You are listening to B News with Ian
Griffin, a podcast
all about Kombucha.
So I'm here in Portland, Oregon at Lion
Kombucha with the founder Gerald England. And we're
dropped in unexpectedly, so I kinda caught you
to kind of a hard day but
you brewing Kombucha chef. So when did you
when did you start this company?
Well, luckily, Kombucha loves hot days. And
so everything's
just ferment
is
like crazy in the other room. And
but we started with flying Har Kombucha. I
started teaching classes in my home kitchen as
sort of
just a extra thing. I was
young teacher, really ram,
loved making homemade,
everything.
I looked cooking and
mixing drinks, making making, like homemade
root beers. I made homemade ginger ale, homemade
sour crowd and all the different fun, healthy
stuff have always been about
taking care of my health and things, and
I was sort of wanted to...
I thought I Come, just a an entrepreneur
in my blood. And so
I wanted to start a business for my
kids, like, so I could make this healthy
thing,
and,
it'd be a good part of the community,
kinda held plant seeds for brighter tomorrow sort
of thing. And so I named it it
Lion Ka kombucha has homage to
my kid love, who
whose name means Lion Hart, and
his grandfather had the same last name there.
So if like a family connection name. It's
a strong name And so
so that was just the idea at the
at the kitchen table. And then fast forward,
we're making
What when was that? What Gary you talking
about? I'm talking about 2009.
Oh, okay. Started teaching the
classes in 2010.
Moved into a tiny little space, got the
the license,
started selling in stores,
food license and things, and we've moved a
few times,
just trying to make it work as a
small business. And I'm sure you talk to
other little Kombucha place. Do they just get
an idea. They wanna make Kombucha and we
make it happen. It's not like, there's no
formula that's been made
for making Kombucha. So far, this brand new
thing exciting, and so anyone I've ever met
that aspire to make Kombucha is usually good
people because
just... That's the kind of person that ones
Up doing this with a lot of that,
like,
hope and vision for the future and trying
to it makes the world better place. So
it's it's great to be in that community.
I also thought about making
alcohol
as a profession, and that seemed like I'd
be drinking all day, and I'd be giving
people something that's maybe damaging their health and
didn't like that so much. So I'm really
happy I wound up making Ka kombucha. And
now it's
15 years later. It's, like, hard to believe,
but we're here in this 6000
square foot
facility, and
making,
I would say, 50 barrels a week
So,
that's a good amount, but it's not
it's not like,
retail giant
amounts
So we are more catering to the
c ops,
small local grocery stores. We're in new seasons,
which is, like local chain, and
they've grown a lot over the years and
we've grown with them. So we really appreciate
we're in some ways, we're here because of
new seasons they took us on at a
really early stage. And but now we're shipping
to Seattle. We have a distributor in Montana.
And we send nationwide.
Azure standard is a oregon based
food distributor that sends
the quality products to drop sites around the
country, every state has many drop sites. I'm
sure there's 1 near anybody. And you can
order online, just have to come pick it
up that day.
Each drop site kinda has its own
quirks and things. So... But the... It's really
neat to have friends and relatives around the
country that buy our Ka kombucha. So... And
you can sometimes find it in little niche
markets in New York or Florida, or Texas
or all over the place. And that's just
to make it clear that's lion kombucha dot
com that you go to for the online
ordering.
We have a link on our website, but
azure standard
dot com, I believe is is the website
where you go to order it nationwide. Oh,
yeah. Okay. Okay.
A Azure Az ZUR.
It's a really great local company that helps
a lot of lot of businesses like ours,
Re retry So...
So how many people now you you started
in your kitchen. Now you're in 6000 square
feet We're kind of in a northeast
Portland sort of industrial area typical kind of
small businesses, I guess locally with 1 story
building. How many people do you have helping
you now?
Yeah. I... Well, there is... We're still a
pretty small team. There's 6 people including me
that work here pretty much every day. And
then we have 2 1 day a week
people that come, and
we use a mobile can service, so our
Kombucha comes in 16 ounce of cans.
And we've been doing that since 20 20,
and
using a mobile can service, so that's
another couple people
that come from a
another kind ka company. And so we have
there's there's those
6 core jobs, and then,
4 people working here 1 day a week.
And,
yeah. And I think that can say that
everybody that works here really likes their job
takes pride in it, and we're doing something
people really appreciate. We have a little tap
room here. You know, where our customers come
and they can buy in bulk and try
on taps some of our
newest flavors and things and
And that's the way we kit to stay
connected.
You know, I used to do Kombucha classes
and then I did the farmers market for
years, and since Covid, We haven't been doing
that and then... But people come in here,
and I still get to connect with people
here what they're liking, hear what they thinking.
And do you have kombucha
on tap available in local outlets like cafes
or restaurants or anybody carry it on tap,
hopefully.
Yeah. So far, it's just the Portland area.
