Kavas is slightly alcoholic, only enough so to keep the germs away, but mostly lactic acid that’s rich in probiotics. Because the microorganisms produce various gases like CO2, it’s very carbonated. Most people believe this is why we have our taste for soda and carbonated beverages because effervescence of fermented beverages have been such a part of our existence.

So let me get back to the incident that happened to me. Normally, I have plenty of kombucha in the house, which is a similar fermented drink to kavas. I ran out of kombucha over the weekend, so I rummaged around the pantry and found an old bottle of kavas that I must have purchased a year-and-a-half ago from a local farm in my area called Sea Breeze Organic Farm. It’s located in Fort Pierce. They make a lot of wonderful organic products and have animals they milk and chickens that lay healthy eggs. They also carry inventory from other farms, like the Amish and Mennonite farms in Pennsylvania.

I twisted the screw top very slowly because I knew what can happen if you release all that built-up pressure at once—disaster. It would be like shaking up a Coke and unscrewing the top.

The bottle’s contents foamed up and began pouring down the plastic bottle like a volcano releasing lava. I immediately placed the foamy bottle into the kitchen sink. Over the next 45 minutes or, I watched the bottle’s contents turn into foam and drain out into the sink. What happened is that there was so much carbon dioxide—CO2—in the bottle that the kavas turned to foam.

I’m used to fizzy stuff. A couple of weeks ago, on one of my trips, I brought along a glass jar of Veggie Delight Cultured Vegetables from a company called Rejuvenated Foods. I had to pack it on my suitcase, which I checked before I boarded my flight. When I got to my hotel room that evening, I opened the jar up and noticed that I had lost half of the jar’s contents. It must have been of the pressurized conditions in the cargo hold. This stuff is alive, and I can assure you that the room smelled horrific. No amount of orange spray would remedy that.

Oh, well. Now I know where the old saying—“We’re going to get to the bottom of this”—comes from. I left the bottle of kavas in the sink, and when I returned, the bottle was empty.

The moral of the story: Don’t let your kavas and kombucha drinks gather dust in your pantry for too long.

This incident won't quench my thirst for fermented drinks, however. I’ve been drinking a lot of kombucha lately, and it’s actually a kombucha that we’ve been working on with one of the top beverage companies in the world. I’d love to one day launch a beverage like this.