THE JARR STORY  

THE JARR STORY  

From an idea in Los Angeles and our original kombucha brewery and taproom in Hackney Wick, East London, to our current brewery in Oudenaarde, Belgium, the JARR journey has always been driven by a passion to change drinking habits. JARR is also about changing perceptions; we’re reimagining what a soft drink can be using ancient traditions adapted for the modern world. Our kombucha is complex, unapologetically punchy and damn delicious. Enjoy it in place of artificially produced, sugary soft drinks, mix it with your favourite spirit, or use it as an alternative to beer, cider or wine when you don’t feel like drinking. 

From an idea in Los Angeles and our original kombucha brewery and taproom in Hackney Wick, East London, to our current brewery in Oudenaarde, Belgium, the JARR journey has always been driven by a passion to change drinking habits. JARR is also about changing perceptions; we’re reimagining what a soft drink can be using ancient traditions adapted for the modern world. Our kombucha is complex, unapologetically punchy and damn delicious. Enjoy it in place of artificially produced, sugary soft drinks, mix it with your favourite spirit, or use it as an alternative to beer, cider or wine when you don’t feel like drinking. 

After visiting Adam at his home in Los Angeles and realising that they all shared a passion for kombucha, Tom, Jess, Neil and Adam set out to create a drink that challenged the norm and offer an alternative to artificially produced, sugary soft drinks. 

In Autumn 2015, we opened the first commercial kombucha brewery in London. It was here we began offering our 3 core flavours: Original, Ginger and Passion Fruit on tap and in cocktails at JARR Bar, the first kombucha taproom in Europe, located inside Mick’s Garage, our warehouse space in Hackney Wick.
In April of 2016 we launched our first range of bottled kombucha into Harrods and we’ve been honing our technique and spreading the word about kombucha ever since. 

In November 2018, JARR partnered with Duvel Moortgat, a 4th generation family of specialty breweries established in Belgium in 1871. Duvel Moortgat has a rich tradition of growing sustainable businesses using only the best quality ingredients and procedures.
At the end of 2019, JARR began construction of a brand new, state of the art kombucha brewery in Belgium. Today, as part of the Duvel Moortgat family, JARR’s goal is to share great tasting, organically produced, premium kombucha with more people than ever before. 

OUR BOOCH 

JARR is all about changing perceptions; we’re reimagining what a soft drink can be using ancient traditions adapted for the modern world. Our kombucha is complex, unapologetically punchy and damn delicious. Enjoy it in place of artificially produced, sugary soft drinks, mix it with your favourite spirit, or use it as an alternative to beer, cider or wine when you don’t feel like drinking.
JARR Kombucha naturally contains antioxidants, beneficial acids and is low in calories. After fermentation our kombucha goes through a bespoke, state-of-the-art method of filtration, ensuring it remains non-alcoholic, 100% shelf stable and can be stored ambient. 

PASSION FRUIT 

Our delicious Passion Fruit Kombucha is made by blending our Original Kombucha with just the right amount of 100% organic Thai passion fruit juice for a burst of tropical flavour.  

ORIGINAL 

With the perfect balance of sour and sweet, our Original Kombucha is reminiscent of green apples and citrus fruits, a refreshing kick at any time of day.  

RASPBERRY 

Deliciously tart and fruity, our Raspberry Kombucha is made by adding organic raspberry juice to our tangy Original brew. Enjoy summer in a bottle, all year round.  

GINGER  

Imagine your favourite ginger beer, but healthier, with more zing and even more delicious. Freshly juiced organic ginger root is added to our Original recipe for a zesty and fiery delight.  

OUR INGREDIENTS 

All of our kombucha is brewed using 4 simple ingredients; pure filtered water, organic green and oolong tea, organic cane sugar, and a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). For our Ginger, Raspberry and Passion Fruit, we simply add 100% organic juice or natural flavours. 

Gunpowder Temple of Heaven Green Tea 

  • Certified Organic 
  • Single estate grown and harvested in the Hubei Province of China 
  • Light, bright and fruit with a fresh aroma of dried apricots  

Jade Dong Ding Oolong Tea 

  • Certified organic 
  • Single origin from Nantou County, Taiwan 
  • Naturally creamy texture and aroma with a rich, complex floral sweetness and smooth finish 

Our SCOBY 

  • Our own proprietary symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast has been lovingly cultivated and refined since 2015 to create a perfectly balanced booch. 

