Ypsilanti kombucha tea business takes off

By Charnika Jett
Feb. 4, 2010    ·    1:07 p.m.

Coffee shops and cafes have long reined supreme for social gatherings and the free Internet hot spot for students. However, some customers have recently found their desire for hot foamy caffeine-infused drinks have gone cold when thinking about the health effects of their liquid habit.

Here to quench their thirst for healthier and tasty concoctions are Rachel and Tarek Kannan, owners of Unity Vibration Living Kombucha Tea. 

Currently, operating out of their Ypsilanti home, the Kannan’s are offering their new specialty flavored kombucha tea to local markets. And as more people taste their kombucha, more people are signing up to distribute their product at their business. 

“We're in 9 different stores, three Plum Markets, a deli [and] a bakery in Detroit, Tarek said. “Hopefully soon we will be in two Whole Foods stores as well.” 

In Ypsilanti, shoppers can find Unity Vibration Living Kombucha Tea at the Ypsilanti Food Co-op.

So what exactly is kombucha tea and how is it different from the others?

Similar to regular tea, kombucha includes a lot of anti-oxidants, but kombucha also has viable probiotics, enzymes minerals and vitamins to add to the many reasons to drink it. It also doesn’t come in the form of leaves like other tea does either. 

“[Kombucha] looks like a mushroom and like a floating pancake,” Tarek said. 

“Yeah, it’s like a jelly fish,” adds Rachel.
 
“You feed [the kombucha mushroom] black tea and sugar and it converts to sugar,” Tarek explained. 

“The caffeine in the tea then turns into glucuronic acid and acid probiotics. I don’t know where kombucha came from, but they’ve been drinking it in China and Russia for like two to three thousand years.” 

Tarek, an engineer and social worker, used to make wine and beer for himself and friends, but never thought of going into the business of creating his own tea. It wasn’t until he met his wife Rachel, who also enjoyed kombucha, that the idea started coming together. 

“I had a SCOBY (Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts), which is what you start the kombucha with,” Rachel explained. “You need a culture and I had it and all my friends were doing it.” 

“I started to brew it and Tarek and I decided to do it together because we were buying too much of the brand at the store and it was too expensive at that point in our life,” Rachel said. 

Since officially opening in November, Unity Vibrations Kombucha Tea offers a variety of flavors of kombucha that the Kannan’s make themselves. The process of making one batch of kombucha takes 15 to 25 days and they charge $8 to $10 per bottle. 

“Our kombucha is more gourmet than a lot of other. We like the health aspect but were also really into the taste and the texture, like wine,” Rachel said. 

The Kannan’s also believe their brand of tea is different because they add more fresh juice to their kombucha and also “sounds vibrations” while it’s brewing. 

“We are both Buddhists and we have Tibetan bowls that makes different sound frequencies,” Rachel said.  
“We have them set up across the tanks and we ring them. We have positive intentions with sounding those. We believe those bowls have a lot of ancient wisdom and so we’re trying to bring that into the kombucha so everyone can experience really wonderful things.” 

In addition to the extra tender love and care they put into each batch of kombucha, they also add some pizzazz when creating the flavors. 

“We research and experiment,” Tarek said. “We’ve done some really crazy flavors."

The experimental black pepper flavor didn’t make the cut, but when it comes to the extreme flavors, the Kannans decide to keep those recipes for holiday flavors.  

“The Halloween flavor was [made of] chocolate, chili, honey, vanilla, all in one,” Tarek said.  

“People either loved it and couldn’t get enough, or they hated it. For winter, we had Cranberry Clementine, which was really excellent and extremely healthy.” 

For the future, the Kannan’s hope to expand their brand and Rachel would like to open a tasting room for their kombucha in either downtown Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor. 

“We love Ypsilanti, it’s a good community,” Rachel said. “I like being here because the brewers are here it’s an open minded community. People have received [our kombucha] pretty well here.” 

For more information on Unity Vibrations Kombucha Tea, visit their Web site.