A badass woman entrepreneur, Divya Kumar calls her venturing into kombucha brewing truly cosmic. After being introduced to this fuzzy, fermented nirvana by her neighbour (a kombucha brewer herself) in the U.S. (and having relished it for more than a decade), Kumar returned home to Chennai only to find herself living opposite another devoted kombucha brewer. Hard kicked in her passion and curiosity to dive deeper into her love for kombucha and she turned the lockdown lull into an exciting period for her. The result - we got East Coast Brewery, a local kombucha brand that she runs out of her own home in ECR.
Labelled Divs, these kombuchas are made with a mix of both green tea and black tea as a base and flavoured using only locally-sourced, seasonal ingredients. Divya personally tends to her batches every single day, keeping a close eye on each bottle as it ferments to become a fizzy, mildly sweet delight. 'We like to travel with the season', she says, offering classic kombucha along with flavours like hibiscus, mango, rose, sweet lime, ginger and jasmine. We tried their Rosapoo flavour (also our first experience with kombucha) and simply loved it. Mildly sweet with a pleasant rose flavour, we found this really refreshing.
That's not it. East Coast Brewery also treats you with their bomb soda pops which are essentially like fizzy beer but their nutrient profile differs from kombuchas. Available in flavours like spicy ginger, tarty hibiscus and turmeric - these are highly concentrated and hit you right at the spot, so go easy on them. What was exciting to hear is that these seem to work well as standalone drinks as well as salad dressings, cocktail mixes and even for topical application. 'Our customers are going wild..some even using them to wash their hair instead of apple cider vinegar', Divya adds.
If you want to get your hands on these handcrafted beauties, be sure to place your order via East Coast Brewery's IG page at least a week in advance. For all those of you who know your booch well, you can just have a word with Divya while placing your order to get it customised to your liking. If you're a kombucha noob like us, start with their tasting flight. It comes with five different flavours carrying about 300 ml of kombucha each. Prices start from INR 250.