CONTRACT MANUFACTURING, PRIVATE LABELING, DEVELOPMENT AND CONSULTATION SERVICES
SOMA KOMBUCHA has a thriving co-manufacturing and formulation arm:
Hand-Crafted Beverage Co-Manufacturing and Development
Whether you’re starting from scratch, scaling up, or branching out, Hand-Crafted Beverage can be your trusted manufacturing partner in executing your vision to launch or grow your brand.
Reach out to talk through your concept and production needs: 971 246 7662 (SOMA)
Let the makers of Portland’s favorite kombucha (Winner: Best Kombucha, Willamette Week’s Best of Portland, multiple years) handle the production and packaging of your bottled, canned, or bulk-packaged beverage or liquid ingredient while you focus on growing your brand, confident that your product is being handled with care.
Hand-Crafted Beverage has a wide range of capabilities for your project, and low minimums to help remove the barrier to entry so you can get your product out in minimal time.
We also offer video consultation services to take your brewery business to the next level anywhere in the world, as well as full R&D services that can turn your unique vision of a beverage into a scalable product that can be produced by you, us, or another manufacturer.
Our Beverage Development service is more than just a formulation on a page. It’s your history, story, and vision made tangible. When we develop a product, the choices we make are wrapped around the core values “reason for being” of the brand, so that ingredients, flavor profile, ability to achieve certifications, and specifications are in alignment and the product is easy to market and sell. This service comes from our combined 70 years in the industry. Selling products at farmers markets, to independent stores, and to corporate chains requires a product created with a deep understanding of the differing needs of each type of client. For example, we developed a drink that was positioned to be the most authentic and traditional beverage in its category, so we guided the client away from mass-produced flavor extracts and sourced all possible ingredients from small farms in the region that originated this beverage and working with an indigenous company to produce the active ingredient in a way that closely resembles ceremonial use. Now it’s easy to communicate this product’s uniqueness, and it’s easy for the sales team, buyers, and customers to get behind it. The products we develop aren't just patched together, they have a deeply rooted purpose for existing that distills and vitalizes the founder’s “origin story”. We also take into account the distribution plan, whether traditional distributors and brokers, marketed online and shipped direct to consumer, and anything in between, which will determine shelf stability vs cold chain, package weight and material use, etc. We will work with you to tease out our desired details and specifications but unlike “flavor houses”, pulsing with life underneath the conversation is a search for emotional hooks in future customers and the framework of a product strategy that will effectively launch the product in the right direction. This is to avoid learning down the road that some part of the product or branding isn't working and requires an expensive and market share losing backtrack to fix, which is how many companies find us.
WHY PARTNER WITH US?
Decades of experience in the beverage industry making a complex product
Scale your business without having to invest and build out an expensive facility
Partner with an award-winning, reputable production team with a wide range of expertise
Certified Organic facility
Launch your product while limiting overhead costs and gaining valuable feedback
Established in an efficient, cohesive process
Robust, yet nimble infrastructure
OUR EXPERTISE
Ingredient sourcing, processing + extraction
Packaging, branding + design consultation
Management of wild cultures and mitigation of issues related to specific microbes
Production + fulfillment
Blending, mixing + fermentation
Private labeling + bottling
Testing + quality control
Forced or natural carbonation, nitrogenation
CBD compliance
Multiple can and bottle formats + kegging
Full IBC totes of base kombucha, jun, or kefir, concentrates, or fully-flavored product ready for packaging, shipped across the country
Shipping + Receiving
OUR TEAM
Elle al-Rahman, PhD
Elle al-Rahman, PhD is a researcher with over 20 years of expertise in advanced scientific inquiry, product development and/or project management at some of the world's most innovative companies including the likes of The National Physics Lab, JPL/NASA, ASML, JEM and is co-founder of Astral Wellness, a Functional Beverage Brand. She has applied herself in other industries in the finance, operations and research/innovation verticals.
