likewise, my gratitude extends to every consumer who has made our kombucha a part of their lives, confirming that what we do truly makes a difference.

Looking ahead to 2024, we anticipate another year of growth of over 60%, closing our capital raising round by the end of Q1 and other exciting opportunities such as the possibility of adding new products and beginning to export our kombucha to the USA.

Nationwide distributionThe drinks are available in natural food stores and supermarkets throughout Mexico. Their website enables customers to order online. I was amused to hear that the La Comer market in Puerto Vallarta is, in fact, their leading outlet in the whole country, selling an average of 30 bottles a day. I’m personally responsible for a quarter of that volume on the days I shop there while on vacation!

They sell to consumers of all ages and types across Mexico. Young and old, men and women. Marcelo is aware that it’s early days for the kombucha market in Mexico. He notes that the Puerto Vallarta outlet does so well because of the large number of tourists in the area. In addition to La Comer, they can be found in Walmart, H-E-B, 7-Eleven, and other outlets.

Healthy alternativeMarcelo’s blog makes the case for healthy beverage options in Mexico:

Mexico faces serious health problems, especially related to diabetes and hypertension. These chronic diseases affect a large part of the population, have a significant impact on people’s quality of life and many have to do with the amount of sugar in drinks. According to statistics from the World Health Organization, on average Mexicans consume around 16 teaspoons of sugar a day (it is recommended not to exceed 6). Sugary drinks are the strongest source of this consumption, since 25% comes from them. It’s time to address these issues head-on and look for solutions that promote a healthier lifestyle.

The mission of Bebida Viva is to “offer innovative and sustainable products that promote health,” and to to change the world one bottle at a time.

We want to achieve this by revolutionizing the beverage industry by offering innovative, delicious and sustainable products that promote health and well-being. This last one is the most important. We want to offer healthy options in a market saturated with sugar-filled drinks. Not only do we want to offer drinks that are very low in sugar, but rather drinks that help the body, that help the person who drinks them feel more alive.

Flavors* Original * Ginger * Wild Hibiscus * Blackberry * Mystic Green * Grape * Fresh Watermelon * Lemonade – Strawberry * Raspberry – Cardamom * Punch

Last September, they introduced three varieties of “Kombucha +.” Sold in 500 ml bottles, these are

• Calm (l-theanine & lavender)
• Defense (echinacea & zinc)
• Energy (Yerba Mate)

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Marcelo tell the Bebida Viva story.

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Tania Góngora (a food scientist) and Fernanda (‘Fer’) Iturbide (a sociologist and marketing expert) founded Simbiótica Fermentación in Mexico City in 2017. They divide responsibility between the fermentation science and marketing of their eight-year-old company, which now employs 18 people.

They produce and promote a wide range of Mexican ferments. In addition to their fermented foods and beverages, they conduct research, offer education through workshops, and provide information on regular podcasts.

They recognize the importance of consuming fermented foods daily, whether to highlight flavors in a dish or for the benefit they can bring to our health. However, they caution that ferments are not a panacea but have different properties that can strengthen our body.

They offer high-quality Mexican fermented foods with diverse flavors, crafted creatively and transparently at every stage, connecting the fields to the home. Their motto, “Naturaleza transformada con intención — “Nature transformed with intention” — highlights their commitment to the produce of the Mexican countryside and the farms contributing to organic, conscious food.

Local producers and organic certificationThey are proud of sourcing supplies from local producers, such as Juan Diego Hernandez Cortes, whose family salt mill uses pre-Hispanic production methods. They source cabbage for kimchi from farmers in Tlaxcala. Other produce comes from Vivero Barrera in Xochimilco, a farm that promotes pesticide-free agroecology.

Simbiótica has alliances with projects like Saniz Maguey, Centro Campesino A.C., La rifa chocolatería, and Cielo Dentro chocolatería.

In January 2022 they were awarded Participatory Organic Certification (SCOP). This certification, recognized by Sagarpa-Senasica (Mexico’s National Service of Health, Food Safety, and Food Quality), ensures their commitment to agroecological practices and organic transformation, verifying the traceability of each ingredient used.

Farmers MarketsThey offer kombucha on tap at farmers’ markets, such as the popular Mercado el 100, where regular customers bring their containers to be refilled. They are currently selling over 100 liters on tap each week.

Products
In 2017 they started brewing kombucha and have since branched out to sell Kimchi, Sauerkraut, Coconut Kefir, Fermented Jam, Corn Miso, Tempeh, Agave Honey Garlic, Catsup, Water Kefir, and Fermented Pickles

A sample of the fermented foods include:

Garlic fermented in pulquero agave honey and spices. “We use a concentrate of unclarified mead, ginger, mint and thyme. It is predominantly sweet, spicy and citrusy. Thanks to fermentation, the flavor of garlic decreases its pungency. Culinary advantages: its flavor is similar to that of a teriyaki sauce. It can be used to cook or marinate proteins. Garlic can be marinated and used for stocks and other stews in general.”

Vegetable ferment of red cabbage with cumin and pepper.”Slightly crunchy and salty, acidity present due to lactic acid fermentation. Naturally fermented in brine. Culinary advantages: it can be served as a garnish, it highlights its flavor in foods such as snacks, red meats and vegetable proteins. Promotes salivation and increased perception of sapid notes.”

Fermented seasoning paste based on nixtamalized corn, well salt and koji mushroom (Aspergillus oryzae). “One-year fermentation, unctuous, salty, umami and with light sweetness. Culinary advantages: seasoning and flavor enhancer. It can also be used as a protein tenderizer. It can help reduce the amount of salt used when cooking.”

Vegetable ferment of white (or green) cabbage with cumin and pepper. “Slightly crunchy and salty, acidity present due to lactic acid fermentation. Naturally fermented in brine. Culinary advantages: it can be used as a garnish, it highlights its flavor in foods such as fish, poultry and snacks. Promotes salivation and greater perception of flavors.”

Their kombucha is made from organic green tea. Flavors include:

• Original
• Strawberry-Lemon
• Peppermint
• Hibiscus
• Ginger-Tumeric

250 ml bottles sell for 54 pesos ($3.15) and 475 ml for 78 pesos ($4.50). They offer nationwide shipping in Mexico.

PodcastsFer and Tania host Fermentopia, their own lively series of Spanish-language podcasts. Check out our interview (in English!) for the latest about their thriving company.

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My recent vacation in Mexico alerted me to the lack of retail availability of any but the leading brands. Research shows that Mexico ranks fourth worldwide in the number of active kombucha companies. However, the vast majority are small, regional operations. This is the second in a series of interviews with some of these pioneers.

Cam Kombucha is based in the Zapopan district of Guadalajara — Mexico’s second-largest city. Founder Camila Lamas first tried GTs Trilogy on a visit to California ten years ago. On graduation from college, with the support of her parents, she began a commercial operation just over two years ago. She now produces over 6,000 liters a month with the help of a team of five in production and sales.

What’s in a name?Camila landed on the name ‘Cam Kombucha’ as a sign of her pride in her brand. It has a pleasing alliteration and, let’s face it, the leading brand is named after the initials of the founder — which might, in all honesty, be confused by some consumers with gran turismo autos

The logo represents the circle of life, and the ‘Mindful Drink’ tagline aligns with her philosophy.

AvailabilityCam Kombucha is now stocked in over 70 cafes, restaurants, and retail stores across Guadalajara. Including:

• Benevolent
• Bodega Orgánica
• Carolife Boutique
• Cervecería Cero Country
• Dueto Decora
• Gaia Eco Store
• Herman Delikatessen
• Lordy
• Providencia
• Nuts & Coco
• Olivo y Sal
• Papelería
• Peyesa
• Purorgániko
• Sal de Mar
• Valentina Moreno Super Foods
• Verde Miel

FlavorsCam Kombucha is available in five flavors, and the 473ml cans sell for 65-70 pesos ($3.50 – $4.00). They have English monikers — as have Bebida Viva with ‘Calm’, ‘Defense’, and ‘Energy’:

• • Paradise (Pineapple/Coconut)
• • Vibes (Passion Fruit)
• • Life (Mint)
• • Love (Pineapple/Ginger/Cinnamon)
• • Mind (Natural)

The product was originally sold in bottles, but, for environmental and convenience reasons has transitioned to cans.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Camila tell the story of Cam Kombucha in her own words.

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As shown on the Booch News Instagram, I recently spent a month in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and visiting Lake Chapala near Guadalajara. As is typical for tourists, I could only stumble on random outlets for kombucha. This was especially true in a large country like Mexico. However, I was contacted by Alex from ValleSana Kombucha outside of Mexico City. We met last March at KKON23 in Long Beach, and I scheduled a phone interview to extend the coverage of the expanding kombucha scene in that country.

Alex Himmelbauer founded ValleSana Kombucha in the mountain town of Valle de Sana, two hours west of Mexico City. This was after he discovered kombucha helped with his health issues:

A few years ago, my digestion seemed to be upside down, I lost my appetite, suffered from constant stomach pain, and felt bloated all the time. After different diagnoses and constant taking of antibiotics, I lost hope of having good digestion again. Thanks to the fermentation course my wife took, I was introduced to kombucha and within a couple of weeks I started to feel much better. How was it that medicine didn’t work, and this ancient drink did? I asked myself. Curiosity led me to discover all its benefits and to become passionate about it. I hope our kombucha helps you feel better.

He’d moved west from Mexico City where, in a city of 22 million, he could not find ‘booch. He was surprised to find that, in the small vacation town of Valle de Bravo — population 24,000 — there were already three brands!

Early experiments with home brewing led to friends encouraging him to launch commercially four years ago.

Fermentation processAlex combines organic black tea and gunpowder green and cold brews in mountain spring water for 12 hours. He finds the water makes a real difference — filtering the chlorine-treated city water in Mexico City led to “awful” tasting kombucha. The spring water in the Valle de Bravo region is one of the secrets to his award-winning taste.

He brews in a beautiful custom extension to his home. It is flooded with natural light, and three stainless steel fermentation vessels feed into each other, where the yeasts are balanced with an acidic “kombucha vinegar” starter. He carefully cleans each SCOBY to remove excess yeast. The starter added to larger vessels limits the propagation of yeasts, helps the bacteria, and allows for a 12-day F1 cycle. The ambient temperature in the winter is 14C (57F) and 24C (78F) in summer. He does not use heating pads; he uses extra starter in the summer.

This YouTube video shows Alex in his brewery:

Award-winningValleSana was the Gold Medal winner with their Original (Natural) Kombucha at both the KBI World Kombucha Awards European Salon held in Barcelona in October 2023, and the March 2023 KKON held in Long Beach, California.

His logo is printed directly on the bottles to ease recycling. The flavor details are on the cap. In addition to Natural they make Ginger, Curcu Mint, and Lemon.

The liter bottles sell for 160-200 pesos ($9.00-$11.50), and the 300 ml for 60-70 pesos ($3.50-$4.00). Valle de Bravo and Mexico City residents can join his Kombucha Club and place online orders for six and 12-packs. He distributes to retail outlets in these two locations.

He plans to meet growing demand by investing in more extensive facilities with the help of his older brother, Robert.

PodcastAlex shares more specifics about his brewing process and passion for natural, organic kombucha in the podcast.

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Following the October 31 report in Spain’s El Pais newspaper which contained a pointed critique of Manna-K, we were eager to interview Denis Kelleher, the founder and CEO of Good Culture Kombucha — the foremost international distributors of the product. Tune in to the 18-minute podcast to hear Denis‘s side of the story.

Good Culture’s home page contains links to a comprehensive 46-page Kombucha Producers Guide that includes kombucha recipes, production processes, and tips on creating commercial kombucha using Manna-K. It lists the features and benefits of Manna-K.

What is Manna-K?Manufactured by Quebec-based Mannanova Solutions and distributed from Good Culture depots in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, and Kentucky, Manna-K is “made just like traditional Kombucha using organic green tea, organic sugar, filtered water, kombucha starter & SCOBY. It is then left to ferment and mature its flavors for up to six months in the perfect fermentation environment.” During the lengthy fermentation, when all sugars and alcohol are fermented out, Manna-K becomes super sour and can be blended at whatever level works for the finished product. “You can make a thousand different styles of kombucha using Manna-K.” Denis clarified they sell a variety of Manna-K of different strengths, some based on green and others on black teas.

