A North Texas entrepreneur has created a magical brew that combines two of the hottest trends right now: kombucha and CBD.
Called Booch.cbd, it’s an invention from Jenny Hunter, a Dallas yoga instructor, and it combines the vastly popular fermented probiotic drink kombucha with the even more massively popular CBD oil.
For the uninitiated, kombucha is the fermented fizzy tea with probiotic benefits that promote healthy digestion. It’s not hard to find, whether it’s bottled versions at the supermarket or on tap at some bars. Texas has plenty of kombucha manufacturers, especially in Austin, and there’s even one based in Fort Worth, Holy Kombucha.
But Booch.cbd is among the first to combine kombucha with CBD oil.
It starts with a base of green tea that’s brewed with hemp flowers for 21 days. It is then infused with 25 milligrams of organic CBD extract, and blended with fruit puree.
„The unique aspect is that we are brewing it with hemp and infusing it with CBD,” Hunter says. „No one is doing it to the degree that I am and having it available all across Dallas-Fort Worth.”
Booch.cbd has been a homeopathic slam-dunk, available at a growing number of places, including Bloom Hemp Market and Full Psycle Indoor Cycling in Fort Worth.
In Dallas, it’s at hipster venues Halcyon Coffee, Equinox Fitness, Sundown at Granada, Meddlesome Moth, Gemma, Taco Heads, Roots Juices, Unleavened, and Buzzbrews Kitchen.
It comes in three flavors: Lemon Gingerade, Raspberry Swirl, and Blood Orange. It’s a little sweeter than regular kombucha, which can have a tart bite, and that’s due to a third ingredient: aloe.
„Sometimes kombucha can be a lot to handle because of the tangy bite it has,” Hunter says. „And then with CBD, it’s a tricky science to get it where it does not taste like a weed or vinegar tonic. The aloe smoothes out the flavor, and you benefit because it helps with absorption into the digestive system.”
Hunter suffered from rheumatoid arthritis for nearly two decades and was told she would be confined to a wheelchair by age 40. Through yoga and CBD, she proved the doctors wrong.
She says that CBD also helps her students and clients deal with everything from anxiety to autoimmune disease, aches and pains, and other limitations.
„The healing benefits of CBD start to address underlying issues,” she says. „CBD can address a wide range of symptoms on your wellness journey.”
Entrepreneurial by nature, Hunter founded her own yoga studio, The Yoga Movement, six years ago, as well as her own brand of CBD extract called LiveWell sold online that is used in her kombucha.
CBD is short for cannabidiol and is found in hemp, which was recently approved for industrial uses in Texas last legislative session. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana.
Medical marijuana was made legal in Texas in 2015, but only to people with intractable epilepsy. A new law in the works would add all forms of epilepsy, seizure disorders, autism, terminal cancer, Parkinson’s, and other conditions.
Meanwhile, it’s still a no-no. Because hemp and marijuana can easily cross-breed, Hunter sources her extract from independent growers in Colorado and Oregon who cultivate hemp isolated from marijuana production, to eliminate the risk of contamination with THC.
„The benefits of CBD are quite individual, but they seem to help most with reducing anxiety and stress,” she says. „With 25 milligrams in a 16-oz drink, you definitely do get this relaxed, clear feeling.”
CBD oil shops have sprung up like weeds, with seemingly no end to demand, and Booch.cbd seems to be on the same track.
„We’re stocking as fast as we can,” Hunter says. „Finding new places has been easy. We ask our fans, 'Where are your favorite places to eat?’ And that’s where we go.”