Corey Wood, Danielle Wood, and Ryan Cheong, ELIXIR Kombucha, Louisville, KY, USA

Q: When did you first discover kombucha?

ELIXIR is a 3 person outfit based in Louisville, KY. Husband (Corey), wife (Danielle) and best friend (Ryan). In 2013, we were introduced to kombucha by Corey’s aunt and uncle. After tasting their blueberry homebrew and learning about kombucha’s nutritional and healing properties, we immediately fell in love with the funky, tart, immortal health elixir. They gifted us a scoby and we got to work.

Q: Why did you start your own Kombucha company?

Two of us have family members with autoimmune issues that directly affect the gut. Ulcerative colitis and Sjogren’s syndrome. After being gifted our first scoby, we started a homebrew so they could drink it regularly. Although the kombucha wasn’t very tasty at the beginning, they reported that it helped alleviate their symptoms related to the gastrointestinal tract and skin rashes. That was 2013. We continued our homebrew, began experimenting with flavors and eventually figured out how to make kombucha that was consistent, flavorful, and well balanced. We didn’t consider taking our homebrew commercial until early 2016, when a local juice bar got ahold of a bottle and expressed interest in carrying our flavors if we were to become a business. After much discussion, we picked a name, filed with the state and moved our homebrew into a commercial kitchen incubator, Chef Space, located in the Russell neighborhood outside of downtown Louisville. Our goal is to bring a healthy beverage – one that has tremendously helped our loved ones – into our wonderfully weird city and beyond. Louisville Cultured. Raw. Local. Weird. ELIXIR.

Q: What is your favorite flavor of kombucha? (a brand that is not your own)?

Q: What is your former/current other life or career?

Corey – ICU nurse and musician
Danielle – traveling biometric health screener and babysitter
Ryan – Hospitality/Food & Beverage Industry

Q: What is a saying that you live by?