For the past three months, I would get a biweekly shipment of two one-litre kombucha bottles, delivered right to the Vulcan Post office’s front door.
These bottles were sent from Finding Hylas, a personalised kombucha brand that offers a subscription service here in Malaysia.
Featured by Vulcan Post last year, Finding Hylas is the brainchild of brothers Bryan and Justin, who originally learnt how to brew kombucha from their mum.
But not just your run-of-the-mill kombucha brand, Finding Hylas’ solution is very focused on a personalised experience. Recognising that health goals and even taste preferences differ from person to person, the brothers handcraft each of their concoctions based on each customer’s profiles.
I got the opportunity to be one of these customers, so here’s how my experience of Finding Hylas was like.
Personalisation process
To start, there’s a quiz that you’d have to fill out. For whatever reason, I thought it would be like one of those personality quizzes that ask you disarming and unrelated questions, but it’s actually pretty straightforward, as it should be, since it involves your health preferences and goals.
But fret not if your priorities change down the road, as you can always reach out to the brand and let them know what you want.
I developed some skin issues earlier this year, and reached out to ask if there were any blends that might address that. In response, the brothers brewed some kombucha up that focused on detoxing.
Essentially, the personalisation doesn’t just stop at the sign-up process. Every two weeks, like clockwork, I would get a message from Justin asking how the latest batch of booch was, and whether there’s anything I’d like to change.
I asked for the sweetness to be dialled down, and they delivered. It’s like having a private chef, except it’s for kombucha.
An assortment of flavours
With every new shipment of kombucha, I found myself excited to do a taste test. Finding Hylas never sent me exact repeats one after the other, though sometimes the flavours were pretty similar.
The first batch was on the sweeter side, but as mentioned, they were able to tweak it to my preference. The notes are very fruit-forward, with not much tea-based flavours. Fruits used include lemon, mango, mangosteen, dragon fruit, passion fruit, and more.
In terms of fizziness, I found the drink to be quite moderate. Not too carbonated, but enough so that it lent a refreshing and sparkly touch.
My favourite has got to be the drinks that incorporated passionfruit. As someone who likes sour flavours, I loved the tart and refreshing quality it has, further elevated with the fizziness.
I’ve gotten quite a few comments from kombucha dislikers among the team who said that they liked Finding Hylas’ flavours. Many seemed to think it was not too fizzy, not too sour, not too fermented, and not too sweet. So, if you’re someone who loves moderation, you can definitely find it (hah) with Finding Hylas.
But as mentioned, it’s all very customisable, so you can always tweak it to your liking.
I like the minimalistic branding and packaging of the products, too. In fact, I like the branding of Finding Hylas overall. They sport a very clean website and image, which I can always appreciate.
The drinks typically came in glass bottles with a stopper, but the last batch of 500mL bottles came in screw-on cap and a rubber stopper that was a bit trickier to open, especially if you lack fingernails. I much prefer the former because of this.
Each bottle comes with a label of the key ingredients used, as well as what health goals the drink targets (for example, digestion, detoxing, to manage cholesterol, etc.).
Pro tip for kombucha newbies, do not leave the drink in room temperature and just pop it open, unless you want to witness a geyser in action and possibly get kombucha on your ceilings. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.
Finding Hylas also tends to leave the “mother” or scoby in its drinks, which might be off-putting to some due to its odd visage and gel-like texture.
It wasn’t too big of a deal to me, except for the last batch which was at least a quarter-filled with scoby. It seemed like it had hardened along the bottom of the bottle too, and while it’s perfectly edible, I decided to filter it out.
Ultimately…
Admittedly, the kombucha did not make me a much healthier person. As much as I wish it was, the kombucha is not some panacea or cure-all, at least not for me.
But I do think that it does discourage unhealthy habits, such as artificially sweetened drinks and sodas.
And at the end of the day, it wasn’t so much the drink itself that I enjoyed, but rather, the people behind it.
The check-ins from the team were very much appreciated, and the routine developed felt nice. It was exciting to be getting a new batch of new drinks every two weeks, and it was always nice to know that there’s something waiting in the office for a beverage fiend like me to enjoy.
A litre a week I would say is kind of a lot, so perhaps start with the 500mL to see how you like it, and you could work your way up from there.
I believe a subscription to Finding Hylas would make quite a thoughtful gift for health-conscious individuals in your life, whether that be yourself or your loved ones.
For pricing, it would be RM119 per month for what I got, which is the 1L/week (or 2L/two weeks) option. That means each litre is RM29.75, which I think is not bad at all.
For the 500mL/week option, it’s RM79 per month, which means RM39/litre, a pretty hefty increase.
There are a couple other options you can check out on their website as well.
In any case, I do find the pricing justifiable, especially with the plan I was on. After all, it’s brewed fresh and tailored to your very own preferences, be that health-related or just straight up taste-based.
Just don’t expect your health to immediately shift for the better and for all your diseases to be gone. It’s a healthy decision for a better lifestyle, especially when paired with the weaning of other sugary drinks you might usually include in your diet.
- Learn more about Finding Hylas here.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Malaysian startups here.