Everything Is Irie: Brewing a Caribbean-Inspired Brand with Arnelle Thomas of Irie Brew Kombucha
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Arnelle Thomas has spent her career in pharmaceutical and biotech marketing, making sure the right messages reach the right people. Outside of her 9-to-5, she found herself drawn to something entirely different: kombucha. Not just drinking it, but making it, experimenting with it, and eventually building a brand around it.
That brand is Irie Brew Kombucha, a Caribbean-inspired kombucha rooted in Arnelle's Jamaican and Guyanese heritage and her deep commitment to wellness. The name comes from a phrase her parents' culture knows well: "everything is irie" means everything is good. And when people tasted her kombucha, that was the feedback she kept hearing.
She was not planning to launch a business. She was just looking for a commercial kitchen. A conversation with Hudson Kitchen's team led to a recommendation for the Food Business Bootcamp®, and within days she was in. Eight weeks later, she had three flavors, Sorrel and Ginger, Passion Fruit, and Lychee, in testing at Cornell, a Demo Day under her belt, and a new belief: she could do hard things.
Subscribe to the Food Means Business Podcast with Hudson Kitchen founder Djenaba Johnson-Jones to hear the personal stories and "secret ingredients" of abandoning your day job and starting a CPG food business.
Tune in to hear...
How Caribbean culture and a love for wellness became the foundation for a kombucha brand
The meaning behind the name Irie Brew and why it stuck
What the Food Business Bootcamp® taught her about the steps required to commercialize a food product
Why she is starting at farmers markets and community events before pursuing retail
How she is thinking about consistency, packaging, and the unique challenges of brewing kombucha at scale
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About Arnelle Thomas
Arnelle Thomas is the founder of Irie Brew Kombucha, a wellness-focused kombucha brand inspired by Caribbean ingredients, intentional flavor development, and community. With over 10 years of experience in marketing and social strategy, she has led integrated campaigns across healthcare and consumer brands. Through the Food Business Bootcamp® Startup Accelerator, she is focused on refining her product, scaling responsibly, and building a sustainable beverage brand with long-term impact.
Connect with Arnelle and Irie Brew Kombucha:
Follow Irie Brew Kombucha on Instagram
Follow Irie Brew Kombucha on TikTok
Connect with Arnelle on LinkedIn
Stay Connected with Djenaba Johnson-Jones:
Visit Hudson Kitchen
Follow Hudson Kitchen on Instagram
Connect with Djenaba on LinkedIn
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Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:36)
Today my guest is Arnelle Thomas, founder of Irie Brew Kombucha. Welcome, Arnelle.
Arnelle Thomas (00:41)
Thank you. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited for this conversation.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (00:45)
Me too, me too. So we met because you just finished our eight week food business boot camp. So before you jump in and tell us a little about your company, tell us what you doing before and kind of what your plans are for the future.
Arnelle Thomas (00:57)
Yeah, so before
Arnelle Thomas (00:59)
joining the bootcamp, and I guess currently too, I work in 905 in marketing, specifically in the pharma and biotech space. So a lot of my focus is on social media and making sure the right messages get to the right people.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (01:02)
Yeah
Arnelle Thomas (01:15)
I started Irie Brew as like a passion project making kombucha in my home kitchen and here I am today sitting with you having this conversation.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (01:25)
Awesome. So tell us a little bit about the company, how you came up with it.
Arnelle Thomas (01:29)
Yeah,
Arnelle Thomas (01:29)
so Irie Brew is kind of like the perfect mixture of who I am. It taps into my Caribbean culture. My parents are from Jamaica and Guyana. And then also my natural love for like wellness and making sure that I'm taking care of my body. So kombucha has been something that I've drank for a while now. So really just meshing those two worlds together to create Irie Brew.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (01:54)
How did you come up with the name?