Features include:

• A guarantee that your kombucha will be alcohol-free. “Through the long fermentation process, all the alcohol gets naturally fermented out.”
• Manna-K can “naturally extend your raw unpasteurized kombucha shelf life to 12 Months+.”
• Consistency.”With a consistent kombucha base, commercial producers can establish their unique brand identity and build consumer trust in their product.”
• It allows kombucha breweries to get“10 times more capacity from the same equipment without requiring further capital investment.”
• Because Manna-K is immediately available, it “enables kombucha producers to say yes to large orders without having to wait for months for your fermentation to catch-up.”
• Most dramatically, it significantly reduces production time: “What would traditionally take you 6 weeks to ferment can now be produced in 12 – 24 hours using Manna-K.”
• Additionally, it “reduces the cost of production by 30%+ compared to traditional kombucha production methods.”
• Flavor Versatility. “Using a Manna-K provides commercial producers with a neutral foundation to build upon. You can experiment with various flavor combinations and ingredients, creating a diverse range of products that cater to different consumer preferences.”

Denis is adamant that his product is not a concentrate, which implies extraction or processing of a liquid:

Nothing has been done to artificially make Manna-K more concentrated. Because of Manna-K’s naturally long fermentation period it becomes about 20 times stronger in organic kombucha acids than a normal kombucha drink you might buy in the supermarket.

Sample RecipeThe Producers Guide contains a half-dozen recipe suggestions, from sodas and sparkling waters, such as this “Premium Classic Ginger Kombucha” with a typical 5% ratio of Manna-K.

Surprisingly, no additional fermentation is required. When Manna-K is blended with other ingredients, the finished kombucha is ready in a day! The use of Manna-K allows production to scale up quickly. At these ratios, a 1,000L supply can make 20,000L of kombucha.

The Producers Guide lists the styles of kombucha that can be created in a day the Manna-K way.

Brands that use Manna-KDenis won’t reveal which brands use Manna-K. Indeed, his FAQ advises “Nearly all our customers declare it on their ingredients as “Kombucha Culture.” You do not need to name it as Manna-K.” He claims over 150 brands are produced using Manna-K, among them “some of the largest” in over 30 countries. These include emerging and market-leading brands, large retailers, and contract manufacturers. Indeed, Good Culture is a champion of brands outsourcing production to a co-packer:

By partnering with a co-packer, kombucha companies can ensure consistent quality and flavor in every bottle while freeing up time and resources to focus on other areas of growth.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Denis discuss Manna-K.

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This is the second part of an interview with Stacy Jurich, the founder of Boochy Mama’s Kombucha. In Part 1, she talked about her kombucha company. She is also a small business coach.

As a successful business owner, Stacy is often asked for advice by other nascent entrepreneurs. She loves working one-on-one with others and offers reasonably priced coaching and workshop sessions.

People know of her success with Boochy Mama’s and ask about the nuts and bolts of starting and running a business, from hiring to paperwork to financing.

Her coaching company — Grassroots Advising — formalizes this. She promotes “an authentic approach to creative business solutions and start-up support,” advising people who:

• Might be thinking about quitting their job to start a business.
• Want a fresh perspective on a current business.
• Are ready for some tips on managing both a company and a family.

Stacy is passionate about helping others:

I love talking to folks about their big, crazy, brilliant business ideas and helping them take steps toward making those goals a reality.

Her workshops for people with a business concept are designed to help them launch. Students in her class are guided to gain clarity about their business ideas, discuss their concepts, outline their business model, and prepare the first steps to launch. At the end of the class, students leave with content for business cards, a website landing page, information on how to register their business, and the confidence to launch.

Her own path involved working two jobs when she bootstrapped Boochy Mama and only quit those after 18 months. She built her business organically – out of passion, with minimal start-up capital, using resources wisely, and scaling up as the business called for it. Doing so taught her to recognize and honor the ebb and flow of most aspects of entrepreneurship.

She counsels that the ‘grassroots’ approach prioritizes the efficient use of resources. Initially, she relied on business credit card funds but managed debt carefully and built her credit score to qualify for additional support. In her experience, running a business is like playing a strategic board game, where critical thinking and problem-solving skills are needed continuously. She sees organization as the key to progress and efficiency, offering help with workflow management, organizing and creating internal documents, and time management.

Stacy says people don’t need to become bogged down in convoluted business plans. I agree, and recommend checking out Jim Horan’s book, The One-Page Business Plan.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Stacy tell the story of Grassroots Advising.

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Stacy Jurich learned how to brew kombucha while living in Hawaii and continued once she was back in Toledo. Before long, she was delivering her home brew by bicycle to friends, in gradually increasing quantities. In 2014, on a visit to Oakland, California, she witnessed the explosion in the number of Bay Area and West Coast brands and — realizing the Midwest was several years behind — saw an opportunity to be a trend-setter back in her home state. She launched Boochy Mama’s Kombucha in January 2015.

As with any new business, she faced challenges scaling up as the company grew, making some mistakes along the way and climbing the learning curve time and again. However, she persevered and now sits comfortably as a success in the beverage industry.

She’s pleased that kombucha is now well-received across the Midwest and applauds the reception she has received locally, telling a local news outlet:

I feel like Toledo was a cheerleader for the business. It was unique enough that people could embrace it in that way, Toledo was also very forgiving. There have been flavors or batches where I’m like, this isn’t my best batch but we need to get it out. Everyone has been so encouraging since even before day one. I think that’s really helped get me through some of the more challenging times.

I don’t think that it would have been possible to start anywhere else because I relied so much on the network of friends and colleagues just for help finding spaces and pulling in resources. Having an established network to create this business from the ground up, organically, was really crucial to every step of the way. I think what’s exciting about where I’m at now, in year eight of the business – which is crazy – is to feel like the success of the business is thanks to – and celebrated by – the Toledo community.

Toldeo Region – In the Limelight

Social responsibilityStacy is proud of being able to give back to the community. Kombucha Mama’s teaches home-brewing workshops and is organized as an environmentally and socially minded, employee-owned company. They donate 1% of all sales to grassroots Great Lakes advocacy organizations to protect and preserve the Great Lakes surrounding the Toledo Region.

Boochy Mama’s TaproomIn addition to being stocked in stores in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Indiana and being available online, they opened a taproom April this year inside the Gathered Glassblowing Studio, located in the heart of the Historic Toledo Warehouse District.

Product rangeBoochy Mama’s Kombucha sells various flavors that rotate throughout the year, with seasonal ones available in the taproom. The core flavors are now in cans:

• Fairytale: Hibiscus, Rose, Mint.
• Sunlight Serenade: Lavender, Lemon, Tulsi.
• Temple of Gold: Ginger, Tumeric, Lemongrass.
• Woodland Bliss: Yerba Mate, Vanilla, Fir, Juniper.

As well as kombucha, they sell tonics such as Elderberry Syrup, a range of tinctures with ingredients such as hawthorn berries, linden, rose petals, gotu kola, rosemary, tulsi, lemon balm, and packaged herbal teas.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Stacy tell the Boochy Mama’s story.

But wait…there’s moreCheck out Part 2 of my interview with Stacy, where she shares details about her Grassroots Advising small business consulting service.

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Gord McDougall is a Canadian investor who addresses the struggles small and medium-sized businesses experience — from attracting equity partners to surviving business setbacks.

Gord highlights the importance of a financial plan as a necessary starting point when launching a new business. He focuses on helping those on the road to transforming into larger businesses, where outside financing becomes an option for those wishing to grow. Private investors like Gord can help if banks won’t loan sufficient funds. He is interested in talking to companies that have been around awhile and need resources to keep going, as well as founders looking to sell and move on or those interested in bringing in an active partner.

He’s observed the consolidation in other industries and anticipates that the kombucha industry will see a similar trajectory, offering opportunities for investors like him to step forward and coordinate mergers.

If you would like to learn more, you can contact Gord via email at coachgord@me.com.

DisclaimerThe content of this article is for general informational purposes only. We have no financial relationship with Mr. McDougall and make no recommendations.

PodcastCheck out the podcast to hear Gord’s views on the kombucha industry and the kinds of companies he is looking to invest in.

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OriginsIn 2018, Stefano Zamboni visited a cousin in California, tried kombucha, and on returning to Italy, founded Legend Kombucha in 2020 in his hometown of Verona, the setting for Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and the romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet.

In fact, he was so impressed by his visit to California and Oregon that he named his first SCOBY ‘West Coast’ after the region. He aims to introduce Italy to the authentic kombucha he had enjoyed in the States.

The first time I heard about kombucha and was able to taste it was in California, a few years ago now. They drank it all the time and everyone kept telling me how good it was and how cool it was. Well, at the beginning I wasn’t convinced at all, a fermented drink, a little acidic and healthy, what good could it hide? In reality I was very wrong, with time and habit I fell more and more in love with kombucha, its goodness and how good it made me feel. So much in love that then, upon returning to Italy and after some training with the best European brewers, I started thinking about founding my own brewery and then… everything else is legend!

He is dedicated to authenticity. The company logo is based on the Chinese ‘chop’– the seal used to authenticate documents. “This is why the chop is the symbol of Legend Kombucha: different from everyone else and true to itself.”

DistributionHe distributes to retail outlets across Italy, with 60% of the sales in the northern region, 30% in the center, and 10% in the less developed south. His customers span the age range, many trying it for the first time in farmers’ markets, yoga studios, and other locations. Echoing the strategy of Kelly Gasink & Jill Burns of Austin Cocktails, he firmly believes that getting in front of customers is the best use of his time.

Whenever there’s the possibility to meet people and let them try kombucha, I’m there. Whenever and wherever there are people, if it’s five or a hundred, I take time to meet people, let them taste the product, help them appreciate it, and explain about it. I’m out every weekend at fairs and festivals, and even though it’s exhausting, I make the effort. It’s the only way to spread kombucha love.

They also sell online, adding cans to enable easier shipping. Bottles outsell cans 60/40 in sales to cafes, restaurants, bakeries, and pubs. But e-commerce sales are 80% cans.

He anticipates a spike in sales in 2024, which he hopes will be “the summer of kombucha in Italy,” and hopes there will be a similar growth to that seen in Spain. The challenge is educating consumers about the superiority of his authentic kombucha vs. some of the imported “shady kombucha.”

FlavorsThere are close to a dozen unique flavors, with names inspired by the Beatles and, of course, Shakespeare:

• ORIGINAL BLEND: Obtained from the natural fermentation of a blend of black tea and three different varieties of green tea, the Original Blend has strong but delicate flavors and aromas and represents the original taste of traditional Kombucha without exaggerated acetic notes.
• GINGER BOMB: The spiciness of ginger and the citrus of lemon: an explosion of flavor for a provocative and refreshing Kombucha.
• SGT. PEPPER’S MINT: A tornado of freshness for a thirst-quenching and refreshing Kombucha: “We hope you will enjoy the show.”
• STRAWBERRY FIELDS: The scent and sweetness of memories and strawberries: Strawberry Fields, spring in a bottle. The citric notes of lime juice and hibiscus blend perfectly with the sweetness of strawberries, making it the perfect Kombucha for a regenerating break.
• MOCKITO: Fresh mint, lime juice, and you are immediately transported to a beach. For this kombucha, we were inspired by the famous Mojito, a cocktail loved all over the world. The aroma of the lime, together with the hints of mint, make us forget that this is just a “mock” version of the original.
• PEACH ONE: Peach and Basil makes a kombucha that tastes like summer. Who said basil only goes well with tomatoes? It’s paired with cold-pressed peach juice.
• SPECIALITY COFFEE: A crazy collaboration with the guys from Nowhere café Milan. Noah Tunja coffee from Colombia made this Coffee Kombucha enjoyable for every palate.
• ROMEO and JULIET: The sweetness of pineapple, passion fruit and a purple color — the perfect ingredients to fall in love with Romeo & Juliet kombucha!
• KOMBUCHA DEL L’ORTO: A Mediterranean kombucha with the herbs and aromas characteristic of the gardens of this area. The floral notes of the original kombucha combine with the balsamic and aromatic hints of infused herbs: sage, and rosemary.
• POME GRANDE: The “sweet and sour” notes of pomegranate juice give a strong and refined character to Pome Granade.
• SUN DIA: The sweetness of watermelon and the aroma of lavender: a delicate and unique combination for a refreshing and tasty Kombucha.

PodcastThe podcast begins with Stefano asking me questions about the global kombucha market since he plans to write a book introducing Italians to ‘booch. Scroll forward to 6:30 to hear the story of Legend kombucha.

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Regional identityShropshire Kombucha is based in the English market town of Shrewsbury, 30 miles to the west and a world away from the industrial cities of Wolverhampton and Birmingham. It’s a delightful rural area (close to the mythic county of Borsetshire, celebrated as the essence of rural England for over seventy years on BBC radio.) Owner Charlotte Walters sells her home-brewed kombucha at weekly and monthly farmers’ markets in Whitchurch, Nantwich, Ellesmere, Shrewsbury, and Ludlow. She also has a few local stockists in and around Shrewsbury.

