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Choosing not to drink shouldn’t feel like a punishment.
I’m Anton, the founder of Quas. When I stopped drinking alcohol in 2014, I still wanted something I could look forward to ordering. After years of settling, I decided to make that drink myself.
There had to be more than orange juice.
Going out with friends often meant choosing between orange juice and the same few soft drinks.
I wanted to enjoy what was in my glass as much as everyone else did. Something with flavour and depth, something to sip slowly.
The idea that finally got me started came from a drink I’d loved growing up.
“Something made for people like you, not as an afterthought, but as the entire point.”
Back to a familiar taste.
I grew up in Estonia, where kvass, a traditional fermented drink, was part of everyday life. I remember drinking it after the sauna with my dad, and on holidays with my grandmother.
On a trip to Tallinn in 2020, I spotted it again at the airport. It made me wonder why a drink I’d always loved was so hard to find here.
Back in Edinburgh, I was finishing my PhD in Biological Sciences. I’d come home late and start another experiment in the small room I rented as a student. Some nights, I was still on the floor at 1am, filling bottles from a two-litre jar.
Searching for the one.
Kvass got me started, but I wasn’t trying to copy what I remembered. I was looking for real complexity, and a taste that people would genuinely love.
I changed the ingredients and the conditions batch after batch, but the depth I wanted never came. The answer was in the culture.
So I fermented with different yeasts, lactic acid cultures, one sourdough after another, until I found the one.
Discover sourdough kvass
180 years old
This rye sourdough had been kept alive and passed from generation to generation in a single household before I managed to get a sample. It is the culture that now gives Quas its own complex flavour.
Over 100 naturally occurring cultures live in this one starter. Explore the science of kvass
The story so far.
By October 2021, the first cans were ready for customers. Quas has grown one batch at a time since then.
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2021
The first cans of Quas
Quas moves from my student room to its first customers, and the company is founded in Edinburgh.
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2023–24
Our first Great Taste awards
Ginger wins a Great Taste award in 2023. Original follows in 2024.
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Great Taste 2024
Original
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2026
A second Great Taste award for Ginger
Three years after its first, Ginger wins Great Taste again.
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Great Taste 2026
Ginger
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Today
Still making Quas in Edinburgh
A small team, three flavours and the same sourdough culture at the heart of every batch.
Read more of the story.
I’ve enjoyed sharing the story with writers who are curious about what we’re making. Here are some of those conversations.
- Ferment Rye on timeA conversation about childhood flavour, finding our sourdough starter and the pleasure of a drink after the sauna.
- The Times Kvass, the 1,000-year-old fermented bread drink coming to the UKQuas features in a look at kvass and its arrival on the British drinks scene.
- The Herald Edinburgh biologist recreates traditional Slavic beverage
- Daily Mail Quas in the Daily Mail’s kvass feature
- Akcent UK The first batches and the beginnings of Quas
- ZIMA Magazine Childhood memories, science and a familiar drink
With a lot of help along the way.
EIT Food has helped with mentoring and product development. I’m grateful to them, and to all the organisations below, for helping an idea from a student room grow.
For those who refuse to settle.
Whether you’ve stopped drinking, are taking a night off, or simply fancy something different, I’d love you to try Quas. There are three flavours to explore, all made from the same sourdough culture.
