Like a lot of people, during Covid we began paying closer attention to what we were putting into our bodies. We were eating 30 different plants a week, drinking kombucha and kefir, and becoming increasingly fascinated by fermentation and gut health.

But there was a disconnect we couldn’t ignore. The choices we made from Sunday through to Friday lunchtime looked very different from the ones we made when Friday evening arrived. We loved kombucha, but we also loved going out, sharing a drink and having a good time. We began to wonder why those two worlds felt so separate.

The seed of an answer had already been planted in California, where George had discovered laid-back bars serving hard kombucha. It had all the flavour and character of kombucha but belonged naturally in a social setting. The category was already established in the US and Australia, yet it was almost unknown back home.

A couple of years later, after a night out in London, we found ourselves sitting on the Tube talking about our shared love of kombucha. Somewhere between the late-night conversation and a few drinks, the thought that had been quietly forming finally became a question: what if we made kombucha alcoholic?

That Tube ride was the moment everything clicked.

We started researching and discovered that no one was making hard kombucha in the UK, and very few brands were doing it anywhere in Europe. It felt like a genuine opportunity, and we felt our backgrounds made us a well-matched pair to take it on. George brought years of hospitality experience and relationships, while Jon brought a background in consumer goods and supermarkets. Together, we understood both how people discover drinks and where they enjoy them.

For the next few years, BUCI grew quietly behind the scenes while we continued working our full-time jobs. Evenings, weekends and any spare hours we could find were spent experimenting, tasting and learning how to turn an idea into something real. Progress wasn’t always fast or straightforward, but we kept going, refining every detail while building the experience, relationships and confidence we needed to bring BUCÏ to life.

We sourced the very hard kombuchas George had tried in the US, and brought them home for blind taste tests. We compared them with our early recipes and kept refining until we had created something we believed could stand alongside the best in the world.

Many recipes, decisions, late nights and names later, BUCÏ was born: hard kombucha made for the space between the choices we make for ourselves and the moments we share with others.

A drink created to bring two worlds together and make choosing differently feel like anything but a compromise.

Founders - Jon & George