A BOTTLE WITH A BACK STORY
Afternoon Toast didn't start in a boardroom or a brand strategy deck. It started at a kitchen stove, with one person who was tired of the usual choices, water that felt boring, functional drinks that didn't quite agree, and sparkling anything that backfired an hour later.
What began as a personal experiment turned into something worth sharing. A roasted barley and ginger tea, brewed like a ritual and bottled for every day. Time-tested ingredients—just the quiet kind of good-for-you that doesn’t need to shout.
This is the story of how it got here.
MEET THE FOUNDER
Afternoon Toast started the way most good things do, slowly, and mostly by accident.
Kimmy had spent years navigating a sensitive stomach and a full calendar, constantly dehydrated and constantly unsatisfied with her options. Water was too plain and anything carbonated felt like a negotiation with her gut she didn't feel like having.
Then she read Pachinko. Across generations, a Korean family drinks roasted barley tea at home, a small, ordinary ritual that made hydration feel like something worth pausing for. She couldn't stop thinking about it. So she started roasting barley on her own stove, steeping it with ginger, tasting and tweaking until she had something that tasted like the kind of afternoon she wanted to have more of.
She wasn't trying to build a brand. She was trying to build a better glass of something to drink.
FROM HER KITCHEN TO YOURS
Afternoon Toast still gets made the way it started slowly, in small batches in Brooklyn, with the same time-tested ingredients and the attention to taste.
It's on tables at dinner parties. In fridges at home. On desks in the afternoon when someone doesn't want another coffee but doesn't want plain water either. It's a drink that's found its way into the small in-between moments of calm.
If you're new here, welcome. Pour yourself a glass and stay a while.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Time-tested ingredients: roasted barley, ginger, filtered water, citric acid and potassium sorbate . No caffeine, no sugar, no sweeteners, no prebiotics, no carbonation, and nothing that claims to fix your life. Just a slow-brewed tea made to be enjoyed and not overthought.
Toasty, a little nutty, and gently warming from the ginger. Think of it like a cozier, cleaner cousin to iced tea with the complexity of coffee without the bite; grounded, a little earthy, and easy to drink at any temperature.
That's exactly why it exists. Roasted barley tea has been sipped in Korean and Japanese households for generations specifically because it's easy on the gut, no caffeine, no carbonation, no sugar. We added a small amount of ginger because it plays well with digestion. If coffee, soda, or anything fizzy usually doesn't sit well, this is probably the drink it's been waiting for.
Absolutely. There's zero caffeine in Afternoon Toast, which means you can drink it first thing in the morning, with dinner, or right before you go to sleep to help with digestion without any interference.
No. Afternoon Toast is brewed from roasted barley, which contains gluten. If you have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity, this isn't the drink for you. Everyone else: you're good to go.
You can order a pack of 6 or subscribe and save, we ship 16oz amber glass bottles directly to your door, and subscriptions can be paused or canceled anytime.
Brewed like a ritual and bottled for everyday drinking. Toasty, gently gingery, and grounding.
- Caffeine free
- Sugar free
- Non-carbonated
- Time-tested ingredients
- 16 oz amber glass