Beverages in North Carolina

Dry, unbrewed tea blends and ground or whole-bean coffee are among the most straightforward beverage-adjacent products available under the Home Processor Program. The key is that they are dry products — not brewed, not bottled, not liquid in any form. Think of them the same way you'd think of a dry spice blend: shelf-stable, low moisture, no TCS risk.

You can blend loose-leaf teas, create custom herbal blends, or package artisan single-origin coffee beans or grounds and sell them under your home processor approval. These products are sold in dry form for the buyer to brew at home — you never produce the liquid version yourself.

The NCDA&CS official program page includes "iced tea, coffee, lemonade" in its list of potentially allowed "some liquids" — but specifically notes these require evaluation. This is one of the more nuanced areas of the program. The distinction appears to hinge on whether the liquid product is genuinely shelf-stable at room temperature or whether it requires refrigeration after preparation.

A naturally acidic, shelf-stable lemonade concentrate — where the pH and sugar content keep it safe at room temperature — might pass evaluation. A fresh-squeezed lemonade that needs to be refrigerated would not. Similarly, a high-concentration, shelf-stable cold brew syrup might differ from a diluted cold brew beverage.

• Contact NCDA&CS at (984) 236-4820 or homeprocessing@ncagr.gov before formulating
• You will need pH and water activity testing via NC State University Extension
• A Process Authority Letter is required for any acidified liquid product
• The evaluation will determine whether your specific formulation qualifies

Shrubs are concentrated, vinegar-based drinking syrups — a colonial-era American tradition experiencing a craft revival. They're used as cocktail mixers, diluted with sparkling water, or added to mocktails. The high vinegar content gives most shrubs a naturally low pH, which provides some shelf-stability.

Whether a shrub qualifies under the Home Processor Program depends entirely on its specific formulation and how NCDA&CS evaluates it. A shelf-stable, properly acidified shrub concentrate might fall under the "some sauces" or "acid/acidified foods" category — the same pathway as BBQ sauce or hot sauce — and require a pH test and Process Authority Letter. A shrub with fruit additions that reduce pH stability might not qualify at all.

Kombucha presents a complex regulatory picture nationally, and North Carolina is no exception. It is a fermented beverage — which involves live cultures, variable pH, natural carbonation, and a small amount of alcohol produced during fermentation (typically 0.5%–3% ABV depending on fermentation time).

NCDA&CS's official program page does not explicitly list kombucha as allowed or prohibited. The "Bottled water/Juice Products" prohibition covers most bottled beverages, and kombucha's variable alcohol content may bring it under the jurisdiction of the NC Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Commission if ABV exceeds 0.5%.

• If ABV stays consistently below 0.5%: may be evaluated as a fermented food product — but no precedent confirmed
• If ABV rises above 0.5%: enters alcohol beverage territory requiring ABC Commission permits
• Natural carbonation adds pressure-vessel safety requirements commercial facilities handle
• Live cultures create variable pH across batches — difficult to certify for home production

Fresh and cold-pressed juices are explicitly prohibited under the Home Processor Program as "Bottled water/Juice Products." This isn't a gray area. The FDA requires that all commercially sold fruit and vegetable juices either be pasteurized or carry a warning label if unpasteurized — and pasteurization requires equipment and temperature controls beyond what any home kitchen can provide.

Cold-pressed juices, despite their premium positioning in the artisan food market, carry significant food safety risk: E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria have all been linked to unpasteurized juice outbreaks. This is why North Carolina — like virtually every state — prohibits their home production for sale.

Bottled cold brew coffee — the ready-to-drink format popular at farmers markets and specialty food stores — is not permitted from home kitchens in North Carolina. As a bottled liquid beverage, it falls under the "juice products" prohibition. Even though cold brew is made from coffee and water (not juice), the regulatory framework treats bottled beverages as a category requiring commercial-grade production controls.

What you can sell: dry ground coffee or whole beans packaged for the buyer to brew at home. The dry product is open under the Home Processor Program; the brewed, bottled result is not.