Our Story

“What is that…?” a supportive and eager father said on a 2009 Summers day. “Why, that’s kombucha!” I said with anticipation from the first fermented batch.

 Little did we realise that from humble beginning’s that Summer fermenting 35 litres in a small room in a down stairs area of my parents home, this health elixir would possibly become such a massive success as a product amongst Australians.

 My first experience of kombucha dates back to August 2008. I was living in Wisconsin USA at the time and working as an engineer for a large equipment production company for the food industry. I learnt in the US one can eat very well, but also extremely terrible. The latter came easier because of the retail value of fast food over healthy food. I was, although, eating relatively fine just not as conscious about food as today.

At some point in August I began to feel a lot of discomfort in the digestive area whenever I ate. I never experienced food sensitivities growing up so this was a totally new experience to feel nauseous and bloated with any foods I ate.

A visit to the local doctor didn’t present any sort of solution. I understand protocol and also quite aware that any person in the medical profession doesn’t learn about food as medicine.

I didn’t know this at the time, needless to say I did know from a space of feeling that what was happening was a food related cause – so food was the only thing that would correct the situation.

​On a routine trip to the local health food store one afternoon, I came across a bottle of kombucha. I never seen this product before and the label plus the words attracted me to pick up and read what it was. It said, “probiotic health tonic”. Other appealing words such as live bacteria and living drink also drew me in!

There I was in the middle of an aisle in a health food store, with a bottle of what would be the first kombucha I would drink, and staring up at the ceiling thinking, “well I probably attracted some bad bacteria and need a balance”.

​Next thing I knew I was drinking this “health elixir” whilst driving home that day.

The first taste felt a bubbly champagne sort of drink that was not sweet like a soda and not bitter like beer, somewhere in between.Either way I was attracted to the taste and sensation in my gut. The next day I awoke feeling different to previous days, something shifted and I felt balanced in the stomach. The kombucha flushed everything out, the bottle was finished from the day before and I felt so refreshed.

 From then on I would visit the health food store every day for the regular dose of kombucha.

 One of the first things I did after returning to Australia in January 2009 was to seek out if there was any kombucha available to purchase. There wasn’t any! I found a couple of books written by Harold Tiezte, read the recipes, experimented, brewed the first batch and this kicked off my fermenting journey with kombucha.

 For a couple of years during 2009-2011 my life journey changed dramatically. I began studying naturopathy and iridology, discontinued engineering work, and experimented more with how to ferment kombucha.

 In 2011 I started a small sole trader business called Herbs of Life. I didn’t see the main objective at the time but I felt I wanted to create a business that produced therapeutic healing herbal teas, traditional kombucha and dehydrated snack foods. I journeyed for 3 years into my own health, heading to Colorado and studying at the School of Natural Medicine. I fell in love with the art and science of traditional healing. I felt a re-connection with nature and my body, mind and soul. This was going to be my new path in life, to heal on a level that enabled true spiritual and physical rebirth and to work with people to facilitate their healing journey. These main fundamentals of healing beginning with food, food as thy medicine, and thus I began Herbs of Life.

 We became a Pty Limited company in July 2015 and continued with what we started; kombucha, herbal teas, and dehydrated raw living foods.

Now in 2019 we are expanding our living food range and ferments to include more different raw living foods, various flavours of kombucha, therapeutic herbal blends, and expanding the ferment repertoire to sauerkrauts.

 I am honored and blessed to work with such a happy, enthusiastic, and energetic team. We all share a passion for what we do that I never thought could be possible. Thank you so much!

Also to acknowledge all the love and support from customers over the years, we couldn’t of come this far without you.

Finally to acknowledge and thank my parents for all the love and support over the years. They believed in me, and what could be achieved, seen me through thick and thin, through the stress and hysteria and through the joyous moments. Thank you Mum & Dad!