What's the Story with Kombucha? Health-Ade's Daina Trout on Bringing the Good-for-the-Gut Beverage to the Masses (and Staying True to Her Values)

Walk into any market these days, and you’re likely to find bottles of Health-Ade kombucha lining the refrigerator shelves. Kombucha, a fermented tea rich in probiotics and organic acids that dates to the 19th century, has been winning over masses in recent years—for which Health-Ade has played a major role.  The company’s co-founder, Daina Trout, describes kombucha as “a healthy version of a soda that just sort of makes you feel good.” With its low sugar, gut-friendly, satisfyingly tart and mildly sweet taste, there’s a lot to like.

But its appealing product isn’t the only reason why Health-Ade intrigues. The LA-based company has always put people and planet first, a value that is paramount for Trout and her Health-Ade co-founders, Justin Trout (her husband) and Vanessa Dew (her best friend). Curious to know how she evolved a niche company into a well-known name, Eva Yazhari and Ed Stevens recently spoke with Trout about her business values, the science behind her kombucha, and why leaning into fermented foods can be a healing game-changer.

Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. To listen to the full version, visit The Beyond Capital Podcast.

A Conversation with Daina Trout

How did you first discover kombucha and start this journey?

 I got a master's degree in public health and also a master's degree in nutritional biochemistry. I really fell in love with food when I was in grad school in Boston. I didn't just cook with it. I healed with it. I got into sprouting foods, seeding foods, fermenting foods, and I made really good kombucha sauerkraut, kefir, and kimchi. I got my scoby, which is the culture that helps ferment the tea [for kombucha], from Tibet, and it was the best culture you could get. I made kombucha with all delicious fresh organic, rare ingredients. Not only did I love it for the taste and flavor; I immediately took to it. 

Back then, I realized the power of fermented foods. Surprising to me was how many people had gut issues and food issues, even young folks. My husband, who was then my boyfriend, was having problems. He had an unhealthy gut. And he was about to go on medicine for life and I said, ‘give me six weeks.’ What really blew me away is how quickly fermented foods changed his health. Within hours of having my kombucha or hours of having kimchi he was able to eat a meal without any upset stomach. Fast forward to today, he's a healthy man who never had to go on drugs. And it really blew me away that food could have that level of an impact when somebody was so ill.

I didn't know back then that it was going to be my identity 15 years later. And I didn't hold kombucha above any other food. To me it was a part of a healthy diet. But 15 years later, I happen to find myself in a position to start a kombucha company and I happen to have a really good scoby, a really good recipe, and a lot of knowledge and experience about it.

It's interesting that you also worked in pharmaceuticals. So how did that part of your background play into your strategy?

It is an unusual stopover. I went to school for four years at Tufts University. And then before that for four years at Georgetown. So I had incurred quite a bit of school debt, enough for a small mortgage in California. When I was coming out of school, I realized that the jobs I would get in public health and nutrition we're not going to cover the bills. It was very much a thing of survival. I was very science-based, very science-educated, and the pharmaceutical companies, at that time, were looking for scientists and nutritionists to represent their products. This one product line was prescription-grade omega-3s, and I happen to do all my thesis work on omega-3s. So that was like my bread and butter. It made a lot of sense, and I didn't feel so bad about working for a pharmaceutical company if I was repping omega-3s.

I got an opportunity at the second biggest pharma company in the world. I did really well there, and I happened to get this internship opportunity to be a change agent. My only job was to improve the engagement of the company's own employees. They were having engagement issues. I learned so much in that year. I loved motivating people. I love meeting people. And I learned so much about what makes good teams. It was like a business course on people and productivity. When I finished that internship and went back to my normal job, I [realized] I had to lead people. That's like my calling. I had a real itch to lead a business. So about a year after that change agent world, I quit the pharma company and started Health-Ade.

Natural is great, but we also need science—modern drugs and pharmaceuticals and surgery techniques. Do you ever worry about toggling between the modern world and the natural world that has hundreds of years’ of proven efficacy?

I would call myself right in the middle. My general rule of thumb is try to go the natural route if you can, but if you need something different or stronger, Western medicine is good for treating specific ailments fast. If you find yourself on the extreme of being anti one side or the other, perhaps that's a good time to look in the mirror, because both bring something to the table. And you’re in the best position if you can pull from both. And the beautiful thing about this great country is we can have access to both.

What inspired you to name the business Health-Ade?

Justin, Vanessa, and I saw a market for kombucha that was more mainstream. I hate to use the word ‘hippie dippie,’ because I was somebody who drank it, but let's just say only the healthiest of the healthy drink kombucha or the ones who did 12 yoga classes a week and ate kale chips for dinner—that type of population. Yet to me, it was a soda replacement. It was bubbly, delicious, kind-of sweet. It made you feel good. So why shouldn’t this be way more mass? Our intention from the get-go, before we had the name, was: Let's make this super approachable.

When we were naming Health-Ade, we didn't have a lot of time because we had already signed up for a farmers’ market before we had a product. So we had about two to three weeks to figure out the name, logo, everything. Justin was drinking a Gatorade at the time. And I remember just being like, well, it's like that but healthier. So we called it Healthy Ade for a couple days and then that just felt too much on the tongue. So we dropped the y.

Did you make the first batches in your bathtub?

For the first year, we made them in our kitchen. It was as much kombucha as I could brew because I was the brewer in the beginning. It was my recipe, so after work and on the weekends we brewed and we put it in two and a half gallon cookie jars. (It sits in those jars for about two to three weeks to ferment.) But yes, for that first year, it was all out of our apartment in LA.

When you're introducing a niche product into a market, how did you build trust with your consumers and how did you help them understand what the product could be for?

