CHOMP! is a monthly community dinner featuring 100% vegan dishes, prepared by some of Denver’s up-and-coming aspiring vegan chefs. Taking place on the first Wednesday of every month, CHOMP! is aimed at bringing the young Denver vegan community together, and also providing a place for anybody to come try some great cruelty-free food without having to worry about pretension, judgement, or preaching. It’s just about good food. Food we love, food we want to share, and food which we believe can save the world.

You don’t have to bring anything to Chomp! except yourself and maybe a small donation ($7-$10) to help cover the cost of food and fund future dinners and projects for Plants & Animals. Come out and bring a friend, We hope to see you there!

High Country Kombucha is excited to be a part of this monthly vegan meal event by providing free samples of our totally vegan and healthy kombucha tea.  The event takes place the first Wednesday of each month at Green Spaces in Denver.  You don’t have to be vegan to enjoy trying a vegan meal so be sure to join us for Chomp! sometime soon.

http://www.plantsanimals.org/chomp/

Lara Carlson, an educator at the Science Center, started the presentation with some basic information about symbiosis and yeast.

Both Ed and Steve from High Country Kombucha got up to speak and offered more specific information about our kombucha and the authenticity of our symbiotic culture.

Several members of the audience were very interested in how to start their own home brewed kombucha (it’s as easy as using our authentic kombucha tea for your home brewed kombucha base) while others were just hoping to learn why our kombucha makes them feel so good when they drink it.

We were excited to have the opportunity to raise awareness about our product in our own backyard.  Huge thanks to the Walking Mountains Science Center for allowing us to present at the first “Science Behind” presentation series of the season.  We would love to do this presentation again if the opportunity arises, it went very well and was lots of fun.

Thank you to everyone who attended, we truly appreciate the interest and support.

Join Walking Mountains Science Center and High Country Kombucha for an evening of scientific mystery and fantastic fun. We’ll explore the science behind making the curious probiotic fermented tea, Kombucha. For thousands of years, Kombucha has been purported to offer many healing properties. Similar to yogurt, Kombucha contains living probiotic bacteria cultures that can assist in healthy digestion. High Country Kombucha has been making their own brews since 2003 and today offers some of the highest quality and strongest Kombucha on the market.

Come explore your curious nature and learn more about:

• The scientific process of creating Kombucha
• Bacteria – good and bad
• Yeast/fermentation
• Symbiosis
• 5Ws of Kombucha
• The Mother and Scoby
• Benefits of Kombucha

You will be able to get your hands dirty, touch the scobies, look at bacterial samples through the microscope and sample some of the Kombuchas made right here in Eagle County!

Seating is limited, please call or email to reserve your space:
(970) 827-9725 or info@walkingmountains.org

Our energy flow is affected by a number of things but two of the most essential are Breath and the Foods we eat. We have invited two master teachers to come and share their knowledge and best practices with our open space community:

3pm – 430pm – BREATHE: AWAKEN YOUR NATURAL VITALITY ~ Special Yoga Workshop with Dagini Amba, Master Teacher of Life Divine Yoga

Make your yoga practice more juicy and revitalizing through simple breath techniques and visualizations. You will leave this class refreshed and inspired.

5pm – 7pm – SUPER-FOODS AND HIGH-VIBRATIONAL NUTRITION ~ with Steve Dickman, founder and master-mind behind High Country Kombucha.

Learn about simple nutrients that increase our vibrational frequency, and therefore our health and well being. SteveO will guide us on this journey of discovery through lecture, demonstration, discussion and TASTINGS!

Cost for each class is $12 (members $9) or $20 for both (members $16).

Thanks for shooting the great video and sharing it with us.  We wish we had that kind of powder in Eagle County this season.  We’ve had less than average snowfall so far.

Michael Kang of String Cheese Incident

First place prize is 3 cases of our wonderful Kombucha tea, a High Country logo hoodie sweatshirt and two collector’s cups.  There will also be some pretty sweet prizes for second & third place.  With three cases of our tea you are fully stocked to participate in the 30 day kombucha challenge taking place in 2012.  Sign up on the 30 day kombucha challenge website now and get started anytime after January 2nd.

http://30daykombuchachallenge.com

You can submit pictures you’ve taken of yourself, your friends, or your favorite actor, musician or celebrity.  We will also accept drawings and fan art – feel free to get creative but keep it PG rated, please!  The winners will be chosen by popular vote on our Facebook page so ask your friends and family to come to our page and vote for your submission.   This contest takes place during the first two weeks of January so don’t hesitate!  We can’t wait to see your photos and images.

Lara Living the High Life with High Country Kombucha

Take the 30 day Kombucha Challenge and see how a small change in your diet may make a big change in how you feel everyday.  We’re asking you to give up you soda, coffee, energy drink or juice and instead drink 4 to 8 ounces of kombucha 3 to 4 times each day for 30 days and let us know how you feel.  The challenge will  include recipes, calendars, reminders, kombucha photos and more.

We’ve joined the competition in our  industry to offer this challenge to you.  Whether you are a relative newbie to our fabulous beverage or a seasoned expert in the field, we’d like you to take the 30 day challenge and tell us how it makes you feel.  Check out the website and beat the rush to get signed up.  The challenge officially starts on January 2nd but it is a “rolling” challenge which means you can sign up and get started anytime after that date.

http://30daykombuchachallenge.com/

BevNet Live Kombucha Article ~ we’re in the News!

