Imagine having a billion new friends. Not in a social media sort of way, but through drinking a beverage. These friends are carried in one bottle, one cup and all provide something different to your thirst quenching experience. In Eugene, A Billion New Friends (referring to the beneficial microbes in kombucha) has been making its own kombucha and giving you their fermented drinks with the same experience and ideas.
“BNF started in Eugene and in a closet,” said Kevin Warren, owner and fermenter of BNF. Before he got his license to open his own space, he was able to use a storage closet to let his batches ferment. Warren would try out the kombucha products on people who ate at the restaurant where he worked and noticed how popular they were. Some friends pitched in and helped this line of homemade kombucha eventually evolve into Billion New Friends Kombucha, which Warren made and sold in Veneta, Oregon and then Eugene.
“You can brew this stuff in all different ways, and I wanted a product that supports many local farmers,” Warren said. Warren is originally from Florence but would come to Eugene to visit friends and work odd jobs. One friend that introduced him to the operations of kombuchas had started his own line in 2015 called Kore Kombucha. He showed him how to make the drink and encouraged him to start his own batch.
But what is kombucha? Kombucha is a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast or SCOBY. It is a beverage that carries lifeforms through fermentation and is believed to have health benefits such as probiotics, vitamins, polyphenols and essential minerals that help the stomach. It can be a refreshing drink with less sugar and a substitute beverage for coffee.
“It’s local, locally focused, and an amazing product,” David Priest, a close friend of Warren and salesman in the company, said. Priest met Warren at a party that Warren was deejaying for at the time. The two immediately hit it off and Priest hopped on board the kombucha family that Warren had created.
Priest is a jack of all trades who finds inspiration with the work at hand. He communicates and engages with people like a friend, as if he’s known you for a long time. He said he enjoys introducing this product to people who have never tried kombucha before and focuses on finding the right locations for the product, knowing where the kombucha will sell best. His work has him traveling throughout Oregon, finding clients and letting people try the product.
Priest said most of the ingredients are locally sourced, and the artwork on the bottles is done by local artists. Each bottle includes the fruit that’s in the drink and a leaf scale indicating how dry, sweet, mild or tart the drink is.
BNF also makes Jun kombucha, which is honey-based kombucha made with green tea. Including ginger turmeric and raspberry reishi, the latter is made from an edible mushroom which is believed to have medical benefits that help with anti-inflammatories, damaged blood vessels and hormonal imbalances.
The location includes growler fill-ups, 32 and 64 ounces of kombucha, Jun and hemp-infused kombucha and yerba mate. They also sell 12 pack bottles of all of their flavors. Flavors like ginger mint citrus, blueberry, mango marigold, blackberry herb, grape lavender and my personal favorite, peach rose.
This seems to only be the beginning for BNF and what the company is doing with kombuchas. If you happen to be in west Eugene, check out their taproom and give the kombucha a try or, if you’re by the cold drink section at the store, be sure to look out for their bottles. Who couldn’t use a billion new friends in their lives?
