For the first time, kombucha drinkers on Vashon will have an island vendor to purchase the fermented tea beverage from.
On June 3, islander Leila Khatapoush launched Behesht Kombucha with a tasting event and started selling her kombucha on-tap and in bottles at the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie and Minglement. Her locally sourced and handcrafted kombucha is a product of more than 20 years of experience that began when she and her sister started making kombucha in California in the 1990s.
Khatapoush moved to Vashon in 2012, continued making kombucha and thought about starting a business when islanders embraced her hand-crafted, local beverage.
“People would be showing up at my house with empty growlers asking if I could fill them,” she said. “I had made my way up to producing more than 10 gallons at a time, and I started seriously working on my business two and a half years ago. It was daunting.”
A fermented drink, kombucha usually contains between 0.5 percent and 1 percent alcohol and, therefore, requires producers to have an alcohol license to sell it. Khatapoush double ferments her kombucha, so the alcohol content ranges from 1.4 percent to 3 percent. She started the process of getting a license from King County, received it 10 and a half months later, and began looking at a location and finding how to start a legal business on Vashon, which, she said, is “so hard to do.” She eventually found a prime location in islander and brewer Cliff Goodman’s old brewery space.
“He had moved to his larger location, and it was perfect because it was already permitted and licensed as a brewery,” Khatapoush said.
From there, she began sourcing local ingredients, partnering with island farmer Joe Yarkin for strawberries and Puyallup’s Wild Hare Organics (formerly Terry’s Berries). She plans to produce a brew from island Douglas fir tips, as well as use island lavender for a blueberry-lavender batch.
She currently offers two on-tap flavors at Minglement and pre-bottled kombucha.
“The response from the community has been humbling, affirming and really, elating,” she said.
