The two friends who brewed kombucha for their vegan restaurant and built Canada's favourite

A vegan restaurant, a strange fizzy tea, and a bet on fermentation

The story starts with two travellers. Mathieu Gallant and David Côté met as friends drawn to the same thing, the raw and living food they kept finding on the road, and they brought that obsession home to Montreal. They opened a vegan restaurant, Crudessence, and started brewing their own kombucha, a tart, naturally fizzy fermented tea that almost nobody in Canada was drinking in 2008.

They bottled it under the name Crudessence Kombucha and put it on the restaurant menu. The response was the kind founders dream about. People came back for the drink as much as the food, the demand outgrew the kitchen, and the brewing operation moved into a loft in Montreal's Mile End. In 2009 two more partners, Simon Bertrand and Julian Giacomelli, came on board, and the standalone business that would become RISE took shape.

What set them apart early was a willingness to treat kombucha as a real beverage business, not a health-store curiosity. They were the first brand in North America to sell kombucha in a one-litre bottle, a format that signalled this was something you kept in the fridge and poured every day, not a tiny tonic you sipped once. The recipe stayed honest the whole way: certified organic, raw, and unpasteurized, so the live cultures from the fermentation made it into the bottle.

“RISE isn't about what we leave out, it's about what we put in: passion for nature, dedication to great taste, and natural and organic ingredients.”

The part worth borrowing is the patience. RISE did not chase a national launch out of the gate. It proved the drink with real customers, in a real restaurant, in a city that takes food seriously, and only scaled once the product had earned it. In a category that now overflows with me-too kombuchas, getting the fermentation and the flavour undeniably right first is the entire moat.

What they actually brew

The kombucha: The heart of the brand is the Original line, a run of thirteen flavours led by Fresh Ginger, the flagship and best-seller. From there it runs through Hibiscus & Rosehips, Lemon & Lime, Peach & Mango, Blueberry & Maple, Mint & Chlorophyll, and more. Every one is fermented from tea, certified organic, raw, and unpasteurized, vegan and gluten free, with live cultures and only trace naturally occurring alcohol.

Beyond the bottle: Over time the range grew past classic kombucha. There is Better Soda, a gut-friendly take on soft drinks for people who want refreshment without the sugar load, and Botanicals, a lighter sparkling botanical line built around balance. The through line is the same as the original: real fermentation, organic ingredients, and nothing artificial papering over the recipe.

How people drink it: RISE sits in the sweet spot between a health drink and an everyday pleasure. The Fresh Ginger gets poured as a midday reset, a digestif after a heavy meal, or a non-alcoholic option that still feels like an adult drink. That versatility is a big reason it became a repeat-purchase staple rather than a one-time experiment.

Why people love it

RISE earned the kind of loyalty that is hard to buy: it became the default kombucha in a lot of Canadian fridges. The praise tends to land in the same place, that it tastes clean and genuinely fermented rather than sugary or vinegary, and that the organic, unpasteurized promise is one the brand actually keeps. For a functional drink, that combination of taste and trust is exactly what turns a single bottle into a weekly habit, and it is why RISE holds the top spot in a crowded category.

How it compares to other Canadian kombucha brands

Canada has a surprisingly deep bench of independent fermenters, from long-aged classic brewers to upcycled-produce upstarts. RISE sits at the top of the category by distribution, with the widest grocery footprint of the group. Here is where it lands next to other Canadian players:

Categories and positioning reflect publicly listed information on each brand's site as of June 2026. Pricing intentionally omitted because it varies materially by retailer. See the live product links below.

The growth story operators should pay attention to

The instructive part of RISE is not the recipe, it is the path. The brand spent its early life inside a single restaurant, selling face-to-face to people who came back week after week, learning exactly which flavours earned a second pour. That direct feedback loop is unglamorous, but it is the cheapest, highest-fidelity product research a beverage brand can get, and it is why the kombucha was already proven before it ever hit a grocery shelf.

The second move was treating format and category as a growth lever. By being first to a one-litre bottle, RISE reframed kombucha from a fringe shot into a fridge staple, and it expanded the line into Better Soda and Botanicals to meet shoppers who wanted the gut-health promise in a lighter, more familiar package. Rather than betting the whole brand on a single niche, it widened the door without abandoning the organic, unpasteurized standard that made the name.

The operator lesson is the sequence. Prove the product in a small, honest market, use format and packaging to change how people think about the category, and extend the range only in ways that stay true to the original promise. That discipline is why a fermented tea brewed for a Montreal restaurant now sits in fridges across the country, and why it joined the functional-beverage platform Temple Lifestyle Brands as an established category leader rather than a distressed sale.

What people are saying

Where to actually buy it

Each link below goes directly to a live RISE Kombucha listing or the brand's own site, not just a homepage, so you can add a real bottle to your cart without hunting:

For the full range, including the Better Soda and Botanicals lines, browse risekombucha.com. Availability varies by store and season, so the Instacart links above are the fastest way to check what is in stock near you.

Frequently asked questions

Bottom line

RISE Kombucha is a reminder that the most reliable way to build a grocery brand is still to make something genuinely good and let real customers prove it. Two friends brewed a strange fizzy tea for their Montreal restaurant, refused to cut corners on the organic, unpasteurized recipe, changed how the country thought about kombucha with a simple one-litre bottle, and rode that discipline to the top of the category. The drink is the easy sell. The patience behind it, prove it small, then scale on your own terms, is the part worth studying. If you want to try it, the Fresh Ginger is the place to start.