Our Story

Between the two shorelines of Guernsey, on a sleepy island in the English (or French, depending on which side you’re standing!) Channel you’ll find the cultural heart of the island.

Not the sort of high-ticket experience that attracts flocks of selfie-stick wielding ‘culture vulture’s but true culture – or should we say cultures – the home of KTea’s brewery.

Our story begins in Cape Town, a city so foodie focused it named the local geography after kitchen furniture. Whilst trying to swerve the usual sugar-laden sodas set aside for designated drivers, our founder Kate was offered a kombucha, and it was love at first sip.

Determined to delve deeper into the art of crafting the finest kombucha, Kate embarked on a research trip to the vibrant city of Portland, Oregon, the home of the modern Kombucha revolution.

Known for its rich culture of artisanal brews and as a hub for health-conscious individuals, Portland was the perfect destination to unlock the secrets of the unique KTea brew.

Here, she immersed herself in the world of fermentation, collaborating with master brewers and herbalists to understand the science behind the magic.

After extensive research and meetings with master brewers, Kate decided to begin the Channel Islands’ first kombucha brewery. She spent months developing the perfect brew, taste profiles and refining the production process. In 2018, the recipe was ready to hit the shelves, launching with three different flavours.

The final steps of each KTea journey are a few weeks of patience and dedication. Each batch is lovingly brewed for 21 days, using ethically sourced whole leaf teas and botanicals, crystal clear filter water and raw cane sugar and the most precious ingredient of all – the SCOBY.

We then allow the bottles to second ferment for another 3-4 weeks to produce their natural champagne-like fizz

This meticulous process ensures that every bottle of KTea Kombucha is infused with a symphony of flavours and gut boosting prebiotics, organic acids and polyphenols, always raw, vegan and with no artificial additives, flavours, preservatives or forced carbonation.

In 2021, we outgrew our original brewery and moved to a new space on the island, where we’re able to produce up to 1 million bottles of lovingly fermented KTea every year.

We’ve gone from hand delivering ourselves (which we still do!) to being stocked in shops across the Channel Islands, and are now delivering to the mainland UK with our dffrnt brand.

Same liquid, kombucha but dffrnt: drinkdffrnt.com