Dealing for Kombucha

By Allison Fishman Ingredient

Photo: Synergy Drinks

I'm tired of spending $4 a bottle for kombucha, but I'm helplessly addicted to the stuff. Kombucha is a slightly sour, gently effervescent beverage made from sweetened tea cultured with a thick disk of bacteria and yeast known as a "mother." Seen in the hands of plenty a gym nut or hipster, it's one of the trendiest drinks out there, flying off the shelves of your local Whole Foods or health food store. Fans of the drink claim that kombucha helps to prevent cancer, aids in liver function, and is helpful in warding off colds, although, of course, these claims haven't been scientifically proven.

As per Edible Brooklyn, all the hipsters in my neighborhood are growing their own mothers, but my local probiotics dealer refuses to sell me one, claiming, "They've gotta be traded, dude. And you don't have anything I want." Thank god for Nick's Natural Nook on eBay, where I can buy a mother for cold hard cash. Now I can make kombucha at home for pennies, and maybe I'll have something to trade with the hipsters in the near future.

Comments (3)

by kirbychristian on 2009-08-27

I just saw this stuff in the natural foods store at lunch today and thought "wow, 4 bucks?" and then came back to work and saw your article on Saveur. I'm glad to know more about the product now, but you left off the most important thing: does it taste good? Or is this just the latest health craze that I will force down because it is supposedly good for me (at least until it or a product like it gets recalled for salmonella or some other nasty beastie)?

by FoodRenegade on 2009-08-28

KirbyChristian -- You can make really fantastic tasting kombucha by fermenting it a second time with a fruit juice of your choice.
So delicious! Here are instructions for how to do that:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/2009/02/06/how-to-brew-kombucha-double-fermentation-method/

And as for being a new "craze," the beverage has been around for more than 2000 years, with the first recorded reference to it being in a Chinese writing dated at 700 B.C.

Hope that helps you!

Cheers,
~KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)

by ldibella on 2009-08-29

I'm a big fan of Kombucha as well and I have also brewed it in the past. It was fun to experiment with different green and black teas and to add different flavors after brewing like fresh ginger juice or dried orange peels. It grows much slower in the cool weather, though, and I had a difficult time with it winter (live in New England). My daughter actually started her own culture with a store bought bottle. There are now lots of brands in the store coolers and they are all quite different, some are mild while some have a stronger bite to them.