In 2023, Amber expanded her range to include probiotic kefir sodas, which only have 3.5% sugar yet extremely flavourful, using fermented water kefir and real fruits like raspberry and mint, watermelon and lychee.

Her new venture has paid off and alongside the support of Foodstuffs North Island, she’s expanded her Symbiota soda range into 30 PAK’nSAVE, New World and Four Square stores across the North Island, with plans to grow the range and distribution even further. 

Amber migrated to New Zealand in 2009 from South Africa and says growing up rurally, preserving and making fermented food was just ‘what we did’.   She started Symbiota as a side hustle while she taught psychology in secondary schools, but then decided to jump ‘all in’ to develop her business. 

When launching the soda range, Amber says that educating Kiwis on the benefits of fermented probiotic drinks has been a big part of introducing them to shoppers, but it doesn’t take long for them to get hooked. 

“A lot of people are familiar with kombucha, but not fermented water kefir.  It uses a different culture and has no tea, so there’s no caffeine.  Water kefir is less tangy too and reported to contain a wider range of probiotic bacteria,” she says.

Foodstuffs North Island Emerging Supplier Manager Rachel Prenty says that the Symbiota range is part of a growing trend towards ‘better for you’ beverages, many of which are low in sugar and infused with vitamins or probiotics.

“Symbiota has really captured what’s changing in terms of customer preferences, great tasting sodas that are better for you, made with quality ingredients created with lots of care,” she says.

“We’ve been able to support Amber with advice on elements like packaging and branding and over the past six months, we’ve seen steady growth. It’s wonderful to see the range resonating with Kiwis.  

Amber’s passionate about the benefits of fermentation and notes that just about every culture in the world has some form of it in their diets. 

“There’s a lot of research and information out there, but the most satisfying thing to me is the personal stories that I hear about how it’s helped people,” she says. 

“I’ve heard anecdotally that customers’ believe it’s cleared up skin conditions, helped with inflammation, increased energy and mental clarity as well.”  

Flavour was an important part of the range for Amber, although she admits using lychee, which she absolutely loves, proved challenging initially. Kiwis were hesitant to try it, as most were only familiar with the artificial flavour lychee, rather than having tried the natural flavour of the fruit, which is what she uses in her sodas. 

“It’s turned out to be our most popular soda so I’m glad we kept going with it,” she laughs. 

Working as a psychology teacher Amber says she’s always had an interest in the close connection between gut health, physical health and mental wellbeing.  

“I originally went into psychology because I wanted to help people, and I see the work that I do now as a continuation of that, just in a different way,” she says. 

Amber hopes to expand her soda range into more Foodstuffs North Island supermarkets in the future and is about to add more products into her range, including a fermented vegetable pickle and a chilero, which is a South American spiced fermented condiment.

Find out more about Symbiota and their range of products here.