Pure Luck® Bangkok
An NYC native, Brett had been a professional photographer for 16 years before he decided to found his kombucha business. In 2010, Brett Casper started Pure Luck® in New York City. Originally from Bangkok, K. Tibb graduated from Berlin and then worked in Paris and NYC for 9 years. 18 months ago, their paths crossed. Love blossomed and so did a new business idea, bringing Pure Luck® to Bangkok.
Bangkok Greenie interviewed Brett and Tibb. Brett is the master brewer and Tibb is CEO and Managing Director. Find out more about why they started their company and what Pure Luck® Bangkok is all about.
Interview with Brett & Tibb
1. What was your motivation to start Pure Luck® Bangkok?
We started Pure Luck® simply because we wanted to do something tactile, holistic and symbiotic. We believe there is a better way to live and want to make it accessible to everyone. Pure Luck® is more than just kombucha. We are a lifestyle brand inspired by the House of Medici from renaissance Italy. Pure Luck® as a concept is rethinking the way we live, work and eat. We curate innovation through organic, symbiotic systems by combining recycled, no waste and carbon neutral architecture, vertical farming and future city planning elements into a package that are nascent homes, greenhouses, gardens, and businesses conjoined with symbiotic energy, toxicity reduction and organic food production systems. Put simply our aim is to maximize the ease of living healthy, 21st Century lifestyles, in a way that is as biodynamic as it is organic.
In Bangkok, we set up Pure Luck® as a concept space set in an approximately 100 year old double shop house on the edge of Chinatown. Our brewery is home to a Tea Bar tasting room, a Pure Luck® kombucha brewery with 125,000k bottles/yr capacity and a lofted kitchen, all set in a greenhouse. On the second floor is one bedroom and an office. On the roof we grow over 10 varieties of organic vegetables in our vertical garden. Produce like musk melon. cucumber, chili peppers, okra, cherry tomatoes, basil, celery…etc. are all grown directly from our composted tea, SCOBY’s and food waste.
In order to produce great kombucha you need a healthy environment with good energy, the right temperature, lots of oxygen, nice clean air and lots of plants! We like to think of Pure Luck® Bangkok as a symbiotic enterprise. Most people don’t know that kombucha consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. By composting out tea, balancing our carbon out put and recycling, reducing or re-using everything possible we have created as little or no waste environment as possible.
2. There are many kombucha brewers in Bangkok at the moment, what do you think sets you apart, makes you shine in the kombucha arena?
As far as we are aware Pure Luck® is the only kombucha brand with many years of experience brewing exclusively organic kombucha, fermented in glass, exclusively using 100% certified organic ingredients and cold spring water. We brew tea, ferment it and put it in a bottle. We will never knowingly use a non organic ingredient in anything ever. That is a rule we live by.
3. What kind of products does Pure Luck® Bangkok produce?
Organic kombucha tea brewed with cold spring water. Also, our vegetable garden has started producing cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, chili peppers, celery, basil, musk melon…etc
4. Do you plan to sell the vegetables you are growing in your garden? Or are they to be used in someway for your Kombucha?
We grow these vegetables for our own consumption. It’s a work in progress and everything will not be fully grown for another month or so. We have been lucky thus far and have harvested musk melon. cucumber, chili peppers, okra, cherry tomatoes, basil and celery. Some local business have offered to purchase any extra produce we may have. Judging by the rate of growth it looks likely we will have some that is beyond what we can eat.
All of our plants are sprouted from seed planted in our own blend of composted tea, food scraps and SCOBYS. We use only organic fertilizers like bat guano, worm compost and tea, and fish emulsion.
5. Where do you produce your kombucha?
At Pure luck® Bangkok, our brewery & concept space in Chinatown , Hua Lomphong
6. Where do you get your kombucha ingredients from?
We source our teas , herbs and botanicals from all over the world and other ingredients from local sources.
7. What percentage of your inputs are organic? What percentage of your inputs are certified organic?
We use only 100% certified organic ingredients.
8. Please describe in a bit more detail. What certification, which body. Give us examples of your input sources.
The majority of our inputs are USDA Organic & QAI (quality assurance international). We also have some that are Canada Organic certified. Our teas are all imported and certified organic through the USA. It make our costs higher but we are absolutely certain it is worth it. Our sugar is USDA Organic product of Thailand. Our water is Aura cold spring Artesian water.
9. Is your kombucha certified organic? Or do you have any plans for certification?
All of our ingredients are 100% certified organic. Yes , we plan to be certified within this year..
10. Also please expand if certified, or have plans for certification, which body and which standard.
USDA ORGANIC (BioAgriCert or EcoCert probably)
11. Tell us a bit more about your packaging. What are the bottles made of?
Glass with hot stamp label.
12. Please tell us a bit more about your Kombucha brewing process.
We brew organic tea with cold spring water, add organic sugar and our special culture. Ferment it in a glass jar for 2-6 weeks and put it in a bottle. Proper, or Pure kombucha tastes sour and will have a pH between 2.8- 3.5. Kombucha is not supposed to taste or be sweet. If a kombucha tastes sweet it is because the brewers have either added extra sugar at bottling, are not fermenting it long enough or both. Many of the detoxification health benefits come from the acids that form with a longer term fermentation. You wont get the same level of health benefit drinking a 5 day ferment as you will from drinking a 5 week fermented kombucha and that’s scientifically proven.
13. Do you have a recycling program for your bottles?
We used to but not at the moment. We do however recycle our ingredients. We give our bottles the homeless people living in the temple around the corner from our brewery so then can redeem them for money. Some proceeds go to help children and homeless in Watsibunreung Temple School. Tibb and her family have a long history of helping children. We also recently participated and donated to a dog charity at the BarkYard.
14. I have noticed that your bottles are sealed. What sealant do you use?
100% Pure beeswax
15. How should your Kombucha be stored? Temperature? Conditions?
Pure Luck® can be stored at room temperature for 3 months or more depending on the conditions and temperature. The cooler the temperature the longer the shelf life. After 3 months some of the flavors may change slightly. In NYC we regularly age our kombucha. We have consumed kombucha aged 14 months and it still tasted great! We recommend putting it in the refrigerator 24 hours before drinking or if you want to save it for a while.
16. Normally Kombucha needs to be burped. How come yours doesn’t? Why doesn’t Pure Luck® need refrigeration?
Mostly fermentation science and lots of experience. Pure Luck® has a proprietary process developed over many years.
17. What is the shelf life of your Kombucha?
3- 6 months or more depending on the flavor and storage- see #15
18. Do you deliver? If so, what mode of transportation do you use for delivery?
Yes, depends on the size and location of the order. Minimum 24 bottles for delivery.
19. How do you manage the waste by products of the production process?
Everything is recycled or re-used.
20. If you had to rate your business on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is the least Eco-friendly, and 5 is the most Eco-friendly, how would you rate your kombucha and why?
4 because we are forced to buy inputs in plastic due to packaging restraints on our ingredients.
21. Tell us about your future plans.
Stay tuned its a surprise!
22. What is your personal favorite kombucha that you offer?
Raspberry Mangosteen, Cinnamon Plum and Hot Ginger.
Green Rating: I am refraining from giving this producer a rating or any personal comment because of my experience during this interview.
** Opinions are Bangkok Greenie’s own. Note this rating does not rate their kombucha, nor their service, it is purely a rating of how eco friendly, organic their business is. Rating given in April 2015.
For more information on Pure Luck® Bangkok or to buy their products you can contact them at:
W: https://www.facebook.com/pureluckbangkok
E: info@pureluckbangkok.com
IG: PureLuckBangkok