I was sorry to have missed her when I recently visited Nantwich, near my hometown of Crewe, the one time in the year she was unable to attend.

Interestingly, her brand is identified with the location, with echoes of the iconic Shropshire Blue cheese, and firmly rooted in a very “foodie” English county. Artisan foods predominate, and locals can now enjoy authentic, home-brewed kombucha alongside other gourmet offerings.

OriginsCharlotte began her retail career in 2016, selling imported German chocolate tea cakes on Ludlow Market. When COVID hit, imports ceased, and she switched to kombucha, which she had already been brewing at home. She has grown her business from selling by the glass to shifting a few hundred bottles a week. As a one-person business, she is limited by the available space in her home and the hours in a day. It’s labor-intensive production with brewing, bottling, and labeling all done by hand.

She is happy with the income, which, together with her husband’s full-time work, supports the family. The business has reached a stable level, given her current level of investment, and she’s reluctant to take on debt to expand.

Charlotte enjoys the support of a loyal group of repeat customers. Many subscribe to her mailing list, which announces her market schedule and flavors on offer.

Local IngredientsCharlotte finds inspiration for her changing line-up of flavors from locally foraged, sourced, and even gifted ingredients. She brews a couple of varieties of green tea and always uses whole fruit, not fruit juice or artificial flavors. Recent finds include:

• Quince from a customer’s garden in Ludlow.
• Rosehips foraged from the hedgerows at Attingham Park.
• Elderberries foraged from the banks of the River Severn, flavoring an apple, damson, elderberry, and ginger ‘booch.
• Blackberries from the hedgerows and nettles from the riverbank.
• Star flower (borage) from the Little Wytheford Farm sunflower fields. Borage has a subtle taste similar to cucumber, combined with fresh strawberries to make a perfect summer kombucha.
• An heirloom apple, Genette Moyle, a favorite for cider brewers since the 15th century, gifted by a Ludlow customer from her garden.
• Bullaces (wild plums) from the same customer, that, together with some fresh raspberries, made an apple, raspberry, and bullace blend.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear the story of Shropshire Kombucha. The phone connection to her rural home is a little ragged, but the information comes across loud & clear.

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Gary Leigh, the owner of Go Kombucha is the founder of England’s original commercial kombucha business. Part One covered the company’s origins and the direct-to-consumer varieties sold. In Part Two, he shares his views on the risks he sees in using plastic-lined aluminum cans, the challenges anyone starting a commercial business faces, and the overall state of the industry.

ChallengesAccording to Gary, challenges faced by larger investor-financed and smaller “Ma & Pa” kombucha companies are daunting. In support of these opinions, he notes others are now acknowledging the slow acceptance of kombucha among the UK public. This is despite, as I have seen first-hand, the ready availability of vegan, vegetarian, and other ‘alternative’ foods in Britain — perhaps betraying an inherent conservatism in taste regarding beverages. Gary sees “tree-hugging vegans” as a minority of the 60 million in the UK.

He wants people to know that it is “bloody hard work making any money at this,” given that the first movers have claimed the limited shelf space.

Indeed, it seems that availability in the UK is a fraction of that in the States. Take a look at the chiller in my local Safeway in the blue-collar town of Vallejo:

Will this ever be seen in Britain?

Even for people who want to stay small and are not interested in national distribution, perhaps limiting themselves to farmers’ markets and local cafes, Gary claims that “this will never make you a full-time living.” He advises against taking on any debt. Gary says it’s taken him 20 years to arrive at a point where he makes “a very nice living.” But it takes patience.

Booch News would love to hear from small brands in the UK who have cracked the code and are succeeding in this business!

Financial DataSupporting Gary’s claims about the challenges this industry faces in the UK, we recently took a brief look at the UK Companies House data when discussing the failure rate of UK and California kombucha companies. This showed that, as with many startups, few succeed past the first few years.

Gary provided an additional list of the holding company names of some of the biggest brands and pointed to the publicly available financials, which, he claims, paint a dire picture. Take a look at the following prominent UK brands. Click the “Accounts” box to download the most recent financials as a PDF. Assets and liabilities are listed together with amounts due to creditors. Some reports disclose additional information.

• Equinox Kombucha: The Flower of Life Ltd
• Fix8 Kombucha: YMW Ltd
• Genie Kombucha: Genie Drinks Ltd
• Go Kombucha: Gaia Brands Ltd
• Hip Pop Kombucha: Insightful Brands Ltd
• Holos Kombucha: Holos London Ltd
• Jarr Kombucha: Jarr Kombucha Ltd
• LA Brewery: Better Tasting Drinks Ltd
• Left Field Kombucha: Leftfield Kombucha Ltd
• Lo Bros: Soul Fresh U.K. Ltd
• Mighty Brew Kombucha: Balanced Nature Ltd
• Momo Kombucha: Momo Kombucha Ltd
• Nexba Kombucha: Nexba Drinks U.K. Ltd
• No.1 Drinks: 3BW Ltd
• Real Kombucha: The Real Brewing Company Ltd
• Remedy Kombucha: Remedy Drinks U.K. Ltd

Disclaimer: I’m not an accountant, and there might be a level of detail behind the numbers (such as investor funding, loans, or personal assets) that tells a different story. However, the total negative equity of these 16 UK brands totals around £7 million ($9 million). Only five of this list (including Go Kombucha) reported positive 2022 numbers. However, some of the world’s largest companies lost money for years — which works if you have deep pockets. Do you?

Packaging Gary is a firm believer is the importance of packaging in glass bottles. He’s against the growing trend of switching to aluminum cans. In addition to the potential health risks of acidic liquids leaching chemicals from the plastic lining, he sees the growth in cans as sending a “mixed message” to consumers looking for a quality product.

He names Kombucha Kat, Fix8, and others as having alienated consumers by switching to cans.

In 2017, maverick UK range Kombucha Kat announced that it was switching to “lacquered” – i.e. plastic-lined – cans, spurred on by similar moves afoot across the Atlantic. And so set in motion a domino effect whereby established ranges such as Wild Fizz, Jarr, Fix8, even the ethically-led Equinox Kombucha, succumbed to the temptation that packing kombucha in cans offered…Any kombucha aficionado who’s ever drunk processed kombucha from a can lined with porous polymer plastic comprising over 200 chemicals will tell you that the taste bears only a passing resemblance to authentic, whole kombucha that kicks from a glass bottle, itself made, like traditional kombucha, with just four natural ingredients; sand, soda, ash and limestone.

No Can Do! Why We Have Bottled In Glass For 20+ Years

PodcastBe sure to tune in to the podcast to hear Gary’s concerns. If you have any opinions about his views, please leave comments here on the blog or social media.

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Gary Leigh, the owner of Go Kombucha, Sussex, England, sat down for an interview with Booch News. We spoke for over an hour. In Part One of the interview (30 minutes), Gary shares the story of the founding of England’s original commercial kombucha business. Check out Gary’s blog for a series of brutally honest posts about the origins of the business, his 20-year journey, the impact of the COVID pandemic, the death of his father, and a series of financial and personal challenges. In Part Two, he shares his views on the risks he sees in using plastic-lined aluminum cans, the challenges anyone starting a commercial business faces, and the overall state of the industry.

OriginsIt all began in 2003 when Gary visited friends at their boat house by the Thames in Hampton Wick. They served a strange fermented tea to visitors. Enthralled by the taste, he left his successful publishing career, sold his London apartment, and helped his friends launch a commercial company.

They had studied the book Kombucha Tea for Your Health and Healing by Alick Bartholomew (“the grandfather of UK kombucha”) and initially named the brand Boat House Kombucha, then Gaia Kombucha, before settling on Go Kombucha.

Twenty years on, Go Kombucha claim they have

Been brewing the UK’s authentic and trusted kombucha without compromise, never veering from the original Ancient Chinese recipe or small batch production method, nor taking short cuts or using artificial processes to speed up production.

The company is based in an old family vineyard on the Sussex Weald, where their water has unique “Schumann Resonance” properties. This is:

…energy that magnetically energizes/electrifies our naturally purified spring water some 50-60 feet below ground where we brew in rural East Sussex; the land above being entirely unspoiled in any way. Any pendulum dowsing our booch literally swings 360 degrees, as earth energy imbues our kombucha.

That these higher vibrational energies are now incoming and accessible to all who are dedicated to the evolution of consciousness and genuine progress – that is, the focus on all things positive/high vibrational, be it love, peace, understanding, etc. – is a sign we’re soon to ascend from the current level of chaos still playing out from the Age of Pisces to an expanded, fifth dimensional level of consciousness and awareness.

Full details on the origins of Go Kombucha can be found on their blog. Some highlights:

• Fermented tea in the boathouse
• Funding the Boat House brand
• Gaia Kombucha moves to Sussex
• Ramping up in 2007
• Relaunching in 2010

Direct distributionThe Go Kombucha website is fully enabled for online, direct-to-consumer sales. They supply direct to a discerning online customer base within 1-2 working days across most of the UK. Gary reports that he makes a decent living selling directly to around 3,000 regular customers.

The varieties on offer (except for Ginger Sencha) are OG ‘booch that feature the tea flavor instead of added fruits.

• Red Pu-erh 750ml Organic Red Pu-erh tea is bold, earthy and craft cider-like, with plenty of punch – and lots of oomph!
• Yunnan Gold 250ml Organic Yunnan tea has an aromatic, smoky edge with russet apple and ripples of caramel, and is a great non-alcoholic alternative to craft ale.
• Darjeeling Black 250ml Second flush organic Darjeeling tea from the Lingia tea estate on the Himalayan foothills has a complex body and muscat black grape note.
• Green Sencha 750ml Organic Green Sencha tea is light and mellow with crisp notes of elderflower and apple, like a medium white wine.
• China White 250ml Organic Pai Mu Tan delivers a delicate, smoother tang with fragrant notes, like a teetotal Prosecco.
• Ginger Sencha 250ml – Organic Sencha tea infused with piquant and peppery organic ginger juice for a warming and invigorating kick.

Shipping is via APC, a specialist glass carrier that ensures the product reaches customers promptly.

In both the choice of direct-to-consumer distribution and focus on quality teas, Gary’s Go Kombucha is aligned with Ronald Chapdelaine’s STEALTH Naked Kombucha in Massachusetts. It’s fair to say both men are iconoclasts who proudly stay true to their firmly held beliefs. This is undoubtedly the case with the care they take with their specific production techniques.

Production techniquesGary claims that

Almost all “kombuchas” sold on the high street today are, at best, filtered and artificially carbonated, at worse pasteurized and/or with added “proprietary” probiotic powder blends (genuine kombucha is naturally occurring and therefore can’t be patented) The addition of industrially-extracted sweeteners and sugar alcohols like steviol glycosides and erythritol further impair the taste profile and can irritate the gut lining, interfere with levels of good bacteria and cause digestive issues like bloating and diarrhoea – the very antithesis of real kombucha!

By contrast

The key to our authenticity is we are a small batch booch biz that knows the limits of making real, no-nonsense kombucha by hand just like you would make at home and not being tempted to scale up for mass production and the corners that would need to be cut and the artificial processes applied along the way. What you are really investing in with GO Kombucha and imparting your hard-earned cash for is nothing innovative in and of itself, but rather years of learning, finessing and fine tuning that has enabled us to perfect what can be achieved in any home with the same amount of patience, perseverance and tenacity, and of course the guarantee that every bottle is a lip-smacking hit – it can take many misses before you do, finally, get the balance and taste just right!

PodcastTune in to the podcast to hear the story of Go Kombucha in Gary’s own words.

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In 2014, Lucy George transitioned from harvesting strawberries to growing tea on her family farm — now known as the Peterston Tea Estate — in the Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff, Wales. What started as an experimental project soon became many thousands of plants. These were grown from seed, so it is a long process – around four years before it is ready to be picked. While tea bushes usually thrive in warmer conditions than in Wales, Lucy has made it work by sheltering the plants under polytunnels.

The harsh climate stresses the tea plants — resulting in more complex flavors.

Growing tea here is not exactly straightforward – our climate is quite challenging, and conditions are distinctly marginal – but it is possible, and with much patience, learning, and nurturing, we are successfully producing very special, completely unique, award-winning tea…and kombucha!

The process is necessarily labor-intensive. They handpick the leaves, process, package, and ship the teas to a minimal number of people.

We’re on to the second pick of the second flush… a fairly huge (for Welsh tea) amount coming through and we won’t lie… are currently questioning our sanity for handpicking it all…with just two of us.

