BOOCHA BEVERAGE | Jenn Darling
- BOOCHA BEVERAGES -
A historic music venue may not be the first place you think of when looking for a location to set up Edmonton’s first commercial kombucha brewery but it turns out the Starlite Room was the perfect place to do so.
BOOCHA started out at the Edmonton Downtown Farmers’s Market in the spring of 2017. At the time kombucha was a relatively new word to Edmontonians but the popularity of our brew grew fast. At the end of our first market season we felt there was a demand to wholesale which would require acquiring an AHS approved location to produce out of. Now for a company that was less than 6 months old and completely funded out of pocket this would be a big leap of faith. We had started wading the shark infested waters of commercial real estate when we received an infamous call from Tyson Boyd. ConcertWorks had just acquired the Starlite Room and well they had a kitchen. An empty kitchen….with a walk in cooler! The only catch was that it needed a deep clean. Basically the deal was an unreal rate on rent in exchange for some grunt work with the anticipation that there would be a brand new restaurant opening in the basement where Brixx had formerly operated. We quickly shook our heads yes, shook hands and got to work.
Boocha were the only tenants in the kitchen until River City Revival House opened its newly renovated space. At the time we had purely manual brewing equipment and would put in long hours to produce a small batch to sell at the farmers market. However the opportunity that the Starlite Room gave, kickstarted the growth of Boocha and soon we had a successful crowdfunding campaign under our belt and a shiny new 4 head bottle filler that allowed us to expand our production capacity. In this time we gained some hilarious ghost stories and some good friends. Once the restaurant opened we took full advantage of the lunch chefs at our disposal and took up practicing darts in Revival during our breaks.
Fastrack a few years later and Boocha was now producing a quantity of two Jack Daniel’s barrels worth of cultured tea every week in less than the square footage of a dorm room. River City Revival House had grown to be a bumping watering hole and it became apparent to both our businesses that we had outgrown each other. Cooler space was at a premium and I think the kitchen staff may have gotten a little sick of us hollering “what's the soup of the day?!” Boocha made the decision to move into our own dedicated production facility but once again the Starlite Room family supported us every step of the way. We were assured that we could use the kitchen space as long as we needed it which allowed us to continue normal operations amid a long buildout period.
Boocha no longer brews in the Starlite Room but the roots we grow there still run deep. It is the only place in Edmonton that you can enjoy a handcrafted kombucha while headbanging to Conan. Fun fact; the first ever show in Temple may just hold the record for the most Lavender Boocha consumed at a metal show. River City Revival House also concocts unique “Boochatails” which are legendary cocktails served in mason jars. All three members of the Boocha team are proud members of the Starlite crew and you could find us there almost every weekend.
So support live music and support the Starlite Room, River City Revival House and ConcertWorks. They are integral to the arts and cultural scene of Edmonton but are also boosters of local businesses and startups like Boocha.
