Kombucha bar brings diverse fermentation to Brewery District

Rochelle Minagawa first waded into the field of fermentation at the age of 16.

Her friend had a small amount of culture sitting out on the counter. Minagawa tried it, was intrigued by the uniqueness, but it fell into the back of her mind.

Fast forward a few years, and she started to dive deeper into fermentation – vegetables, sauerkraut, kimchi; it was all bubbling away in mason jars in her home.

“Once you start fermenting, there is always some weird things happening on your counter,” she told Kelowna10. “It was kind of a lifestyle of gardening, growing food, fermenting that food, living holistically, and kombucha was sort of ground into that.”

Now, Minagawa has taken her hobby and turned into a thriving commercial career, culminating in the opening of the city’s first kombucha and water kefir tasting bar.

The founder of MotherLove Ferments has grown her business from peddling extra culture online during maternity leave, to small scale distribution and brick-and-mortar.

Kombucha is a fermented tea. The basic ingredients are yeast, sugar, and tea. The mix is set aside anywhere from seven days to several weeks. Bacteria and acids form in the drink and results in the live kombucha culture. Water kefir has no caffeine and is more of a fizzy probiotic water.

The probiotic beverages have B-vitamins and enzymes that support digestive health. They help the body break down food so it can absorb all the healthy vitamins to get the most out of the food we eat.

Minagawa said the world of kombucha is filled with misconceptions and hopes The Kombucha Bar on Vaughan Avenue can help quell those and educate newcomers.

“Either people don’t know what it is, haven’t tried it, or tried someone’s home brew that is really funky and said, ‘it’s not for me,’” she explained. “It’s nice to have a place where people can come in, learn a little bit, have an experience … and leave with a bit more knowledge, rather than taking a random bottle off the shelf, not liking it, and then throwing away kombucha altogether.”

Sustainability and environmental responsibility, she said, are two major pillars of the business.

With a background in athletics, Minagawa has a passion for making beverages that are good for the body. She encourages and accommodates a range of refillable containers, be it growlers or mason jars, to help ferry kombucha home and cut down on packaging.

“We are just trying to make sure our environmental impact is as low as possible, and people are still getting all the good stuff from the ferments,” she said.

The Kombucha Bar is stuffed with locally sourced products and services, from 3D printed taps and flight trays, to the furniture and mobile canner.

Minagawa hopes the tasting bar adds some diversity to the growing downtown area.

“There is so much beer and it is such a growing Brewery District, that it is nice to have some options for people who don’t drink or just some different things going on to make the experience more interesting,” she said.

Plans are in the works to land a liquor permit, she said, and move into the world of hard kombucha, which tends to have an alcohol content of 5 or 6 per cent. It will be sold under the brand, Daypass.