Alumni, Community, Arches

Always a Logger: Julie Davidson ’96

In March 2020, Julie Davidson ’96 made a pivot. A certified facilitator, coach, and consultant—and president and CEO of her own consulting company, The JD Group— Davidson started to see her contracts dry up as employees were sent home in the early days of the pandemic. So, she leaned into a hobby: kombucha brewing.

“I started to brew more kombucha than my family and I could drink,” says Davidson, who’s been tinkering with recipes at home for years to make herself the perfect fermented beverage. “I thought, I guess this is my opportunity to take all the limitations that we’re feeling and create an opportunity.” The result was Tacoma’s first kombucha taproom, Komadre Kombucha, which opened on 6th Avenue in May 2021. Davidson’s kombucha concoctions are locally brewed, use in-season ingredients from her partnerships with local farms, and are inspired by her Latinx heritage—resulting in unusual flavors like pineapple ginger and strawberry mojito.

Julie Davidson ’96

NEW VENTURE  Julie Davidson ’96 opened Tacoma's first kombucha taproom, Komadre Kombucha, in May 2021.

While most people might not see a pandemic as an ideal time to start a brick-and-mortar business, Davidson says she’s grateful for the experience— it’s made her and her business model more resilient. It helps, too, that Davidson’s childhood dream was to open her own shop. That passion, she says, and Komadre Kombucha’s community-centered mission, are what drive the business. “Relationships are everything,” she says, and that belief shines through in Komadre Kombucha’s mission and values. “The name Komadre comes from the Spanish word for someone you consider to be part of the mothering circle around your own family. Those are the kinds of relationships we want to forge.”

One way she’s building community is by partnering with Tacoma Farmers Market’s Fresh Express Mobile Market to distribute kombucha throughout the city. She also brought some of the brew to Puget Sound’s welcome event for returning sophomores in August. And her shop offers a discount to Loggers, in hopes that Komadre Kombucha will become “a treasured hangout for the university community, as well as the broader 253.”

Explore More Stories
Related Stories
Downtown Tacoma with Mount Rainier in the background

Alumni

Little City

Everybody in Tacoma wants a piece of Bernadette Ray ’99, MAT’01. She can’t go to the grocery store without folks stopping to talk, so she tends to do her shopping at night…
a woman smiling

Alumni

Playing to Learn

Twenty years ago, Tanya Saine Durand ’93 and her colleagues at the nonprofit Children’s Museum of Tacoma found themselves wondering if their jobs—their mission—should…
Salmon at the South Prairie Creek Restoration site

Alumni

Salmon Stories

Perched on a log above the Mashel River a few miles from the Puget Sound campus, Daniel Sherman explains the complex and often harrowing plight of perhaps the most iconic…
A man

Alumni

One Load at a Time

Chet Selis ’18 never imagined himself in the laundry trade. When he graduated from Puget Sound with a business degree, he was on the hunt for a position at an up-and-coming…
Colorful illustration spelling PRIDE

Alumni

Point of Pride

Late into the night of July 11, 1997, Jenn (DeLury) Ciplet ’98 and a group of friends were dipping Styrofoam cups into bright colors of paint. They were members of the…
Tacoma Refugee Choir

Alumni

The Language We Share

Erin Guinup ’96 was at church, listening to a sermon about the growing refugee crisis in Europe, when she was inspired to take action. She couldn’t help the thousands of…
The front view of a brick building

Alumni

Music Maker: Jeffrey Haydon ’97

As the new president and CEO of the Ravinia Festival, the country’s oldest music festival, Jeffrey Haydon ’97 is guided by a singular mission. “Music,” he says, “is a…
Illustration of the Statue of Liberty's foot poised above a young woman standing next to the monument

Alumni

Yearning to Breathe Free

Preparing for a new baby during COVID-19 was not what Jamilia Sherls-Jones ’05 had hoped for. She wanted to touch the soft cotton of newborn onesies, turn over car seats to…
Man on sculpture

Alumni

The Drunken Tenor

Robert McPherson ’91 has been singing since he was a very young boy. “I was a preacher’s kid. I grew up singing gospel,” he says.  Decades have passed since he…
Students visit Ice Cream Social in the Proctor neighborhood of Tacoma,

Alumni

A Bite of Tacoma

Whether it’s some cheap grub on a study break, a chance to knock back a few on the weekend, or a meal with the parents when they’re in town, Tacoma has eateries and watering…