118 Making Kombucha Mainstream with Vanessa Dew, Co-founder and CSO of Health-Ade Kombucha

If you already know that kombucha is fermented tea, you're in the minority. If you drink it, you're in an even smaller minority. In the US, only 17% of US households drink kombucha. The idea of a fermented tea made from a hunk of slimy-looking culture is not immediately appetizing, but the taste and health benefits have appealed to people for thousands of years — it's only in the past decade that it's become a mainstay in every health foods store.

When Health-Ade Kombucha launched in Los Angeles farmers' markets in 2012 Vanessa Dew and her co-founders had to explain it to health food early adopters. Fast forward eight years, and you can find their bright, colorful, nautical-themed bottles in grocery stores and health food stores across the country, but Vanessa realizes they still have a lot of space to make kombucha a household name. In this episode, Vanessa shares their strange path to kombucha, how they've seen buying habits shift dramatically since people have quarantined, and what they're doing to make kombucha as approachable as possible.

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