SAN ANTONIO – Kevin Rayhons started drinking kombucha 10 years ago after he started to gain weight and wanted to make healthy dietary choices.
While he cut out sodas, Rayhons found he still wanted a fizzy beverage to drink.
That's when he turned to fermented tea.
"At the first bottle, I was hesitant about it. But by the third, I was chugging half a bottle in one sitting," Rayhons said.
Rayhons liked kombucha so much, he and a buddy started making the natural drink through their company, Element.
"It's home brewing, but it's on a larger scale. Beer brewing is kind of the same thing. If you go to a brewery, it's doing the same thing. Just a bigger tank," he said.
Kombucha consists of re-mineralized water, raw cane sugar and organic green tea. Everything that goes into kombucha drinks is 100 percent natural.
Rayhons said the kombucha industry is growing.
"You'll see people who will travel and go to beer breweries as they visit towns. You'll see the same for kombucha," he said.
Rayhons said kombucha not only tastes good, it can also be beneficial for your health.
"Kombucha is considered the functional beverage. You've got the probiotics that's good for your body and the healthy fatty acids," he said. "When I started drinking kombucha, I stopped getting as sick as much. My immune system seemed to be better in general."
But the medical benefits have yet to be proven, said Georgiana Gross, M.P.H., clinical assistant professor of comprehensive dentistry at UT Health San Antonio.
"According the Ernst E. Systematic review of clinical evidence, the benefits are undetermined and cannot be recommended for therapeutic use. Other authors called kombucha a functional food with 'unscientific' claims," she said.
Element started with only a big table and a few pots, but now the company has a room with about 25 barrels filled with kombucha. Despite the early success, Element could outgrow its current facility.
The company sells 16,000 to 20,000 bottles a month in 133 H-E-B grocery stores, two local Whole Foods stores and two local Natural Groceries.
Rayhons said Element has the potential and the recipe for success.
"It's kind of this weird middle space between brewing beer and making vinegar. It's a delicate balance we keep. Our kombucha, we make less vinegary than a lot of other companies out there," he said.