Life’s about dreams. Some people only dream, while others work hard to make them come true.
Adam Hill certainly has.
A self-confessed ‘jack of all trades’, while living in California, Adam had a dream of riding in the desert. On his return to Australia, he hopped on his dirt bike at his home in Currumbin and rode to Uluru and back.
“Two years later, I was trying to beat the solo record for crossing Australia at its widest part,” he tells me, outlining the route from Byron Bay to Steep Point WA. His first attempt at the 5,600km 92-hour-straight record was, in his own words, ‘pretty eye opening’!
Still, it remained a dream that he would spend the next few years chasing, a dream he trained for and faced death to attain, not to mention days of pain, discomfort and financial loss he endured. But what he achieved, many of us could only marvel over.
Following a 4WD track across the desert through thousands of kilometres of dust across the Old Gun Barrel Highway, a near death experience hitting a kangaroo and physical fatigue took its toll.
Having crossed almost every desert in Australia solo, on Adam’s return from his second trans-Australia record attempt, achieved in 95 hours straight, he decided to focus on business ideas for a while.
“I was in peak condition, having trained as an endurance athlete all my life, but starting to suffer from adrenal fatigue syndrome,” Adam says. “It made sense to start a business that fitted in with my healthy lifestyle and wholistic health philosophy.”
While investigating business possibilities, Adam started making kombucha at home to include in his own diet as a pro-biotic. Demand for his kombucha grew through friends and, within twelve months of returning home, Magic Potion Kombucha was born.
Four years later, Adam bottles over 1,000 litres weekly at his Tweed factory, distributing to health food shops such as Mrs Flannery’s as well as direct through his website to loyal customers.
The history of kombucha, a fermented tea, can be traced back to China’s Tsin Dynasty China in 221BC, where it was known as ‘The Tea of Immortality’. While that claim could be questioned, kombucha carries the antioxidant benefits of tea as well as a live culture of bacteria and yeast, making it probiotic and prebiotic, increasing the good bacteria in your gut. Choice also says that “the fermentation process produces organic acids which … have been shown to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria including Salmonella, Bacillus cereus, E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus.” Many other claims of kombucha’s health benefits are yet to be clinically proven.
Gaining the public’s attention again in the last ten years, kombucha is now a common product on supermarket shelves, however there’s a wide variation between products. Soft drink companies and multinational breweries have gained a hold in the market and, while some producers have health benefits in mind, other brands pasteurise their product, killing naturally occurring beneficial enzymes. Others contain added fruit juice, which increases the amount of sugar per bottle.
“Magic Potion Kombucha has gained traction with those people who want an authentic homestyle kombucha, as close to the real thing as possible,” Adam tells me, adding that freshly juiced fresh ginger and turmeric are added to his kombucha just before it’s bottled. Because sugar is consumed during fermentation, each bottle contains only 3g sugar, or 12 calories.
Having tasted several kombucha brands, Magic Potion Kombucha is full-flavoured, a great balance between sweet and sour, with less carbonation than some other kombucha.
“Not only does our kombucha introduce beneficial yeast, bacteria and enzymes into your gut, because of its acid nature it draws out beneficial nutrients from the herbs so they become most easily digestible,” Adam says.
Great taste, low sugar and healthy choices are only some of the reasons to choose this product over other more commercialised brands.
Adam also supports recycling, giving customers back $5 per full case of bottlers returned. What’s more, this is a local start-up company where you can meet the owner and maker and ask all those ‘k’ questions you want answered.
“Buying local is investing local,” Adam says on his Instagram.
We could also add: “When you support a local business, you’re actually supporting a dream.”
Contact Adam via the Magic Potion Kombucha website or Ph: 0416 683 306
NOTE: Product was supplied to Good Food Gold Coast for tasting. Three photos credited to Adam Hill. Magic Potion Kombucha is best refrigerated.