Tempest In A Tea Bottle

George Thomas Dave convinced America to love a tangy, tart, fermented beverage from Asia called kombucha—and it made him a billionaire. His greater challenge: surviving the rush of competitors flooding a market he once had all to himself.

- Chloe Sorvino

Before entering his kingdom, George Thomas Dave dons his crown—a blue hairnet pulled over a fashionably short buzz cut. He pushes open the doors of his year-old factory, releasing a gust of cold air and the scent of vinegar. The interior is all steel and fluorescence, light glinting offDave’s diamond-sheathed Rolex, the metallic studs on his dress shoes and the platinum rings on his forefinger, ring finger and little finger.

Winding his way through the place, he watches a batch of his bestselling organic ginger kombucha get pumped into 16-ounce glass bottles, 100 at time. Each has a white label touting the fermented tea’s ingredients (electrolytes, probiotics, enzymes) and purported benefits (reawaken, rebirth, renewal). Dave reaches the end of the 200-foot bottling line, where four robotic arms fill, stack and move cases of kombucha. He spent $40 million building in Vernon, California, 5 miles south of Los Angeles, allowing him to produce more than 1 million gallons a year. “This is the next level for us,” says the impeccably cheekboned Dave, known as “GT” since before he began brewing kombucha at his mother’s kitchen table.