Since launching in 2018, the Greenbelt Craft Kombucha team has urged consumers to use its products as a replacement for sugary soft drinks or alcohol. Now, the brand is “blatantly laying it out there,” according to co-founder Gavin Booth, with the creation of its non-alcoholic, cocktail-inspired line of yaupon tea-based kombucha.
The Austin, Texas-based kombucha company was founded by Adam Blumenshein, Tim Klatt, Nathan Klatt, Rick Boucard and Gavin Booth with the goal of brewing a kombucha with low to no sugar and bypassing the lactic taste that is typically associated with the beverage. The new cocktail-themed line is made with the same processes they use to make the brand’s original flavors, but with a yaupon tea base. Booth said the team landed on yaupon for its unique health benefits and the added bonus of an opportunity to support local agriculture.
“It’s crazy to me personally that most yaupon is grown in our backyard,” said Booth. “We have been testing it for well over a year and a half with our Blueberry Açaí. It has been my ultimate obsession because I want to support the American farmers and when it comes to steeping yaupon, you can’t really over steep it. It has pretty much all of the same, if not more, of the health benefits that people look for in yerba mate.”
Yaupon is the only caffeinated plant domestic to North America and it also grows in Greenbelt’s home state of Texas. The company sources it’s tea from Austin-based farmer Abianne Miller Falla, founder of CatSpring Yaupon and a leader of the newly established American Yaupon Association.
Greenbelt is able to maintain low sugar levels (10 grams) in all of its brews by infusing flavors through freeze-dried fruits instead of adding juices and sugar after the fermentation process.
The cocktail-inspired line is currently available in four flavors – Juniper & Tonic, New Fashioned, Grapefruit Paloma, and Elderberry Sangria – with Booth adding that two more SKUs are in the works as the company experiments with various flavor profiles. Exclusively available on Whole Foods shelves, the team has already seen the line’s success firsthand in the few weeks since its launch.
“We have never seen anything like this on the social and the ordering side before,” said Booth. “Until now, we had never experienced fans DMing us, saying ‘Are you guys going to be getting more in stores? I’ve found that if I don’t buy all the cans and then go back later that week, there’s no more left’. It’s a really good problem to have and the order sizes keep getting larger and larger.”
The new line was developed over the course of the past year with the Whole Foods team headquartered in Austin. The product is currently available in stores in the Southwest region; however, the company is planning to expand to additional Whole Foods regions in the near future. Booth said if Whole Foods is willing to let its period of exclusivity “go away,” they will also be looking to expand the line with additional retailers.
According to Booth, the development of this product was a natural extension of the brand. His team has been using their traditional flavors as cocktail bases and tonic replacements for years, even encouraging consumers to give it a try. He said the push to develop a line specifically marketed as an alcohol alternative came from an increasing demand from consumers for better-for-you alternatives to traditional cocktails.
“We are going to be a very unique can on the kombucha shelves because no one is doing non-alcohol, cocktail-flavor themed kombuchas right now,” said Booth. “I think going forward our goal as a brand is to be the cocktail or tonic replacement if you want to add alcohol to kombucha. It is a cool niche because there are so many dry products on the market right now, but when it comes to kombucha there is really no one in that market.”