I heard about this unique business when they were featured on the BBC Radio 4 Food Program.

KombuchaLucy decided last year to use her own teas to produce Peterston Kombucha. They use the broken leaves and ‘shoulder season’ teas as the basis of their kombucha. She drew on her home brewing experience and scaled up to stainless steel containers.

This is small-scale, selective production in batches of 300 liters. They sell their ‘original’ blends in glass bottles and use fruits grown on the farm to flavor the cans of raspberry fig leaf and yuzu.

The lightly toasted green tea (Tost) and black (Du) are named from the Welsh terms for ‘toasted’ and ‘black.’

Their loose-leaf teas and kombucha are available via mail from their website. The prestigious Fortnum & Mason shop in Piccadilly, London stocks the teas.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Lucy tell the Peterston story,

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Emmett Kerrigan and Keith Loftus founded All About Kombucha in Claregalway, Ireland, in 2017. After finishing college, they spent two years in Vancouver, Canada, where they first came across kombucha. On returning to Ireland, they had a thirst. A thirst that they soon realized could only be quenched with a brew of their own. And so, All About Kombucha was born. They established a core set of values that they’ve followed from day one: Be Sound, Cause Minimal Harm, Work Hard, Uncap Creativity, and Practice Self-Actualization. They claim to be “Ireland’s Only Carbon Neutral Kombucha Brewery.”

The first booch batches were brewed in Emmett’s shed. They now occupy a vast 6,500 sq. ft industrial facility located a half-hour outside of Galway in a Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking) area of rural Ireland. They receive government grants designed to strengthen the Irish language and culture in these areas.

The facility boasts five brite tanks, a warm room for fermentation with HEPA-filtered air, and an office suite created by converting two secondhand shipping containers. They added windows and doors, painted them, stacked them up, and added some stairs to create a kitchen and office space for the team. It even has disco lights!

They started selling in bottles and moved to cans. An automated canning line handles five cans at a time and does 1,000 cans an hour, which is what they were doing a day before!

MarketingIn 2022, they won the Irish Food Writers Guild Irish Drink Award and appeared on the Late Late television show.

They recently had a booth at the Irish National Ploughing Championships, where over 1,700 exhibitors pitch their wares to 275,000 visitors from farms across Ireland who gather in Europe’s largest outdoor event in Ratheniska, County Laois. At their stall in the organic village, they gave out thousands of samples. Many farmers struggle with diabetes and are intrigued by a low-sugar alternative.

All About Kombucha is available across Ireland, in award-winning restaurants, and select SuperValu and Tesco’s in Galway.

They also sell kombucha kits for home brewers.

FlavorsCans of unpasteurized, live, and organic kombucha are available in Ginger & Lemon, Raspberry, and Blueberry & Mint. They are experimenting with Elderflower, Pear and Rosemary in collaboration with other creative foodies.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear what Keith told me about All About Kombucha during my early morning visit to their facility.

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Following the recent re-posting of the video where Stéphane Erler of Taiwan’s Tea Masters interviews STEALTH Naked Kombucha founder Ronald Chapdelaine and the follow-up profile of Tea Masters, this profile and podcast delves into the background of STEALTH Naked Kombucha.

It is marketed as a high-end beverage to connoisseurs with sophisticated palates. It is the result of decades of experience by Ronald, who began fermenting in the early 1990s, just as commercial kombucha emerged.

Marketing and DistributionSTEALTH has chosen to bypass the standard retail channels. A higher-priced drink than most brands, they focus their energy on corporate, universities, celebrities, professional sports teams, and direct-to-consumer sales. They’ve built the business to the level where they have almost 2,000 customers, each personally known to Ronald.

We offer free home delivery in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut and shipping to the lower 48 states of the USA. Enjoy 16 & 32 oz. bottles or 64 oz. growlers.

They rely on word of mouth rather than online advertising and social media. Indeed, the STEALTH Naked Instagram is unique in that it rarely features kombucha. Instead, it reflects Ronald’s art, culture, and history interests. As this small selection shows, he sees this as a way to engage with consumers who share his passions.

DifferentiationA quirky approach to social media is not all that differentiates this brand from others. Ronald claims that points of differentiation include:

• We don’t flavor, they flavor
• We cure, they don’t cure
• We document (on the bottle), they don’t
• We focus on pH, others don’t mention
• We use exclusively use bottled water, others don’t
• We use high-quality teas, others — who knows?

Much of this data is prominent on the label.

TransportationI’d interviewed Ronald for an article on supply chain challenges in the Spring edition of SYMBIOSIS, where he shared details of his lifelong background in trucking. His father owned a trucking business, and Ronald knows his 18-wheelers. This allows him to keep costs down and do his own distribution.

A creative solution to rising transport costs is taking charge of your shipping. Ron Chapeldine of Stealth Naked Kombucha (Wellesley, Massachusetts) keeps transportation costs down since he is a licensed truck driver who owns his own 1984 vintage Mack truck with a 53-foot trailer that holds 28 pallets. He transports the Essentia alkaline ionized water he uses for brewing 30 miles from Polar Beverage in Worcester, MA. He also makes 1,400-mile long-haul trips to collect glassware at Arkansas Glass in Jonesboro, AK. Ron also owns a 28 ft. second-hand van he bought from Penske for local distribution, complete with a Thermo King diesel reefer unit and rear hydraulic lift gate.

SYMBIOSIS, Spring 2023

Essentia is an onized alkaline living water.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear about STEALTH Naked kombucha.

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Following the recent interview of Ronald Chapdelaine of STEALTH Naked Kombucha by Stéphane Erler of Taiwan’s Tea Masters I called Stéphane to find out more about his upscale tea export business. Ronald sources his teas from Tea Masters and I...

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This is the eighth in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. While J’s Kombucha was established over two years ago, the...

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Troo Food started life as an activist food collective in 2009. They introduced people to raw food, making kale chips, fruit rolls, savory and sweet snacks, and, of course, kombucha. Today, founder Danae Tsekoura works with Elly Lygnos, Orestis Tilios,...

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As a home brewer I’m well aware of the challenges of fermenting consistent kombucha, and accept that my batches vary throughout the year. I’m impressed by commercial brands that are able to produce a standard product week after week. Larger...

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Erica Chemolli was born and raised in Italy and moved to the States where she founded Kombucha Queen Miami 18 months ago. She started making kombucha as a way to heal her Vitiligo, a skin disorder resulting in white patches...

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In June, I visited Esra and Dila, the founders of Kombucha 2200, in the densely populated Gültepe – Kağıthane district of Istanbul. They started commercial production four years ago and now make 35,000 bottles a month. They have branched out...

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This is the second in a series of profiles featuring kombucha brands in Greece and Turkey that I visited this summer. It is also the seventh in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha...

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In May and June I traveled to Greece and Turkey on vacation. This is the first of a series of Profiles from the trip. George Cassimatis founded Tsitsiri Kombucha in Athens three years ago. We met at his booth at...

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OriginsFounding brothers Jack and Jordan Sotoriou started the Kombucha Warehouse in January 2022. At the time, Jack had been brewing kombucha at home, Jordan was interested in launching a commercial brand, but when looking on GoDaddy for available names he spotted “Kombucha Warehouse” was unclaimed and inspiration struck. They now stock the UK’s largest online selection of great-tasting kombucha drinks.

Their goal is to provide people with an easy and affordable way to access a large variety of kombucha, delivered overnight to their home or office.

VarietyThe Warehouse currently stocks over 220 different flavors from 40+ brands, with new brands being added each month. In fact, they have a waiting list from among the UK’s 90+ brands, and plan to keep expanding their offerings.

Their well-designed website is an easy-to-navigate listing by brewery and flavor. It’s easy to see the numbers available – where, for instance, Ginger & Spice leads the flavors on offer with 61 choices, followed by 54 varieties of Floral & Herbal, and 49 varieties of Berry ‘booch.

Where else could someone with a thirst for kombucha find a selection like this? Even the most well-stocked natural foods shop will only carry a fraction of these offerings.

As well as the more well-known UK brands (Equinox, Remedy, Holos) they carry a wide range from smaller, regional producers — some which we’ve profiled in Booch News such as Hip Pop (originally Booch & Brew) in Altrincham, Laid Bear in Leek

SubscriptionsRegular customers can save by taking out a regular subscription. Their Kombucha Club offer a unique selection each month, where they feature the latest additions. This is reminiscent of wine clubs, designed to provide customers with a series of wine bottles on a monthly or quarterly basis that they would otherwise have to find and purchase on their own. Wine clubs often behave in a themed manner, providing recipients with red wines, white wines, or a mixture of the two. Likewise, the Warehouse.

They also offer larger quantities to offices, who can order 48, 144, or 240 at a time.

PodcastListen to the podcast interview with Jordan to learn more about the Kombucha Warehouse.

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Brewch flavorings were created in 2016 by Brendan Woodward, a kombucha enthusiast. He intended to develop a range of flavors for his home brews that were as healthy and efficient as possible. In 2020 his friend Arturo joined the project to establish the brand and define operations and R&D.

They now offer a range of organic flavoring concentrates for kombucha brewers, and FREE SAMPLES are readily available.

Food grade standardsBewch is formulated to food grade standard, specifically for kombucha brewing, to stay compatible with a live culture. Ethyl alcohol is naturally compatible with the yeast and kombucha biome.

Using these flavors helps kombucha brewers avoid pasteurization and a “kill step” since it is a non-caloric solution to the fruit-juice-as flavor and similar syrup-based flavoring systems.

Brewch is used following primary fermentation (F1) of raw kombucha, kefir water, cider, framboise, or malt beverage. It is SCOBY Safe and will not harm the precious biome of the probiotic beverage. Just a few drops per serving are added before bottling. Specifics:

• The flavors have been thoroughly tested for kombucha and other fermented beverages.
• Brewch flavors are fully “SCOBY safe” — tested to ensure that it cooperates with the acetobacter and yeast colony to promote healthy, sustained growth.
• Brewch kombucha flavorings are concentrated from organic compliant, vegan, gluten, and sugar-free organic essences from fruits and vegetables
• Because Brewch is sugar-free, you have final control of your flavoring, fizz, and sweetness during F2 fermentation.
• Brewch flavors can help with long-term predictability and consistency, streamlining the manufacturing and scalability of production.

FlavorsThe current line of flavors is:

Pearesto, Mango Magic, Lemon Grass, Ginger, Cucumber, Manna Fruit, Cranberry Apple, Chai Spice, and Basil.

These are used, in a 1:1 ratio, with either of the pre-flavoring conditioners, Miracle Mixer and Miracle Potion.

These soften harsh acid notes in naturally brewed kombucha and opens up the beverage for full and shelf-stable flavoring without the introduction of foreign yeast, sugars, or off-notes typical in fruit juice concentrates.

Brewch is owned by McKnight Standard LLC, an FDA-registered and inspected flavoring company in Monroe, WA.

Free SamplesBrewch is happy to send FREE SAMPLES of their full range of kombucha products to any home based or commercial brewers.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear what Brendan and Arturo told me about their flavorings at the KKON23 event.

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After spending a week in Long Beach at KKON23, I planned to drive back home to Northern California on Friday, April 21. Before leaving greater Los Angeles, I visited Trey Lockerbie, the founder of Better Booch in Huntington Park. I spent over an hour touring their warehouse and production facility and heard about the company’s growth. Listen to the podcast to hear what he shared with me.

Company growthTrey and Ashleigh started brewing kombucha commercially in 2012, distributing at LA Farmer’s Markets. Since then, they have charted a course of steady growth to become a nationally distributed brand, producing 85,000 gallons a month.

Trey discovered kombucha when his sister was diagnosed with breast cancer at 24. After learning about the health benefits of kombucha, he started brewing it for her at home.

Both had a background as professional musicians, working with Rihanna, Lady Antebellum, Selena Gomez, and Lenka. Still, they wanted to do something that would allow them to earn a living without touring.

They bootstrapped their business for the first six years before raising $2.5 million in a funding round led by Crush Ventures. In the early days, Trey drove around Los Angeles delivering 100 cases of kombucha a day out of their minivan.

They started by renting a shared commercial kitchen, working from 11 pm to 3 am since these were the cheaper hours. They then signed a lease on their own space. Unfortunately, this was misrepresented as having all the necessary manufacturing permits. They had to completely re-do the plumbing and electrical wiring. To make the numbers work, they shared the space with a cold brew coffee company they met at a local farmers market. Ultimately, that turned into a partnership that was instrumental in the growth of both brands. Finding synergies with other brands wherever possible helped to build a community of entrepreneurs working together — swapping contacts and sharing resources. In 2022 they celebrated 10 years in business.