Arnelle Thomas (01:55)
So the name is rooted in this phrase, everything is irie, which a lot of Jamaicans use to say like, know, everything is good, I'm good, life is good. And a lot of people would often give me the feedback of like, wow, this kombucha is like actually good when they tried Irie Brew. So kind of just playing on those two ideas of like Jamaican culture and then the feedback I've heard from people.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (02:21)
Got it, so talk about the flavors.
Arnelle Thomas (02:24)
Yeah, so right now we have three flavors. There's sorrel and ginger. Sorrel is kind of like a hibiscus flower. It's something that we typically drink during the holidays in Jamaica. And then we also have passion fruit and then lychee.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (02:40)
So why was now the right time to start your business?
Arnelle Thomas (02:42)
Honestly, I think it was just like spur of the moment. I was looking for a kitchen to work out of because I knew based on New York and New Jersey laws that I had to make kombucha out of a commercial kitchen in order to sell it.
Arnelle Thomas (02:58)
So I had gone through like a few different kitchen intro interviews and then I hopped on the phone with Liz and she was like, you know, we do have the space in our kitchen, but I think based on like where you are in your journey, you'd be perfect for this boot camp. And then that's kind of how I fell into place here.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:19)
It happened really quickly. I was actually
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:21)
shocked. was like, my gosh.
Arnelle Thomas (03:24)
I had
Arnelle Thomas (03:24)
my office on like a Thursday, on a Saturday, got in on Wednesday. So it was just like, it happened like at the right time though.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:27)
Yeah. Yes.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:33)
So what surprised you so far in this process of getting your business started?
Arnelle Thomas (03:37)
I would say all the steps. All the necessary steps to be able to sell food to people really surprised me. And I think it was helpful to go through this program because I would have been just like overwhelmed.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (03:40)
Hahaha
Arnelle Thomas (03:54)
information if I didn't have like one the cohort to do it with me and then like the instructors that you brought on really just like answered our questions and they were just very reassuring throughout the whole process so yeah it's a lot.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (04:12)
It's
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (04:13)
definitely, definitely a lot of information getting thrown out at you for sure. So how are you currently thinking about the business now? Like you spent the eight weeks with us, you're kind of gotten the product to a certain point, because our goal is that you have something that you're ready to bring into market, but obviously there's some other steps along the way.
Arnelle Thomas (04:17)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Arnelle Thomas (04:29)
Yeah, so right now I actually just shipped off my three flavors to Cornell yesterday to get tested. fingers crossed that all went well. I think I'm really focusing on
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (04:36)
Exciting.
Arnelle Thomas (04:44)
the nutrition and making sure my product is consistent and where I want it to be in terms of like, I want to have a competitive edge in the market. So it's really important that I have low sugar, little to no alcohol in it. And yeah, just getting it ready to be able to sell without any adverse events happening.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:06)
Yeah, good, good. So
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:09)
in your demo day pitch, you talked a lot about community. Can you just give a little bit of information about how community is important to launching your brand?
Arnelle Thomas (05:16)
Yeah, so I really want to start on the ground. And what that means to me is like growing in the community that I'm in is really important before I scale up. I think I want to have those proof points and also feedback from people directly of like what's working so that when I go to the bigger retailers, I'm able to say, you know, I've learned X, Y, and Z and this is the right time for me to be in your store because I've taken the time.
Arnelle Thomas (05:44)
to really hear from people and what this product should be and here it is it's ready. So community yeah it just means like being able to to grow in the space that I'm in and comfortable in.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:50)
You
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:56)
Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (05:57)
Yeah. So given that, like, what have you decided to be your first sales channels for the business?
Arnelle Thomas (06:01)
Yeah, so farmers markets will be my first focus for now until I figure out how to ship kombucha. It's kind of a volatile product. One of my bottles actually exploded for the first time this week. Yeah, so I need to figure that out. So I wanted to direct to consumer and be able to.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (06:16)
my goodness, okay.
