190: Zachary Smith, Dalai Sophia (Charleston, SC)

Creativity, when allowed room to flourish, often bubbles up in unexpected ways. It may even transform, ferment if you will, and take a person in a whole new direction. That’s what happened to Zachary Smith, in the middle of a career in restaurant management when he started experimenting with preserving fruit in the back of his fridge. Now he’s the creator and owner of Dalai Sophia Ferments in Charleston, SC, a small but mighty beverage company that makes the best kombucha I’ve ever tasted. (I mean, there’s a quote of Alton Brown saying the exact same thing on Zach’s website, but since this is The Southern Fork, I’m going with me.) But beyond quote attribution is the reason why, and it’s because in each can there’s a complexity, a layering of flavors with ingredients sourced locally and manipulated with a deft hand. Kombucha is a relatively new word in the lexicon for Southerners, so don’t worry, we start at the beginning, but for Dalai Sophia, I predict we ain’t seen nothing yet.