Tran Thanh Tu, founder of Kombutrà: Awakening the essence of Vietnamese tea with fermented drinks

Illustration photo. 55.jfif

Tran Thanh Tu, founder of Kombutrà

Vietnamese kombucha mark on the world map

Returning from the world kombucha competition held in Spain at the end of October, Kombutrà founder Tran Thanh Tu was still filled with emotion. The bronze award for brand design, which featured the iconic Lac bird, is an achievement that recognizes the efforts of young people who are looking to increase the value of Vietnamese agricultural products.

According to Tu, Kombutrà is the only Vietnamese brand participating in the competition and coincidentally, this is also the first time Vietnam has a representative participating in the world kombucha competition.

But above all, Tu was happy to see that all three flavors of kombucha she brought to the competition, including lotus, coffee, and mac mat, were enthusiastically received. In particular, kombucha with mac mat flavor, a combination of Vietnamese tea and mac mat leaf extract - a plant only distributed in some northern mountainous provinces, was very popular with some parties, even asking to buy more products to try.

In 2026, the brand plans to launch additional product lines targeting sports- playing customers. In addition, Tu also hopes to have more USDA-certified organic kombucha products, to soon bring the product internationally.

Tu was happy to see the positive signs, but not too surprised, because she had prepared for this day. “From the very first days of deciding to make kombucha, I thought I would have to reach out to the world, affirming the position of Vietnamese tea,” explained the representative of Kombutrà.

In the world, kombucha has a history of about 2,000 years. This is a fermented beverage made from tea, sugar and "yeast" Scoby. In countries with a long history of tea such as China or Japan, the ancients came up with a way to ferment tea to increase its natural nutritional value, while creating live probiotics that are beneficial for the intestines. Gradually, kombucha spread to other countries around the world.

Tu said that in some countries like the US or Europe, kombucha is a booming product, gradually replacing carbonated drinks in the refrigerators of many families. In Vietnam, kombucha has appeared for nearly 10 years, but has not really received much attention, because Vietnamese people are still used to drinking green tea in the traditional way.

As an international student with a passion for food , the founder understands that the kombucha market in Vietnam is still a “blue ocean”. Coinciding with the Covid-19 period, more and more Vietnamese people are concerned about health issues. Meanwhile, fermented kombucha tea, which contains many probiotics, enzymes, and acids, helps the digestive system to be healthy and strengthens the immune system. Based on that reality, in mid-2022, Tu started the Kombutrà business.

She explained that the brand is a harmonious combination of “kombucha” - a fermented drink with many health benefits and “Tea” - a symbol of the traditional tea drinking culture of Vietnamese people, aiming at the mission of honoring Vietnamese culture and traditional indigenous ingredients.

To date, Kombutrà has launched 6 different fermented tea flavors, all focusing on typical Vietnamese products such as coffee Kombutrà, lotus Kombutrà, golden flower Kombutrà... Of which, lotus flavor is the first product Tu researched, and is also the product she is most proud of.

According to her, the market does not have lotus syrup, while lotus essential oil does exist, but it cannot be used for beverage production. It took Tu months to find a partner capable of extracting lotus scent, and another 3 months of research to create the lotus-flavored Kombutra product. “Just opening the bottle of kombucha, the lotus scent spreads, taking over all 5 senses. Some customers even shared with me that it feels as fresh as standing in a lotus pond,” the founder excitedly revealed.

Keeping the handmade philosophy to step into the global market

Starting from a start-up making handmade cakes to sell online, now expanding to large-scale kombucha production, Tran Thanh Tu affirms that this journey is much more difficult. But she is still loyal to the old philosophy, which is to prioritize handmade products, good for the health of users, without using preservatives.

Instead of industrially producing Scoby yeast, Tu chose the manual method, which requires a lot of effort during fermentation, and also needs to standardize the process and control the activity of microorganisms to achieve stability in quality, as well as optimize the flavor. The product also needs to be refrigerated to preserve the full flavor.

However, Tu believes that hand-fermented kombucha will have more diverse probiotics than industrially fermented products. Because the fermentation environment is natural, close to the acidic environment in the stomach, the rate of probiotics retained during digestion is also higher.

Every month, Kombutrà’s factory, currently located in Long Bien, will release about 3,000 liters of finished kombucha to the market. Tu proudly shared that, determined to set the standard for global export, the factory has achieved the first international ISO 22000:2018 certification in Vietnam in the kombucha field. Here, each batch of Scoby yeast - the ingredient defined as the “soul” of Kombutrà - is fed with mineral-rich organic cane sugar, without chemical intervention; in an environment strictly controlled in temperature, humidity and hygiene. Every day, the female founder personally checks to ensure the fermentation process is healthy and natural.

“Cultivating yeast with care and compassion is how we create truly quality Kombutrà,” Tu emphasized.

After a period of stable production, the problem for Kombutrà in the coming time is to expand marketing and increase customer recognition.

The global kombucha market is forecast to grow strongly from 4.26 billion USD (in 2024) to 9.09 billion USD in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.5% to 18.3%. In Vietnam, this market is also growing rapidly, with the participation of many large companies. Tu assesses that the market still has a lot of potential, in which Kombutrà is still just a small dot. To develop, Tu determined to choose for himself a similar path as the Marou chocolate brand once went: from a manual production workshop, gradually growing and bringing products to the international market.

First, the founder needs to overcome the first obstacle, which is to conquer domestic consumers. According to experts, the Southeast Asian and South American markets, with their hot and humid climates, will be fertile ground for beverage brands to develop. However, Vietnamese people still do not have the habit of drinking kombucha, and do not understand the benefits of this drink. Some restaurants and cafes have sold kombucha, but the deviation in taste - either too sweet or too sour - has made this fermented drink not yet receive the attention of customers.

“My biggest wish is that one day, kombucha products in general will be as popular as iced tea,” said a Kombutrà representative.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tran-thanh-tu-nha-sang-lap-kombutra-danh-thuc-tinh-hoa-tra-viet-bang-thuc-uong-len-men-d441375.html