Our journey began with a koha (gift) from a sister from another mister – a close whānau friend over 10 years ago. In this koha it had everything you needed to brew & make your own kombucha. Since then, we have been brewing, experimenting, nurturing & growing Mauriora kombucha into what it is today.
We didn’t plan on starting a kombucha business however whenever we had manuhiri (guests) over they would drink our kombucha complimenting how namunamuā (delicious) it is and that we needed to bottle it. Kōrero from our whānau and friends planted the seed of starting our pakihi Māori. After making and drinking it regularly our whānau noticed the many positive impacts it was having on our hauora (health) clear skin, bright eyes, improved gut health – helps keep you regular, lots of energy and the list goes on.
Back in the day when some of us overindulged in waipiro (alcohol) – kombucha was the perfect inu (drink) to ease the māmae upoko (sore head).There are just so many benefits that all of us kept noticing. Something we have always done is brewed traditionally with a hint of sweetness with a bit of tang, a nice balance, not the stuff that’s dressed like kombucha but tastes sweet like soda, the real dealio. Full of puku-loving goodness!
In 2017 we decided we wanted a change of lifestyle so packed up and moved over to Amsterdam where we noticed our favourite inu (kombucha) was not available there, no one was making & selling it. Our whānau just so happened to have the coolest, yummiest Kiwi / Brazilian brunch cafe there, so we started making & selling it there, it was such a hit we couldn’t keep up. Light bulb moment – let’s start a kombucha business here in Amsterdam!
Long story short, not long after that light bulb moment we found out we were expecting our first pēpī and made the decision to return home to Aotearoa. We returned home and decided let's still do it, let’s start a kombucha business even though there were many reasons not to, “not the right time” “don’t know how to start a business” “we are having a pēpī ” “the markets flooded here”… Then we flipped it to all the reasons why we should, “our kombucha is delicious” “let’s do our own flavours" "let's work for ourselves” "lets create a legacy” “ lets share our love for nurturing living cultures'' “let's do it as a whānau” We were so excited about the endless possibilities but first we needed to come up with a name... then we thought about all the different languages we would use/say when clinking our glasses with our Amsterdam whānau and friends; Proost – Dutch, Saúde – Portuguese, Saluti – Italian, Salud – Spanish, all the different languages we used to say “cheers'' for us it was Mauri ora! Which translates to the life force or the life essence. Another light bulb moment let’s call our pakihi Māori Mauriora and so we had our pēpī in September 2018 & officially registered our pakihi Māori, Mauriora kombucha in Dec 2018 and that e hoa ma (my friends) is the story of how Mauriora kombucha started.
