Jay McGee has seen the future: It’s in a spongy crystal that grows on the pads of the opuntia cactus. “It’s kind of like boba tea,” he says. “A squishy thing.”

McGee is the founder of Owl Spoon, an independent beverage company specializing in water kefir, a self-carbonating probiotic drink that boasts this active little cactus crystal as its culture. Often compared to kombucha, the company’s water kefir tastes smoother, not nearly as vinegary, and is available in flavors ranging from Hibiscus Mojito to Lemon Lime to Spicy Ginger. These concoctions have all the fizzies of a cola but are actually good for you.

“All the people who wish they loved kombucha, they would love water kefir,” he says, laughing and stirring a huge pot of fermenting liquid at Owl Spoon’s production facility and retail outlet in RVA Food Co-Lab, housed within Stony Point Fashion Park. Soon this self-carbonating brew will be mixed with a vat of long-steeping Elderberry Yaupon tea from Asheville Tea Company. “Everybody wants a functional beverage in their hand,” echoes Kellie Hughes Jordan, Jay’s partner and Owl Spoon co-owner. “Especially one that is beneficial to you.”

Water kefir is rich in probiotic benefits, these self-described “granola people” say, adding that it enhances immune function and offers potential cancer-fighting properties. There is also evidence that it regulates blood sugar levels and provides cell-restoring antioxidants. Prepared properly, water kefir is also pretty damn tasty.

The secret is in the preparation. On the first fermentation, McGee and Jordan soak and stir the culture in vats of high mineral sugar water (with a bit of pink Himalayan sea salt). “It’s going to eat most of the sugar out of this sugar water and it’s gonna end up tasting a little bit sweet, but kinda tart,” he says.

Sales of Owl Spoon’s water kefir have doubled each year since the company was founded by McGee in 2020 — that first year, he sold 4,000 bottles. But in 2025 they’ve sold more than 100,000 cans and 15,000 bottles, with sales coming from farmers markets — you can currently find the drinks at RVA Big Market, the Market at St. Stephen’s and The Birdhouse Farmers Market — and neighborhood grocery stores such as Ellwood Thompson’s and Good Foods. Owl Spoon won Best New Product at the 2024 Virginia Food & Beverage Expo, an honor that caught the attention of the Kroger grocery chain. The owners are currently in discussions to possibly carry the drink in Kroger locations across Richmond and Hampton Roads next year.

It’s great news, but it means that the company — essentially Jay and Kellie and employee Chris O’Neill — will have to triple production, purchase more fermenting units and take over a larger space in RVA Food Co-Lab, which they run and share with fellow gut health-friendly food businesses, MOTHERshrub, Culinary Crafters and The Green Kitchen. McGee sighs. “You would not believe how hard it is to put a fricking drink in somebody’s hand.”

A love story, fermentation-style

McGee started off as the proverbial guy in his kitchen “with a wooden spoon.” But his trek to kefir began all the way back in 2008 when he was a missionary in Indonesia.

“I got sick, like I weighed 120 pounds. They couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me, and they were doing intravenous antibiotics and it was just wrecking me,” he recalls.  When he got back home, it took awhile for him to get healthy again. “I rethought the way I thought about food. I realized that the gut is the center of health, mental, emotional, your immune system. I knew I had to rebuild my gut.”

He tried kombucha, also rich with enzymes and nutrients, but didn’t really like it that much. Then he discovered water kefir, which he learned to make in small batches, fermenting it in glass jars with grape juice flavoring. “It was like grape infusion, not super sugary. I was repairing my own gut and wanting to give my kids something healthy to drink, not soda and juice.”

McGee’s friends and family loved the drink, and began giving him money for bottles of it. Soon, the former realtor was selling kefir at the farmer’s markets and building a customer base. Divorced with three kids, he met Kellie at RVA Big Market and they hit it off immediately.

“We were both fermenting nerds,” says Kellie, who also had three kids and was in the midst of a divorce. “I had been fermenting things since the early 2000s. When we met, I was making sauerkraut and kimchi, and I would teach classes on fermentation and broth-making.”

McGee says that when Jordan made him apple chutney, he knew it was serious.

“Yeah, we were fermenting for each other,” she laughs. Their kids – with ages ranging from 10-18 — have now joined the business, with the blended brood assisting in bottling and selling at the markets.

Sara Ferguson was one of the company’s first regular customers. During the pandemic, the Woodland Heights resident discovered the drinks at the old South of the James farmers market. “I like it because it’s both good for you and it tastes good,” she says, making a stop at the CoLab to stock up on bottles of Spicy Ginger and the seasonal Yule Mule, a cranberry pomegranate ginger blend (and the drink that won them the food expo honors). “I just think that it’s much better than kombucha, it’s delicious.”

Tangerine-Mango in a can?

On paper, it seems simple enough to make, but water kefir can be finicky, McGee and Jordan say. It’s a living thing after all, and sometimes a batch won’t work out for mysterious reasons. It’s mercurial in other ways too.

“We had our Tangerine-Mango, which was a hugely popular flavor,” McGee says. “But we found out that it doesn’t play well with aluminum, so that was out.” He credits Ninja Kombucha for initially loaning out their canning equipment so that Owl Spoon could work out how the kefir interacts with cans. He adds that they are experimenting with some new filtration processes and hope to get Tangerine-Mango into a can eventually. “I haven’t given up on it.”

There are usually two big questions about water kefir; the first is how to properly pronounce it? Even the owners disagree (is it “KEE-fur” or “Kee-FAIR”?). An online search notes that Keh-FEER is closer to the original Turkish/Russian word, though KEE-fur is most common in English. The other big question? Why aren’t more companies, and bigger brands, selling it?

“I don’t know, but we really want to have our foot in the door as the first real player on the East Coast,” McGee says. “People don’t know about water kefir, but when they do, they’re gonna drink it, and they’re gonna love it.”

For more on Owl Spoon, go to https://www.owlspoonkefir.com/