They’ve recently started distributing in Trey’s home state of Indiana and across the Midwest.

Why cans?Ashleigh and Trey believe in the environmental benefits of packaging and distributing their kombucha in cans. This Instagram post explains the reasons:

We dig canned kombucha MORE than glass bottle kombucha. It’s more sustainable, easier for us to take on our adventures, and can save you some loot when stocking up…now that’s what we call cultivation in a can.

Better Booch’s Head of Product, and quality control analyst, Joshua Herskovitz, PhD. who qualified in Food Materials at Cornell University, and is familiar with Food Contact Material testing, addressed concerns some have that the plastic lining that protects aluminum cans from the acidic liquid might leach chemicals into the drink. He references a study underway by Dr. Gavin Sacks, who he studied under at Cornell:

The cans we use are BPANI (BPA not included) lined to prevent any corrosion and migration from the can. The manufacturer performs corrosivity testing with each one of our SKUs prior to issuing us a warranty on the use of the can for our flavor. They can afford us this warranty because they perform individualized corrosivity testing on each of our product lines. As Dr. Sacks pointed out, kombucha pH is considerably less acidic (1 whole pH point=10x) than colas which have been proven to be fine. In addition, in order to be approved by the FDA for use as a food contact material (FCM) liners must undergo extensive testing in acidic environments (such as pure acetic acid) and prove to not corrode or leach into the food product. Individual manufacturers must undergo their own FCM licensing from the FDA proving that they are capable of creating food packaging to the appropriate standards of the FDA.

Trey goes into more detail about their reasons for using cans in the first few minutes of the podcast.

FlavorsKnown for imaginative flavors, Better Booch offers consumers a fizzy, refreshing kombucha powered by premium loose-leaf teas, adaptogens, herbs, and botanicals, low in sugar while remaining truly raw, unpasteurized, and non-alcoholic. The kombucha, brewed and canned in-house, uses no juice, powders, chemicals, or concentrates in its 100 percent tea-based blends. Among the lowest in sugar on the market (only 5g per serving), it is brimming with probiotics and beneficial acids produced from fermentation, while polyphenols and antioxidants from the tea support overall health and immunity. Better Booch offers eight flavors:

• Ginger Boost
• Golden Pear
• Hibiscus Healer
• Morning Glory
• Rose Bliss
• Strawberry Lemonade
• Citrus Sunrise
• Island Hopper

PhilosophyFrom the start, they realized entrepreneurs will inevitably face obstacles they must overcome. They were inspired by stoic philosophers who counsel that what does not kill you, makes you stronger!

A picture of Warren Buffet hangs on the wall of Trey’s office. He acknowledged the impact meeting Buffet had on him and keeps a copy of Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders at hand.

PodcastTo hear Trey tell the story of Better Booch, listen to the podcast.

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Jake Ahles’ presentation at KKON23 Unlock the Power of Visual Content Marketing: Boost Your Brand’s Impact, Engagement, and Sales highlighted why, in today’s highly visual world, brands need to stand out from the crowd with a powerful and engaging visual content marketing strategy.

Jake is the founder of Foodtography Studio: a visual content marketing company specializing in food and beverage CPG brands, particularly those with an eye toward the future of food and beverage. For over 10 years he’s worked with brands around the globe to help them engage their audience, accelerate sales, and gain market share.

His KKON workshop shared details of:

• A comprehensive, actionable game plan for implementing a highly effective visual content marketing program that resonates with your target audience and sets you apart from the competition.
• An exclusive look at the F.E.E.E.D. Framework, a powerful cheat sheet that serves as your ultimate guide to crafting compelling visual content.

The five elements of F.E.E.E.D, which Jake says are essential ingredients of any successful visual content marketing campaign, and will enable you to create striking and impactful content, are:

• Facts
• Education
• Entertainment
• Excitement
• Differentiation

The challenge, for many kombucha brands in emerging markets — frankly, most of the planet — is how to differentiate from beverage alternatives such as soda, bottled water, and beers. For those in mature markets, it would also include how to differentiate from other kombucha brands.

The piece Jake left out of his KKON workshop was examples of him own work, which can be found on his website. Here are some examples.

Still PhotographyVideo 1Video 2PodcastFollowing his presentation, I sat down with Jake and asked him to explain in more detail his views on visual marketing, and the services he offers. To find out more, contact him.

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KKON23 was held April 18 – 20 at the Westin Hotel, Long Beach, California. Over 150 attendees and exhibitors enjoyed hands-on workshops, presentations, and exceptional networking.

We took the opportunity to ask a random selection of attendees to share their impressions of the event. Listen to the podcast to hear from:

Flower Crown Kombucha, Tampa, FL

Crossfade Kombucha Cocktails, Boise, ID

Wirehaired Booch, Lewisville, NC

Reboot Hard Kombucha, San Diego, CA

Casa Alquimista, Culver City, CA

Kaldi Kombucha, Guatemala

Club Kombucha, Colombia

Zestea Kombucha, Taiwan

FermenSante, Haiti

BFF Kombucha, Spencer, WI

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The partner sponsors of the Kombucha Conference exhibited at booths in the hotel. I spoke with each about their services, hear what they told me in this podcast.

Anton PaarAnton Paar develops, produces and distributes highly accurate laboratory instruments and process measuring systems, and provides custom-tailored automation and robotic solutions. It is the world leader in the measurement of density, concentration and CO2 and in the field of rheometry. Anton Paar GmbH is owned by the charitable Santner Foundation

BrewLogixMarketMyBrewery creates growth opportunities for craft brewers through an ecosystem of marketable pathways between brewers and their fans & customers. Fully integrated with the New BreweryDB®. Craft lovers trust BreweryDB® to find, filter, search, and route their way to breweries in the neighborhood and around the world. Whether driving the main highway or biking the local trail, the BreweryDB® App builds meaningful pathways between fans of craft and the brewery experience.

Draft LabFounded in 2016, DraughtLab grew out of a collaboration between sensory experts and problem-solving software designers that share a common love of the industry. Disillusioned by the cost and complexity of available sensory systems, we set out to change how sensory programs function; breaking down the existing barriers to entry and creating an accessible, affordable and powerful product. From the first chance meeting, it was clear that we wanted to create something special and be guided by our shared core principles.

EkosPowering nearly half of small- and medium-sized U.S. breweries, Ekos is the leading brewery software solution for forward-thinking beer producers. Run your entire business better, save time, and discover game-changing insights with one central system.

FermentisFermentis is an agile and expanding company, dedicated to fermented beverages industries. It is a business unit of Lesaffre Group, global key player in yeast and all its applications for over 160 years. Our roots are strong while having an audacious spirit. As things happen during the fermentation… our goal is to discover them all for you in terms of taste, flavour and pleasure.

FirsdTeaOrganic. About 50% of all US organic tea imports come from China. Firsd Tea leads in organic from China. Sustainable. Trusted source of sustainable teas for international tea brands.

GEAThe GEA brewpub separator skid is a ready-to-go centrifuge package unit to clarify beer, wort and other products in brewpubs and smaller breweries. It is the ideal starter skid designed for the particular needs of microbrewies.

Global OrganicsGlobal Organics has been providing certified organic food ingredients to manufacturers and wholesalers worldwide since 1992.

Hoffer PlasticsDrop-Lok. For ridgid and flexible packages.

Nepal Tea CollectiveNepal Tea Collective is an immigrant-owned business established in 2016. We are a public benefit corporation that distributes freshest teas, organically grown and packed at origin in Nepal, to the US and worldwide.

PetainerPetainer is a responsible manufacturing business that strives to design and produce highly innovative, circular products that can be collected, reused or recycled.

Rare CombinationsIn 2017, Rare Combinations Founder Nick Robertson was trying to start a kombucha brewery in Athens, Georgia. After discovering the 0.5% alcohol content limit in the US, he set out to create an affordable alcohol content detector for kombucha brewers. Today, over 150 brewers around the world now use the Rare Combinations alcohol content detector!

SaxcoFrom spirit bottles to wine bottles and closures to capsules, Saxco Select is stocked nationwide and available at unbeatable prices for quick fulfillment. We leverage a world-class global network of manufacturers to produce our Saxco Select products to exact specifications and our sourcing experts are onsite during production to maintain the highest level of quality. All this so that you have the surety of supply you need and the quality packaging your craft deserves.

Stout TanksOur high quality craft brewing equipment is 100% sanitary and made from premium 304 stainless steel, offering superior sanitation and easy cleaning. Choose from a variety of conical fermenters, brew kettles, IBC totes, variable capacity tanks, mash tuns, hop backs, brite tanks, and other equipment for making quality Beer, Wine, Kombucha, Cider, Mead, Cold brew coffee and more. We have sizes for home brewing and commercial brewing systems, and can custom build any tank to fit your needs.

TeatuliaThe cultivation of delicious organic tea through an intentional business model that seeks to positively impactall stakeholders and externalities from garden to cup/glass/can, leaving our world better than we found it.

Tradin OrganicTradin Organic supplies the international food industry with globally sourced, organic raw ingredients.

UBC GroupThe distribution center for quality beer & beverage equipment, kegs and promo materials.

White LabsWhite Labs offers products and services for both traditional and alcoholic kombucha. From cultures and nutrients to laboratory services White Labs is here to support your fermentation needs.

Wild Goose FillingIn 2016, Wild Goose Canning and Meheen Bottling unified under Wild Goose Filling Systems to provide customers with more packaging options to fit their needs. Together, their decades of craft industry knowledge and engineering expertise, gives producers packaging solutions that work for their business. Their industry-leading options for bottling and canning include manual, automated, and mobile systems engineered for quality and designed to protect beverage integrity. Today, craft producers all over the world rely on Goose for high-quality and consistent beer, wine, cider, CBD drinks, coffee, kombucha and more.

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The 9th Annual Kombucha Summit (#KKON23) kicked off today in Long Beach, California. I caught up with a few of the attendees and asked what they anticipated getting from the event. They’d come from the Mexico, Japan, Ireland, and across the US.

Listen to this brief podcast to hear what brought them to Long Beach.

Featured:

Valle Sana, Mexico

BFF Kombucha, Wisconsin

Teagasc, Ireland

Ship Kombucha, Japan

Flying Embers, California

Wirehaired Booch, North Carolina

Same Tang, Florida

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This is the sixth in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way, and their story has lessons for us all.

Husband and wife Helena and Daniel are the co-founders of Culture Kitchn based in Queens, New York.

They first fell in love with kombucha because it truly changed their lives. For Helena, it improved her overall digestion, and for Daniel, it eliminated his lactose intolerance.

The idea for Culture Kitchn came when they realized, as Asian-Americans, the flavors they grew up with were not on kombucha shelves. So, they took it upon themselves to produce flavors that reflected different cultures, design packaging that playfully speaks to each–and brew the drink in the way they wanted to enjoy. Think Lychee and Yuzu.

Ultimately, Culture Kitchn’s mission is to offer a taste of different cultures–through cultures.

This month marks their first anniversary of being self-employed. After months of debate, Helena quit her full-time job to start a beverage company with Daniel. “It felt like a crazy idea at the time, but I just knew that if I didn’t take the risk now, I wouldn’t later. I had to follow my gut…”

Brewing kombucha started as a hobby in their kitchen. They wanted to build their immunity while having fun experimenting with different flavors and combinations, such as kombucha chia seed jello. After two years of sharing it with friends and family, they decided it was time to also share it with the world. And so the creation of Culture Kitchn began.

The venture had its own set of challenges. Even today, they find stepping into breweries and brewing supply stores intimidating. But, Helena says, “I have to push past the ignorance in a predominantly male industry and introduce myself as someone who isn’t just homebrewing as a hobby or a brand ambassador for some company. If I want to learn how to scale this business, I’d have to put myself in uncomfortable situations.”

One year later, they have brewed over 3,000 bottles, are stocked in 10+ brick-and-mortar stores, and have spoken with thousands of people sampling their product. They’ve learned how to:

• Create temperature-regulated spaces (both hot and cold)
• Adjust a CO2 regulator to get the right PSI
• Handle 55-lb kegs on a daily basis
• Create digital assets on Adobe Illustrator to bootstrap their marketing

“It’s just the beginning, and I have so much more to learn. But five years ago, I would’ve never have thought this was the journey I’d be on.”

FlavorsThe flavors are promoted with a nod to Asian-American culture:

2x Lychee Kombucha. Enjoy while…

• Eating soup dumplings
• Playing mahjong
• Snacking on pineapple buns

2x Yuzu Kombucha. Enjoy while…

• Binging your favorite anime
• Slurping udon
• Indulging on mochi ice cream

2x Apple Kombucha. Enjoy while…

• On a hayride around an orchard
• Snacking on cider donuts
• Wandering through a corn maze

PodcastListen to the podcast hear about Culture Kitchn from Helena and Daniel.

