Tag: kombucha brewers

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Orlando City Kombucha

Orlando City Kombucha has been expanding throughout the Orlando area, crafting small batch brews of kombucha with locally sourced organic products. The lightly fizzy, creative flavors are available at three farmers markets as well as an increasing number of taps in stores and restaurants.

Joshua Archer, co-founder and head brewer started brewing four years ago, making it for friends and family. The company started selling to the public in 2015. There are several regular flavors but the creative side emerges when you look at the seasonal brews. The flavors reflect the local Florida culture (mojito, mimosa, fyah) as well as the tropical nature of the state (mango and elderberry, watermelon and mint).

The current seasonal, Apple Spice is a perfect taste of the spices in an apple pie or cider. Calmbucha is a mildly flavored brew that would be THE perfect palette cleanser at a holiday (or year round) meal.

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Seattle’s CommuniTea Sticks With Tradition

CommuniTea Kombucha is located in a vintage, red brick building in Seattle’s Central District, sharing the building with other small, local companies. When you walk into the brewery/taproom, you enter a pristine, efficient space that reflects the values of the founder, Chris Joyner. This innovative brewer has had a special journey on his way to creating a product healthy for both the body and the earth.

Brewed in an authentic, traditional style, using exclusively green tea, this kombucha stands out as something different. A sip of the kombucha gives clean, dry, tea flavor with a delightful, refreshing bubbly finish. The tea is exclusively from “ a high-quality, biodynamically grown green tea from Darjeeling’s Makaibari Tea Estate brewed in a 40-gallon steam kettle.” The process is also a bit different than the brewers that add flavors or sweeteners in their secondary fermentation. CommuniTea ferments the tea mixture for eight days, before the secondary fermentation of about two weeks. This yields an extra effervescence to the finished product.

Sustainability is evident throughout the production process. The fermentation room is upstairs, as heat rises. When it is time to bottle, the bottles are filled using gravity to the lower level. Bottles and jugs are reused and sterilized to minimize resource consumption. The use of the flip top bottles allows each bottle to retain its effervescence until it reaches the consumer. To assure consistent product quality, the kombucha is available in select Seattle-area stores, restaurants, and in the tasting room.

The brewery doubles as a tasting room, allowing the consumer to view the brewing process. With a nod to the fact that traditional kombucha generates a small yet measurable percentage of alcohol, the company is licensed as a registered brewery.

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Interview with Founders of Lima, Peru Kombucha, Misha Restrera

On a sunny Saturday at the Feria Ecologica de Barranco, at an amazing Saturday market in an up and coming bohemian section of Lima, Peru, we came upon Kombucha Dr. Misha (Kombucha Restrera). Founded by husband and wife team, Paloma Duarte and Luis Bazalar, they sell their products on tap at the market and in a few select stores including Calandria, a bodega in Lima.  What makes their products special is the care they take in sourcing ingredients — using the native products in Peru from Mayan, Incan, and local sources.

The couple began their production after attending a session with fermentation guru, Sandor Katz in Chile. In addition to their kombucha, they sell herbal cosmetic blends utilizing the same native ingredients. They have regular customers that seek them out at the market and reutilize bottles, as part of their environmental mission. Their kombucha also incorporates products from other vendors at this incredible street market, including native-sourced cinnamon and curcuma.

Produced at a small facility in Barranco, the team has created a kombucha community within Peru. They offer periodic classes to the public on how to make kombucha, launching a few new brewers in other parts of Peru and neighboring countries.