From an early age, Reyna and Maritza wanted to own their own restaurant. They grew up helping their mother in the family kitchen in Veracruz, Mexico. Starting at very young ages, Reyna and Maritza’s mother and grandmother taught them the ins and outs of the kitchen, and they have loved to cook ever since. They learned to be creative with their cooking, while at the same time respecting the heritage of authentic ingredients and the culture they represent. They also learned the value of using both fresh and organic ingredients in their cooking.

Persistent with their dream, Reyna and Maritza saved up enough money to buy their first trailer,  and in April of 2008 they opened for business on East Cesar Chavez selling snow cones, smoothies, and natural drinks. In the beginning, they both kept their other jobs and worked nonstop to get their business going, often times taking turns sleeping on the trailer floor while the other sister attended customers in order to keep it open.

In 2010 they bought a larger food truck and moved a few blocks down on East Cesar Chavez. With more space Reyna and Maritza could finally start cooking tacos, and the rest is history! Today, Reyna and Maritza have six locations in Austin and Round Rock, and have been locally, nationally, and internationally recognized for the quality of their food.

THE PARTNERSHIP

After living in San Antonio for 18 years, Greg Goodman grew to appreciate real Tex-Mex and interior Mexican food, which was strikingly absent from the Austin food scene in 2010, until Veracruz all Natural opened. “In San Antonio, even the smallest, family-owned taqueria made their own tortillas and the options for stellar Mexican food were in the hundreds vs. a small handful in Austin, tucked away on the east side and far north Lamar” Greg lamented. “Once I tried Veracruz, I felt like I was home.” After Greg started KTonic in 2014, he explored all kinds of fermented beverages, including tepache (made from pineapple rinds and piloncillo) and pulque (fermented agave sap), and came to realize the rich history of fermentation within North America.

As tempting as it might have been for KTonic to release a Mexican-inspired fermented product on their own, Greg knew that without having that cultural history or input, it would not only be disrespectful, he would be missing out on the opportunity to collaborate with culinary professionals rooted in the Mexican tradition. So, Greg got in touch with the Veracruz team about a collaboration that involved joint flavor development and design of a new product for both KTonic and Verazcruz All Natural. “I had some flavor ideas already, but I thought the best way to approach product development was to ferment a variety of key elements of Mexican cuisine and then try different combinations together. We had a group of 6-7 of us weighing in, overall a fun and productive process.”

Over the course of a couple of sessions, KTonic and Veracruz landed on an Ancho Tamarindo flavor with elements of orange, ginger and a hint of chipotle for added heat and smokiness.

For the label design, KTonic’s brand creator Amanda Pounds and Veracruz All Natural’s creative director Ryan Myers worked together on different elements of the label. The end result was a label with KTonic’s core elements handled in the style of Veracruz’s branding, which truly galvanized the partnership!

"We were so excited when Greg pitched us the idea about collaborating on a special kombucha flavor. In Veracruz, Mexico we loved drinking tepache and thought this would be a perfect opportunity to create a new kombucha flavor based on a beverage we love. We are very proud of this new ancho-tamarindo kombucha!" --Reyna & Maritza Vazquez

KTonic is excited to release this flavor in partnership with Veracruz All Natural and we hope for future collaborations to come! Enjoy!!

Ancho Tamarindo is currently out of stock. We are hopeful for its return soon!