The growing demand for products that support gut health is fueling rapid growth in sales of fermented beverages. As kombucha continues to penetrate mainstream retailers, brewers are exploring new ways to capture a larger share of the expanding set and create differentiation within it.
Theonista, an independent and female-owned small craft beverage company located in Woodstock, is one of these companies to lead the market in quality and innovation.
When Meghan Werner, or The BrewMistress as she likes to call herself, relocated from the US to SA in 2011, she struggled to find her kombucha fix locally. She then took to brewing her own, using traditional fermentation techniques and high quality, consciously-sourced ingredients. The name “Theonista” is Meghan’s feminine and assertive twist on the on the Greek word “Theobroma”, which is a genus of flowering plants and translates to “food of the gods”. Theobroma cacao, the best-known species of the genus, is used for making chocolate.
kombucha queen Meghan Werner
You see, before Meghan started her kombucha empire, she was making chocolate, (Theobroma cacao). After moving away from chocolate she decided to keep the name and the cacao pod because both symbolise the transformative fermentation process that kombucha also goes through.
Over the years, Meghan’s side-line project turned into a profitable business. What started out as a one-woman show evolved into a kombucha empire with eleven staff members, operating from the manufacturing facility in Woodstock.
Despite the growth, the Theonista team still prides themselves in making kombucha with the same passion and values. They have maintained their small production methods, continuing to manually brew and bottle all the products themselves, primarily because that approach has consistently yielded the best results in terms of quality.
To celebrate the company’s success, Meghan decided to honour the range of kombucha with a fresh new look on the outside that reflect the vibrant and nourishing contents inside the bottle.
Meghan often jokes that she specializes in “the path of most resistance”, like trying to convince sceptical South Africans that kombucha is worth trying. Seems like all the effort that she put in was worth it. Today she believes you should “Follow your gut”, especially when it comes to your health, immunity and well-being.
