In court, Dave deployed the classic “haters are jealous” defense: “Unfortunately, in this current state of the world we live in,” he said, lawsuits “just happen if you have any smell of success around you…That is the cross that I bear.” While on the stand, the Times reported, Dave also regaled the room with a story about how one of his early managers had planned to confront his cheating wife, and died of a heart attack. According to Dave, every batch of kombucha the manager touched during this stressful period turned bad. “That was my first indication that I can never take the nature of my product for granted,” Dave testified. “It’s truly a living, breathing, empathetic, sensitive living food, which is why it keeps me honest with how we behave as a corporation.” (GT’s Living Foods did not respond to Bon Appétit’s requests for comment by press time.)
Judge Highberger said in the court filing that Dave was an unreliable witness; he “lacked any credibility and did not provide truthful testimony on the witness stand.” In a response, Dave told the Times, “I did my best to speak truthfully, accurately, and sincerely. It is important to recognize that this case is over ten years old. Therefore, it can be difficult to specifically remember every detail, date and event.”
But the past isn’t yet history for Dave: The civil court proceeding is the first in a three-part trial accusing GT’s Living Foods of violating California labor laws, according to the Los Angeles Post. “The next phase of the trial will cover workplace accusations affecting the approximately 3,600 workers who have passed through the kombucha factory’s doors since 2012,” Highberger wrote in the court filing. Alleged abuses from 2013 until the present day will be covered in the third and final phase of this case. The 11 plaintiffs awarded restitution last week’s ruling won’t receive the money until all three trials are complete.
The image painted in the lawsuit runs counter to the narrative Dave’s been crafting for himself over decades, one in which he is “a sort of conduit for spreading the love, the missionary of an almost magical elixir,” Tom Foster wrote for Inc in 2015. “We remain a family-owned and operated company, so we are able to stay true to our purpose and not cut corners or compromise for profit,” Dave told the Times in 2020, an effort he says doesn’t go unnoticed by customers. “The most common feedback we receive from our fans is how our kombucha has changed their lives for the better.”
But to the drinkers who’ve long guzzled down Dave’s Kool-Aid—that GT’s Living Foods is “sustainable for people and the planet”—will America’s favorite kombucha still taste as sweet? One thing seems certain: It’s not “100% pure love” in those colorful bottles, though there might be the sweat of exploited workers.
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