We were transparent about how we made it. The farmers’ markets were a perfect place for us to start, because you can try just a sip. And how hard is that? We were sharing something completely new. And I talk a lot about being there at the right place at the right time. We weren't the ones that invented kombucha, we weren't the first to [bring it to] market, but we came in right when the wave started. And consumers were already seeking health and wellness, they were seeking healthier options and their food and beverage right then and there. So it was almost like we just happened to be there with a solution when they were looking for it.

When people were walking through the market, probably about 50 percent who came to us already knew what kombucha was. They bought ours because ours was like the most artisanal you could get. We made it in a home kitchen with a scoby from Tibet, and we flavored it with cold-pressed juice that we bought at that particular farmers market, two booths over. It didn't get fresher and more delicious than that.

Let’s get into the deeper, more nuanced layers of your company. Some companies creating kombucha add in the probiotics, which was a bit surprising. Is this less-than the traditional way of making kombucha? Or is it necessary?

It's a good conversation to have. We talked about being balanced in the middle: eastern and western. Some Eastern folks might think it has to be 100 percent natural, with no probiotics added. But then on the flip side, there are some probiotics that have been studied and prepared so that they last a long time. And when they hit your gut they actually are digested, and there's evidence to show that those probiotics are the ones that benefit your gut health, which then benefit all aspects of health.

Health-Ade has evolved how it makes its kombucha. Part of that evolution is that we've invested a lot more in science and studying what makes our kombucha’s special. What makes it unique. Why do people come to me at the store and say, ‘you have no idea how much this helped me, I have to take less drugs because of this or it makes me feel so good.’ We started researching it, and what we found is that if you make kombucha at home, right off the shelf, it's got plenty of probiotics. And if you drink it right then, that's great. But over time on the shelf, even the most artisanal probiotic product, it will lose its probiotic count over time, even in the fridge. We thought maybe we should be supplementing it so that when consumers are buying it, they're getting all the probiotics. We made the decision to start supplementing in addition to what's in our kombucha so that no matter what, when you buy a Health-Ade at the end of shelf life, it's got half a billion probiotics, legitimate probiotics that are good for gut health, which is why people are buying it.

This is something that happened in the yogurt industry, as well. Yogurt used to be something that was made completely, naturally, not at all infused with probiotics from the outside. But what they started to run into was the same thing over time: the probiotics in yogurt, even after two, three weeks on the shelf, were almost none. And yet that's why people were eating yogurt. So not only just to preserve the product, but I would say even more to bring the health benefit to reality, they started to put probiotics in. And I think it's been a very good thing for yogurt.

I want to talk about people. You have 200 employees. What is your company culture like? Given your passion for leadership, what was it like to build that over the past nine years?

It's been a real honor to build this company of people. And I will just say that we've grown really fast over the last nine years. While I love to pay a nod to the importance of the kombucha itself, I actually think it's the people—because it’s the people that do the work. There's so many people involved with getting a product on the shelf. It's incredible. When you grow fast like that it's pretty obvious to me or at least understandable that the wheels can shake so much that they fall off. It hasn't really for Health Ade. Yes, the wheels shake, but we’ve managed to keep the wheels on and we're rolling in the sort of same direction, and I think that's very much because of our culture. And yes, I think that is from the pharmaceutical change agent days where I recognized at the onset, that values are important, culture’s, important, meaning’s important, employee happiness and engagement is important. And so we've always invested in that.

What is inspiring you as you grow?

I’m interested in expanding and progressing to offer  foods and beverages that make people feel good. And I am particularly inspired by gut health. I really believe in the power of gut health, not only have I seen it from the very beginning days, but I continue to see it even more. To me, that’s our platform. Health Ade is gut-healthy, better-for-you beverages and food. So where do we go next? We still continue to grow kombucha. Kombucha still is something that the healthier consumer is into. And when you start to go to the health sort of adjacent consumer, they don't have too many options, and they're still drinking and eating pretty bad stuff. I'd like to create something for them. We've launched a product called Health-Ade Pop, with the intention of the consumers who are still drinking soda and give them something that tastes really good. I'd love to offer something for kids, you know. So there's a lot. There's a whole world out there of products we can improve and a lot of different categories.

You put a lot of attention on the environmental impact of Health-Ade. Your company focuses on profit, people, and planet. Can you tell us a little bit about how you deal with waste and your philosophy of buying organic?

It wasn't even a question if we were going to be an organic company. Coming from nutrition school, I had enough information to persuade me that there was no other way. Luckily, the price difference between organic and non-organic has gone down so much that it's still allowed us to remain competitive. I think it will only continue to do that. So for me, organic is just a no-brainer. It's 100 percent how I personally shop and I don't want to put anything out into the world that doesn't support that.

And internally as a company, I look at it as a continuous improvement process. Where can we do better this year than we did last year? And let's push ourselves a bit. That's how we approach everything at Health Ade. It's very continuous improvement based instead of trying to move boulders. We’ve done that every year for nine years and now we're in we're pretty good place. I would say we have very little waste as a company overall. We do produce quite a bit of organic waste. We juice a lot of things, so there's a lot of rind and peels and fibers. Most manufacturing companies put that right in the trash, but [we see] there's an opportunity to compost that. It costs us more money to do that, but it makes a lot of sense for us because we're trying to impact the planet and our community.

Everything I do, I want to consider that the biggest purpose for me is the social-people impact. My purpose at Health-Ade is to not just make great tasting products that help people live their best lives, but also [for our] employees, to inspire them to be their best selves, to inspire them to be exactly who they were put on this earth to be. That's what I want to do in my company of people.

To learn more about Daina Trout and Health-Ade, visit health-ade.com. 

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