The Momojo Story
The Momojo vision is to improve the gut health of New Zealanders and to grow big enough to help charitable causes.
We are a small local business, run by Scott Butland and Torben Sorensen, operating out of Puhoi since mid-2021. We have an amazing product that will impact people’s gut health. Made in a state-of-the-art facility that enables a superior hygienic environment to maximise the growth of probiotic content in our kefir. We use traditional bacteria and yeast in our fermentation that create ‘kefiran’. Kefiran is a biofilm with wonderful health-conferring properties that also protects and lines the gut wall. Some customers claim to experience huge relief from acid-reflux and IBS symptoms within 20 minutes.
My Inspiration
“Momojo honours Mikey, Melissa and Jessie – hence the ‘m’, ‘m’ and ‘j’ in ‘momojo’. These are my children and their Mum – Melissa. Melissa died of cancer at just 39. Momojo is a testimony to the courage and strength that they have all given to one of life’s most difficult challenges – facing loss.”
Scott Butland, Founder of Momojo
“We faced a new life after losing Melissa and I found myself moved time and again by how our children dealt with this.
These little people devoted themselves to awareness activities for the hospice, Dove House and the Cancer Society - participating in sausage sizzles, school projects, donating their savings and getting involved in fund raisers like Relay for Life and Shave for a Cure!
This natural and beautiful expression of two little souls who had known the feeling of a wounded heart reflected to me something around the authenticity of life… Momojo is a way of reflecting something back.” Scott Butland, Momojo Founder
An Interesting History
Once upon a time, 100 years ago, Scott’s Great Grandfather walked down a similar road and by fermenting milk created Chesdale Cheese. Today Torben and Scott are fermenting milk too. Instead of making cheese they make a product called kefir and their kefir is called “Momojo”.
Torben has had more than 45 years of experience in product and process development, specialising in food microbiology. In developing Momojo Real Kefir, Torben researched the origins of kefir from the time it was used on the Silk Rd. We have now purpose built a small facility on his home property in Puhoi, where we earnestly attempt to preserve authenticity to these origins.
Scott and Torben
Momojo gives more mojo to your gut health in two important ways. Firstly, our kefir has an incredibly high probiotic content. Momojo has a similar amount of probiotics in just a teaspoon of our healthy kefir, as you would find in a litre of standard probiotic yoghurt. Secondly, Momojo has kefiran. This is a live biofilm resulting from the specific culture used to create Momojo kefir. In this way Momojo coats and lines your gut wall. This is important to keep you healthy, to protect you from disease, and to help you digest nutrients.