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Metro Exclusive: Bahay Kombucha: How Julian Yu Lim Is Brewing a Gut-Healthy Drink Revolution in the Philippines

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<p>Talking about Filipino beverages, our minds might wander to the sweet fizz of <em>sago&rsquo;t gulaman</em>, the fruity kick of <em>calamansi</em> juice, or even the timeless comfort of <em>salabat</em>. But under the weight of saccharine sodas and artificially flavored juices, a centuries-old probiotic-packed tonic has been quietly bubbling in the kitchens as a new drink in the local scene.</p><p>In just a few short years,<strong>&nbsp;Bahay Kombucha&nbsp;</strong>has taken root, offering something fresh, healthy, and distinctly Filipino. In this exclusive, <strong>Metro.Style</strong> sat down with<strong>&nbsp;Julian Lim</strong>, the Filipino-Chinese founder who painstakingly led a five-year journey to become the country&rsquo;s first FDA-approved probiotic kombucha brand.&nbsp;</p><div><br></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-0" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK9WoNIytbn/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=971&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A774293.6999999993%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-0" scrolling="no" style="background: white; max-width: 540px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><strong>Brewing a purpose</strong></div><p>Julian&rsquo;s life, at first glance, seemed far removed from fermentation jars and bottles of fizzy teas in a Manila workshop. Raised in Granger, Indiana, he began college as a pre-med student but soon pivoted to accounting, a choice that would later give him the discipline and structure necessary for running a business. After earning his CPA license, he entered the world of music, working as a business manager in the industry, which he still does on the side.</p><p>Yet, health had always lingered in the background of his life. &ldquo;Growing up, my mom had diabetes. So that&rsquo;s how I was made more aware of the impact sugar and artificial ingredients had on me. And then, during college and post-college, I started getting into fitness like working out, lifting weights, and with that comes proper diet and nutrition,&rdquo; stated Julian.</p><p>With his mom struggling with such a condition, he learned about apple cider vinegar, probiotics, and kombucha. &ldquo;I just followed what my mom did, and just took it like it&rsquo;s a vitamin or some sort of medicine,&rdquo; he shared.</p><p>Trips to the Philippines during his childhood summers planted another seed. He noticed what was missing on local supermarket shelves: functional drinks that weren&rsquo;t drowning in sugar. By 2019, during one of those visits, the gap was glaring: &ldquo;I was visiting during the summer, and I was shocked to see that grocery stores didn&#39;t carry many functional beverages. Instead, the shelves were packed with overly sweetened drinks full of artificial flavors, artificial ingredients, with additives.&rdquo;</p><p>&ldquo;There was nothing really that was good for you. Nothing supported gut health, digestion, and overall well-being. Everything basically gave you diabetes,&rdquo; he pressed.&nbsp;</p><p>There came the birth of the idea for Bahay Kombucha. He pondered, &ldquo;That&#39;s when I asked myself, &lsquo;How can I help and be of service to my local community?&rsquo;&rdquo; Within months, Julian moved to Manila to start building the Philippines&rsquo; first locally inspired kombucha brand. &ldquo;I chose to start Bahay Kombucha to give people healthier alternatives made with organic ingredients, low sugar, and containing living probiotics, because the drinks that do have probiotics now are loaded with sugar. I want to have something else better for people,&rdquo; Julian explained.</p><div><br></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-2" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLUimQTSMvk/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=971&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A2%2C%22os%22%3A978902.6999999993%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-2" scrolling="no" style="background: white; max-width: 540px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br></div><div><strong><br></strong></div><div><strong>Building Bahay Kombucha from scratch</strong></div><p>Not like a straightforward entrepreneurial success, reality was brutal in establishing the brand. In an Instagram reel post, Julian laid out the truth about how his kombucha business almost failed before launching.&nbsp;</p><p>In 2020, he moved to Manila to start the dream, but then COVID-19 hit, forcing the city to shut down. With no choice, he built a makeshift food lab in his tiny condo, noting, &ldquo;I had to take a big risk.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p><p>If there was ever a right time to launch a health-centric beverage, it was post-COVID. The pandemic made Filipinos more conscious about immunity, gut health, and nutrition. &ldquo;During that time, people were super scared of everything. So they were conscious of what they were putting into their body. They were looking for products and foods that support their health and well-being,&rdquo; he said.</p><p>So by 2021, Julian rented a space even with no sales lined up. Disaster struck when a massive leak destroyed his office. Worse, some of his lab equipment exploded, injuring him in the process. The clip reads, &ldquo;But I was obsessed with creating the perfect probiotic recipe. I couldn&rsquo;t stop.&rdquo;</p><p>Julian also saw health crises hit close to home. His father suffered a heart attack; his uncles and aunts faced strokes. These painful realities only solidified his mission, stating, &ldquo;You really see the effect firsthand of how the food and drinks that you consume have effects on your body. That is what makes me motivated to pursue it, even in the past five years alone since COVID.&rdquo;</p><div><br></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-4" src="https://www.instagram.com/p/DLpKJXHT6PD/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=971&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A4%2C%22os%22%3A1103819.4000000022%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-4" scrolling="no" style="background: white; max-width: 540px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br></div><p>After endless failures, things started looking up by 2022. Local pop-ups gave him momentum. Restaurants began noticing. People genuinely loved his healthy drink.