Although it has been available in the U.S. beverage market for about 15 years, kombucha has gained broad consumer appeal within the past several years, according to New York-based Beverage Marketing Corporation’s (BMC) September 2016 report titled “U.S. Ready-To-Drink Tea through 2020.” As health and wellness has progressed from a niche interest to mass consumer appeal, this beverage segment has reaped the benefits.

“It has to be among the least likely categories to foster brands that show signs of igniting among a general audience, but over the past several years there have been increasingly unmistakable signs that kombucha has evolved from being a specialty item among an extreme sub-segment of foodies on the West Coast to a segment of broad interest even transcending the natural-foods channel,” the report states.