Aqua ViTea:
The Full Breakdown

In 2005, Jeff Weaber and his wife Dr. Katina Martin packed up their life in Portland, Oregon and moved to rural Vermont. Jeff had spent years as a brewer at The Lucky Labrador Brewing Company, learning fermentation from the inside out. Katina was building a career in naturopathic medicine — she’s a licensed naturopath, midwife, and acupuncturist.

The collision of those two worlds is what made Aqua ViTea possible.

Jeff started brewing kombucha in their farmhouse basement in Salisbury, Vermont. Not as a business plan. As a way to support Katina’s naturopathic practice. The “food as medicine” philosophy wasn’t a marketing angle — it was literally how they lived.

Here’s a problem most people don’t think about: kombucha is fermented. Fermentation produces alcohol. Most commercial kombucha sits at or just below the 0.5% ABV legal threshold, and some brands have been caught exceeding it.

Aqua ViTea’s solution was a spinning cone column — a piece of equipment that gently separates alcohol from the finished kombucha without using extreme heat. The investment was roughly $2 million. At the time, it made them one of only two kombucha producers in the entire country with this technology.

Today, Aqua ViTea operates out of a state-of-the-art facility on Pond Lane in Middlebury, VT — the former Woodchuck Cider location. They employ about 30 people, 90% of whom come from the surrounding rural communities.

Each can contains Bacillus Subtilis DE111 — a spore-forming probiotic strain known for stability (it survives at room temperature, in your pantry, and through stomach acid). The base is filtered carbonated water plus a hit of kombucha and organic natural flavors.

If you’ve tried prebiotic sodas like Olipop or Poppi and want something lighter and less sweet, the Aqua Seltzer line is worth exploring.

90% of employees from rural areas. In a region where good jobs aren’t always easy to find, Aqua ViTea has been voted one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont.

Reusable glass bottles. Up to 35% of their kombucha fountain fills use customer-brought reusable bottles, reducing single-use packaging daily.

Jeff Weaber puts it simply: “Kat and I founded this company with a health mission, not a money mission.”

That line could sound hollow from a bigger brand. From a company that started in a farmhouse basement and still composts its own tea? It hits different.

Availability is strongest in Vermont, New York, and New England. Outside that region, DTC shipping from their website or Instacart are your best bets. National expansion is ongoing through their partnership with Acosta, a major CPG sales agency.