Producer

Artisan Beverage Cooperative was founded in 2013 by the owners of Katalyst Kombucha LLC and Green River Ambrosia LLC. Katalyst Kombucha had been producing kombucha teas since 2005 in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and Green River Ambrosia began producing meads and Ginger Libation at the Katalyst brewery in 2007. After a few years of working together, the owners decided to merge the companies and convert the two businesses into a worker-owned cooperative. Both Katalyst Kombucha and Green River Ambrosia were founded on strong missions to promote environmental stewardship, democratic governance, sustainable agriculture, and building a strong local economy. As each company developed independently it became clear that by fully joining forces the mission of each company could be fulfilled more effectively and all of the operations could become much more efficient.

We decided to pursue the idea of creating a worker-owned cooperative, and spent over a year of research, development, consultation, and strategic planning in order to create a structure that we think is built to last and maintain our core values as we continue to grow the company. Many friends along the way helped us to make this a reality and we are very happy to be a part of the greater Cooperative Economy!

The Cooperative’s mission is to produce the highest quality beverages possible taking into account the social and economic impacts of all decisions of the cooperative, and to demonstrate, through our success, the viability of worker cooperatives and fairly traded goods.

Our Guiding Principles are to:
~Trade directly with local farmers when possible and purchase internationally from democratically-organized small farmer cooperatives
~Pay producers a price that provides them with a stable income enabling them to invest in their communities.
~Provide high-quality products
~Support sustainable farming practices
~Build a democratically-run cooperative workplace
~Develop more environmentally sound business practices