</p><p>In 2023, the real hurdle arrived&mdash;the FDA approval. Most kombucha brands don&rsquo;t undergo this rigorous process, but Julian refused to cut corners, not wanting to be fake. &ldquo;Not all kombucha contains probiotics. So I had to make sure my recipe and formula, and fermentation process actually produced probiotics,&rdquo; he divulged.&nbsp;</p><p>But the bureaucracy was a nightmare. Funds ran dangerously low, and he almost gave up. &ldquo;Well, I dealt with businesses in the States, but coming to the Philippines for business is a whole different environment. It&#39;s a lot harder. There&rsquo;s a lot more red tape that you have to go through. So many different departments that are not connected, so they can&rsquo;t really advise you on anything. So you have to learn it on your own. What I learned is that you just have to put in a lot of time and effort. And it&#39;s quite expensive also,&rdquo; confessed Julian.&nbsp;</p><p>Then 2024 came, his one last push, one last attempt to stabilize the probiotics in his formula. Miraculously, it worked. This year, 2025, Bahay Kombucha finally passed FDA approval. The brand became the first locally produced kombucha to officially earn the green light. And just like that, supermarkets opened their doors.</p><p>Now, Julian&rsquo;s drinks sit proudly in six The Marketplace supermarket branches across BGC, Makati, and Mandaluyong.&nbsp;</p><div><br></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-6" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM1uzl-SiCe/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=971&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A6%2C%22os%22%3A1268207.4000000022%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-6" scrolling="no" style="background: white; max-width: 540px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><strong>What&rsquo;s in and next for Bahay Kombucha</strong></div><p>The name &ldquo;Bahay Kombucha&rdquo; is as Filipino as it gets. Julian started brewing at home&mdash;literally &ldquo;<em>bahay</em>.&rdquo; The word also echoes the cultural nostalgia of Bahay Kubo, a Filipino folk song about simple living and fresh produce.</p><p>&ldquo;Well, I actually started making Kombucha at home. Then growing up, you know, the song &#39;Bahay Kubo&#39; is so famous. It kind of sounds like Bahay Kombucha, Bahay Kubo, and when you think of the Philippines, you can picture Bahay Kubo. So hopefully, Bahay Kombucha will be synonymous with Kombucha.&rdquo;</p><p>The brand is as much about culture as it is about health. Being Filipino-Chinese, Julian saw an opportunity to fuse the tea traditions of China with the fruit-forward palate of the Philippines. His flavor inspirations are drawn from the dining tables of his childhood summers: guyabano, calamansi, watermelon, pineapple, kiat-kiat.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s rooted in Filipino flavors and culture. I&rsquo;m Filipino-Chinese myself, so Bahay Kombucha is a Filipino-Chinese product because tea is Chinese, and then the fruit and flavor ingredients are Filipino. So, it&#39;s a mix just like me,&rdquo; Julian shared.</p><p>The results are distinctly local yet globally appealing. His Pineapple Ginger Calamansi has emerged as the bestseller, offering the perfect balance of zest and zing. The Guyabano flavor is his personal favorite, a tribute to a fruit often overlooked because of its fibrous, pulpy texture. Other unique concoctions include Watermelon KiatKiat, tying tropical familiarity and the refreshing sweetness of merienda to global wellness trends.</p><div><br></div><div><iframe class="instagram-media instagram-media-rendered" id="instagram-embed-8" src="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNAw0_7yuCw/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=971&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fod2-workbench-web.abs-cbn.com&rp=%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A8%2C%22os%22%3A1395131.6000000015%7D" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="881" data-instgrm-payload-id="instagram-media-payload-8" scrolling="no" style="background: white; max-width: 540px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;"></iframe></div><script async="" src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script><div><br></div><p>&ldquo;I chose these flavors because these were pretty much the fruits that were always available around the house, just on the dining table. I&#39;d see my relatives. My parents eat it all the time. And the teas, my mom loved to drink tea without sugar back then,&rdquo; he told Metro.Style.</p><p>Julian continues to dream big: expanding across more supermarkets, strengthening restaurant partnerships, and eventually shipping nationwide. &ldquo;Expand more because I&#39;m also in restaurants like St. Louis and Fat Seed, Life Bowls, and I&#39;m in a pharmacy in Bulacan called Rosetta. I want to keep spreading, looking for more locations and good partners. It can&#39;t just be anybody to partner with. They have to be a good fit, a good partnership,&rdquo; he uttered, eyeing to reach Quezon City, Alabang, and even farther south.</p><p>&ldquo;For the past five years, it&rsquo;s just been me doing everything. I&#39;m looking for more help right now. My girlfriend assists when she has time, but usually, I&#39;m just in the shop all day, working 12-15 hours ever since launching. So, I need to look for reliable, trustworthy help. Hire some people,&rdquo; he added.</p><p>Online orders are available via social media, though nationwide shipping is still in the works: &ldquo;As for anything that requires shipping, I need to look up better packaging because my Kombucha is in a glass bottle. I need to ensure that it won&rsquo;t break, so I&#39;m testing some solutions so that I can be able to spread it out throughout the Philippines.&rdquo;</p><p>As the requests are pouring in, a team will soon follow to also lighten Julian&rsquo;s herculean load. &ldquo;I&#39;m getting a lot of messages. They want me to spread out further. So hopefully I&#39;ll be able to supply that and hire more people.&rdquo;</p><div><br></div><p>Lead photos from <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bahaykombucha/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>@bahaykombucha</strong></a></p>

<p>Named after Bahay Kubo, local brand Bahay Kombucha aspires to become as iconic in every Filipino home.</p>

Named after Bahay Kubo, local brand Bahay Kombucha aspires to become as iconic in every Filipino home.

How Julian Lim Is Brewing a Gut-Healthy Drink Revolution in the Philippines

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How Julian Lim Is Brewing a Gut-Healthy Drink Revolution in the Philippines

Leigh Sofia Lazo

Published September 24, 2025 11:00 AM PHT

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Updated September 24, 2025 11:17 AM PHT

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