BEVNET LIVE: Kombucha Back to 18% Growth; ‘Kombucha Challenge’ Coming; Does Category Need Greater Innovation? Brisk panel at last week’s BevNet Live conference in Santa Monica, Calif, keyed in on vibrant kombucha category, detailing return from mid-year crisis in 2010 and efforts to continue popularization push – even via New Year’s “kombucha challenge.”

For a while of course, fermented-tea segment wasn’t lookin’ assured of remaining vibrant: in Jun 10 when Whole Foods pulled all brands off its shelves because of concerns over excessive alcohol content for nominally NA bevs. Now that’s lookin’ like merest bump in road. Bobbi Leahy, from syndicated researcher SPINS, which tracks natural channel excluding Whole Foods, noted that segment had been scoring robust 18% growth until crisis caused it to hit a wall. But category came back in 2011, rising 11% to $650 mil, and lately is back to 18% growth. National pioneer GT’s – where most of the elevated-alcohol items were found – is still leader, with 80 share in natural, despite losing some shelf space. There are some 44 active brands in natural channel vs 13 in mainstream channels like grocers. (Heck, BBI editor counted 4 different brands just in Portland, Ore, airport stores last summer.) Fastest-growing include GT’s, Kombucha 2000 and Townsend’s; newbies makin’ a splash include St Helens, Ore-based Captured by Porches, which sells lotsa craft beer and kombucha off 3 roving trucks plying Portland streets.

Still, 2,000-yr-old category still lacks awareness among large portion of American public, acknowledged Kombucha Kamp founder Hannah Crum, who’s enlisting High Country, Bucha and others for 30-day “kombucha challenge” around New Year’s, when consumers traditionally resolve to detox and lose weight. They’ll be invited to swap their soda for kombucha “and see what happens,” said Hannah. Brands like Bucha are looking to be “on-ramp” for consumers thru more vibrant, contemporary packaging and less vinegary flavors, said Ron Lloyd, ceo of Bucha brewer B&R Liquid Adventure. Still the best brand-building vehicle is in-store sampling: High Country’s Ed Rothbauer said a demo at Whole Foods typically yields 200-300% lift in volume that day, and gains are sustained for weeks. As sign of grass-roots health, homebrew kits are popping up next to craft-brewing kits in lotsa retailers like Whole Foods, too. “Every commercial brand started as a homebrewer,” Lloyd noted.

Plenty of contrasts and sometimes stresses within segment: between those that remain defiantly raw and those that pasteurize product, those that use clear bottles and those that use tinted bottles, those that make health claims and those that don’t, those that go out as alcoholic and those that remain NA (GT’s is playing in both realms now). And innovation likely could use a boost: best that Lloyd could point to was GT’s addition of chia-seed-based flavors. Tho Celestial Seasonings has garnered some buzz for kombucha-based shot, High Country’s Rothbauer said so far he doesn’t see much movement on it.

Some are movin’ segment intentionally into alcoholic realm, such as Unity Vibration, out of Mich; Captured by Porches, and Beyond Kombucha, from upstate NY, which mixes brewer’s yeast into formula. Blurring with beer is also visible in entries such as Goose Island’s Fleur, Belgian-style pale ale that employs kombucha, and Vanberg & DeWulf’s Lambrucha, mashup of lambic beer and kombucha. Still, noted Hannah, items branded as kombucha tend to do poorly when shelved with craft beers.

Despite segment’s growth, so far it’s proved hard to put finger on exactly who consumer is. Some use it as detox cure, others for probiotic content. Some runners say it helps their knees. “Unique category,” said Bucha’s Lloyd. “Everyone has their own reason for why they’re drinking this stuff” and there’s not been much research so far to learn more. Even celebs that drink the stuff have been double-edged swords: Olympian athletes, on one hand, and 2-time Ironman Triathlon winner who sports High Country logo, but also endlessly troubled Lindsay Lohan on other.

Bud House Sees Potential It seemed a stretch when Bud house American Eagle Distributing Co picked up role as master distributor for nearby High Country Kombucha (BBI, Jun 24). But prexy Jerry Helgeson told BBI the drinks struck a chord when he saw them featured on local news channel while working out. Since major natural foods distrib UNFI works Whole Foods stores but doesn’t call on on-premise accounts, he spotted opportunity there – particularly if High Country moves into alc realm. So is that afoot? No comment for now, said High Country execs.

If you are not familiar with Kombucha tea in general and/or specifically our wonderful High Country brand of Kombucha you should definitely check out the article posted online in October of this year http://www.feelgoodnow.com/blogs/fgn-company-blogs/high-country-kombucha-taste-test/

Also, check out the related High Country Kombucha tasting video below.  The video includes some interesting facts about Kombucha tea in general and reviews of all eight Kombucha flavors we currently produce.  We feel the people at FeelGoodNow.com wrote an informative article and we appreciate the unbiased taste test, even if we feel our flavors deserved higher scores across the board.  Perhaps we’re a bit biased but we don’t think so.

Kombucha Taste Test from FeelGoodNow on Vimeo.

Thank you for the review, Feel Good Now.

Steve will be in attendance again this year with plenty of our High Country Kombucha tea to share with fellow yogis.  Sign up early for classes, buy a five class pack,  or a season pass because these events fill up quickly and 10% of all revenue goes directly to charity.  You can purchase tickets online through the event website; http://fridaynightyogaclub.com/

Expect to meet fellow yogis in Denver and experience live percussion, DJs, healthy food and beverage options, chanting and meditation.  Let the wild rumpus begin!