This beverage brand by 29-year-old former paralegal JL Tan is here to shake up your drink routine with its unique, all-natural flavours and sustainable practices.
For the uninitiated, tepache is a traditional Mexican fermented drink made from pineapple peel, sweetened with brown sugar, and spiced with cinnamon and cloves. It is known for its tangy taste and probiotic benefits.
According to Tan, TepTep Tepache is the first of its kind in Malaysia. “I want to be the pioneer of tepache as no one else is doing it here,” she told FMT Lifestyle.
“It’s so healthy and underrated. I felt a mission to bring this health booster to people, which is why we have 10 flavours using 100% natural ingredients.”
The drinks are made from premium MD2 pineapples, which are packed with four times the vitamin C compared with other pineapple variants. The brand’s commitment to natural ingredients also means you won’t find any artificial nasties here.
Tan’s personal preferences played a role in the development of her products. “I love coffee and fruits,” she shared. “Kombucha uses tea, but I’m not a tea lover.”
From the vibrant to the mellow, TepTep Tepache’s flavour lineup has something for everyone. With their original tepache, you can expect aromatic spices like cinnamon and cloves that give it an authentic taste.
The Americano tepache caters to coffee lovers with the use of Ethiopian coffee, while soursop basil stands out as one of their bestsellers owing to its seasonal availability and unique taste.
Other flavours include passionfruit lemon, butterfly pea calamansi, cranberry rosemary, dragonfruit mint, and sakura rose roselle.
Notably, it is Tan’s personal health journey that fuels her mission. Tan’s experiments in the kitchen during the pandemic led to the brewing of tepache, which she quickly discovered benefited her wellbeing.
“In the past, I wasn’t very good at looking after myself,” she acknowledged. “I developed a pylori infection, which caused constant bloating.
“After I brewed and drank tepache, my stomach got healthier, and I felt happier and lighter. It even helped me with my coffee addiction.”
Every bottle of TepTep Tepache is handcrafted in small batches, ensuring quality and care from farm to bottle. And with their zero-plastic-waste packaging – think biodegradable glass bottles and aluminium caps – you can sip sustainably.
TepTep Tepache is currently available online for RM12.80 per bottle, and Tan reveals they have plans to hit retail grocers and F&B outlets by the middle of this month.
Her motto, “Gut To Guts”, aptly sums up her philosophy: take care of your gut health and have the guts to chase your dreams.
To those hesitant to give TepTep Tepache a try, she advised: “It’s good for your health. Be mindful of what you put in your mouth every day, because health is the ultimate goal in life.
“Tepache changed my lifestyle, and I hope it changes yours, too.”
Find out more about TepTep Tepache here.