Get To Know: Rebecca Tatum of Wild & Free Fermented Tea
She’s fiery, friendly, and has a knack for creating some of the most inventive kombucha flavors found in Colorado. Since 2017, Rebecca Tatum — owner and head brewer of Wild & Free Fermented Tea — has infused her gardening and health expertise to concoct refreshing, heady medleys that invigorate taste buds and nourish the body. From ground to bottle, she oversees each part of the brewing process, and her Wild & Free booch can be found at 20 locations across the Front Range.
This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Austin Lammers: Tell me a little bit about yourself! Are you from Fort Collins?
Rebecca Tatum: I was born and raised in Chanhassen, Minnesota — about 30 minutes outside of Minneapolis — and came out here when I was 18.
AL: What brought you out here?
RT: I went to CSU and graduated with a bachelor’s in Fine Arts. After I graduated, I moved to Denver and worked for the Broncos for almost three years doing graphic design. Then I fell in love, moved back to Fort Collins, and have been here ever since. I worked for Rodeo Magazine for a while doing some editorial and page layout, and I freelanced for a while. Then I started this company and branded it — so I’m still doing design.
A bottle of Fenugreek Fennel from batch #001 — the first bottle of Wild & Free ever sold.
AL: Where did your interest in health and gardening emerge?
RT: I would say it started when I was around 14. I became a vegetarian started educating myself about where food came from. I was curious about local farming and local farmers markets, which my mom always dragged me to. When I moved out to Fort Collins, I felt very comfortable with my dietary choices. There were so many options and people were very in tune to where food came from.
After I moved back to Fort Collins, I moved in with my boyfriend, who has a small farm, and started my hand at farming. We got livestock, we got goats, we got chickens, we got ducks, and we converted most of our yard into a garden. So the “grow food, not lawns,” vibe became my thing. I became very interested in herbalism started educating myself about all the medicinal plants and allies that we have around us. Started foraging in Colorado and really opened up my network. Found a lot of friends that like to forage, a lot of farmer friends down the road — Raisin’ Roots, Native Hill — and started growing as much as I possibly could. Started eating well. Your whole viewpoint on food changes once you grow it yourself.
I didn't grow food growing up — my parents were not like that. So when I started doing that, it's like this connection happened. Like, you're never gonna try a tomato at the store that tastes that good. You grow a fresh tomato from your garden, and it's just like, something else. So that was really rewarding. I did the farmers market for a while as a person that sold vegetables in a farm stand for two years. And after that, I was like ‘let’s take it to the next level here.’ I was making a lot of fermented foods in my house. I was becoming more enlightened on the plant allies and what they can do for our bodies and our mind. I was like ‘I'm doing it. Let's start selling some six-packs of kombucha to my friends.’
I started doing that. I had some friends buying regularly being like, ‘damn, these are some sweet flavors — what's going on here?’ Soon after, my buddy Daniel told me about a vegan restaurant opening up, and was like ‘you should brand your company.’ And so I did. In 2017, I started selling Wild & Free at restaurants, at the market, at the Co-Op, and I just grew. Very organic growth. First I was in the cottage food realm of things, and then I had to expand and I got this facility in 2018. So yeah, bro...I just answered so many questions [laughs].
AL: I’m looking down my list of questions like ‘check, check, check.’ So it wasn’t hard for you to build a consumer base?
RT: The only other company at the time was Turtle Mountain, which was founded in 2014. They were the only ones bopping around town and getting their product out there. And I was just like, ‘man, there's a lot of room in the market. People obviously like kombucha, I'm obsessed with kombucha, there's a lot of room for us in this huge town, let's give it a shot.’ So yeah, I worked a full-time job until the fall of 2019 and was able to call this my job after that. I kind of bootstrapped this company. No funding, no investors. Just bootstrapped it. And, yeah, here I am.
AL: Where do you get your ingredients?
RT: I grow a lot of the ingredients seasonally. That's kind of what I pride myself on. It's something very unique that you don't see. A lot of local restaurants use local ingredients, but in the beverage world, not so much. I start putting my knowledge forward into how I can produce for my company. From May to October, I’m harvesting off my farm for every seasonal flavor I make. And I bring about two to three seasonal flavors every weekend. So I'm making a good amount of liquid with my own ingredients. Other than that, if I need supplemental ingredients, I'll go to the local farms first and foremost, and after that, I'm going for organic ingredients in stores and from online distributors. It's what’s on the inside that matters.
I try to use as many fresh ingredients as possible. I know dried ingredients are great, frozen ingredients are great, and don't get me wrong, the nutritional value is still there. What I miss is the “blast off” in your mouth, like, your palate responds to fresh ingredients, locally grown in soil — not hydroponic — way more. Otherwise, you're getting hydroponic-grown basil with barely any living soil that gives it the nutrients it needs. So I'm all about fresh ingredients. I think it's just way more impactful.
Tatum sources most of her ingredients directly from her garden.
AL: What are your most popular flavors?
RT: Number one: Basil Grapefruit. Number two: Juniper Rose. Number three: Elderberry Ginger. After that, Celery Lavender CBD. People love that one. It's kind of a niche — not everyone approaches the CBD, but they should.
AL: What’s your favorite flavor that you’ve made?
