On March 12, 2026, Business Daily — one of Kenya's most respected business publications — ran a feature titled "Kenyans embrace sourdough bread for healthier breakfast" in their Life | Food section. The piece, written by Marion Sitawa, examined the growing appetite for sourdough across Nairobi, and Zubi Bakes was one of two bakeries profiled in depth.
You can read the original article on Business Daily's website.
We're grateful for the coverage — and for photographer Wilfred Nyangaresi, who spent time with us on the 5th of March capturing our process at the bakery. We want to go deeper into some of the themes the article raised, for those who want to understand what's really happening behind our bread..
Meet Zaara: Our Living Starter Culture
The article introduced readers to Zaara, our living sourdough culture at the heart of every loaf we bake. Zaara isn't just flour and water; she is a complex, living, thriving symbiotic community of wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) that we maintain and feed daily.
Every day, our bakers prepare upto 50 kg of active levain. This levain (sourdough culture) is then integrated into fresh flour, water, salt, and whichever fat the recipe calls for: butter for some loaves, olive oil for others. Through slow fermentation, the resulting bread has been pre-digested by trillions of microorganisms before reaching your plate.
As Mo described it to Business Daily: our sourdough culture, when you open it up, looks like a fine network of threads, made up of flour and water, creating the gluten network that is partially consumed by microbes and yeasts. In a single teaspoon, there are billions of bacterial colonies. In our full production buckets, the count runs into the quadrillions (1016).
Why Slow Fermentation Matters
One of the key points in the Business Daily piece was the time our bread takes to make: between 22 and 48 hours, depending on the loaf. This isn't inefficiency — it's the entire point!
During long fermentation, the wild yeasts and LAB colonies in the dough break down proteins, produce complex organic acids, and develop the deep flavour that commercial bread simply cannot replicate. The lactic and acetic acids produced during this process lower the bread's pH, which in turn reduces the glycemic index and improves mineral bioavailability.
Peer-reviewed research supports this. A 2019 study published in Nutrients (MDPI) found that sourdough fermentation significantly reduces phytic acid content in bread, increasing the absorption of minerals like iron, zinc, and magnesium. A separate 2017 study in the British Journal of Nutrition demonstrated that long-fermented sourdough bread produced a lower postprandial glucose response compared to bread made with baker's yeast.
This is what Mo means when he says that 70 to 80 percent of the gluten is pre-digested through long, cold fermentation. The extended process gives the LAB colonies time to partially break down gluten proteins — which is why some people with gluten sensitivities report tolerating traditionally fermented sourdough better than conventional bread.
A note of caution: sourdough is not gluten-free unless specifically made with gluten-free flours. If you have severe gluten allergies; then our dedicated gluten-free range is the appropriate choice.
The Ingredients Behind the Bread
The article touched on our ingredient sourcing, and this is something we take seriously. The quality of a sourdough loaf is directly determined by what goes into it.
Our flour is selected for protein content and fermentation performance, and specifically it is unbromated & unbleached — it costs more, but it's good for you and gives you better bread with long fermentation. Our butter is sourced for superior fat content and flavour. Our olive oil is an imported high grade variety. We avoid vegetable ultra processed fats, even our trays and tins are greased with butter.
This is why a loaf from Zubi Bakes costs what it does. The Sh500+ average price point that Business Daily reported isn't a premium for branding, it reflects our actual cost of sourcing quality ingredients and investing a minimum of 22 hours of production time into every single loaf.
From 10 Loaves to Hundreds: The Zubi Bakes Story
The article shared the personal story behind the baker, how a family crisis led Mo and Shine to sourdough baking. That story is real, and it shapes everything we do.
What started with roughly 10 loaves a day which has grown into a production of a couple hundred daily loaves, along with our specialty rotating selections across the week. Everything we produce is sourdough-based. There are no shortcuts, no commercial additives, no improvers, no dough conditioners, no preservatives.
We are also actively widening our gluten-free sourdough range — and the remarkable thing is that it's made using our wheat-based sourdough starter. After 20+ hours of fermentation, upto 97 percent of the gluten is digested by microbial cultures. This is one of the most innovative aspects of our bakery, and it's something we'll be writing about in more detail soon.
The Bigger Picture: Sourdough in Kenya
The Business Daily article placed Zubi Bakes within a broader trend of Kenyan consumers shifting towards traditional, slow-fermented bread. That shift is real, but it's still in its early stages.
As the article noted, sourdough is still largely driven by independent bakeries, home bakers, and small food businesses. It isn't yet as readily available as commercial yeasted bread. The repeat customers tend to be in their 30s and upwards, health-conscious, and willing to invest in what they eat. Good food, for healthy bodies and bright minds.
Convenience Without Compromise
One practical point from the article that's worth repeating: you can freeze our bread. Get it sliced, put it straight in your freezer. Take a few sliced out, put it in the toaster or oven, for a few minutes and you're good to go. Our loaves stay perfectly fine for up to three months. But when left in the open, it will grow mould in three to five days — because there are no preservatives – that's actually a good sign.
If you're new to sourdough and wondering where to start, our multigrain sourdough with butter is a great breakfast loaf. Our white sourdough pairs beautifully with soup. And if you're looking for something beyond bread, our 72-hour cold-fermented pizza crusts are now available as par-baked and frozen, ready for your toppings.
Thank You, Business Daily
We're grateful to Marion Sitawa and the Business Daily team for taking the time to tell this story properly. It's not often that a national business publication devotes two full pages to the craft of bread-making in Kenya. We hope it sparks more curiosity about what real bread looks like — and what it takes to make it.
If the article brought you here, welcome. Have a look around our blog for more on the science, history, and health benefits of sourdough. And if you're in Gigiri, come visit. Our bread speaks for itself.
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