Arnelle Thomas (06:23)
basically control the carbonation so that when customers get it and it's like maybe sitting out for too long, it doesn't have that same reaction. yeah, farmers markets, direct to consumer at events is really my focus for now.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (06:37)
What do you think you've learned about yourself over this period of launching?
Arnelle Thomas (06:41)
I have never thought that I would be an entrepreneur. the whole, like, I don't know how to explain it. I just never thought it would be something that I did. So I learned that I could do it. I could do it. I have like, now I have the resources and the people to kind of lean on to help me do that.
Arnelle Thomas (07:00)
So all in all, like I can do hard things and it's not something that I should stray away from just because I haven't done it before.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (07:09)
So we talked a little bit about farmers markets. What are you thinking about for the next three to six months of your business as you kind of get ramped up? What's your strategy?
Arnelle Thomas (07:16)
So in the next three to six months, I'm focusing on Fancy Food Show. That's coming up in June. So I really want to be able to execute and like...
Arnelle Thomas (07:26)
show up in the best way possible so I can make those connections. And then after that happens, I want to start looking, well, I'm looking into farmers markets now, but I want to use that as like a catapult to show that I'm ready to be in those markets. So kind of using fancy food as a tool to get me into the right places.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (07:46)
And what feels kind of unclear about the business right now? What's still in progress? Well, I'm not sure a lot, because that's what happens when you're in business. But I'm just like, is there one thing you could probably mention that you're kind of working on?
Arnelle Thomas (07:58)
Yeah, I think
Arnelle Thomas (07:59)
the consistent batches is something that I'm really working on. When we had demo day, it was the first time where I used the puree for a final product. Yeah, because kombucha takes so long to actually make, I have to spend a lot of time just like hoping and praying that.
Arnelle Thomas (08:19)
what my end result is, is where it needs to be. And if not, I have to wait like a whole month to do it again. So I think that, yeah, just getting more consistent with the flavors of each batch is what I'm focused on. And then oddly enough, like packaging just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know why it's so hard for me to like wrap my mind around it, but that's giving me anxiety. Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (08:43)
We can work on that. For sure.
Arnelle Thomas (08:46)
I
Arnelle Thomas (08:46)
think it's really just like, okay, we have the branding, beautiful, great. But now I have to find the exact bottles that I want and then sourcing the bottles and sourcing the caps. It's like, mind just goes.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (08:56)
Yeah. No, we'll
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (09:01)
definitely help you with that for sure.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (09:03)
What piece of advice do you have for someone that is thinking about getting started? They're just like you. They were making their product from home, and they're looking to commercialize.
Arnelle Thomas (09:12)
the piece of advice I would give is you can do it and figure it out at the same time. Like you don't have to have all the answers to start, but once you do start, like take those small steps to find the resources, to find the people, and that will just get you closer to where you want to be in the process of actually doing it.
Arnelle Thomas (09:33)
I think that was like something that I've had to learn is like even though I don't have the answers I can still do one small thing to get me closer to where I want to be.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (09:42)
Yeah, it's definitely a process for sure. So Arnelle, thank you so much for being here. I wanted to end with something that you might be celebrating at Hudson Kitchen. We have a tradition where we ring a bell when we are celebrating something. So I'd love to hear about you and what's going on.
Arnelle Thomas (09:45)
Yeah, it is.
Arnelle Thomas (09:59)
Yeah, I think something to ring the bell about is honestly demo day. Like it was such a great and reassuring experience to have complete strangers come up and say like, this is like a really good product and give me feedback and know that there's like more resources out there. So I think that's like a milestone I'm kind of on a high from still. Yeah.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (10:22)
Yeah, sounds good.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (10:24)
All right, thank you so much. let everyone know where they can find you.
Arnelle Thomas (10:26)
Thank you.
Arnelle Thomas (10:29)
yes, you can find me at Irie Brew Kombucha on both Instagram and TikTok at @iriebrewkombucha.
Djenaba Johnson-Jones (10:34)
All right, great. Thank you.
Arnelle Thomas (10:36)
Thank you.