Tran Thanh Tu, founder of Kombutra: Awakening the essence of Vietnamese tea through fermented beverages.

Driven by the belief that Vietnamese tea can take a more modern path, Tran Thanh Tu built Kombutra with a philosophy of combining local ingredients and traditional fermentation methods. This journey not only created a healthy beverage but also opened up opportunities for Vietnamese tea to reach the international market.

Tran Thanh Tu, founder of Kombutra

Vietnam's kombucha footprint on the world map.

Returning from the world kombucha competition held in Spain at the end of October, Kombutra founder Tran Thanh Tu still felt deeply moved. The bronze medal for brand design, highlighted by the iconic Lac bird symbol, is an achievement recognizing the efforts of young people seeking to enhance the value of Vietnamese agricultural products.

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

But above all, Tú was happy to see that all three kombucha flavors she brought to the competition, including lotus, coffee, and mac mat (a type of wild yam) flavors, were enthusiastically received. In particular, the mac mat kombucha, a combination of Vietnamese tea and extract from mac mat leaves – a plant found only in some mountainous provinces in northern Vietnam – was very popular with some participants, who even requested to buy more to try.

In 2026, the brand plans to launch additional product lines targeting sports enthusiasts. Furthermore, Tú hopes to have more organic kombucha products certified by the USDA, with the aim of soon bringing them to the international market.

Tú was pleased to see the positive signs, but not entirely surprised, as she had prepared for this day. "From the very beginning, when I decided to venture into kombucha, I thought I had to reach out to the world and assert the position of Vietnamese tea," the kombucha representative explained.

Kombucha has a history of approximately 2,000 years worldwide. It is a fermented beverage made from tea, sugar, and a scoby (a type of bacterial culture). In countries with a long history of tea, such as China and Japan, people devised methods of fermenting tea to increase its natural nutritional value and create beneficial live bacteria for the gut. Gradually, kombucha spread to other countries around the world.

According to Tú, in some countries like the US and Europe, kombucha is booming, gradually replacing carbonated drinks in many households' refrigerators. In Vietnam, kombucha has appeared in the last 10 years or so, but it hasn't really received much attention yet, because Vietnamese people are still used to drinking green tea in the traditional way.

As someone who studied abroad and has a passion for food , the founder understood that the kombucha market in Vietnam was still a "blue ocean." Coincidentally, after the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more Vietnamese people became concerned about health. Kombucha, a fermented tea containing many beneficial bacteria, enzymes, and acids, helps maintain a healthy digestive system and boost immunity. Based on this reality, in mid-2022, Tú started his kombucha business.

She explained that the brand is a harmonious combination of "kombucha" - a fermented drink with many health benefits - and "tea" - a symbol of Vietnam's traditional tea-drinking culture, aiming to honor Vietnamese culture and traditional local ingredients.

To date, Kombutrà has launched six different fermented tea flavors on the market, all focusing on characteristic Vietnamese products such as coffee Kombutrà, lotus Kombutrà, golden flower Kombutrà… Among them, the lotus flavor is the first product Tú researched, and also the product she is most proud of.

According to her, the market lacks lotus syrup, and while lotus essential oil exists, it's not suitable for beverage production. It took Tú months to find a partner capable of extracting lotus fragrance, and another three months of research to create the lotus-flavored kombucha. "Just opening the kombucha bottle releases the lotus aroma, captivating all five senses. Some customers even shared with me that it feels as refreshing as standing in a lotus pond," the founder excitedly revealed.

Maintain the philosophy of craftsmanship to enter the global market.

Starting as a startup selling handmade cakes online, and now expanding into large-scale kombucha production, Tran Thanh Tu affirms that this journey is much more challenging. However, she remains true to her old philosophy: prioritizing handcrafted products that are good for consumers' health and free from preservatives.

Instead of producing Scoby culture industrially, Tú chose a manual method, which requires a lot of effort during the fermentation process, as well as standardizing the process and controlling the activity of microorganisms to achieve consistent quality and optimal flavor. The product also needs to be refrigerated to preserve its full flavor.

However, Tú believes that kombucha fermented manually will have a greater diversity of beneficial bacteria compared to industrially fermented products. Because the fermentation environment is natural and close to the acidic environment in the stomach, the percentage of beneficial bacteria retained during digestion is also higher.

Each month, Kombutra's production facility, currently located in Long Bien, produces approximately 3,000 liters of finished kombucha. Tu proudly states that, aiming for global export standards, the facility has achieved the first international ISO 22000:2018 certification in Vietnam for the kombucha industry. Here, each batch of Scoby culture – the "soul" of Kombutra – is cultivated using mineral-rich organic cane sugar, without chemical intervention, in a strictly controlled environment regarding temperature, humidity, and hygiene. Every day, the founder personally checks to ensure the fermentation process is healthy and natural.

"Raising the yeast with care and sincerity is how we create truly high-quality Kombutra," Tú emphasized.

After a period of production stabilization, the next challenge for Kombutrà is to expand its marketing and increase brand awareness among customers.

The global kombucha market is projected to grow strongly from $4.26 billion (in 2024) to $9.09 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 13.5% to 18.3%. In Vietnam, this market is also developing rapidly, with the participation of many large companies. Tu believes the market still has much potential, and kombucha is still just a small dot. To develop, Tu has decided to choose a path similar to that of the Marou chocolate brand: starting from a small, artisanal workshop, gradually growing and expanding its products internationally.

First, the founder needs to overcome the initial obstacle: winning over domestic consumers. According to experts, the Southeast Asian and South American markets, with their hot and humid climates, are fertile ground for beverage brands to thrive. However, Vietnamese people are not yet accustomed to drinking kombucha and do not fully understand its benefits. While some restaurants and cafes have offered kombucha as an accompaniment, the inconsistent flavors – either too sweet or too sour – have prevented this fermented beverage from gaining customer attention.

"My biggest wish is that one day, kombucha products in general will be as popular as iced tea," a representative from Kombucha expressed.

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