Australian kombucha specialist firm Bucha of Byron is looking beyond its traditional health conscious clientele to also target consumers seeking alcoholic beverages with a better-for-you twist.
The firm’s core product is its regular Bucha of Byron kombucha, and it also has a line of kombucha blended with spirits called Dirty Bucha, and recently also launched a line of kombucha blended with beer dubbed Sneaky Bucha, all of which are ready-to-drink (RTD) products.
According to Bucha of Byron Co-Founder and General Manager Sales and Marketing Paul Tansley, the firm started off making regular kombucha in Australia’s Byron Bay initially but creating alcoholic variants had always been part of the plan.
Byron Bay’s Kombucha Brewing Co. Source: supplied.
Kombucha the cure-all magic brew, the ancient Chinese drink, the hipster libation turned possible billion-dollar global industry is going through a transition.
A transition from the inevitable hype over a new product and kombucha brands sprouting up at every corner, to a market consolidation where some Australian brands have already attracted the likes of Coca Cola and big businesses, some are innovating to keep playing the game, and some eventually may not survive.
It’s survival of the fittest.
Except independent small-to-medium kombucha companies say the ‘fittest’ brands, at the end of the day, might be making a product that could be better classified as a ‘kombucha-style’ drink with questionable levels of live bacteria.