Our Water 

  • Pure, local natural spring water with the perfect degree of mineralisation for kombucha fermentation 

The Sugar 

  • In kombucha fermentation sugar acts as food/ fuel for the yeast and bacteria, so we decided to feed our SCOBY the highest quality organic Brazilian cane sugar we could find 

THE JARR BREWERY 

Brewing kombucha should always be done with passion, love, care and attention to detail. It’s our belief that this process should never be outsourced to a third party. We have and always will, brew and bottle our kombucha in house to ensure that it is crafted to the highest standards of quality and consistency. For this reason, we’ve invested a great deal in building a state-of-the art kombucha brewery in Oudenaarde, Belgium where we can continue to grow, learn and focus on making the best tasting and highest quality kombucha we possibly can for years to come. 

From the brewing to bottling, packaging to laboratory analysis and all the steps in between, our team is able to keep a close eye on quality whilst continuing to develop an even deeper understanding of how to craft the best kombucha possible. 

We will take you through the entire brewing process, showing you how we craft our kombucha here at our brewery in Oudenaarde. We brew the same as you would at home, using only tea, water, sugar and a SCOBY, only a bit more controlled, consistent and on a slightly larger scale! 

The JARR brewery is nestled along the River Schelde in Oudenaarde, Belgium, on the grounds of one of the most historic beer breweries in the world - Brouwerij Liefmans. We can't think of a better home for our kombucha.
Liefmans' iconic beers have been naturally brewed here using wild bacteria and yeast (just like kombucha) for over 300 years, and they are regarded by aficionados as some of the best sour beers in the world. 

FIRST, COMES WATER 

Water is where everything starts. In the production of kombucha, water is extremely important, and by volume, it’s the most used ingredient in the production process. We use pure, locally sourced natural spring water with the perfect degree of mineralisation for kombucha fermentation. 

THEN WATER BECOMES TEA 

Did you know tea is one of the most ancient and widely consumed beverages in the world? It also contains a host of beneficial properties, including naturally occurring vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Our tea is brewed the same way you would do it at home - just on a slightly larger scale! We steep a couple kilos of our perfectly blended mix of Green and Oolong tea in our 1000 liter stainless steel tea pot for around 15 minutes to create the perfect base for our kombucha. 

After having added the perfect amount of our organic Brazilian cane sugar (about 50 g per litre) to the freshly brewed tea, we are now ready to add our SCOBY. 

WE PROUDLY PRESENT OUR SCOBY  

Our own proprietary symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) has been lovingly cultivated and refined since 2015 to create a perfectly balanced booch. It is this SCOBY that truly makes all the magic happen. During fermentation the yeast and bacteria will use the sugar as fuel, to create complex flavour components and beneficial acids. 

After around 12 days of carefully controlled fermentation, our kombucha is almost there.
However, it's not quite ready yet! 

NOW THE FLAVOURS  

Now that we’ve finished fermenting our Original kombucha, it’s time to create our Passion Fruit, Ginger and Raspberry flavours. How do we achieve this? Well, it all comes down to the recipe, the quality of the ingredients and the expertise of the brewers. 

We use only 100% organic juice and 100% natural flavours in this process, adding them to our pure kombucha in specially designed sterile mixing stations. This allows us to methodically introduce our ingredients in the correct measures until we've reached the perfectly balanced kombucha. 

Before we fill our iconic bottles with our freshly made flavoured kombucha, we put it through our bespoke, state-of-the-art, three-stage micro filtration system. This is why our kombucha appears so clear and pure in bottle. 

INNOVATION IS FILTRATION  

By filtering the bacteria and the yeast from our kombucha we can make sure we obtain a consistent and shelf-stable product, that is 100% safe to drink, 100% alcohol-free and will remain so over time. 


But hey, aren't these probiotics good for me?! 

We are strong believers in science, transparency and honesty, especially with regards to our kombucha and the information we share with our customers.
In recent years, our team of scientists have thoroughly investigated the health claims of kombucha and have even collaborated with universities in doing research on the subject (read more here).
 

There is absolutely no academic or scientific proof of any beneficial effect on the human body from probiotics, bacteria, or yeast found in kombucha. Our kombucha still contains beneficial compounds such as acetic acid and antioxidants which remain unaffected by filtration. JARR is also low in sugar, vegan, gluten free and 100% natural and organic. 

ICONIC BOTTLES FOR ICONIC BOOCH 

Yes, even the bottling process is in house!
Our custom bottling line was designed by our in house scientist, Scott Britton, using only top of the range German equipment and technology. This way we can ensure a sterile and safe environment for our bottles to be cleaned, filled and sealed.  The bottles are manually loaded onto the line where they start their automated journey from rinsing, to filling, to capping, through multiple automated camera check-ups, to heath-sealing, to finally being boxed by hand.

Now our kombucha is finally ready for you to enjoy, and who knows, maybe yours will even be delivered by our electric JARR Vespa.

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