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Blue Ridge Bucha Wins National Sustainability Award

Virginia is for drinkers – or so it seems with all the wineries, breweries and cideries that have opened here, and when you’re tired of those beverages, a company in Waynesboro is offering an award-winning alternative.

Nelson County native Ethan Zuckerman is a founding member of the Kombucha Brewers International:

“About five years ago 37 companies met in L.A.," he says. "This past year my wife went, and there were over 250, so it’s a growing industry.”

For those who don’t know, kombucha is a fermented tea – cold, carbonated, slightly sweet, tangy and sometimes alcoholic – often infused with fruit, herbs, and other flavors.

“One of our more popular flavors is the original ginger, which is a fresh-pressed ginger that we infuse into our green and black tea base," Zuckerman explains. "We also have a seasonal flavor right now, the kombuchai, which is a chai spiced kombucha, black raspberry, elder flower sunrise, a coffee version – the cold bucha – we have a variety of flavors.”

Blue Ridge Bucha brews about 1,000 gallons per week, offering discounted refills to customers who have recycled nearly a million bottles.

Blue Ridge Bucha, which recently opened its taproom on Route 250 east of downtown Waynesboro, supplies about 1,000 gallons a week to grocery stores, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and festivals.  Customers are invited to return and refill their empty bottles.

“We’re close to now a million bottles saved by people bringing their bottles back in and not throwing them away,”  says Zuckerman.

That earned the company a national sustainability award from SCORE – the mentoring arm of the U.S. Small Business Administration.  Zuckerman says customers like to return and refill – it makes them feel good and provides a discount of 40 cents per bottle.  

The taproom at Blue Ridge Bucha is open Wednesdays through Saturday afternoons in summer on Route 250 in Waynesboro.

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief