This Chennaiite makes fermented drinks at home

When she moved back to Chennai last year, she came to know that her neighbour is a kombucha brewer. “I was excited about it and decided to make the drink at home. My neighbor gave me a starter to make the drink. The starter is called Scoby — it is a combination of probiotics and yeast. After making a few batches, I gave them to my relatives and friends for tasting. Surprisingly, everyone like it and I launched my venture East Coast Brewery during the lockdown. Kombucha is a fermented, lightly effervescent, sweetened black or green tea drink commonly consumed for its supposed health benefits. Kombucha has gut-healing organic acids like gluconic, acetic, lactic, citric, succinic, malonic and more,” says Divya. 

The benefits of kombucha are many and Divya can vouch for it. “It is a non-alcoholic drink and can be consumed by diabetic people as well. It is liver detox, anti-inflammatory, relieves arthritis pain, improves digestion, supports weight loss, curbs appetite, anti-microbial, fights infection and boosts energy. I make kombucha from flowers available in our garden as well We have different flavours like ginger kombucha, berry vanilla kombucha, hibiscus kombucha, masala tea kombucha, garden trilogy kombucha (a combination of lavender, rose and sankapushpam), green tea kombucha and more. Our bestsellers are rosapoo, passion fruit, ginger and mango bomb. We only use the finest quality locally sourced ingredients and slowly ferment them yielding the highest probiotic profile.” 

She also hosts kombucha tasting during the weekends to introduce more people to this drink. “I started the tasting sessions in October at my place in Panayur, ECR. I post the details of the kombucha tastings on social media page and those who are interested get in touch with me. I have done four tasting sessions so far,” she concludes.