Today we’re excited to be connecting with Trenton Kaminski again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Trenton , always such a pleasure connecting with you and thank you for sharing your stories, insights and inspiring messages with our community. We’re looking forward to getting the download and what you have been up to since our last interview, but first can you briefly introduce yourself to folks who might have missed the prior conversation.
Hi, I’m Trenton Kaminski, the founder of The Kombucha Company LLC. We brew kombucha, provide home brew kombucha kits, and grow and sell SCOBY. What sets us apart is our use of purified rainwater – a unique aspect that enhances the quality and flavor of our kombucha.

My journey started with home brewing kombucha in a spare bedroom, which quickly expanded to the garage. Eventually, we opened a small storefront in Richmond, TX. About a year ago, we moved to a larger space in Rosenberg, TX to accommodate growth.

A major highlight of our journey has been navigating the challenges brought by the pandemic. Like many businesses, we had to adapt. At that time, we were primarily selling ready-made kombucha to restaurants, breweries, gyms, and other businesses while also offering SCOBY through our website and Amazon. When the pandemic hit, everything changed – the price of our bottles doubled overnight, and wholesale kombucha sales were no longer sustainable.

That moment forced us to pivot. We shifted our focus online, putting more energy into selling SCOBY and kombucha kits. This shift not only helped us survive but ultimately shaped the direction of our business. If it weren’t for the pandemic, we wouldn’t be where we are today – primarily thriving as an online-focused brand.

The journey has been full of growth, resilience, and new opportunities, and I’m excited to keep sharing our love for kombucha with the community and beyond.

Awesome, so we reached out because we wanted to hear all about what you have been up to since we last connected.
It’s been a while since our last interview, and so much has happened at The Kombucha Company! One of the biggest milestones I’m excited about is moving into a larger space. Our first storefront was just 900 sq ft, and now we’re operating out of a 4,000 sq ft facility – with room to expand even further. This upgrade has opened up new possibilities for growth and efficiency in our operations.

I’m also thrilled about the new products we’ll be launching and the improvements we’re making to our manufacturing and packing processes. Producing kombucha can be incredibly time-consuming. Right now, we have around 1,000 individual jars brewing kombucha. Harvesting each jar is a hands-on process – taking them off the shelves, removing the cloth tops and rubber bands, harvesting the SCOBY, emptying and refilling each jar, and putting them back on the shelf. While the process isn’t complicated, it takes a lot of time – and as we all know, time is one of the most valuable assets we have.

This year, one of our biggest goals is to improve the efficiency of how we grow SCOBY. We’re shifting from using individual jars to a large custom stainless steel pan and stencil design. The pan will be about 9 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 7 inches tall – equivalent to 140 jars. By using a stencil with 5-inch holes cut out, we can grow SCOBY in uniform sizes directly in the pan. Since SCOBY grows to match the surface of the container it’s in, this setup allows us to harvest the same size SCOBY as before but all in one batch.

The best part? The pan will have a drain attached, so instead of emptying 140 jars and removing 140 cloth tops, we can simply drain the pan, remove one large sheet of SCOBY, and pop out the stencil. This shift will save us an incredible amount of time and streamline the entire process – letting us focus on scaling up even further.

Another exciting development is bringing in packaging machines to streamline our process. Up until now, we’ve always hand-packaged our SCOBY, but we’ve reached a point where we need to reclaim that time and create a more scalable system.

Packaging kombucha presents some unique challenges. Since kombucha is alive and actively fermenting, it continuously produces CO2. This means that after we package the SCOBY and kombucha, the bag slowly inflates with CO2 over time. The process accelerates during the summer when warmer temperatures increase fermentation activity and CO2 production.

To manage this, we’ve been triple-bagging and sealing each SCOBY – a lot of packaging for one product! While it works, doing this by hand just isn’t efficient as we grow. That’s why we’re excited to have a custom packaging machine in development, set to arrive soon. This machine will save us massive amounts of time and significantly boost our production capacity.

In addition to automating the process, we’ve sourced heavy-duty packaging that allows us to reduce from triple-bagging to double-bagging the SCOBY. Cutting out that second layer makes a big difference in efficiency and cost. This upgrade, combined with the new machine, will be a game changer for us as we continue to scale and meet increasing demand.

It’s an exciting time for The Kombucha Company, and I can’t wait to see how these improvements shape the future of our operations. The journey is far from over – and I’m looking forward to what’s next!

We also want to give folks a chance to get to know you a bit better so we’ve prepared a fun lightning round of questions. Ready?

Favorite Movie: Tombstone, maybe not a big movie guy

Favorite Book: The Bible

Favorite TV Show: Not big on tv

Favorite Band or Artist: ZRO

Sweet or Savory: Savory

Mountains or Beach: Beach

Favorite Sport (to watch): UFC

Favorite Sport (to play): Today, none

Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Football, Track

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: Football player

French Fries or Onion Rings: Onion Rings

Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: It depends on the situation.

Favorite Cartoon growing up: none

Favorite Childhood movie: none

Favorite Breakfast Food: Bacon, eggs, pancake

What are you most excited about in the coming year?
This coming year, I’m most excited about seeing all the improvements and innovations we’ve been working on come to life. The move to a larger facility last year was a game changer, and now we’re ready to take the next steps to optimize our processes and scale up production.

One of the things I’m really looking forward to is implementing our new SCOBY-growing system. Switching from 1,000 individual jars to a custom-designed stainless steel pan with a stencil will be a massive efficiency boost. It’s exciting to think about how much time this will save while maintaining the quality our customers expect.

Another big milestone I’m eager for is the arrival of our custom packaging machine. Hand-packaging SCOBY has been a labor of love, but it’s time to make the process more scalable. Pairing this machine with our new heavy-duty packaging will not only save time but also help us streamline production and reduce waste.

On top of that, we have new product launches on the horizon, which is always an exciting way to engage with our community and bring fresh ideas to the table.

This year feels like the start of a new chapter for The Kombucha Company – one focused on growth, innovation, and making kombucha brewing even more accessible to everyone. I can’t wait to see what we accomplish!

Website: https://TheKombuchaCompany.Com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekombuchacompany/

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