Nathan Hague

Welcome To Phuket And Our Amazing Kombucha Experiences!

I wanted to write an article that talks about what you can find here in the kombucha Phuket scene. In just over two and a half years, kombucha in Thailand has gone from an underground drink – made largely in secret by few people, through to a thriving industry that’s coming into its own now in 2022.

A Rapidly Growing Industry

When Alice and I setup KombuchaWOW in November 2019, there was only one other kombucha brewer on the island (K Kombucha are still around to this day – nice one fellas!), and when we were telling restaurant and cafe Owners about kombucha back then, many didn’t know what that it was at all.

Fast forward to now (it’s June 2022, at time of writing this!), and there is a kombucha Phuket scene that’s growing!

In fact, many of the very high-end hotels in Phuket such as the Intercontinental are now setting up their own fermentation areas in order to quality for a Michelin Star! Kombucha is officially now mainstream!

One of our high end hotel Customers is the Marriott Renaissance in Mao Khao Beach. Their guests are more than happy to ask for our KombuchaWOW brand by name now, and drink by the fabulous poolside areas – something we’re always proud of! These guys are one of the first hotels to offer commercial kombucha in their hotel, and with more and more people now aware of kombucha, it’s going to a healthy alternative that a lot more hotels will be offering alongside all the usual sodas.

You can find kombucha Phuket around the island at many of the cafes^{(1)(2)(3)(4)(5)} and restaurants^{(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)} now too. However, there’s some things you need to be aware of as kombucha Phuket drinker!

Here in Thailand, kombucha still has a lot of regulation around it, as the country’s draconian brewing laws bring kombucha firmly into the firing line.

Well, it’s this way because Thai brewing laws still class fermented beverages as alcoholic. Now seeing as kombucha is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar and a SCOBY – there’s still yeast that consume the sugar (this is the “Y” in SCOBY, by the way!) Whenever you introduce yeast and sugar together, no matter what you try and do, you’re always going to get alcohol as a byproduct of this fermentation process.

Buyer Beware – Alcohol Levels In Kombucha

Be aware that with any artisanal kombucha brands in Phuket and around Thailand simply don’t bother to apply for Thai FDA certification that is the gold standard that means there is less than 0.5% ABV in your kombucha.

Instead, you’ll find some truly fantastic local kombuchas on Facebook or TikTok – but they cannot legally be sold at a cafe, restaurant or hotel. In fact, you will probably find that with the tropical temperatures here in Phuket, that fermentation happens so quickly that the product is ready to drink – but with a catch: Your artisanal kombucha can have the same amount of alcohol in it as a regular beer! It’s not uncommon to find ABV of 4% in home brew kombucha! Certainly not halal (Related article: Is Kombucha Halal Or Not?), and definitely not something you want to drink if you’re being careful of your own alcohol levels, or if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding!

Tropical Flavours From Fresh Fruits

That’s the “bad news” about kombucha Phuket. But now onto the “good news” about kombucha Phuket!

Thailand is obviously a tropical country, and that benefits kombucha brewers like us, as we’re spoilt for choice with flavourings we can add to our raw kombucha.

Passion fruits, ginger, mangoes and apples are plentiful throughout the year here in Phuket, and when you come down from the airport heading south, you’ll probably see the huge pineapple fields with the Sellers by the side of the road with pineapples stacked high! These pineapples are super sweet and super juicy, and they make a fantastic flavoured kombucha. (We know, as we use them too in our kombucha!)

CBD and Marijuana Kombucha: Great, But Drivers Beware!

You want to also watch out for some of the artisanal kombuchas that are using marijuana in them now too. While at the time of writing, marijuana has been legalised in Thailand but as usual with Thailand, this is all over the place when it comes to legalities!

BE CAREFUL if you’re going to drink “CBD infused” or “weed infused” kombucha – as currently there are NO labelling requirements right now. This isn’t to say it’s dangerous at all!

Far from it! It’s a really interesting taste and you’ll find some brewers on Facebook offering it – usually around the Rawai and Patong areas in Phuket.

But if you think you’re getting just CBD in your kombucha, and then you jump on your scooter or into your car and start driving – and then you have the effects of THC kick in as you’re on Thai roads.. well, you’re going to have a bad time m’kay?!

Say No To Plastic!

We’re really proud of our commitment to sustainability in Phuket. We use exclusively glass bottles, and we collect from our Customers to then deep clean and reuse them where we can.

Many other businesses on the island now also have this recycling and sustainability at their front and centres too, which is fantastic. Please please though – when you come here, and you want to drink kombucha Phuket – make sure you try and buy artisanal kombucha that’s ONLY in glass bottles. You don’t want to be part of the problem, and we recommend you take your own water bottle or glass bottle so their artisanal brewer can fill it up and reduce plastic waste. It’s the right thing to do, and we’re over the moon that so many of our customers bring their bottles back to us 🙂

There’s a bright future ahead for us here at KombuchaWOW and other kombucha Phuket Brewers too. We’re always excited to be trying new flavours in our own Thailand kombucha factory in Chalong. Recent ones that our customers loved include our pina colada, and cream soda flavours.

You’re most welcome to come to our factory and try some booch on us. We’re right next to Poached Breakfast Cafe too, in case you want a bite to eat too (you can find me there on most days behind the laptop when I’m not in the factory making kombucha!)

And, as always, Alice and I LOVE seeing your photos of you with our kombucha! Just make sure to tag them with #kombuchawow – and you never know; If we see a pic of you we really like, there could be freebies!

Any kombucha Phuket questions still? Just message us on any of our socials! We’re on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. We read EVERY SINGLE ONE of your comments!

Cheers and booch on!

Nate

PS – 28th June 2022 (which is today at time of writing!), we’ve got our commercial profile up on the Ariba Network. So if you’re a Corporate Buyer looking for a commercial kombucha Supplier like ourselves – find us on there!