Leela Doogchi’s Vision Behind Creating a Gut-Friendly Beverage Brand

The beverage industry has come a really long way, and with greater awareness of health and wellness, what people drink today has majorly transformed. As the Founder and CEO of ME Kombucha, Leela Doogchi has built a proudly Emirati functional beverage brand, standing at the intersection of healthcare, fermentation and entrepreneurship.

A Canadian Registered Nurse with a professional background in oncology and pediatric palliative, and diabetic care, Leela’s understanding of health was shaped long before wellness became an industry. Her experience caring for patients, combined with later studies in functional medicine, strengthened her belief in prevention, gut health and the importance of what we consume every day.

After making the UAE her home, Leela saw a gap between what we should really be drinking and what is available in the market and sure enough a fermented beverage like Kombucha was missing. What began in 2016 as an effort to educate people about fermented and probiotic foods gradually evolved into ME Kombucha, a locally manufactured brand created without compromising the principles she believed authentic kombucha should represent.

Today, ME Kombucha is positioned as the first Emirati kombucha, producing live, non-pasteurized sparkling kombucha in the UAE. The brand is organic and Halal certified and registered with Dubai Municipality, with distinctive Middle Eastern-inspired flavours as their signature flavours including Saffron Rose and Date.

For Leela, ME Kombucha has never been simply about creating another beverage. Her mission has always been to offer a thoughtful alternative to conventional soft drinks while encouraging greater awareness of fermentation, gut health, and conscious nutrition.

That philosophy extends beyond the ingredients themselves and into the way ME Kombucha is produced. The water used in the brewing process undergoes purification using Japanese water technology of Kangen water, and the kombucha is brewed and handled in glass vessels, minimizing its contact with plastic, and metal throughout production.

This attention to detail is deeply connected to Leela’s years of experience as a nurse working with oncology patients undergoing chemotherapy. She observed that some patients developed significant changes in taste perception during treatment, including heightened or unpleasant metallic tastes. Those experiences stayed with her and ultimately influenced the standards she established when developing ME Kombucha.

Rather than producing simply to conventional beverage standards, Leela wanted to create kombucha with an exceptional level of care: from the water and ingredients to the vessels in which it is brewed. 

Her guiding principle has always been simple: make it with the level of care she would expect for the patients she once looked after. That healthcare background continues to shape the philosophy behind ME Kombucha today: thoughtful ingredients, careful production and an uncompromising commitment to quality.

Leela’s approach to entrepreneurship reflects the same philosophy that shaped her healthcare career: education before selling, integrity before shortcuts, and health without compromising quality.

From healthcare professional to manufacturer, and female founder and CEO, Leela’s journey represents a meeting point between science, purpose and entrepreneurship: creating a homegrown UAE brand with ambitions extending well beyond the region.

Leela states, “ME Kombucha was never created because kombucha became trendy. It was created from a belief that what we consume every day matters.”

ME’s motto: “Your Gut Would Love ME,” reflects Leela Doogchi’s vision she brings with her kombucha brand.