RT: Oh man, I'm super obsessed with one I just made this season: Apple Fennel Coriander. Pretty fire. Peach Terragon’s awesome, using the Palisade peaches. But my OG-Always-In-My-Heart-Forever flavor is the Fenugreek Fennel. It is sweet, savory, has ayurvedic ingredients, very nourishing. It's a palate that not everyone has. But when I do find my cult following for Fenugreek Fennel, I'm like, yessss. At one point, I was making eight total flavors. At this moment, I'm making six. And that's just because with the ones that don't move... I gotta be a realistic business owner.
AL: Have you thought about opening up a taproom?
RT: Oh, yes. I’ve tried multiple times. The first one I tried to open was in The Exchange and they didn't approve me because I didn't have enough money in my bank account... like, in my personal bank account. They didn't consider me even though I had been in business for three years and had a strong following. So that was really discouraging. But I kept moving forward. Tried to find another spot, pandemic hit, couldn't justify trying to keep to open it because I took a really big hit at the beginning of the pandemic. So cash flow was a little lost. And then I had another opportunity and I walked away from it because it wasn't a good fit. And now I'm back on the hunt. I envision myself having a shared kombucha space, like for weird fermented food, all local, all in one space. I don’t want to give too much info away, but yeah.
AL: What’s your experimentation process like? How do you come up with something like Fenugreek Fennel?
RT: I'm such a foodie in general. I'm always exploring cuisine. I'm always exploring growing new things in my garden. Things just organically come to me. I do test batches too. So I'll do half-gallon/one-gallon batches for me and my husband to taste, and I develop a lot like that. But I would say most of my flavors are very intuitive. It's just a download I have, I guess. It's just one of those things inside me that just goes yeah, this is gonna work. You know? It's an art form in itself. I feel like chefs are the same way in the kitchen. Like, once you understand how potent some ingredients are, how strong some ingredients are, you discover how they’re going to taste. Especially if you're really cooking for yourself and sourcing good ingredients. How do you make an awesome painting? Dude, it’s just inside you!
One other thing would be, if I have a specific need, I want to focus on it. Like my Elderberry Ginger or Rosemary blend, they’re inspired by immunity. And the Fenugreek Fennel, very inspired by digestion. I like to look at ingredients with your health in mind as well. Especially for my seasonals, I'm throwing in a lot of medicinal herbs and flowers and super heady ingredients. That's a very big intention. Health-focused plants that are around us. Some of my flavors have, like, seven ingredients. It takes a bit more time and love, but I think my customers appreciate the boldness my kombucha delivers.
AL: What are your thoughts on the local ag scene? The market scene?
RT: I think it's awesome. I think it's a super bountiful community. I found a lot of friends within the market community and I think we all stand by the products that we make. I do believe that there are, like, sub-cultures within the market that cater to certain audiences, and once you find vendors that speak your language, you keep going back to them every week. So that's cool because maybe my kombucha may not be for someone, but that someone can find another kombucha vendor that they love. I think we're diverse enough within our vendors. We have a good thing going on.
AL: Off the top of your head, is there anything that could be done to boost the ag community even further?
RT: I think having more local bodegas. I would love to see local, heady bodegas. Like, stocked with the goods — with the chef's choices, you know, not the basic, run-of-the-mill products that you see everywhere.
AL: Yeah! Someone should do something about that!
RT: I know there are cool local grocery stores and natural markets, but we can get better. People are relying on farm stands, but it'd be so cool to have more small bodegas with local products. Where are they on the west side of town? South? North? We need more locations that support all these local makers. I mean, that's why I agree with what you guys are doing. And it's a hub, Like, more hubs, please!
I think people fall into comfort and pattern. And so they make this excuse that they can't find the local or they can't afford the local. But it’s the ripple effect. If we continue to support local, it all comes back. I know it's easier to go to King Soopers and pay, like, 35 cents less. But let's look at the bigger picture. That's how I always feel. But that takes knowledge. That takes education. And it also takes our city making that an incentive, like, actually supporting small business, on a very visual level. I want to see it. I need to see it.
AL: Do you think people are more cognizant of the good products around them than they were three or four years ago?
RT: Yeah — maybe even more so because of the pandemic. With all the pop-up markets and stuff that happened during the pandemic, I noticed a shift even with my friends. Because of that ripple effect, I hope that people have expanded to see the importance and the quality and the advantages to our local economy. I had a great summer. I think I had more customers show up than ever before, so yeah. It’s super exciting.
Where to Find Wild & Free Fermented Tea:
On Tap
Fort Collins:
Wolverine Farm
Mountain Avenue Market
The Regional
Intersect Brewing
Happy Lucky’s Teahouse (North & South Locations)
Rainbow Restaurant
Pure Drip IV Bar
Cheyenne, WY:
The Hawthorn Tree
In Bottles
Fort Collins:
Wolverine Farm
Mountain Avenue Market
Harbinger Coffee (North & South locations)
Equinox Brewing
Little Bird Bakeshop
Beavers Market
Lucky’s Market
Yoga Pod
Fernweh Inn & Hostel
Welsh Rabbit
Everyday Joe’s Coffee House
Slyce Pizza
CSU: Cam’s Lobby Shop
Stodgy Brewing
Little Restaurant
Rainbow Restaurant
Cheyenne, WY:
The Hawthorn Tree
Loveland, CO:
Westside Feed
Eaton, CO:
Ten24 Coffeehouse
