Hi, we are Benga and Lunide. We are a couple with a passion for health and fitness. Lunide has competed in multiple running races and triathlons and Benga is a former collegiate track and field athlete who now maintains a workout regimen to stay fit. We both understand that fad diets don’t work and have found that making small diet changes consistently over the years is the way to build long-lasting habits. Our ideal dietary habit change has the right mixture of the following characteristics: great tasting, low cost, and of course healthy.
Our BoochSleeve journey begins when Benga visited a teammate on a business trip. That teammate who brews kombucha got him hooked. Benga couldn’t believe how easy it was to brew and how much cheaper it was than buying commercial kombucha. He had already heard about the benefits of a healthy gut from several sources, so it was a no-brainer to start brewing.
After some quick research, he bought an all-in-one brewing kit and started brewing. When the first batch was ready, Lunide had a taste and was sold. She immediately bought her own kit so we could double our output! Kombucha served as a perfect cocktail alternative since Lunide doesn’t drink alcohol.
Despite having two 1- gallon brewing jars we wanted more kombucha so we upgraded to a 3-gallon continuous brewing setup. After brewing for a few months we noticed that the temperature of our brews fluctuated widely depending on the ambient temperature and this was true even when we added a heating pad. The heating pad warmed the brew but didn’t keep it at a consistent temperature, which affected the taste.
It was at this point that they decided to create a solution and conceptualized the BoochSleeve. Effectively creating a large neoprene koozie for brewing kombucha served as a solution to regulate and stabilize the temperature, with or without a heating pad, and protect it from light.
Everyone has good ideas, but few actually do anything with those ideas. Both Benga and Lunide run full-time businesses and have very busy schedules. However, with the spare time created due to the COVID-19 stay at home orders they got to work and made their idea a reality. The BoochSleeve was launched in August 2020.