Fermenting is all the rage right now, and one of the most popular fermented products is kombucha. Kombucha is a fermented sweet tea that’s created with the addition of a specific culture called a SCOBY. The SCOBY consumes most of the sugar in the tea and produces a tangy drink rich in probiotics. Health benefits include enhanced digestion, energy and improved skin and hair quality.

If you’re looking for a local product to try out, Theonista has a fantastic range of tasty kombucha drinks. Brewmistress Meghan Werner originally intended to brew her teas for her own personal consumption, but when a few samples got out, Meghan began brewing and bottling for the masses. These creations are produced and bottle by hand, locally, at her facility based in Woodstock, and from there, distributed around Cape Town and the greater South Africa.

The range consists of three bottle sizes and around 10-12 flavors at any given time. They have a really extensive core range of 9 options, with seasonally-inspired flavours added throughout the year. These allow Meghan to offer new flavours using botanicals, spices, and/or fruits to create options depending on the time of the year, and many of these ingredients can only be sourced when in season.

We tried three of the Theonista flavours – Mate tea and ginger, Pomegranate and green tea, and Rooibos and ginger. Each were distinctly flavoured, refreshing and lightly fizzy, best enjoyed cold. Along with organic teas sourced from South Africa, Asia, and South America, only 100% pure fruit, root, and/or botanical extracts and infusions are used, meaning no artificial flavors, colorants, or preservatives.

Hot tip: If you’d like to make your own kombucha in your establishment, Theonista also sells kombucha kits. There’s not too much set up involved, although the first ferment takes about 5 – 7 days, after which you flavour and bottle your brew, and allow it to carbonate through a second ferment. While brewing your own kombucha will involve initial trial and error, you can experiment with flavours and produce higher volumes of Kombucha as your SCOBY increases in size. In fact, there are already a few restaurants in South Africa that are serving their own in-house kombucha on tap!

For more information, visit https://theonistaproducts.com/