My family started growing Kombucha in the 1990s. Way back then, we relied on information and SCOBYs from friends. We called it a Kom-boo-ka Mushroom. I don’t remember much from those early days, except for one time Dad tried to make it with fructose and it didn’t work. I was a teenager when my grandma brought us a new SCOBY from my aunt in California who had bought it online for over $50. My aunt started drinking it during her fight with breast cancer. She had chemo and surgery, it was serious. She is 20 years in full remission, and her lifestyle still includes nutrient and probiotic rich foods like Kombucha, Kefir, Lacto-fermented vegetables, Raw milk, Bone broth and Liver. She is an inspiration to me in the world of traditional foods for healing. My Grandma also is still brewing at 90 years young, and prepares food for her and my Grandpa, using traditional soaking and fermenting techniques.

I took over a lot of the brewing as a teenager, and must have made hundreds of gallons for our family of 11 (yes, my Mom & Dad had 9 kids!). I started KombuchaWorld.com when I was 14 or 15 years old, and sold SCOBYs on my site and on ebay. It was a lot of fun, and I remember growing about 30 at a time and sold hundreds over those few years. I got married in 2008, when I was 20 and moved to Canada. I chose to let my side hustle go, not knowing how to operate it from my new home, where shipping was a lot more difficult and expensive and Kombucha wasn’t very well known.

I tried to get my husband to like Kombucha, but he just didn’t take to it. He would sometimes drink a little bit, reluctantly if he had a stomach upset or a cold. I spent the next 11 years making it off and on again, eventually introducing it to my kids and loving that fresh taste whenever I could make a batch. Then, during a very busy time in my life, with 4 kids under 5, and my husband having some digestive issues, we bought some commercially bottled Kombucha. The carbonation was a new discovery. My husband, who loves home brew and micro-brew beers, all of a sudden didn’t mind Kombucha – at $3.50-$5 a bottle. I liked the bottled stuff, but I would buy it sparingly and kept wondering what made him like it better than mine. I have always especially liked it if I could get some while it was a little bit bubbly (usually around day 7-8) but I never knew you could bottle it, let alone purposely carbonate it or flavor it. One day, I bought a case of Brew Dr, Spiced Apple Kombucha from Costco and my husband didn’t just “not mind” it, but liked it a lot, and we bought it several times before it went out of season and disappeared. Later, they started carrying a strawberry lemonade version that was also a hit. I knew there had to be a way to make this at home, but I kept buying the Costco cases until I realized just how much we were spending and we were still drinking less than we wanted to. It should have been an easy thought process for me, especially with all the beer brewing and mead and cider making my husband and I have done together, but I have to say after a google search and a few youtube videos (OK so maybe I watched every single video I could find!), I was brave enough to try it. I mean, bottle carbonating and flavoring my own Kombucha. I am one of those people that gets all of the books the library has on a subject and devours them for weeks, until I’m saturated with information, then I slowly digest, experiment and weed out all the conflicting bits and geek out until I have discovered every piece of random trivia about the subject. Yes, you could put me on a game show and ask me anything about Kombucha and I’d probably be a top contestant… I just can’t get enough of this information stuff. So, hows it going now? I’m actively brewing 7 batches a week for myself and my family, bottle carbonating and flavoring most of it, (though I still enjoy a glass right from the jar). It’s very rewarding to be able to watch my family benefit from this nourishing beverage. I enjoy the whole process so so much, I really just want to share it with everyone. If I could have you over for a glass of my own brew, that would be the most amazing, but I’m also happy to teach you the craft so you can make it in your own home.