Two Brookings residents have recently added the title of entrepreneurs to their resume. What started as a fun kombucha-making hobby between longtime friends, Alecia Moe and Houston Moffett, has turned into a growing small business.
The duo is offering unique, small-batch kombucha drinks to the Brookings area, sold in local businesses like the Valley Restaurant in nearby Volga. Moffett said he was first introduced to kombucha thanks to Moe and the two decided it would be fun to come up with their own flavors.
“Alecia told me about kombucha one day, so I bought some from the store and tried it. I liked it,” Moffett said. “Then I started wanting flavors I couldn’t find in the store, so I started making it at home for myself.”
Together, Moffett and Moe quickly began brewing batches and experimenting with different flavors.
“We experimented with about every flavor under the sun,” Moe said. “I mean, he was buying, like, pink pineapples and all kinds of crazy stuff.”
After that, Brookings Booch was officially born. Since its start, their business has moved from home brewing to operating out of the Valley Restaurant’s kitchen. The business now offers a variety of kombucha flavors, including blueberry, strawberry, mango and pineapple. The drinks are all made through a careful, hands-on process.
“Really, we both do everything from start to finish,” Moffett said. “From brewing the tea to kegging the final product.
For both Moe and Moffett, the creative process is one of the most rewarding aspects of their business.
“The creativity we get to use is what I love most,” Moffett said. “Coming up with new flavors, experimenting with different teas and fruits."
“It's so much different from what I do in my regular job,” Moe added. “It gets me to be a little more creative... You know, throwing around flavors and trying different types of combinations of things is really fun.”
Brookings Booch’s kombucha is brewed with tea, fermented with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, also known as SCOBY, and flavored naturally with fruit. The result is a sweet, slightly tart, beverage that some say can be beneficial for gut health due to its probiotic properties.
“Kombucha is a fermented tea, naturally flavored with fruit,” Moffett said. “It’s very refreshing.”
While some may tout it as a healthier alternative to other sugary drinks, Moe said she still wants customers to know that it does contain some sugar.
“I am always wary of promoting it as a health drink. I mean, you do ferment it with sugar, but there's less sugar than a pop,” Moe said.
Their kombucha drinks have already gained a following with some of the Valley’s customers. Although the business is still in its early stages, the pair are planning for the future. Currently, they're working on creating labels and bottling their kombucha so it can be sold in local stores.
In addition to selling bottled kombucha, they are also considering expanding into bars and restaurants, where customers can enjoy fresh kombucha on tap.
“We’d love to see it available in other local businesses, whether it's on tap at a bar or in stores for people to take home,” Moe said. “We’ve already had interest from local businesses, so we’re hoping to expand soon.”
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