Where Does Kombucha Come From?
Kombucha is said to have arisen in a tea growing region of ancient Manchuria. It was discovered that sweet tea can be fermented at room temperature to create a slightly alcoholic, naturally effervescent beverage that preserves well, tastes delicious and makes the drinker feel wonderful.
With its complex mixture of sweet and tart flavours, natural fizziness and numerous health benefits, ‘Manchurian tea’ or ‘kombucha’ was touted as the “Tea of Immortality” and “Elixir of Life”.
Kombucha is said to have travelled the silk road with the armies of Genghis Khan and then spread throughout Russia and Europe. Brewing then became the domain of ‘ale wives’, who used their knowledge of herbs, cooking and the art of fermentation to brew beer along with a range of medicinal potions and fermented drinks with the power to intoxicate and heal.
While the war on ‘witches’ and ‘witchcraft’ in the middle ages led to traditional brewing knowledge and medicinal lore being lost, the practice of using living microbial cultures and herbs to enhance and preserve foods was retained through the arts of pickling, brewing and fermentation. These practices led to the symbiotic evolution of herbs, humans and microbes and the passing of microbial cultures across generations that continues today with kombucha and other living products.
What are Kombucha’s Health Benefits?
Kombucha’s reputation for improving general and gastrointestinal health, strengthening the immune system, and preventing a broad-spectrum of metabolic and infective disorders, has led to it be the world’s fastest growing functional beverage.
The health effects of kombucha include
assisting detoxification,
antioxidation,
energy metabolism
immunity
Scientific research suggests kombucha promotes health and recovery by improving liver, gastrointestinal and immune function, inhibiting the development and progression of cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases, normalising blood sugar and central nervous system function, and reducing inflammation, and having a favourable effect on the skin, hair & nails.
How is Kombucha Brewed?
Kombucha is made from a base brew of tea, water, sugar and a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast), which contains yeast that anaerobically consumes sugar to produce alcohol, and acid-loving bacteria that aerobically consumes alcohol to produce glucuronic, gluconic and acetic acids.
The bacteria also produce a cellulose biofilm called a pellicle or ‘tea mushroom’ that restricts air to the yeast. This keeps the yeast metabolising anaerobically, while allowing the bacteria to float on top and maintain aerobic metabolism with access to air.
Kombucha is a unique phenomenon in the drinks industry, because you can make it yourself, and essentially brew your own fermented, naturally carbonated, slightly alcoholic beverages at home, simply by obtaining a SCOBY and feeding it sweet tea.
A primary ferment can be further modified, with a secondary fermentation process that includes medicinal fruits, flowers, leaves, roots and fungi to produce medicinal tonics with a multitude of flavours and desirable biological properties.
Perhaps the best thing about kombucha is that it is alive and generative so you can keep nurturing a kombucha SCOBY, and giving it away … and infect your friends and family with good health without ever depleting your own supply.
What are the benefits of consuming Kombucha Regularly?
Kombucha’s reputation for improving general and gastrointestinal health, strengthening the immune system, and preventing a broad-spectrum of metabolic and infective disorders, has led to it be the world’s fastest growing functional beverage.
The health effects of kombucha which include assisting detoxification, anti-oxidation, energy metabolism and immunity.
Scientific research suggests kombucha promotes health and recovery by improving liver, gastrointestinal and immune function, inhibiting the development and progression of cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases, normalising blood sugar and central nervous system function, and reducing inflammation and having a favourable effect on the skin, hair and nails.
