Kombucha’s kombucha, right? Surely it’s all the same? Erm, not exactly. Lemme tell you why.
For much of the last 2,000 years, kombucha production was generally what we would call a cottage industry – made at home, in small batches, to individual recipes and tastes and enjoyed by the producer and maybe their immediate community. This ‘Traditional’ brew likely varied in taste and ‘experience’ from batch-to-batch, year-to-year, country-to-country, but will undoubtedly have been pretty sweet, ‘funky’ (think ‘sour’) and possibly alcoholic enough to give you a fuzzy head.
The last two decades or so have seen kombucha very much enter the general consciousness with consumers around the world hearing about its potential benefits and seeking it out to see what all the commotion they’d seen on social media was about. Cue the rapid rise of artisanal producers and the availability of their home-brews (usually mixed with fresh juices, herbs and/or spices) at weekend farmers markets and squizillions of excited facebook posts shouting about how someone was now ‘in the know’ and that all of their friends should check it out… which invariably, they did because who wants to be ‘that guy’ who says they haven’t tried the new BIG thing?
With this growing consumer interest and demand, producers started to branch out and expand their reach, manufacturing their products at greater scale and gaining distribution in retail and food service outlets; kombucha was entering the mainstream. The inherent complexities in producing ‘traditional’ kombucha in large quantities (e.g. short-shelf life products; expensive temperature-controlled supply chains; the time required to ferment; manufacturing capacity constraints and the capital required to scale-up to match demand; achieving quality standards demanded by large retail chains) meant early ‘scaling’ kombucha brands had a lot of challenges to face. As in any market, some brands succeeded and have built extremely successful businesses to this day – GT’s has consistently been the largest brand in the world after their launch in 2005 - however, unfortunately, some did not.
As the kombucha market grew, new entrants arrived, innovating to attract new consumers to the category and developing new methods to mitigate the risks from producing in large quantities. ‘Craft-style’ and ‘Mainstream’ brands (such as Gutsy Captain, Los Bros, Health-Ade) landed to offer alternatives to ‘Traditional’ kombuchas and to cater for increasingly diverse consumer tastes: juices have been replaced with natural extracts to broaden flavour offerings and extend shelf-life; probiotics have been added by some to supplement those naturally produced in the kombucha fermentation process to support brands’ gut-health messaging; higher-strength kombucha bases have been developed and used to increase production efficiencies, increase manufacturing outputs and facilitate lower price points to open up the category to a larger audience. Often sitting side-by-side ‘Traditional’ brands in stores’ chillers, consumers have embraced these products in huge numbers.
In recent years, innovation has continued apace with the development and growth of ‘Sugar-Free’, shelf-stable kombucha which has expanded the category even further – to new parts of the store, to new consumers and to higher sales as a result. The use of an ambient supply chain has helped brands like Remedy and Nexba to reduce costs and retail prices while replacing all added sugars with non-fermentable sweeteners, such as erythritol or stevia, ensures their products do not undergo secondary fermentation cannot occur in the can or bottle (because the remaining yeast and bacteria do not have the nutrients required to restart the fermentation process) meaning they don’t need to be transported or stored in a chilled environment typical of other kombucha. Obviously, replacing sugar also results in a lower calorie finished product so supporting brands’ nutritional claims and aligning to consumers’ demands – nice!
Kombucha market segmentation and brand examples (Source: Euromonitor - 52 w/e 30/12/2023)
So, what does all of this mean for you and your business? It obviously goes without saying that you have lots of different options to create the perfect kombucha range for your brand. You’ll need to work out which audience you’re targeting and determine what type of kombucha they want in terms of taste-profile, flavours, nutritionals, ingredients, price they’re willing to pay and such like? You’ll also need to decide if you’re going to produce in-house or outsource to a co-manufacturer/co-packer and where they would ideally be situated to best service your market? With all of that, you’re then ready to start developing your product so do you have a team that can do it or do you need a flavour developer to support you? Once you have your recipe, it’s then time to find a reliable, quality source for the ingredients. Finally, how does all of this come together in a compelling and unique brand story that will shape your communications and give you the best chance of persuading your target audience to choose your brand and products over your competition. Not much then!
You don’t need to worry, there is lots of help out there to guide you through the process and give you the best chance of success. There are loads of great flavour development companies who will help develop the perfect product to achieve your brief while many co-packers offer an end-to-end service whereby they will help to develop your recipes as well as produce it for you. Some beverage ingredient suppliers are also a treasure trove of insight and support to help you navigate your journey and ensure you have the best chance of success.
Good Culture – Your Ideal Partner
At Good Culture, we are passionate about drinks, quality, innovation and the creative pursuit of entrepreneurship. Our mission is to inspire, empower and support you to build thriving, profitable & sustainable businesses. We have built years of experience and expertise by helping companies all around the world create, develop, commercialise and grow their businesses with the supply of the highest quality fermented beverage ingredients, unparalleled commercial and technical support and access to our amazing network of co-packers and flavour developers.
We’ve created our free Producer’s Guide to Kombucha to help companies like yours to build your knowledge and understanding of the global kombucha market, the different types of kombucha that make-up the category, the challenges to be aware of in producing kombucha and ways to overcome them and samples recipes and production tips to get you started.
So, are you interested in taking advantage of the opportunities kombucha offers or have an existing kombucha brand and need help taking it to the next level? The team at Good Culture can help with anything you need.
Want to hear how we can help you do kombucha better? Contact us today.