Michelle told me about the origins of her love of Kombucha

Let’s go back to 2014 or 2015, After being very sick thus taking lots of antibiotics her microbiome was destroyed. She searched and searched and “No one could say what was wrong” until a Chinese medicine doctor identified the importance the microbiome. She was introduced to what would change her life, you can probably guess it, Kombucha. Obsession grew and it wasn’t easy, drinking lots of it while only being able to get some at Vita Health at the time,  she started pondering about making it herself. Another hard to find quest, to find a local source for the SCOBY. This is like having a starter for sourdough, a cellulose mass of beneficial bacteria and yeast cultures which feeds the tea that ferments into Kombucha. (Source: You Brew Kombucha, no date listed)

Enter a touch of a love story, or a mother-in-law love story, rumour had it that a friend of Michelle’s Mom had a SCOBY and so she had to get in! They went on a date, and that seems to have gone well as Michelle scored the SCOBY, a husband and the start of a business she is passionate about. She started brewing her own Kombucha. This led to selling it, one customer who kept asking the company name. She thought about how to hold pride for the localness of her product and where it all started in her home in Wolseley, settling on Wolseley Kombucha, only later realizing how hard that can be to spell, as I write it over and over for this piece I’m feeling that regret!  She approached an artist friend Lori Fast (@ladylorelie3) to make the logo, it fit the vibe so well that Michelle continues to commission Laurie for the new branding, a gorgeous Mandela they feature in the taproom and more. The business grew and keeps on growing, more on that later!

Before the future of Wolseley Kombucha I needed to clarify, what is Kombucha?

The Wolseley Kombucha process starts with the basics of black and green tea, sugar, and that very valuable SCOBY. It is then fully fermented for 4 to 6 weeks. This extra time gives their Kombucha have more bite compared to many other Kombuchas on the market. Of course, to make the fun flavours, which there are 10 core flavours and several seasonal, they use real botanicals. As this series is all about featuring local it was so cool to hear how hard they work to use local ingredients.  They source from Awaken Herb Farm (awakenherbs.ca) when possible.

I also found out important things like, yes you drink the bits in the drink, and that my gut probably needed the Kombucha because my digestion and poops have been great in the week since chatting with Michelle and getting two howlers! They were root beer and cherry cola which I highly recommend trying!