By Shelby Leisinger
Iowa City’s new budding business Wild Culture Kombucha is winning the hearts of health lovers in the community.
Kombucha is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar, bacteria, and yeast, according to the Mayo Clinic. This fermentation process makes a slightly carbonated juice-like drink.
Featured at six different locations in Iowa City, the small home-brewing company, co-owned by Tim Roed and Rachelle Schmidt, has grown in distribution and facilitation. One among few, Wild Culture Kombucha hopes to popularize the drink, which has gained fame on the coasts.
“We were sitting by the pool and were like, ‘Man I really want to go somewhere, like a kombucha bar, why isn’t there one in Iowa City?” Roed said. “And we were just thinking about it, like hey, we could do that. We could make kombucha locally.”
Kombucha can have added benefits when produced properly under safe conditions. Wild Culture’s kombucha is made from organic loose leaf teas and house-made juice, so it is a probiotic tea with live and active cultures, according to the company’s website.
“For people who are like, ‘Oh my god, it’s a living beverage,’ it’s similar to yogurt,” Schmidt said, who heads sales and distribution. “This is a dairy-free, vegan way to get probiotics. Everything is live, raw, so it’s better for you.”
Roed and Schmidt received their brewing license eight months ago after an uphill battle with paperwork, and they now have a lot more freedom to experiment with new recipes.
“A lot of people told us no. They told us we would have to change our product or compromise,” Roed said. “They said, ‘Oh, you’re going to have to use pasteurized juices or use syrups.’ ”
Pasteurization would dilute the product and diminish the amount of probiotics in the drink, something that Wild Culture did not want to compromise on. With zero pasteurization, kombucha typically has a 1 percent alcohol content.
The Iowa City Brew Lab was the first place to carry Wild Culture Kombucha, and it can now be found at the Bread Garden Market, 30hop, Trumpet Blossom, and Clinton Street Social Club.
“I love their product; I love both of them,” said Brooke Brewer, the store director of Bread Garden. “They’re wonderful to work with.”
Wild Culture operates in a small production-only facility in a space they share with one other person. The facility is not open to visitors; however, tastings can be scheduled outside the facility.
The two have one 397-gallon fermenter and will soon acquire a second. With one fermenter, they are able to produce two batches a week — growing demand and a second fermenter could increase production.
“We started about a year and a half ago, and we were just doing samples at the Farmers’ Market while going through the license process,” Roed said. “We left our full-time jobs in June, and we do everything. We do the Farmers’ Market, the website; we’re just investing everything that we can back into the business to grow it as fast as possible.”
“We have pretty high standards for food and beverages,” Schmidt said. “We really believe in what we’re doing. We feel very strongly about the quality of our product.”
Available flavors being served now are pineapple jalapeño, beet orange lime, honey lavender chamomile, ginger turmeric lemon, and strawberry lemon thyme. Seasonal fall flavors will arrive soon.