Written by Bailey Coffman // Photo by Briley Kemper
Located off of Main Street in Searcy, the Natural Food Store houses local and organic produce, allergy-friendly food alternatives and countless nutritional supplements. In addition, the store has offered kombucha on tap from Natural State Bucha Brew since fall 2023.
Customers can purchase a membership at the Natural Food Store for the tea, which has new flavors every week. Flavors include Ginger Peach and Ginger Jazz and contain ingredients like rosemary and lavender, blueberry sage, and raspberry hibiscus.
Sophomore Alayla Darden, sales associate and health adviser at the Natural Food Store, explained the benefits of purchasing a membership.
“With the membership, which is an initial $10, you pay $8.50 for your growler refill of kombucha, and it’s for life,” Darden said.
Additionally, any Harding student has a 10% discount. The fermented tea is made locally by Judsonia-native Liz Stevenson who works with her daughter, Izzy Stevenson, at the Natural Food Store.
“Kombucha has all kinds of benefits if you consume it on a daily basis,” Izzy Stevenson said. “It is really helpful for your gut, and it helps people from digestion to acid reflux … It’s a medicine, but it also tastes good.”
Liz Stevenson spoke to the medicinal properties the drink carries.
“It boosts your immune system, and it helps with weight loss,” Liz Stevenson said. “It helps ward off high blood pressure, heart disease and it is even said to have hundreds of cancer-fighting properties.”
Studies show that kombucha has existed for centuries, Liz Stevenson said. If one were to drink about eight ounces per day for seven to 10 days, they would “definitely notice a difference,” she said.
Liz Stevenson was asked to take on the job of wholesaling kombucha when the owner of a recent kombucha dealer decided to close his doors.
“I don’t even feel like I’m at work when I’m brewing Kombucha,” Liz Stevenson said. “I’m 46 years old, and it was a calling that I never knew that I was supposed to do with my life.”
The process of making kombucha is relatively simple, requiring very few ingredients, but the fermentation process can take weeks at a time, Liz Stevenson said.
“It’s just fruit and tea and time,” Izzy Stevenson said.
Liz Stevenson said she bought the brewery last fall, naming it Natural State Bucha Brew. She went from brewing kombucha for herself at home to owning a brewery that contains 17 50-gallon vats.
“I never dreamed in a thousand years that I would be brewing kombucha at the capacity that I am now, and it’s just going to grow from this point on,” Liz Stevenson said. “Pretty soon you’ll be able to find it at several places around Arkansas, Squizito’s in Cabot, The Players Cafe in the Promenade and many more stores across the state.”
