Cat Moye and Mac Ridgeway have been making and drinking their own kombucha for years now, and after working for Ship’s Wheel Hard Cider, Ridgeway knew a thing or two about the alcoholic beverage industry.
The couple started building their hard kombucha company, Fizza Kombucha, in March 2022, and they’ve been distributing the drink, produced in a Summerville facility, around town since this past June.
“It’s a market that hasn’t been jumped into by big corporations,” said Ridgeway, who hopes to corner the hard kombucha market in an area that’s lacking a lot of locally produced options. “We feel like kombucha will end up in the same league as wine and beer.”
It’s worth noting that Fizza isn’t the first hard kombucha company in the area; Bevi Bene Brewing Co. has been serving up hard kombucha in its taproom since last year. And there are several local companies that have been producing regular, non-hard kombucha for years now, like Dalai Sofia and One Love Kombucha.
It’s just a market that looks a lot smaller here than, say, in California.
West Coast best coast?
Moye lived on the West Coast for a few years, and she and Ridgeway noticed a big difference in how folks on the other coast thought of the fermented drink and Charlestonians’ reactions to kombucha. “People say, ‘What’s kombucha?’” Ridgeway said. “We say, it’s fermented sweet tea. We’re in the birthplace of sweet tea, so we simplify it for them.”
The drink bias is real, and for good reason. Kombucha is fermented tea, and it contains a wide variety of bacterias, leading to a wide range in flavor profiles. For a lot of people, the drink can taste too sour, too sweet or just too different.
Earlier this year Vinepair writer Dave Infante asked: Is hard kombucha a “West Coast niche or national lifestyle-brand launchpad?” While Infante visited a hard kombucha taproom in New York City — not King Street — his musings spoke to a bigger question of whether or not hard kombucha is more than a passing trend.
Here to stay or not, hard kombucha is in the forefront of a lot of beverage-minded publications and analysts. While hard kombucha has been popular on the West Coast for a while, it is clearly gaining traction across the country. In 2019 the ISWR, a company that follows beverage trends, forecasted hard kombucha to “surge 34% in the U.S. over the next five years.”
Forbes called hard kombucha “the drink of 2020.” In 2022, Bartender Spirit Awards deemed hard kombucha “the new rage.”
And in 2023, Fizza is distributing to over 20 bars and restaurants in the Charleston area.
It’s gotta taste good
Moye and Ridgeway said kombucha “doesn’t have to taste crazy.” Moye described Fizza as a drink that is “medium-bodied and complex while still being smooth.” Transparency is the name of the game, with the few ingredients in Fizza printed clearly on the cans: filtered water, kombucha culture, cane sugar, organic black tea and organic ginger oil.
Unlike kombuchas made further afield, Fizza can be experienced fresh and is kept cold from production to final destination.
One popular final destination for Fizza is Jack of Cups Saloon on Folly, which was the location of the hard kombucha’s launch earlier this fall. “They’ve been flying through products,” Ridgeway said of the drink’s popularity at the Folly Beach bar and restaurant. “Chris [Johnson, general manager] is open-minded and really embraced us,” he said.
“The product really spoke for itself,” said Johnson. “Ian (our bar manager) can be skeptical about certain hard kombuchas, but when I saw his face after he tried a taste, I knew it was good stuff.”
In addition to selling Fizza as is, Jack of Cups’ bar manager has created a cocktail that uses the hard kombucha as a mixer. The “FZA” is made with goji berry infused tequila, simple syrup, lemon and Fizza. “It’s got a light but very familiar funk that we all associate with all kombuchas,” said Johnson.
At 5% ABV, Fizza could fall loosely into the category of an easy-drinking session beverage, like a hard seltzer or light beer. “Down here on the beach, we demand anything crushable in the heat, which is exactly what Fizza is,” Johnson said.
While Moye and Ridgeway said there are some exciting things in the works for the company, they’re currently pretty pleased with how it’s being received, Moye said. “People tell us that it tastes like Sunday funday.”
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