Profile: Mountain Bee Kombucha, Bangalore, India
Honey Islam authored the recent 3-part Guest Post on Booch News How the New Indian Government Tax Reform Punishes Beverage Startups , which raised concerns about a 40% tax the Indian Government plans to impose on kombucha. This Profile and podcast interview tells the story of her company. Origins The story of Mountain Bee Kombucha began in 2016, at the very first Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. What started as a much-needed break from work became a turning point. At a workshop at the festival, Honey Islam, the founder of Mountain Bee Kombucha , first learned about what she called the “strange ferment” known as kombucha. She did not get a chance to drink it, but she was intrigued. Months later in Dallas, Texas she spotted bottles of kombucha lining the shelves at Whole Foods and tasted it for the first time. She then volunteered at a fermentation workshop in San Francisco led by chef Anne Marie Bonneau . She gifted Honey a piece of her SCOBY that she brought back to Bangalore. Reviving it took time and effort, and it barely survived the trip. But when it did, it felt like magic. What began on a kitchen countertop slowly turned into a mission: to craft authentic, small-batch kombucha in India, with the same intention and wonder she felt in that first perfect sip. Mountain Bee Kombucha was born in 2018. At her first weekend at an area farmers’ market, she sold all 50 bottles in the first two hours. She now has a team of six and sells 5,000 liters of kombucha a month, depending on the season, which is fermented in 300-liter stainless steel containers. Production We source and ferment only the very best whole-leaf teas, working closely with trusted growers who share our passion for quality. All sample teas are carefully fermented, and only those that meet our highest standards of flavour and balance make it into our production process. From bold blacks to complex oolongs, every tea brings its own personality to the brew. Our brewing techniques extract their full expression, setting a strong foundation for the flavour complexity that we strive to achieve. We produce in small batches from brew to bottle, never outsourcing any part of our process. This hands-on, craft-driven approach ensures that every bottle reflects our standards, stories, and soul. Environmental savings Mountain Bee has diverted over 50,000 bottles from landfills. Our major contributor to the savings is our B2B partners. So unlike a lot of retail bottles that go one-way from the production house to the customer’s house, when we’re dealing with the businesses, we actually use returnable kegs and returnable bottles with our business partners. We don’t give them our retail bottles. So that’s the kind of ecosystem we’re trying to build and save on unnecessary packaging where we can. Customers are able to enjoy our fresh kombucha on tap, and enjoy different flavors that don’t see the retail shelves. Taproom The Mountain Bee Kombucha taproom is an extension of their brewery, a space dedicated to kombucha enthusiasts, gut health and fermentation. Tucked away in the by-lanes of Indiranagar, it is a one-of-a-kind place to experience kombucha. Visitors can sample taproom-only flavors during a guided tasting where they learn about ingredients, fermentation techniques, and the art of non-alcoholic brewing. In addition to tastings, they offer Mixology workshops and Kombucha Brewing classes. I felt that in order to build a community, we need to engage participants, not just as customers of kombucha, but also as practitioners themselves. Unless and until you know your product from that level, you wouldn’t understand or you wouldn’t want to consume it in the long run. So my motto for conducting workshops and tastings was to let people into the world of fermentation, into the world of kombucha, and tell them how amazing microbes and probiotics and natural fermentation could be. Flavors We take a creative approach to our flavoring process, inspired by stories, memories, and a deep