Facing the sharks
A Madison entrepreneur pitches her home brewing kit on “Shark Tank.”
The Kombucha Shop will pitch itself to the investors on ABC’s “Shark Tank” Sunday night.
The Kombucha Shop, based in Madison, is a kombucha home brewing supply company founded by Kate Field in 2014. Kombucha is a fermented tea drink.
Field pitched The Kombucha Shop’s home brewing kit while filming the episode in Los Angeles last summer. The episode will air at 8 p.m. Sunday.
“After months of preparation, my time in the tank itself felt like a blur,” Field said in a news release. “I did my best to just have fun with it, and I can’t wait to see how the episode turned out.”
The Kombucha Shop sells its kombucha brewing kit for $49. The kit includes the ingredients — kombucha culture, tea, sugar — and equipment to brew the fermented beverage. It also sells a deluxe version of the kit for $79 on The Kombucha Shop website.
The Kombucha Shop sources organic and American made products. Its Original Tea Blend comes from Milwaukee-based Rishi Tea.
The company has been preparing for the influx in orders from the national television exposure.
“We hired temps, invited friends and family to help out at the warehouse, expanded hours and added Saturday shifts to the schedule,” said The Kombucha Shop Chief Operating Officer Alana McKeever in a news release.
“It’s been quite the party around here, with plenty of kombucha, speedpacking contests and Taylor Swift to keep us going.”
Sarah Hauer can be reached at shauer@journalsentinel.com or on Instagram @HauerSarah and Twitter @SarahHauer. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter Be MKE at jsonline.com/bemke.