When Steve Gaskin to start with experimented with kombucha, he was not impressed. “I thought it tasted like funky vinegar,” he claims. “It just was not actually for me, but my wife and a bunch of her friends ended up consuming it.”
Nonetheless, Gaskin understood the possible for what this fermented tea could taste like after his close friend, Claudia Sendelbach, experienced some little-batch kombucha at a roadside stand in Hawaii. As opposed to the kombucha each Gaskin and Sendelbach experienced tried previously, this kombucha was not all about the vinegar tang, and tasted terrific, even to very first-time kombucha drinkers.
It was an “aha” moment for the foreseeable future enterprise partners. Gaskin was a effective Tv set producer and director his credits incorporate HGTV’s Beachfront Cut price Hunt, the Background Channel’s Detroit Metal, MTV’s Large Faculty Stories, and PBS’ NY Expeditions. Nonetheless, he was wanting for a new obstacle and started homebrewing kombucha whilst he and Sendelbach explored opening a kombucha brewery collectively. “Creating a balanced beverage that assisted individuals stay a more healthy life, although setting up a corporation that would retain the services of nearby folks when providing back to the community, appeared like some thing well worth striving,” Gaskin says.
In 2019, East Coast Kombucha Co. opened in a converted historic textile manufacturing facility in South Norwalk.
Steve Gaskin, CEO and co-founder of East Coastline Kombucha, and his company lover Claudia Sendelbach in their Norwalk tap home.
Lisa Nichols/Hearst CT Media“The full aim has been to just make anything that preferences excellent and you drink it since you want to drink it, not since it’s superior for you,” Gaskin says. “We did not want it to be medicinal. We did not want it to have that vinegar style that several of them have.”
The end result is a accredited natural and organic line of kombucha that is very low in calories — various flavors I sampled were much less than 50 calories — but higher in probiotics and taste. It is accessible across the point out at numerous substantial-finish grocery suppliers, places to eat and on tap at bars. The fruit- and tea-forward kombuchas from East Coastline are mild and excellent for easy drinking and grabbing from the fridge throughout the workday.
The basic is the brewery’s foundation taste and is created from a mix of black Assam, white peony, yerba mate and rooibos teas. Other kombucha flavors contain cherry, blueberry, elderberry and pineapple, ginger and additional. There is also a line of CBD-infused kombuchas. The two the CBD and non-CBD kombuchas are really worth trying to find out.
East Mentor Kombucha’s area is one more power. Developed in 1903, the massive constructing has Brooklyn-artist-retreat vibes. The new Room Cat Brewing Co. is future door, and there are other progressive firms in the developing together with Superior Ridge Hydroponics, a farming company that grows salad greens year-spherical. “There’s a genuinely great sort of eclectic vibe of incredibly various types of companies,” Gaskin says. “It’s pleasant to have a genuine community which is serving to every other develop.”
The kombucha brewing area and taproom is similarly remarkable and it’s a enjoyment location to cling out and sample various flavors. You can also understand extra about the brewing process at totally free weekly brewery tours presented Saturday at 2 p.m.
East Coastline Kombucha is the next kombucha brewery to open up in Connecticut Cross Tradition Kombucha in Danbury opened in 2018. The two firms are pretty supportive of just one yet another.
“They’re mates of ours,” Gaskin says. He provides that the more individuals see kombucha of any kind in Connecticut readily available, the better for the reason that, even though the drink is getting to be far better regarded listed here, it nevertheless could use far more visibility. “On the West Coastline, you can get kombucha on faucet most places. So that is genuinely what we’re making an attempt to convey below. For the reason that it is this kind of a great choice to sugary sodas, and it helps make an extraordinary consume mixer.”
East Coastline Kombucha Co.
57 Chestnut St., Norwalk, 203-904-2121
eastcoastkombucha.com, @eastcoastkombucha on Instagram
Open Fri. & Sat. with brewery excursions at 2 p.m. Sat.
Wheelchair available
