Honestly, I don't know...
When I moved back to NZ in 2023 I didn't know I was going to do this. I was planning to utilise my New Zealand citizenship and settle my life down.
Coming from working at the corporate giant of Facebook HQ in San Francisco, I thought I would just get back into the digital space, but I had a problem. Working there gave me a crippling addiction to yerba mate. It was readily available in our drink fridges and I noticed that I worked better, felt happier, and honestly had more patience for existence which ended up making me the best version of myself. Now I ran into one problem out here. Where could I find some?
I guess it had to be me...
Good yerba mate was so difficult to find that I came to the only logical conclusion. I'd have to make my own. After months of experimentations I was like wow, I need to share this with people, how on earth can I do that? I started interviewing breweries to determine what it actually took to create a new beverage brand, then one fateful day I walked into the New Leaf Kombucha Taproom and boom, fireworks.
Derek from New Leaf, had all the keys to the castle. He had been brewing many years and was willing to mentor me and we hit the ground running. A year and over 50+ recipe trials later I'm so very excited to say I have a product! And I can't wait to share with you!