Five months after increasing their production space more than fourfold, the owners of Kombucha Mama, the Bend fermented tea maker, are planning their next expansion.

In September, the company moved from a 1,200-square-foot shop on Northeast First Street to a 5,000-square-foot brewery on Northeast Second Street, equipped with a tasting room and growler fill station. And with that additional space, co-owner Jamie Danek said, Kombucha Mama has pushed production from 500 gallons a week to 6,000 gallons.

But Danek and her business partner, 
Michelle Plantenberg, estimate that it may not be enough.

“The crux of our business has always been we can sell more kombucha than we can produce,” Plantenberg said. “And we thought by moving into this facility we would have solved this problem for at least three years. … By this summer we will have exceeded capacity. People keep showing up and wanting more.”

The demand extends far beyond Bend.

Kombucha sales throughout the U.S. have risen from $49 million in 2011 to $90 million in 2013, according to data from Portland-based Kombucha Wonder Drink, and Spins Inc., a market research firm. And they are expected to climb to $118 million this year.

Larry McGrath, of Brew Dr. Kombucha, said demand has grown continuously since the company began brewing six years ago. The Portland-headquartered company currently distributes throughout Oregon and the Western U.S.

“We are just completing another, and our most significant, expansion, which allows us to brew about four times our previous capacity,” he wrote in an email. “The upgrade includes 1,000- and 1,500-gallon stainless steel fermentation tanks. We have also upgraded our bottling equipment to allow us to keep up with increased production.”

Kombucha Wonder Drink, a 13-year-old kombucha producer, has also experienced a rise in sales, said Paul Sposato, sales and marketing manager.

Kombucha is an alternative to alcohol, high sugar and caffeinated beverages, he said, adding the beverage is growing in popularity not only at organic and natural-food stores, but mainstream supermarkets and other outlets as well.

“It’s still very much a niche choice to consumers in the 
multibillion dollar beverage category, but it’s certainly growing,” Sposato said. “There’s been a number of additional local and regional kombucha brewers here and across the country that have popped up. We estimate there’s more than 80 kombucha companies throughout the U.S. and Canada.”

And like producers of any growing industry, kombucha brewers have formed a nonprofit trade association to promote their product and set industry standards.

Last month, Kombucha Brewers International held its first conference in Santa Monica, Calif., and Danek of Kombucha Mama serves on the organization’s board of directors.

If the Bend company expands again, its owners want it to be a location large enough to give Kombucha Mama room to grow in the future, Plantenberg said. The company is currently eyeing facilities between 50,000 and 75,000 square feet.

“It will offer us the opportunity to do distribution, if not nationwide, at least in the Western half of the country,” she said.

Danek said Kombucha Mama distributes its tea throughout Oregon and also in Bellingham, Wash. This month, she said, the company plans to add Vancouver, Wash., and in March she expects the tea will be for sale in Boise and Sun Valley, Idaho, and Jackson Hole, Wyo.

However, its loyal consumers may not recognize it. Danek and Plantenberg plan to change the name of their product, its bottles and labels.

“We are doing a whole rebrand in the spring. We’re not releasing the (new) name at this time,” Plantenberg said. “The reason for the rebrand is we want to capture the essence of what’s behind our company. We love the name Kombucha Mama so much, but it doesn’t capture the essence of the spirit of why we started it.”

But the way they brew the tea and the taste will stay the same, with the addition of a few new flavors.

Danek said it takes nine days to brew and package a batch of kombucha at the Bend facility.

The process begins by brewing a mixture of green and black loose teas in a 310-gallon kettle, said Jeff Clason, one of Kombucha Mama’s brewers.

Once brewed, the tea is pumped into 200-gallon tanks filled with symbiotic colonies of bacteria yeast, known as SCOBY, in the fermentation room.

After fermentation, the tea flows into big refrigerated tanks called bright tanks, and on its way it is injected with juice and other ingredients for flavor.

From there, he said, it gets packaged in bottles and kegs and placed in the walk-in cooler until it’s picked up.

Clason said moving to the new facility has allowed the company to automate the process, making it less labor intensive and time consuming to produce more kombucha.

“The other (facility) was very, very hands on,” he said. “We hand-bottled, hand-filled, hand-labeled each bottle. … We hand-capped each bottle. Now our bottling machine does all the work.”

In the old shop, Danek said, 60 cases could be packaged a week. At the Second Street location, she said 60 cases can be packaged an hour.

Making more kombucha means more people can try it, Clason said.

“What we basically want to do is give somebody an alternative — to drink kombucha instead of soda,” Clason said. “Our competitors … Dr. Pepper, Coke, Pepsi, Monster, Red Bull.

“We want to get our kombucha in airplanes, airports; anywhere that you can go to a cabinet or glass (refrigerator) and grab a soda, we want to have Kombucha Mama right next to it.”

Some kombucha proponents say the drink boosts the immune system, improves digestion, balances pH, improves sleep and promotes weight loss. But Eric Plantenberg, who serves as the core values ambassador for Kombucha Mama, said there’s no data to back up the claims — yet.

Eric Plantenberg, Michelle’s husband, said studying potential health benefits, along with clearly defining kombucha and setting standards for producing it, will be the focus of Kombucha Brewers International.

“Most people still don’t know what kombucha is,” he said. “They don’t understand the benefits or the ramifications of drinking beverages that don’t support a healthy body.”

—Reporter: 541-617-7818,

rrees@bendbulletin.com