Fermented tea?

Guess what I picked up at Whole Foods last night! Kombucha! I just couldn't wait, my curiousity was killing me... I'm a slave to my curiosity.


There is so much hype about Kombucha at the moment that I really wanted to try it. There was only 1 brand at Whole Foods which I found surprising but all I needed was one can anyway. Plain it was... I needed to taste the original thing.

I'm sure you all know what Kombucha is. It's basically sweetened fermented tea (can be black, green, white tea or yarbe mate tea) which is fermented with Acetobacter and yeast. The reason for using the two is that the yeast will produce ethanol (common alcohol) from the sugars and the Acetobacter will then convert ethanol to acetic acid (vinegar). As a result, Kombucha is a non alcoholic beverage (about 0.5% I believe) and has a nice sour taste.


Interestingly we study Acetobacter in my lab! This bacteria makes cool small molecules that has a wide range of effects on us. So I'm sure there is something legit about claiming Kombucha as a health drink. That's when I turned to my trusty friend NCBI Pubmed to read up on some published studies. Apparently tea fermed with kombucha cultures had gastric ulcer healing properties in mice by protecting the mucin content of the stomach. Additionally, there was some evidence that kombucha protected mice hepatocytes against oxidative damage. However, all of these were mouse studies and might not necessarily translate to humans especially when it comes to dosage. The studies were in low impact journals which makes things sketchy. I mean there wasn't anything published that's negative about Kombucha but there's little positive evidence at the same time. If you like the taste, then drink. I wouldn't recommend drinking it just because "it's healthy", however it is much better then other canned drinks (a whole world better).

Now what did I think about it. For some reason I thought it would taste like beer. I guess because a lot of people drink it in place of beer? Well it didn't taste like beer but it was MIGHTY DELICIOUS! It was slightly fizzy, sourish, tart, mildly sweet, and for some reason I could taste a bit of raspberry (strange?). Quite a treat I would say, at a hefty $2 per can price :( Kombucha with dinner instead of red wine anyone?

I so want to try the other flavors now and if I can brew it at home, it'll probably become a regular staple in my diet.