Turning a hobby into a business, Songbird Kombucha now in it’s 4th year in Sioux Falls

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Elsa and Jacob Fokken discovered Kombucha when trying to give up drinking soda. Eventually, they decided to start brewing their own as a hobby.

“We didn’t start with the intention of brewing it at a mass scale and so, there was always that element of fun and curiosity and exploration involved,” said Elsa Fokken, owner of Songbird Kombucha.

Then, at the height of the COVID pandemic, Elsa and Jacob decided to turn their hobby into a business.

“There was just a lot of shifting happening. I personally lost my work and we really searched within ourselves for the one thing that we loved to do so much that we thought that maybe we could provide to our community, and we just dove in and we love making kombucha. We learned the ropes. We learned how we could do it at a larger scale and we really just went for it,” said Fokken.

Success didn’t happen overnight. In their first year, they had two accounts in Sioux Falls, but things have taken off since then.

“We have 40 plus accounts. Seven or eight of those are out of town, and we have just over 30 accounts in Sioux Falls now,” said Fokken.

Even though they stay busy these days, for Elsa and Jacob, making kombucha is still fun.

“It feels so good. It feels like a total blessing, honestly. We love meeting our customers. We love hearing their stories. We love hearing about their health journeys and just being able to provide our community with something that’s truly healthy and enjoyable just feels great,” said Fokken.

Learn more about Songbird Kombucha here.

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