Kombucha Queens

Vanessa Tortolano

Vanessa was raised in Hawaii by a metaphysical Mother and a logical minded Father. She would often find herself running on the beach, swimming in the ocean, and hiking big mountains. When she wasn't doing that, she was singin and dancin. She moved to L.A. in '99 to "make it". What she did was meet a man and make a baby. So they moved across the country in '02 to Madison Wisconsin. Why? So that 4 years later, Vanessa would meet up with her non-sexual life partner/soulmate/business partner Alla Shapiro and start a kick ass, women based, health enthused business!.....duh.

Alla Shapiro

Alla was born in St. Petersberg, Russia and raised holistically with herbs and good food.  Upon moving to the U.S. her family found Western Medicine a privelage.  When Alla moved to San Diego, she discovered her roots emerging and decided to study natural medicine and herbology.  While studying herbs, Alla was introduced to Kombucha.  She began brewing at home and discovered that Kombucha was part of the very fermented diet that she was raised with. 

Alla and Vanessa

Alla moved to Madison with artist, husband Scott Shapiro so that he could work on his Masters at the UW.  Vanessa and Alla met one night at an art opening of Scott's with Vanessa's band, Subvocal, playing in the wings.  On a break, Vanessa and Alla began talking about the baby, Ayla, growing within Alla, Vanessa's baby sleeping in the car seat near by, and herbs.  A couple years later Alla and Vanessa came together with a common purpose of helping others better their health.  Kombucha was the binder.  Vanessa had begun to brew Kombucha and was eager to share the new found knowlege with Alla.  Alla knew all about it and helped Vanessa through many successful and not-so-sucessful batches.  They began discussing a plan to teach classes, and soon a small business was being formed.  While the business was beginning its first life stages, a new baby was growing in Alla's womb.  Soon after Alla gave birth to her second child, Ari, NessAlla was also born into this world.  Pretty cool.