Shropshire Kombucha: In Person

While visiting family in Cheshire, England, I was delighted to meet up with Charlotte, the founder of Shropshire Kombucha. We’d not been able to connect when I was last in Nantwich. But this time around, she was at the bustling end-of-month market in the town square, within sight and sound of the 14th-century St Mary’s church. The bells were ringing for weddings on a Saturday morning.

Charlotte visits Nantwich once a month and usually sells out of her 350ml and 500ml bottles of a variety of flavors. Regular customers place orders for up to 15 bottles at a time. She now sells up to 400 bottles a week, up from 150-300 a month when we last spoke at the end of 2023..

There is a majority of repeat customers, but in the time I spent on the stall, two groups of first-time kombucha drinkers tried samples and bought multiple bottles.

Flavors

She had seven flavors for sale in Nantwich. Turmeric with lemon and ginger is the best seller. It’s made with fresh turmeric roots and juiced ginger. The whole lemon is used, including the grated skin.

Apple with lemon and mint is the next most popular.

Beetroot, apple, and ginger with purple carrots and parsnip had already sold out that morning.

The flavors that had sold out that morning were:

• Berry & blood orange.
• Blueberry, mango, passion fruit and lime.
• Raspberry with pomegranate and black grape.
• Spiced pineapple and cardamom.

Growth

Charlotte and her husband are planning to move home to somewhere with a separate building for her growing business. She has received a grant from Shropshire Council to fund agribusiness research at Aston University in Birmingham, testing her kombucha for alcohol levels, pH, and pathogens, as well as identifying the levels and types of bacteria in her ferment. Another Aston project is developing an automated label printing and bottling system, which is currently done by hand. Students at the university design lab are planning to improve her label graphics.

Nevertheless, as she is happy having full control over her small business and the customers she meets face-to-face at the markets.

I like keeping it small, doing the markets, I’ve got a lovely, loyal band of customers who I massively appreciate. I love meeting people, I love talking about kombucha, and I love talking about products, and championing all the different fruits that people might not know about, like quinces, wimberries, and elderberries. So I think keeping it small, doing the markets, having small local stockists, that’s where I’m really happy.

Podcast

Check out the podcast to here Charlotte describe her business and customer comments — with the bonus of the bells of St Mary’s in the background!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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