We deliver our own cakes.
So we have offices
that have c graders. They provide it for
their staff,
some offices only 3 people, and they just
all do Kombucha. Then and it's like, they
switch from coffee to Kombucha. They're I feel
great. And because, yeah,
so it's that's nice.
People that work from home. It's a nice
thing to have.
So you have some home
some private houses will have their own c
and take a c or 2 every so
often. Yeah. Every day, we have people come
down here and getting cakes for their home
c.
Yeah. That's great. I looking at the cooler
over there with the cans. They look 16
ounce cans. Are they quite tall.
Yeah. Are... There 16 ounce cans.
I love the cans they're, the cleanest
paste they're so efficient. They're a hundred percent
recyclable.
There's a thin layer of paint on it,
but that's food grade paint, so it's like
the you know, the by, the best
container. It stays,
really fresh. It's blocked off from the light
Yep. There's a lot of reasons weather they're
great, and
the equipment to build them list easier. So...
It looks like you've got at least what
6. Right? Flavors were most popular playbook.
You talk talking 2 or 3 best dollars
maybe.
There is. There is 03:60,
10 flavors in that bridge right there. Our
top seller is ginger fix. Okay. It's probably
the lowest sugar Kombucha you can get
and it's got lots of ginger. We use
ginger juice and fresh ginger that we infuse
in it. And so it's got, like, a
very complete gender
flavor profile, and it's been our number 1
seller for
the entire time. Yeah. Yeah. And you do
seasonal flavors? Do you experiment or have, like,
limited runs, limited edition kind of flavoring?
Yeah. Right now, pineapple lime. We come out
of a couple of months. We have a
new seasonal
and
Dragon Heart is a Dragon crew passion fruit.
We just did that. In the wintertime, we
make
like, a wellness flavor. We have pomegranate rose
is nice we'll come out with that again
in the winter. And we have a
flavor that the local c ops asked us
to team up with them and make them
a special flavor. And so we do 3
of those a year.
And those are real all really nice.
I'm I'm curious to know in the 15
years. I mean, Oregon has got to be,
you know, maybe after Southern California where you've
got the big companies like Gts and and
health aide. Oregon always had a very robust.
You've got rude doctor and harm. But what
what
what changes that you've seen I in terms
of, like, the reception of kombucha amongst Oregon
or specifically importance always known for its
food scene and so on. Is it is
it
it more different people now drinking kombucha than
they were 15 years ago?
Yeah. Well, Portland, it's
it's nice to be doing this here because
Portland is the number 1 consumer of Kombucha
in the world. Yeah. So capita. Yeah. Per
Capita. Correct. Yeah. Okay. So you've heard this,
and so that's been really nice, but even
still doing the farmer's markets 10:12,
13, 14 years ago.
I got a lot of people spitting it
out.
I remember somebody going, like laughing being like,
good luck selling that.
Okay. I was that was my favorite. And
but, you know, 1 person that thought,
the same thing like was, like, I don't
even know how anyone drinks this.
Fast forward a year, it's kinda grown on
her. She's experienced the health benefits and now
can't get enough of you know? So I
was stuck with it. And
at now, it seems like Kombucha is much
more
known about and I think that just the
people in general have become more of, like,
health conscious. It was, like, just health conscious
people knew about it. But now there's more
health conscious people. And so... Mh.
That's a... It's a trend. The beer
industry is shrinking.
You'll hear a lot and Portland is known
for beer as well. And you you see
that, you see
empty
places with it where they use tap.
Yeah. Yep. And so,
people are drinking other things. They're drink seltzer,
the drink king,
non alcoholic
mixed drinks and they're drinking company kombucha. Yeah.
Yeah. Definitely. I mean, it seems to be
that's the trans especially amongst younger generation is
they're not as fixated on alcohol and Kombucha
has always been the so many different
flavors available that if you're not drinking alcohol,
you can still enjoy a variety of,
you know, taste pairing it with foods and
so on. What you see for the future?
Are you kind of in a,
on a steady growth path here? Or are
you planning any more expansion or is this
kind of a happy
state that you're in right now.
We're definitely happy with what we're doing now,
and I wouldn't want to expand too quickly
and lose any of our quality. Like we're
just doing such a good job with every
batch, I feel like with this in this
place and with this team in this system
of
tanks and pumps and
so it would take a lot, but I
I always have it in the back of
my mind, like, what's the next step. Do
we want to expand and and into a
bigger place so that we could grow
naturally
continue to because we're gonna gonna run out
of room eventually. Mh because every single year,
we've been in business has been a big
year of growth. So... Okay. Okay. Well, it's
been great to hear your story. And
hopefully, if people drinking,
hard will stay cool, this warm un season
warm summer in the Northwest. And
well, I appreciate you coming and finding me
ian and for a spreading that we're about
healthy drinks. So
Thanks for listening to News. For more about
Kombucha, please visit
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