The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 91
KOMBUCHA COOL
Luke Gardner and Luke
Suess - two Patrick
Henry high schoolers -
create and bottle their
four flavors of Lukes'
Kombucha at Sweet
Donkey Coffee House in
Roanoke.
"In 2009, much of the kombucha sold was very
strong and vinegary," recalls Danek. "A handful
of people acquired a taste; some held their nose
just to get it down because they knew it was good
for them."
Today's approximately 270 U.S. commercial
makers stir up hundreds of flavors, most far more
palatable than their forebears. Combinations
range from orange mango and blueberry mint to
cayenne lime and lemon ginger to grapefruit and
hops to rose and lavender. Tha Best Kombucha
rotates through more than 45 variations. This
spring they're adding a chamomile-dandelion
root-stinging nettles mixture.
"If we think a flavor tastes good, we bring it to
the farmers market," says Brad Procak. "If it sells
out within an hour and a half, we know it's going
to be with us forever."
It's a testament to how young an industry
kombucha-making is that many of today's brewers
had never even tasted kombucha before the last
few years.
Luke Suess is one of them.
A year ago, Suess and his friend Luke Gardner
embarked on a science fair project testing the
effect of kombucha on E. coli bacteria growth.
Once the experiment was over, the teens still had
their starter and supplies and they decided to
keep creating. They tested flavors and shared with
friends, perfecting their methods as they shuttled
glass jars and jellyfish-like SCOBYs and heating
mats between each other's homes.
Then Sweet Donkey Coffee House offered to
let the boys brew in their commercial kitchen and,
in February, Lukes' Kombucha-Roanoke's only
local kombucha line-was born. They sold out in
the first week and set about scaling up to more
than double their production.
"It's something that we both love to do," Suess
says.
BUFFALO
MOUNTAIN
KOMBUCHA
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The Roanoker - May/June 2018
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - May/June 2018
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - Intro
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - Cover1
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - Cover2
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 3
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 4
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 5
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The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 129
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - 130
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - Cover3
The Roanoker - May/June 2018 - Cover4
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