How the Rainbow Cloud Began

I began brewing kombucha sometime last summer after I had returned from the National Rainbow Gathering in southern WA.  The gathering was a manifestation of high consciousness, a coming together of people of all walks of life, all religions, representing the full gamut of Rainbow Light.  It culminated on July 4th, where a morning of silence ensued, followed by the mass of people together in the mystical Gifford Pincheot forest, holding hands (all 25-30,000 of us) and sounding AUM for world peace!

I left the gathering inspired, and spiritually charged.  Everywhere I looked was divinity; reflections of Rainbow Light danced off of the morning dews, and within my hair up close to my eyes, and in the setting sun.  During this time, I had a thought, "I'd like to start brewing kombucha..."  A few days later, a friend called me out of the blue, and said he was moving to Alaska and had two SCOBY kombucha mothers, and wanted to know if I would take care of them for him!  Shortly there after, I had two mothers sitting in gallon pickle jars, brewing away!

Synchronicities like this one have been happening with increasing frequency over the last two years of my life, since I had a series of special experiences in the summer of 2010 which led me to the realization that All is One, and that we are all reflections of the Infinite Ocean of Consciousness.  Call it Spirit, the Infinite, the Universe, or God.  In reality, it is beyond our definitions and comprehension.  I began to observe myself and my life, and all the things I was doing as if I was not the person doing them!  I played improvisational music and realized I was tapping into something much greater than myself.  As this all happened, I felt as if I was being guided in a radically different direction than years previous, and everything just began to happen automatically!  How awesome is that, to realize there is a guiding energy behind your life and you can just sit back and watch it all unfold!

From the two SCOBY mothers I began to divide them and increase my batches.  I brewed in a glass fish bowl, and a huge glass vase I got from the local thrift store.  I would drive a half hour to gather water from the artesian well in Olympia.  Soon I had 11 mothers!  I moved my jars and operation to my friend's house out in Union, WA, on the South shore of Hood Canal.  The water was much cleaner out there than in Tacoma, which made things much easier!  By this time I began to bottle it in half gallon growlers, and shared it with friends and family.  Everybody loved it!  I would go gather wild blackberries and evergreen huckleberries to infuse into the tea, and I even used some rhubarb from my garden.  It was all excellent!  It seemed that no matter how much I could produce I would sell out in a day or two!  I didn't even have enough for myself!

Things were going great when suddenly my friend ran into a circumstance which I was no longer able brew at his house!  I wasn't sure what I was going to do!  All I knew was that I was producing a healthy beverage that was benefiting my friends and family!  I put in an SOS to my friends and community network on facebook, hoping for a space in either another friend's house or optimally a commercial kitchen space!  About a week passed in contemplation, it was all up in the air!  I remember one day I was sitting on the couch, pondering, thinking, and sitting deeply when my phone rang.  It was Trail Black, a special friend of mine.  He said that he saw my post and wondered if his parents would let me brew my kombucha at their family business, Olympic Mountain Ice Cream.  I instantly had a good feeling about it!  He said he would talk to them and let me know!  That night I had a lucid dream that I was at the Creamery (which I had not yet been to before), helping make all these things, and happy as could be!

The next morning he gave me a call, and said that they would love to have me up there!  I was simply amazed!  What a blessing!  I gathered all of my SCOBYS and headed up to the Skokomish Valley, just west of Hood Canal.  It is interesting to note that it was in this valley a year prior that I had my Spiritual Awakening- It was also interestingly enough at a music gathering organized by Trail Black and his band, High Ceiling.  While that could be a novel of it's own, I will just say that it involved a weekend amidst the Olympic old growth forest, hippies, music, a conscious community, vibrations of peace and love, and an amazing display of the Perseus Meteor Shower against the backdrop of the glimmering Milky Way, far out from civilization.

It was at this time that I discovered something extraordinary.  I read about a kombucha brewer in Minnesota who was brewing kombucha in oak barrels!  I got an intuitive feeling that I could produce an incredible blend in an oak medium!  Within little time, I had my 15 gallon American oak barrel.  I customized the barrel just as the brewer had, having a nice woodsmith on Steamboat Island, Dave Meyers, cut a hole on the top and a hole in the side for a spigot.  To this day, Dave has customized 4 of my barrels and has refused even a single penny as payment!  And he sells amazing chicken eggs, too!  It turned out the oak was simply divine!  It almost has a different textural quality to it, and added earthy tones of vanilla in addition to the hints of jasmine and green tea.

I continued to grow my cultures at the creamery through the beginning of 2012.  I became great friends with Karl, Bev, and the rest of the ice cream Olympians!  They are genuinely good conscious people, and do everything with intentions of love and kindness!  It is truly inspiring!  Not only that, but there is a sacred vibration emanating from their particular nook in the Olympic Mountains.  Karl introduced me to my guru, Paramhansa Yogananda.  Upon reading his book, Autobiography of a Yogi, I knew immediately that I would take up meditation and begin my training for Kriya yoga, the special yogic technique for Self Realization expounded by his lineage of gurus.  I am currently studying meditation and yoga at Ananda Seattle, a beautiful intentional community of yogis who live together just north in Lynnwood, and will recieve Kriya initiation on 11/10 this year!  My life has begun to change very quickly with adopting these new practices!

Rainbow Cloud is the nickname of a 5 year old girl named Elizabeth.  She lives in the Skokomish valley and spends her days making potions and elixirs.  Her mom Brittany is an organic farmer, crystal distributor extraordinaire,astrologer, and a dear friend. Elizabeth gladly let me use her name for my own kombucha elixirs, and I am very thankful!  It was all meant to be!  Maybe someday she will have a say in the final ingredients! 

Following many other licenses, inspections, and fees, I finally became certified by the USDA in April 4 of this year, 2012.  Since then I have picked up 3 retail locations at small health food stores in Mason County, and have set up stands at various music festivals and farmer's markets in Washington, most recently the Tacoma Farmer's Markets at Broadway, and 6th Avenue.  It feels great to give something back to my home city that is good for people's health, and markets are incredible fun!  They are an ancient human tradition, and I believe buying local and bartering/trading at farmer's markets will be the way of the future!

Come check out the Rainbow Cloud Kombucha booth Thursdays at the Downtown Tacoma market on Broadway, and Tuesdays at the farmer's market on 6th ave.  My oak barreled kombucha is characterized by a light, crispness and an overall milder fermentation than your average booch!  It packs a positive vibration!  The ginger is definitely the crowd favorite so far, and mine as well!  Stay tuned for more posts, I believe next will be an explanation of the significance of my labeling, the sacred geometry and vibrational blessing!  AUM, peace, and Namaste!

-Matthew G. Eklund