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This is the fifth in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way, and their story has lessons for us all.

After moving from Boston to a small town in the Rocky Mountains, Kayla Doan first tasted kombucha and six short months later has launched Wildflower Kombucha.

Salida is a town of 10,000 with a strong sense of community. There are plenty of on-again/off-agin home brewers among the residents, so having a year-round supply of mindfully brewed, sustainable kombucha is welcome.

Kayla applied her background in small business consulting and the technology industry to develop a ‘lean’ business that fully engages an environment ‘circular economy’ where all containers are recycled. Having to purchase a supply of glass bottles would have been a deal-breaker as she bootstrapped the business, having the community source them was a big savings, Next, she plans to adopt a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model where people can buy a share in the business to support development.

She currently brews out of a commercial kitchen, ramping up and down as seasonal demand changes.

Generative AIKayla first came to my attention when she posted on her Instagram that she used the generative AI program Midjourney to brainstorm her logo. She then posted the options to her Instagram asking for customers to vote on their favorite. This also helped keep costs down in the critical start-up stage.

She describes the process on LinkedIn, stating:

For startups and small businesses, the promise of democratized AI is just that – the opportunity to level up with fewer resources and less time. And, to maybe have some fun along the way.

Looking ahead, I believe the most exciting opportunity here is the website layouts Midjourney generated. Now these are impressively good. A future where all marketing collateral, including visual, is generated for you in a couple of prompts is closer than we think.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Kayla describe the journey of starting her business.

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Founder Brian Igersheim has used his food science background to brew kombucha since 2000.

After years of his friends and family enjoying his unique and palatable fermented tea, he finally decided to give it a try (with a push from his younger brother) on a broader scale. What started in 2015 in a small commercial kitchen in San Rafael has migrated to a fully built, state-of-the-art 11,000-square-foot brewing facility in an industrial park on the outskirts of Novato, distributed from coast to coast and internationally.

Marin Kombucha is named after Marin County, California, listed among the 10 wealthiest in the US.

Interestingly, the very first Booch News Instagram post pictured the “Innovative dispenser for Marin Kombucha at Copperfield Books in San Rafael. A credit card swipe switched on the pumps, which dispenses the ‘booch and increments the charge — just like any petrol pump.”

We then profiled the company in 2019 when BevNet interviewed Brian, who shared his brewing philosophy, focus on draft kombucha, and marketing strategy. Back then he noted an interest in the sports world that continues to this day.

Brian has a rule of thumb that a gallon of authentic kombucha can be produced from two square feet of a facility. Their current facility can produce up to 5,500 gallons a week.

RebrandingMarin kombucha is not alone in rebranding. Unlike many others, the new design was developed in-house. This display, from my local Safeway in late February, shows the more recent labels with a modern font alongside the original look with the picture of the iconic Mt. Tamalpais, a Marin county landmark. The transition represents a move from traditional kombucha to an “active culture probiotic tea” that promotes a healthy microbiome with healing properties (probiotics, antioxidants, detoxifying acids) while functionally supporting active lifestyles.

FlavorsAll flavors are based on the same mix of black and green teas.

They brew a blend of one-third Dragonwell (Lung Ching or Longjing in local parlance) Chinese green tea that tastes sweet, mellow and rounded, and two-thirds black Keemun Chinese black tea with a fruity, lightly smoky, flavor and lingering floral aftertaste. They infuse twice, initially at a lower temperature, then at a higher temperature. This minimizes the caffeine content.

Flavors are Original Oak Aged, Pinot Sage, Apple Juniper, Ginger Lemongrass, Apple Juniper, Melon Rose, Cactus Agave, Raspberry Cacao, and Blood Orange Cardamom.

Certain flavors work well as cocktail mixers: the Melon Rose goes well with rum, the Pinto Sage in a red wine spritzer.

The oak aging comes from added oak tannin that ties together the sweet and sour flavors since kombucha cannot be in an oak barrel like wine and bourbon can. They add organic herb and fruit flavor extracts to minimize sugar content for an ABV of 0.2-0.3%.

DistributionFind Marin Kombucha in all Safeway, Whole Foods, Mollie Stones, and Nugget Markets, as well as over 100 other independent locations throughout Northern California and parts of Nevada.

Marin Kombucha 5-gallon kegs are available nationwide and served as a healthy non-alcoholic beverage in restaurants, hotels, cafes, offices, gyms, and universities. They offer national distribution to corporate offices.

They will supply free kegs to bars and restaurants and pay the difference if the tap does not pay for itself. In their experience, the bar owners find offering a non-alcoholic alternative pays. They can replace a beer tap and generally find kombucha quickly becomes one of the more profitable taps.

However, even at stores like Whole Foods, many shoppers don’t appreciate the tart taste of traditional kombucha. They are marketing to the 90% of the population who have not tasted kombucha, as with sports teams.

Play Ball!Marin Kombucha sponsors the CPSDA (The Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association) and is served in over 30 pro and college facilities nationwide. Their distribution in collegiate and professional sports organizations is negotiated and evaluated by the Team’s Sports Nutritionists, and the beverage is served to players in their athletic facilities.

They recently became the first kombucha brand to earn GMP registration from NSF that verifies a manufacturing facility has the proper methods, equipment, facilities, and controls in place to produce products that meet the requirements for professional and collegiate sports organizations including WADA, MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL standards.

This has allowed them to be added to facilities such as MLB clubhouses which require this certification. The list includes professional Football, Basketball, Hockey, Baseball, and College (SEC, ACC) Teams.

PodcastDuring a tour of the brewery, Brian explained their methods in detail and shared his vision for the company and the reason they rebranded.

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It’s always a pleasant surprise to find locally-brewed kombucha when you are traveling. Spending a couple of weeks in Mexico, I discovered the Elixir Spot Vegan Cafe tucked away in a quiet courtyard near the Los Muertos pier at the end of Francisca Rodriguez in the Zona Romantica in Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific coast. The cafe offers a full vegan menu, with breakfast and lunch smoothies, bowls, juices, and more.

They also brew their own kombucha.

Monica, her husband Omar, and daughter Georgette run the place. Monica added kombucha to the menu two years ago, and now sells four flavors (Cucumber, Fruit, Ginger & Mint, and Hibiscus) for 65 pesos (US$3) a bottle. The kombucha is brewed right there in the cafe, and Monica says hello to each SCOBY in the morning, saying a prayer, blessing the ferment, and offering customers a drink that heals and sustains them.

They sell the product in the cafe to a rotating group of tourists and loyal local customers, many bringing bottles back to refill.

Monica freely shares extra SCOBYs with anyone interested in brewing their kombucha at home.

PodcastListen to Monica share her passion for kombucha in this podcast.

The Elixir Spot Vegan cafe is located at Francisca Rodríguez 142, Zona Romántica, Emiliano Zapata, 48380 Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. Open 9:30 am – 5:30 pm Mon – Sat.

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Lou Dillon founded Twisted Kombucha following a career as a nutritionist in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and completing her MSc at London Metropolitan University in microbiology. She carried out an 18-month program of microbiological, biochemical, and analytical testing of kombucha. She analyzed the caffeine content of kombucha determined by different ratios of black and green teas. She concluded:

The caffeine content in Kombucha ranged between 0.208 to 0.571mg/ml. The study revealed the need for manufacturers of commercial Kombucha to establish routine testing and quality control analysis of caffeine in the beverage to comply with EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) labelling regulations.

— Application of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to the analysis and determination of caffeine in home brewed and commercial variants of Kombucha.

It is evident that the biochemistry and microbiological composition of kombucha is varying and complex; and still more research is required to fully understand fermentation processes and dynamics. It varies with environmental and geographical differences, fermentation vessels, substrate type and concentration,
incubation temperature and time.

— Evaluation of chemical and microbiological characteristics of kombucha tea produced during an extended fermentation.

LaunchingIn September 2019, Lou left the NHS and bootstrapped her company — just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As a one-woman operation she does everything by hand and bottles 300 liters at a time. Last August she expanded into a new facility in Hertfordshire. Her product is now available in 40 locations across North and East London, including the prestigious Partridges in Sloan Square, Central London. She also sells online.

The move to the new production facility involved adjusting to the new environment until the kombucha was back to the quality she requires.

FlavorsShe offers five standard flavors created with infusions of fruits, botanicals, and herbs as well as additional seasonal flavors.

Flavors include:

• Cucumber, Mint, and Lime
• Strawberry, Hibiscus, and Ginger
• Butterfly Pea Flower
• Hibiscus and Lavender
• Ginger, Pineapple and Cascade Hops
• Natural

PodcastListen to Lou tell the story of Twisted Kombucha in her own words. [The telephone recording quality improves after the first couple of minutes.]

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This is the fourth in a series of Profiles of Berlin-based kombucha brewers, which I scheduled around the weekend Kombucha Summit. I was not able to visit ROY at that time, but on my return to California, I made contact with Fabio from ROY Kombucha, and we spoke on the phone about his business and his role in producing the Kombucha Summit.

Fabio Carlucci grew ROY Kombucha from a kitchen counter in 2019 to an international brand with a 60,000 cans a month capacity. He has also spun off the Kombucha Brewing Kit subsidiary for home brewers and launched the annual Berlin-based Kombucha Summit.

ROY was founded in 2019 with the aim of creating a new generation of beverages. The project began in 2018 when Fabio and his serial entrepreneur co-founder Rupert started looking at the potential of a business built on fermented products. After experimenting with water kefir, they pivoted to kombucha. They started in a 20 sq meter (200 sq ft) kitchen, canning by hand. In 2021 they moved to the 120 sq meter (1,300 sq ft) facility they are in today.

Organic growthTheir initial facility allowed them to produce 10,000 cans a month (by hand!), and they now have a capacity of 50-60,000 cans. They employ 12 full-time and several part-time staff.

From the start, they enjoyed a demand from Berlin cafes and restaurants. They now distribute throughout Germany as well as other EU counties as far away as Ireland.

The decision to start with cans, and a shelf-stable formula, enabled e-commerce and export with lower shipping costs.

Kombucha Brewing KitDuring the first COVID lockdown they pivoted to e-commerce and took advantage of the interest in home cooking of everything from banana bread to kombucha. In October 2022, they launched the Kombucha Brewing Kit as a stand-alone company with a German-language website and Instagram that offers home brewing kits and advice.

FlavorsThey brew a shelf-stable organic kombucha that is naturally refreshing, made with the highest-quality teas, and full of organic acids and B vitamins.

Their cans are available in Ginger, Raspberry, Lemon, and Pure Prana flavors, and a changing line-up of limited editions.

Kombucha SummitDuring the four months they were waiting for the commercial kitchen to open, they turned their attention to the need for a European-based kombucha gathering. They organized the first Summit in 2019 and then held virtual events in 2020 and 2021. The 2022 Summit was the second in-person event. My extensive reports give full details on past events.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear the story of ROY Kombucha and the Kombucha Summit in Fabio’s own words.

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Welcome to the first podcast of the New Year featuring bestselling author Duff McDonald!

Duff is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including “The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite,” and “The Firm: The Story of McKinsey and Its Secret Influence on American Business.” His most recent book, Tickled: A Commonsense Guide to the Present Moment, includes a chapter on kombucha.

In this podcast, we’ll hear how Duff was introduced to kombucha via GT’s Gingerade, and what quickly turned into a five-bottle-a-day habit led to him becoming an accomplished home brewer who keeps 30 gallons on the go in his upstate New York home.

Duff’s podcast How to Tickle Yourself, which he co-hosts with Matt McButter (!), has featured KBI President Hannah Crum discussing Consciousness and Kombucha, and the founder of what Duff considers “the best commercially available kombucha in the New York region” Adam Benziger of Laughing Gut Kombucha.

Check into Duff’s podcast, read Tickled, and you’ll quickly see how broad his interests are. He’s into Bob Dylan, Sri Aurobindo, technology, business, education, parenting, innovation, art, and more. What’s fascinating is the role kombucha has in his life, both as a beverage and a touchstone for his philosophy of life.

Duff titles the chapter in his new book ‘Infinite Kombucha.’ It starts with a quote from John Luis Borges on the nature of the infinite. He shares details of how he began home brewing in 2019 and his delight in experimenting with various flavors.

The promise of kombucha is possibility. The flavor of a particular kombucha in choice. Do you know why this happens? Because kombucha is a living drink. That is, it is made with a living yeast. It is alive. Anything that at is alive contains the universe, or infinite possibility. Kombucha is infinite possibility in a drink.

