New smoothie stand: Leahi Health Beverages

“On weekends, I poison people, during the week, I help them detox,” says Jason Coleman, bartender at the Elks Club and co-owner of Leahi Health Beverages, a little smoothie stand across the street from Town on 9th Ave.

On his detox menu: smoothies made with kombucha, a fermented tea that Coleman claims is a “weight loss aid, digestion aid, stress reducer and energy booster.” It has its fans in alternative health circles. Usually, I don’t stand within the kombucha circle, turned off by the vinegary taste and brewing process that involves a total appetite-squelching bacteria and yeast glob floating on the surface.

But, mixed into LHB’s drinks, they add a pleasant acidity, as with the refreshing Jamaican mojito, with kombucha, pineapple, banana, mint and vanilla; and the King Greens, kombucha blended with kale, blueberries and pineapple. His kombucha can vary—one week it’s a POG kombucha, this week it’s guava-ginger, giving the smoothies some head-clearing zing.