Andrew Wachira is the founder of Kombucha Kenya, a local company involved in making kefir and kombucha.
Kefir is a drink made from the fermented milk of a cow, goat, or sheep, while kombucha is tea that has been fermented by a culture of yeast and bacteria.
In an interview with Utmost Precision, Wachira explained the benefits of kombucha and how it is made.
Here is his story as told by WoK.
Interest
In the interview, Wachira said he was involved in other jobs such as Human Resource (HR) before coming across kombucha.
When he understood more about it, he decided to venture into kombucha making in a bid to popularize it in Kenya.
“Once I bumped into kombucha, I felt like I should continue with this venture because I fell in love with the product and thought I should do much of it and share it with Kenyans,” Wachira said.
He explained that kombucha originated from China before it was brewed in Russia and then Japan where it got its name.
“It dates back a long time ago, it was around 220BC somewhere in Manchuria, China. It was a fleshy mat which people used to pit on top of tea then after sometime, it gets to be effervescent and has a tangy taste,” Wachira said.
While it’s not a plant or an animal, but it just grows, Wachira said that it is made possible by bacteria properties and characteristics.
“What makes kombucha is SCOBY; symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. The yeast and bacteria live together in a symbiotic relationship and they ferment whatever’s below them,” he said.
He went straight into listing health benefits of drinking kombucha.
They include preventing cancer, a source of antibiotics, contains antioxidants and helping in managing diabetes, ulcers and blood pressure.
Kombucha Kenya
Wachira started making kombucha in 2014 while still living in her mother’s house, this was two years before he officially started doing kombucha commercially.
“I would fill out her kitchen with buckets of kombucha and it was turning to become a pain for her, and she advised me to start a business
“I started Kombucha Kenya by creating a Facebook page. People would see the health benefits of kombucha and when they’d Google about it, my page appears,” he said.
At Kombucha Kenya, Wachira makes different types of flavors; green tea, ginger turmeric, lavender, guava, rosemary and mint.
“With all these varieties of kombucha, they have different properties to the end users. You find like someone who has stomach issues, I could recommend lavender of guava flavor,” he said.