Tickled, p. 226

Listen to the podcast, and you’ll hear details of his home brew setup (with a kegerator in the kitchen for his family to enjoy their freshly brewed ‘booch). What he calls “a different kind of hobby” is a springboard for life:

So we try to eliminate uncertainty in the places where we don’t want it. But the key is then to seek it out in the places where we do. That is what hobbies are for,although you don’t really see the results until you’ve invested the effort. Once you have the craft, you can reside in the deep now, and let uncertainty come at you with all it’s got. That’s why we read. That’s why we play music. That;s why we ski, surf, dance, talk, grow gardens, and more. It’s why we make kombucha.

Tickled, p.234

There’s more about Duff on his website, including an essay on How My Kombucha Hobby Transformed My Life.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Duff explain why he’s “tickled” by kombucha.

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This is the fourth in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way, and their story has lessons for us all.

Craft beer backgroundShawn McGovern discovered kombucha when he needed a hangover cure after one too many beers. He drank a bottle of GTs Gingerade and was instantly hooked. He is a self-confessed craft beer lover who transferred his expertise in home brewing that beverage to kombucha. He’s been making kombucha at home for eight years and is on the point of launching Twilight Kombucha commercially.

Reiki energyShawn is a Reiki practitioner who also teaches yoga and meditation. He infuses each batch of his ‘booch with positive Reiki energy, which “brings the highest vibration into play.”

His vision for the business is to open a full-blown wellness center where kombucha on tap would be offered alongside classes and healing sessions. Meanwhile, he’s keeping his day job as a graphics designer.

He’s happy to have secured a 500-sq-ft commercial space in Morrisville, PA, and once the permits are in place, he’ll start selling his kombucha in early 2023.

TaproomsShawn plans to distribute in kegs and cans. Since he is familiar with the craft beer market, he wants to convince local taprooms to add kombucha to their lineup. While not naive about the challenge, since this is not something beer brewers typically embrace, he notes, “a lot of the beer brewers are missing the mark by not having kombucha on tap. Sometimes people might not want a beer, but still want to hang out with the crowd.” He often hears that they “don’t want to waste a tap for kombucha” but explains that they are missing a growing part of the market, and that offering kombucha will attract a broader spectrum of customers.

MentorShawn acknowledges his debt to Laura at High Point Kombucha in Allentown, PA. Laura has been producing kombucha commercially in the Lehigh Valley for four years. She stepped up when he was looking for help. She agreed to mentor Shawn, answer his questions, and even gave him a tour her brewery. She had also started out in a 500-sq-ft facility. Her business has boomed and this year her brewery tripled in size. By sharing her expertise Laura is helping “make the pie bigger” for kombucha lovers in the NJ/PA area.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear Shawn tell the story of his new venture.

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Griffin Halpern brews Mucha Kombucha in the Basque Country of northern Spain. Originally from San Diego, California, Griffin has always been an active person, athletic and adventurous. He spent his youth playing semi-professional football, skating and traveling. While a member of the Claremont McKenna College football team, he discovered the importance of nutrition in physical performance. Around this time, in 2004, he started drinking kombucha and making his own.

ProductionMucha Kombucha has been in business for the past four years. They are based in Oiartzun, inland from San Sebastián in the province of Gipuzkoa. From an original fermentation of 50 liters that he gave away to friends, production expanded into a range of vessels, from 100 to 8,500 liters.

Griffin’s Saturday presentation at the Berlin Kombucha Summit — ‘Keys for a traditionally fermented commercial kombucha’ – was a cautionary tale aimed at helping new brewers avoid “making the same stupid mistakes I made.” Many of the lessons were around the layout of a physical plant where brewery equipment needs to be accessible, scalable, and economical.

Having the space to ferment is a new brewer’s most critical decision. This includes selecting suitable vessels for primary fermentation, chilling the results for stability, and sufficient storage before bottling and shipping. The advice was as obvious as having the labeling machine next to the bottling machine. He recommended Günther Frank’s book on kombucha.

FlavorsAll bottle labels identify Mucha as a ‘California – Basque Country’ company.

Standard flavors are original, apple and ginger, pomegranate, and tropical (a blend of coconut zest, wild strawberry leaves, safflower, and vanilla).

Limited Editions include Turmeric & Pepper with curcumin. This strong antioxidant contains anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal properties activated by the black pepper’s piperine which absorbs curcumin. There’s also an organic Café Sakona coffee-based variety and the “very freaky” Zapiain Sagardoa based on an apple-cider must.

DistributionThey sell 98% of the product in glass bottles, with 2% going into local outlets in kegs. In addition to the standard 330ml bottles, they introduced a 750ml bottle that is returnable and reusable. They are in 400 stores across Spain and southern France as far north as Bordeaux.

Socially responsibleMucha gives 1% of profits to the Coral Vita – an organization that helps restore the world’s dying coral reefs.

PodcastListen to the podcast to hear the story of Mucha Kombucha in Griffin’s own words.

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As reported in the recent profile of Paper & Tea, there’s a European trend for consuming quality teas. This can only benefit kombucha brands, that market to the same consumers. During my recent visit to Berlin for the Kombucha Summit, I took the opportunity to travel to Hamburg (a 90-minute train journey north) and check out the warehouse HQ of Alveus Premium Teas, where I was given a tour by Sales Manager Nic Standaert.

Alveus is a premium tea wholesaler with a massive warehouse outside Hamburg in northern Germany.

They boast the most extensive inventory of tea and infusions in the world. The company was founded in 2006 when Daniel Trenk decided to turn his passion for tea into his career. In the following years sales grew, allowing them to expand their facilities, purchase larger volumes, and blend exclusive teas and infusions for their customers. By 2012, they prepared more than 1,000 blends of teas and infusions. Today, their catalog contains more than 1,500 recipes.

Their warehouse is a cornucopia of teas, herbs, and aromas that are sourced from around the world, packaged, and shipped to tea stores, restaurants, and cafes in over 70 countries. They also have offices in Málaga, Spain.

BlendsThe teas are sold in small, fresh batches. The majority of their sales are blends. Each tea is selected, blended, and packaged by hand. These blends, carefully weighed and ready for mixing, form attractive mandalas.

Pure teas for kombucha brewersThey sell pure (unblended) teas to several European kombucha brewers. Among the teas that might interest brewers looking for creative OG options are unique organic offerings such as their Black Golden Snail 1st grade (“A firework of the senses in terms of taste, nutty-sweet notes in combination with a finely tart finish”). Or the South Korea Green OP (“…roasting nine times and grinding nine times in order to extract as many tannins from the leaves as possible. The result can be seen and tasted: small hand-rolled leaves that envelope the aroma of the entire tea plant.”) Or Himalayan Snow Mountain white tea (“This unfermented, extremely rare tea, features buds that are largely covered in white fluff. The tea itself will tickle your taste buds with its unusually mild and slightly sweet flavor. These delectable leaves are harvested 1,600 meters above sea level in the Ilam Valley in Nepal.”)

Kombucha brewers can request free samples of their teas.

German Tea AssociationAlveus is a member of the German Tea Association, founded in 2020. It represents German-speaking areas (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). Their annual report highlights consumption trends. In 2021 around 50 billion cups of tea were enjoyed in Germany. Of these, just under 19 billion were black and green tea, alongside over 31 billion cups of herbal and fruit infusions.

Sales of organic quality teas, herbal, and fruit infusions surged in 2021, with 15.9% of all teas sold bearing the organic label. The proportion of organic herbal and fruit infusions also rose by 10.4% from 2020 to 2021, reflecting a growing shift on the part of consumers to more sustainable approaches. Although loose-leaf teas continued to hold sway, preferred to teabags at a ratio of 55% to 45%, the latter option is becoming increasingly popular, reflecting how solutions of practical convenience are now the priority.

In sum

The German Tea & Herbal Infusions Association and its members can look back on 2021 as an exceptionally good year despite – and even thanks to – the global pandemic. As COVID-19 took hold, the year saw German demand for teas, herbal and fruit infusions soar, with almost 95,000 cups drunk here each minute. Meanwhile, the already high annual per capita consumption rose still further by 1.5 liters to 71.5 liters in 2021. Over half the total, 42.7 liters, was herbal and fruit infusions, with black and green teas making up the remaining 28.8 liters and crossing the 20,000-plus tonne mark for the first time.

Tea Report, 2022

A little-known fact (outside Germany) is that residents of East Frisia lead the way in tea drinking. And not just nationally, but globally. An impressive annual consumption of 300 liters per capita (compared to 28.8 liters Germany-wide). Indeed, the 475,000 people in Ostfriesland drink an average of six cups of black tea a day, exceeding per capita totals for Ireland (222 liters) and Great Britain (177 liters). Blimey!

PodcastSales Manager Nic Standaert shares more details about Alveus Premium Teas in this podcast interview.

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I’ve been curious about the growing popularity of quality teas worldwide, wondering if they signify an opportunity for kombucha brands to appeal to some of the same consumers. My review of The Republic of Tea noted the origins of this...

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This is the third in a series of Profiles of Berlin-based kombucha brewers, which I scheduled around the weekend Kombucha Summit. I was not able to visit Fairment at that time, but on my return to California, I made contact...

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This is the second in the series of Profiles of Berlin-based kombucha brewers, which I scheduled around the weekend Kombucha Summit. Meeting a frequent contributor to Booch News and a legend in the worldwide kombucha industry was indeed one of...

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I scheduled a full week in Berlin, where I reported on the Kombucha Summit over the weekend. That gave me plenty of time to connect with local brewers. This is the first of a series of Profiles from the trip....

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The partner sponsors of the Kombucha Summit exhibited at booths on the mezzanine level above the main auditorium. I spoke with each about their services, hear what they told me in this podcast. CDR Kombucha Lab The CDR KombuchaLab system...

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At the end of a very full day of conference presentations, networking, partner booths, refreshments at the kombucha bar and a great selection of lunch foods, I asked some of the attendees to share their impressions of the event. Listen...

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The Kombucha Summit 2022 (#KS22) kicks off on Saturday morning. On Friday evening I caught up with a few of the attendees staying in the Aletto Hotel across the road from the Kühlhaus venue. They’d come from the Netherlands, Latvia,...

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This is the third in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way,...

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This is the second in the series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique way,...

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On a recent visit to Lisbon I was able to visit AMO Kombucha and OH-K! Kombucha. However, I ran out of time to meet with other brands. So, on my return to California, I made contact with Camila from Rooted...

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This is the second report from Lisbon, where I spent Friday, June 24, visiting OH-K! Kombucha in the morning and AMO Kombucha in the afternoon. I want to thank everyone who hosted me with typical Portuguese grace and openness. Artisanal...

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Following a visit to Aquela Kombucha in Porto, my journey along the west coast of Portugal in my brother-in-law’s sailboat reached the port of Cascais, which is a short train ride from the capital Lisbon. Despite the short notice (there...

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Kombucha exists as a vehicle for positive change and it is for this purpose that I share it, so that it catalyzes the discovery of new, healthier and more sustainable paths. Maria Lima, Founder Aquela Kombucha is located in the...

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Fermenting & Co is a new kombucha company in Les Sables-d’Olonne in the department of Vendée. It was founded by two cousins, Florian Chupeau and Alexia Arrivé after they visited the United States and Australia. Florian discovered kombucha during his...

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This is the first of a new series of Booch News posts telling the stories behind new commercial kombucha brands. The inspiration for ‘Starting Out’ was NPR’s ‘How I Built This‘. Every kombucha company launched their brand in a unique...

The post Starting Out: Boochy Call Kombucha, Sharpsburg, Maryland appeared first on 'Booch News.

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KKON22 was held March 30 – April 1 at the Westin Hotel, Long Beach, California. Over 200 attendees and exhibitors enjoyed hands-on workshops, presentations, and exceptional networking. We asked the exhibitors to share their impressions of the event. Listen to...

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KKON22 was held March 30 – April 1 at the Westin Hotel, Long Beach, California. Over 200 attendees and exhibitors enjoyed hands-on workshops, presentations, and exceptional networking. We took the opportunity to ask a random selection of attendees to share...

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A recent visit to the KC Kombucha taproom in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento was an opportunity to meet owner Courtney Edwards and record a rare in-person podcast. Small is Beautiful The taproom and brewery operate out of a...

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Simon Lefrancois came to Fernie, BC, for the water and stayed to found Fernie Alpine Springs. Fernie is a picturesque town in BC encircled by the Rocky Mountains. Stable and raw kombucha The kombucha is brewed from spring water from...

