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By JASON PAFUNDI Spiro Theofilatos experiments, brews and bottles Kombucha in the basement of Theo and Theos clothing store on Steinway Street in Astoria.

five years ago, Spiro Theofilatos was a musician and visited the West Coast, where he tried Kombucha for the first time. He said he liked the way it made him feel but did not necessarily like the taste.

Now he is the proud owner of Beyond Kombucha, a company that makes and bottles a form of the ancient artesian drink.

Theofilatos, 39, founded the company in Astoria in January 2010 and does all the experimenting, brewing and bottling in the basement of Theo and Theos clothing store on Steinway Street in Astoria. His family owns the building, so not paying rent has surely helped the business side of things, he said.

after trying the drink for the first time on the West Coast, Theofilatos had an idea. He compared the taste of it to carbonated vinegar, and after finding out that the basis for all Kombucha is tea, he wondered what it would be like to make the drink using extremely high-quality teas.

“I was just doing it as a hobby, but it came out so good,” Theofilatos said. “My friends started loving it and told me that I should sell it.”

In January 2010, he bottled his first sample and took it to Café Bar on 34th Avenue in Astoria, which became the first place to have his Kombucha on the menu.

“They couldn’t stop selling it,” Theofilatos said. “Eventually I started making enough that I started selling to a health food store nearby and realized that I could make a company out of this.”

for the first year, Theofilatos said he had partners that helped offset the workload, but he bought them out in September 2011.

“We had different visions of where we wanted the company to go,” he said.

Theofilatos said that Kombucha has been around for more than 2,500 years and is very popular in Siberia and Russia. In June 2010, the government said that Kombucha had enough alcohol per bottle that they could collect excise taxes. some Kombucha makers began using a formula to produce the drink without any alcohol, while other brands shut down entirely.

“The tax is only seven cents per case, so it’s not going to break me,” said Theofilatos. “I didn’t want to remove the alcohol. it takes away the buzz and the fizz. I love my sparkles and love my bubbles.”

Theofilatos was born in Manhattan and comes from a Greek father and English-Canadian mother. He spent his early years in Astoria, moved to Long Island, and came back to Astoria in 2001. His business has the distinction of being the East Coast’s first alcohol-positive Kombucha brewery.

Beyond Kombucha is available in bars and cafes throughout the City, mostly in Queens, and if his plan comes to fruition, Theofilatos would love to see his drink in other major cities like Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

“As soon as I started making labels and got serious about it, I said I’m going to sink my teeth into it,” he said. “Immediately, my vision was huge. I want to destroy the model of shipping everything out from a single location.”

Theofilatos is concerned about the environment and also with helping local businesses, and by having mini-breweries in different locations, the carbon footprint from the business would be lessened, while the local economies would receive a boost.

“What I want to see is the exact same model,” he said. “Own the building, use solar panels like we do here and be very green.”

He said that Kombucha, in a 16-ounce bottle, contains about 75 calories, making it a far healthier drink than a regular soda or beer. Theofilatos added that the drink contains 17 percent of the daily recommended amount of B-vitamins and is great for digestion.

“If you have a burger, the best thing to drink is a Kombucha,” he said. according to Theofilatos, the digestive enzymes in the drink will not leave you feeling full after chowing down a half-pound cheeseburger.

Theofilatos is producing a couple hundred bottles of Kombucha a week but is planning on ramping up production in order to accommodate a deal with a new distributor, Union Beer, who according to Theofilatos has a craft beer portfolio that is “second to none.”

“For them to not only consider but be excited about having my stuff, that’s pretty cool,” he said. “They are going to get it everywhere.”

The new agreement should find Beyond Kombucha in Whole Foods, Dean and Deluca and Fairway. Basically, Theofilatos said, it is “all up to us about how much we make.”

for more information on Beyond Kombucha, visit beyondkombucha.com or call (718) 274-2747.

Reach Reporter Jason Pafundi at jpafundi@queenstribune.com or (718) 357-7400, Ext. 128.