Borécha was founded on a simple need- brew great Kombucha at home

For Aditya Ishan Varshnei, brewing Borécha at home was perhaps the next best thing to picking up booch in the stores in the USA, where he loved and worked

When he returned, some of the things he missed from his days in the USA, was his delicious tea-based fermented drink Kombucha, was among the top on the list. Neither the stores nor the supermarkets in Goa where he moved to had anything that resembled and tasted like the Kombucha in New York. This Manhattan type problem could only be surmounted on the premise of necessity being the mother of invention.

He brought the problem home to his brother, but with the foundation of a solution- a Kombucha culture (SCOBY), the genesis of Kombucha creation, which he managed to bring from the US from a subsequent trip,

He brought the problem home to his brother, but with the foundation of a solution- a Kombucha culture (SCOBY), the genesis of Kombucha creation, which he managed to bring from the US from a subsequent trip,

His brother, Anish a trained chef, with heightened taste buds to experiment and create homegrown Kombucha, and with enhanced olfactory senses to infuse flavours with the finesse of a perfumer, began the project, making test batches of Kombucha with numerous different flavours and teas.

The Varshnei brothers blended their ideas and ‘on the run’ knowledge to go through numerous rounds of trials to finally hit upon a near-perfect base Kombucha recipe, which they believed would be the signature of success. But the trials continued, in search of perfection. Friends, colleagues and acquaintances were encouraged to try out the first batches of this homegrown Kombucha. The brothers received enthusiastic and pleasantly surprising responses, to this refreshing feel-good pick me up drink.

With this newfound confidence, soon thoughts turned to scaling this up commercially, especially when the product wasn’t easily available. Says Ishan; “Our bespoke recipes gave us the first-mover advantage in terms of scale and variety. This is when we started thinking about a name that would be befitting for our Kombucha. Our creative team and agency hit gold when it thought of two aspects. This was good tea, healthy tea refreshing tea, an anytime drink and a companion at the bar and the gym and everywhere else. And since we are in Goa, the name that immediately struck was Bore-Cha, or simply good tea”

The brothers hit the lab, spruced their teas and started experimenting, curating and creating. Soon the Mango flavoured Borécha was made and introduced to the market, met with- not surprisingly, delightful responses. This along with the Classic were the first entrants closely followed the others. Now, Borecha’s kombucha range has twelve enchanting flavours.

From Goa, Borécha went into homes across the country and sold on online platforms. Soon retail outlets across many cities, including supermarkets had shelves dedicated to Kombucha. And bartenders stocked most flavours for their cocktail mixers.

From Kombucha to a functional beverage brand- a journey of innovation

This was a result of constant research and product development. The team decided to complement Kombucha with a zero-sugar prebiotic range of drinks called OH! to reflect the obvious pleasant surprise at this combination, and a cold-brewed iced tea range ICEY, to make Borécha, go beyond Kombucha to become a functional 360-degree alco-beverage brand.

Innovation has been the foundation of the brand. Constant research and development by a team of brewers and microbiologists will result in new product ranges and flavours performing various functions.

What began a need to brew kombucha at home is now an enterprise of brewing functional beverages.