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Boochacha was founded in 2021 at the start of the pandemic lock-down after Hebe Ibbotson had returned from an 18-month career break which took her to Japan. It was while staying in a small town there that she first tasted...

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Britain’s heritage of seaside piers dates from the boom in seaside resorts during the Victorian era. Constructed as simple wooden landing stages for boat trips, piers became complex entertainment venues with ornate pavilions, exotic lighting, and a plethora of fast...

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Aqua ViTea (rhymes with Mighty) Kombucha was founded in 2007 by Jeff Weaber who had relocated from Oregon where he’d first brewed kombucha at home in 2002 at the dawn of the commercial kombucha age. He bootstrapped the business from...

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Becca Schepps was an athlete who was diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic while in her twenties. This, together with an obsession with the video game Mortal Kombat, led her to choose the brand name Mortal Kombucha and the tongue-in-cheek...

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Siddhi Tamby started Kultur’d while still in college. When the COVID pandemic hit, she returned from studying in Singapore to her home in Japiur, India, to brew her favorite probiotic beverages: kombucha, kefir and jun. Following an intensive period of...

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Kombucha Brewers International (KBI) are calling for legislation to stabilize the kombucha industry and protect brewers. The KOMBUCHA Act (Keeping Our Manufacturers from Being Unfairly taxed while Championing Health Act), raising the level at which kombucha brewers will be subject to the regulations imposed on alcoholic beverages in the United States from 0.5% to 1.25%, has been introduced in Congress.

Increasing the alcohol allowance will make it easier for all brewers to deliver the benefits of authentic, living kombucha to everyone. Kombucha would still have to meet the health and safety requirements generally applicable to nonalcoholic beverages as well as certain beverage alcohol labeling requirements.

Sign the petition KBI invite any US-based kombucha brewer and all US kombucha lovers to click the link on their lobbying page and sign a petition to ask your local Congressperson and Senator to support the KOMBUCHA Act. It only takes a couple of minutes and your message will let leadership know that as a consumer, you want access to traditionally fermented, raw and unpasteurized kombucha.

https://kombuchabrewers.org/lobbying/ KBI have been trying to get the legislation passed since 2017. The petition will demonstrate consumer support for the bill.

Bipartisan support Three key legislators support the KOMBUCHA Act. Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) continues as Ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures for the 117th Congress. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Congressman Blumenauer is a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, the tax-writing committee in the House. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is the new Chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which among other things considers all tax legislation.

“The growth of kombucha production in our state and throughout the country creates jobs and a tasty beverage. This legislation would update taxes and regulations so these small businesses can continue to build on their achievements creating good jobs and good flavor for kombucha’s many fans.”

– Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) Original Sponsor of the KOMBUCHA Act. 2016-2021

“It’s important that our tax code evolve[s] to address its unintended consequences on emerging industries, and its effect on kombucha manufacturers is an example of why Congress must act to amend it. This bipartisan legislation is a commonsense fix that will provide regulatory and tax relief to small businesses in Colorado and throughout this country so that they can continue to create good-paying jobs.”

– Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) Original Sponsor of the KOMBUCHA Act. 2016.

Podcast I asked KBI President Hannah Crum for an update on the progress of the KOMBUCHA Act. To hear what she told me click on the podcast.

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Lucas Montanari is a biologist specializing in Natural Fermentation with a postgraduate degree in Nutrigenomics and Functional Foods, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach by IIN (NY / USA) and a professor at the FAMESP Graduate Program in Functional Gastronomy.

He is the founder of Fermenta Com Ciência (Fermenting with Science), where he teaches courses, lectures, and consults. He is also the organizer of the Brazilian Kombucha Festival.

Brazil is a real hotbed for kombucha brewing, with over 250 commercial companies listed in the Worldwide Directory. There’s no-one better placed than Lucas to help us understand this exciting market.

Lucas discovered kombucha while living in Australia in 2013. He taught his first course in Brazil in 2015, and has now trained thousands of “Kombucheiros” with on-site and now online courses.

He is also on the Technical Board of ABKOM (Brazilian Kombucha Association) and researches the benefits of kombucha.

Online courses

Since the pandemic last year, Lucas has moved to 100% online courses. He teaches an Advanced Commercial Kombucha course on industrial production and marketing as well as courses on home brewing.

Virtual Kombucha Summit

The Virtual Kombucha Summit gives access to 16 lectures originally shown at the European Summit and kombucheiros talking about production scheduling, the science of Kombucha, the status of the market, and much more. All videos — including my own presentation on worldwide kombucha market trends — have subtitles in Portuguese (including mine)

Online Kombucha Festival The online Brazilian Kombucha Festival aims to unite kombucha lovers from all over Brazil and everyone connected to this drink in some way, including consumers, artisanal and professional producers, equipment stores and fermentation supplies, establishments that sell the drink, tea and fermentation specialists, medical-scientific researchers, professors, and professional kombucha consultants.

It aims to strengthen and take root the “kombucheira” culture in Brazil, to present it to those who do not know it yet and to improve the techniques of those who already produce it, in addition to expanding the kombucha market to another level of growth, bringing more health and prosperity to all. Organized in the format of Online Congress, it has more than 25 lectures, classes, and live interaction, giving an opportunity to learn in the first and largest event 100% dedicated to kombucha in Brazil.

Podcast To hear from Lucas first-hand about his mission to make a healthier world by encouraging the development of the thriving Brazilian kombucha scene, tune in to the podcast interview.

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I came across a young man who is an enthusiastic kombucha reviewer. He’s collected dozens of brands from local stores and plans to publish reviews of them on his Kold Kombucha Instagram and YouTube channels.

Eric Brown first tasted kombucha as a ten-year-old when his father gave him a sample. The sour taste did not appeal. He rediscovered the drink when he decided to embrace a healthier lifestyle in his teens. He found it was a perfect replacement for high-fructose corn syrups.

Now serving in the United States Airforce he has embraced kombucha with a passion. He shares kombucha with his friends on base and takes it with him on road trips. One trip took him to Bend, Oregon, where he visited the Humm Kombucha Taproom.

His detailed review of GT’s Original Recipe is based on the format of Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV that aims to “break down the barriers, stereotypes, and misperceptions that otherwise prevent people from exploring and enjoying the exciting and rewarding world of wine.” There are over 70 kombucha reviewers helping do the same for kombucha, and brands should support reviewers like Eric who are doing a great job to evangelize this healthful beverage

Podcast To hear more from Eric in his own words, click on the podcast below.

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I met Andrew Mills online at the recent virtual Kombucha Summit. He held an impromptu Zoom tour of his facility, showcasing his compact production area in a barn on his property in Buckinghamshire, England. He built it for just £12,000 ($16,000). His motivation was to find a use for the abundance of honey from the beehives he and his wife care for. After experimenting with meade (too sweet), and before he’d even heard of kombucha, he started fermenting Jun and was delighted with the results.

The story of Nunc Living Jun-Kombucha began in 2018, when Andrew decided to live more in the present — Nunc is the Latin word for now. Hence, Nunc Living = Living for Now.

A taste of honey

Andrew is passionate about bees and the unpasteurized honey that is the raw material for his business. He keeps three hives, named Beatrix, Jasmine, and Shelia after their queens. As winter arrives, he watches female worker bees cast out the male drones to freeze to death in the icy cold, securing the limited food supply for the rest of the hive. Indeed, the life of a drone is fraught with danger. This beekeeper website tells us:

Each must first compete with other drones to mate with a queen bee–the queen mates with multiple drones for greater sperm selection. The 10-20 drones that succeed in mating with a queen must compete with hundreds or thousands of other drones, depending upon the population at the drone congregating area. When a drone mates with a queen and releases his semen, it happens with such a force that his endophallus is ripped from his abdomen. When his abdomen rips open, he usually dies shortly after.

Ouch.

Nunc Jun-Kombucha is fermented in small batches using raw honey, green teas, and premium botanicals.

When Nunc started, they exclusively used their own honey. They knew exactly how the bees had been treated and the quality of the honey. As they have grown, they have begun to source honey from nearby beekeepers. This allows them to check that the bees are kept to a high standard.

Honey is a precious ingredient they treat with care. For example, they make sure the temperature of the honey never exceeds beehive temperature (35C).

Every batch of Nunc is unique. While they brew in a manner to minimize the differences between batches, they recognize that raw honey tastes different depending on what flowers the bees have been visiting.

They select green teas that compliment the flavors of the raw honey.

Flavors

Juni-Purr contains Mao Feng green tea and juniper berries.

Rose Blush is made with Darjeeling green tea, rose petals, and hibiscus flowers.

Hops Monster is an award-winning blend of Japanese sencha green tea and three types of hops. A mere six months after it was introduced, Hops Monster flavor was awarded a star by the UK’s Great Taste Awards.

“Bright and effervescent in the glass. The aroma is hugely inviting… Bright and clean on the palate… The finish is clean, with some length of soft sourness, and inspires further sipping.”

—- Feedback from one of the judges in the Great Taste Awards

Challenges Following his early experiments with brewing jun, Andrew was ready to launch the brand in March of this year — just as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived. A friend with a gourmet coffee business had arranged to accompany him to music and cultural festivals around Britain. Indeed, that was why he chose to use cans–festival sites ban glass containers.

With the festivals canceled, the primary revenue source has been local shops and an increasing online presence. Nunc is available from Wise Bartender, The Food Market, and The Thyme Store.

Another challenge that Andrew faces is the concern some vegans have about consuming honey. That and the certification to prove they have an organic product–since the bees might collect pollen from non-organic sources. Nunc is addressing this issue:

According to the UK Soil Association, to be certified organic, 95% of the ingredients in our brews need to be organic – and guess what? Over 95% of the ingredients we use in our three flavours are organic. So why aren’t we organic? Well, it costs money, and as we are a small business, money is tight. So, whilst being organic is important to us, we do have other priorities right now, but please be rest assured, in the coming months, our drinks will be certified by the Soil Association as organic.

Symbiosis Andrew is a big believer in the value of people in this industry sharing information to help each other out. He connected with Adam Vanni from Jarr Kombucha after hearing the March 31 podcast interview on Booch News. He shared details about his equipment and process on his Kombucha Summit virtual brewery tour. Indeed, as you’ll hear in the podcast, Andrew has extended an open invitation for anyone with questions about his operation to contact him.

Podcast Listen to the podcast to hear the story of Nunc Living in Andrew’s own words.

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Olga Sorzano was introduced to kombucha in Siberia by her grandmother, Baba, who kept a jar of continuous brew fermenting on top of her refrigerator year-round.

“I would visit her and use any excuse to have a chance to taste her delicious kombucha. I’d say, ‘Baba my belly hurts,’ and she would say, ‘have some kombucha.’ I would say, ‘my leg hurts,’ and she would say, ‘have some kombucha.’ ”

Little did Olga know, but years later, some of Baba’s original SCOBY would launch her commercial production with a brand named Baba’s Brew after the grandmother she loved.

Baba’s mother was one of the Volga Germans deported to Siberia in the 1940s. When Baba was a young girl, her father affectionately called her “Little Red Squirrel” due to her fiery red hair. This nickname stuck with her throughout her life and was Olga’s inspiration for the distinctive company logo.

People in Siberia understood that kombucha had great alkalizing effects, was loaded with vitamin C. They drank it because they felt the health effects. They infused it with chaga and other mushrooms to make it as potent as possible and help them survive really brutal Siberian winters.

Flavors Olga has the same philosophy her Baba had. Baba’s Brew is infused with organic whole berries or fruit, herbs, and spices. Her brews, like Purple Rain (blueberry-ginger) and Flower Power (lavender, rose, tulsi, and hibiscus) are flavored with whole fruits and spices— not juices or extracts—because that’s the way her grandmother did it. Ruby Sipper has vibrant notes of tart cherries & cranberries. Crisp and clean. It makes a killer margarita. Bee’s Knees is silky smooth with calming notes of warm caramel and honeysuckle, together with soothing and relaxing flavors of chamomile and a touch of local wildflower honey. Believe is a distinctively bright & lively ‘booch with juniper berries, ginger root, lemon balm, yerba mate, and chlorophyll.

Launching Baba’s Brew After attending a 2014 Fermentation Festival in Santa Barbara, Olga and her husband decided to launch Pennsylvania’s first kombucha brewery. They started out with a small 70 sq. ft. facility and now occupy 6,000 sq. ft. Her goal is to become a strong local brand that will always use locally sourced ingredients and support the community. This 2017 interview with Olga tells the full story:

Podcast To hear more of Olga’s story in her own words, including how her childhood love of the original ‘Baba’s Brew’ in Siberia has influenced her, and her plans for the company, listen to the podcast.

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