Kombucha has been around for centuries, but it’s a relatively new trend in the mainstream drinks market. Alison Leader spoke to two kombucha companies about their respective growth paths.
Emmet Condon decided to launch Remedy Kombucha with his wife Sarah in 2012 after they spent several years perfecting their own recipe at home.
“We were becoming frustrated with the number of misleading, so-called ‘healthy’ products on the shelves,” he says.
“Rather than focus on the negative, we decided to pour that energy into something good and create our own natural product.”
When Remedy was first launched, there were only a couple of other small commercial brewers in Australia.
Today, the market is shared with other brands such as Mojo, Kombucha Me, Nature’s Way Kombucha, and Buchi, and continues to grow as consumers hear about the tea’s health benefits.
There is also a growing trend in home brewers wanting to make their own fermented drink.
Condon says Remedy Kombucha is made from start to finish, from fermenting right through to bottling, in its fermentary in Melbourne.
“The steps involved are the same as when we made it home on our kitchen bench, right down to brewing in small batches to ensure the highest quality product,” he says.
The process begins with brewing “a very, very big pot of sweet tea using organic tea leaves”.
Then the Condons add the mother culture, known as a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast).
“Our mother is the same one we started out with,” he says.