For the last 6 years, she has transitioned fully into the consumer packaged goods industry (CPG); with a speciality for brand and product development in emerging verticals of health and wellness. Her focus is on CPG Food & Bev. Elle combines rigorous scientific methodology with deep consumer research insights to craft innovative, functional products that resonate across diverse markets. Additionally, as a retired professional global polo athlete, yoga instructor and fitness guru, she’s a team player and community leader who ensures collaboration and satisfaction of the end goal for clients.
As a global culture expert, she bridges cultural nuance and market trends to develop authentically impactful brands and products. Elle’s expertise is further enriched by a lifelong immersion in health foods, herbs, and plant medicine, stemming from a family legacy of both allopathic and naturopathic medical professionals, herbalists, and healers. With a foundation in R&D, product manufacturing, holistic wellness, combined with her strategic and data-driven approach, Elle is well positioned as a dynamic partner in creating science-driven, culturally relevant, and wellness-focused solutions for the modern world.
JEAN-PIERRE PARENT, Founder and CEO SOMA Kombucha
Jean-Pierre first came to beverage as a bartender and wine sommelier to put himself through school as a pre-med biochemistry major, and eventually left the naturopathic medicine track to write, teach yoga, and start a kombucha company in 2008.
“My mom started brewing kombucha in the 90’s and experienced some amazing health benefits, so I brewed my own when I left home. Fast forward to 2008 when I moved to Portland as a yoga teacher and noticed that people would shyly leave after class – it seemed like they were craving community and connection but didn’t know how to get there. I started bringing a jug of chai kombucha for people to enjoy together after class, like chai was served after class when I lived and studied yoga in India. I called it SOMA - sanskrit for the nourishing elixir that’s secreted by the pineal gland during deep meditation - and it just took off.”
Jean-Pierre has since become one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading experts in contract manufacturing and beverage development, winning awards and developing dozens of successful beverage brands. He loves beverage and innovation, and has received international acclaim at their intersection with successes such as developing novel production methods to quarter the fermentation time and cost of a soy yogurt, using fermentation to extend the shelf life of a chicory-based coffee substitute, using kombucha yeast to naturally carbonate spring water, and fermenting CBD and psilocybin to create new molecules that are both highly-efficacious yet not detectible by any known testing methods. He is also the author of 5 books on health and wellness, the Kitchen Sink Farming Series, covering subjects such as fermentation, sprouting, and small-space vegetable growing.
Jason Werner
Jason is a beverage R&D leader with nearly a decade of experience crafting wines, ciders, meads, and kombucha. Passionate about innovation, he blends fermentation science with market insight to create functional, trend-forward drinks. Beyond product development, Jason has helped small businesses launch and scale, bridging the gap between formulation and commercial success. At Handcrafted Beverages, he is driven to ensure each beverage brought to market meets both quality and consumer demand.
READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?
Reach out to talk through your concept and production needs with our resident expert - 971 246 7662 (SOMA). We’re happy to provide free, in-depth consultation on our way to a partnership.
MAKING YOUR LIFE EASIER
SOMA specializes in fermentation and high-quality herbal and mushroom extractions, is compliant for CBD products, and can obtain Organic Certification for your product with organic ingredients at a fraction of the cost of getting your own complete certification. We can also efficiently receive your pre-blended concentrate, dilute, chill, carbonate, and package much like a traditional co-packer, with the value-added benefit of more robust capabilities.
We are able to package in multiple formats and closures:
Bottles: glass and PET, 2oz - 128oz, plastic or ROPP caps
Cans: standard and sleek of any size
Kegs: any size stainless Sanke D keg or recyclable Dolium one-way kegs
Force-carbonated, naturally carbonated, nitrogenated, a custom blend of N2 and CO2, or still. With our mad logistical skills, we can get a single sample of your product or a full truckload across the country ambient, refrigerated, or frozen.
Consultation is available to help navigate certification, flavor development, formula tweaking, pricing, logistics, market strategies, and other business needs. We can seamlessly take over production and shipping logistics for an established product, or R&D your brilliant concept written on the back of a cocktail napkin and handle process, sourcing, packaging, and branding, then connect you to our network of service providers such as distributors and brokers.
HAPPY CLIENTS
RAINBOW CLOUD KOMBUCHA
WATER KEFIR PEOPLE
FIRE BREW
TOFURKY
