Alive Kombucha - Sunshine is the Secret Ingredient
By: Matthew Conradi
November, 2020
There are many ways in which I have failed to grow up as I have progressed into adulthood - a notion I’m certain my co-workers will attest to. In this particular instance, I refer to my seemingly lifelong inability to stop making poor faces at foods I’ve yet to even experience. Even at 24 years old, my go-to breakfast consists of a double-sized serving of Dino Eggs - a childhood favourite. Arguably, the most progress I’ve made with regards to venturing into unfamiliar culinary territory, would be with sushi, in its most basic form. Covered in wasabi and soy sauce. Does that still count?
At this point you can likely imagine that I have a bit of a predisposition towards traditionally un-tasty health foods. You can imagine that something like kombucha, the fermented tea beverage, is not something that has been on my radar. Admittedly, it wasn’t. Until we started working with a local brewery.
Alive Kombucha operates out of Moncton, and came to us in the summer of 2020 for help reaching their sustainability goals with a roof-mounted solar array. Shortly thereafter, our construction crew were lacing their boots up, and making it happen.
At some point throughout the installation process, I started noticing something funny. I started noticing empty bottles of Alive Kombucha scattered in our fleet vehicles; and I mean empty. Not cracked open, tasted, disapproved, and discarded, as is standard procedure in my mind for most health oriented drinks. Clearly, our construction crew had been introduced to Alive Kombucha’s products, and they were consuming them in the masses.
This is something which carried some weight for me, because I believe our construction crew shares similar food preferences with myself. I have personally bared witness to one of our tradesmen tucking into a slice of cheesecake at 7:30am in the absence of a breakfast sandwich - not to name any names. Ryan, you know who you are. At this point the kombucha had me very intrigued.
Shortly after we successfully completed our solar project with Alive Kombucha, I made my way out to Moncton to document things and have a look around their facility. After some interesting conversation with their brewmaster, Bobby, I quickly realized that he was well-aware of all the negative misconceptions out there about kombucha: mysterious floaty bits in the bottle, and a vinegar-esque flavour profile were notions Bobby was very familiar with, and ones which he reassured me I would not experience with Alive Kombucha’s delicious brew.
Bobby’s best argument for his kombucha however, was made when he placed a few bottles in front of me, cracked one open, and said “Give it a try!”. It was great. Better than great, even. Something I’d happily drink irregardless of the suite of health benefits it comes with. Something I’d happily drink just for the sake of enjoying a drink.
My food critiquing prowess may leave something to be desired, but I feel like the ultimate measure for a good drink is whether it tastes good or not. Happily then, Alive Kombucha has the “yum” factor perfected down to a science.
Producing a high-quality product while minimizing their environmental impact are two items that are very high on Alive Kombucha’s list of priorities - something that truly sets them apart in their industry, and you can really see it (and taste it!). Whether it’s in their state-of-the-art brewing equipment proudly glimmering in the soft white light of their freshly renovated production facility, their bright expanse of solar panels on the roof producing clean power for the brewing process, or in their delicious kombucha. You can see in every step of the way, they only settled for the best.
