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What Kombucha Facts You Need To Know In 2023
What kombucha can and can’t do is a source of many blog posts and articles. Yes, kombucha is a drink that’s made from fermented tea, and it’s been around for centuries. And yes, it’s made by adding a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, called a SCOBY, to sweetened tea. Here in 2023, you probably already know this – but maybe you still aren’t sure what else kombucha is made from, or exactly why it’s become known as such a healthy drink?
Well, here’s my interesting kombucha facts you need to know, based on the questions I get asked the most as a Thailand kombucha brewer!
Kombucha Ingredients
Kombucha’s main ingredients are tea (black, green – or even white tea can be used!), water, a SCOBY (which includes kombucha starter liquid) – and an absolute heap of sugar. Like, it’s a lot of sugar when you look at it – around 70g of sugar for each litre of kombucha you’d like to end up with. Now one of the big things people think, is that because of this pretty large sugar content, that a lot of that sugar will end up in the final drink. Lots of sugar at the end of the fermentation means it’s unhealthy like a soda, right?
No. Far from it! In fact, depending on how long the first fermentation is, you can end up with virtually zero sugar!
Let me explain why this would be.
Kombucha Brewing
What kombucha contains, is a large variety of beneficial compounds, including probiotics, antioxidants, and organic acids. The fermentation process starts when a SCOBY, which is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, is added to sweetened tea. The SCOBY contains a mixture of bacteria and yeast strains, including Acetobacter, Gluconacetobacter, Lactobacillus, and Zygosaccharomyces – all considered “friendly” bacteria and really good for your gut.
During fermentation, the SCOBY metabolises the sugar in the tea, converting it into various beneficial gut-friendly organic acids, such as acetic acid, lactic acid, and gluconic acid. These organic acids contribute to the tangy, slightly sour taste of what kombucha is famous for. They’re also the main source of the what kombucha is also known for: It’s health benefits. For example, acetic acid (found also in vinegar) has been shown to have antimicrobial properties and may help inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut.
The sugar is almost completely fermented out by the end of the brewing process, because it’s a food source for the yeast in the SCOBY – it’s NOT to make it simply taste nice. This is why a lot of newcomers making their own kombucha, fail in their first attempts: They are thinking they can make a healthy kombucha that’s full of probiotics by using a more healthy sugar alternative source – like zero calories sweeteners. Remember the sugar in the sweet tea mix is the food for the yeast: No sugar source. No fermentation can happen.
Kombucha Flavours
Once the kombucha has run it’s 14-21 day first fermentation (temperature massively affects the brewing time: A hotter temperature shortens the fermentation time, whereas a colder climate will extend the fermentation time), well now it’s time to flavour the raw kombucha!
There’s an infinite range of flavours and combinations you can now use to customise your kombucha to your own taste. We have created some flavours from apple pie flavour kombucha, through to more exotic ones such as mango passionfruit. I personally always recommend you have a “red one” – whether this is strawberries or maybe raspberries, having a “red kombucha” is an excellent way of making kombucha appeal to children too, instead of them having unhealthy sodas or fruit cordials, for example.
It’s totally fine to even add herbs or spices to give a special herbal twist to your kombucha! In fact, some of the best kombucha flavours are ones containing weird and wonderful combinations such as mint basil kombucha, or even a Thai green curry flavour kombucha. I know, right? Sounds like it wouldn’t work – but let me tell you, it truly did!
You can just cut up your fruit choices, and throw them in with the raw kombucha to make this second ferment. This second ferment differs slightly though from the first ferment, as you now need to tightly bottle up the fruity kombucha for a couple of days – no air should be in contact with your booch if you want a carbonated kombucha – we’ll talk about that in the next section. Whatever fruit flavour you add to your kombucha, I always suggest adding maybe 1-2% of ginger juice. It gives a really rounded flavour – and greatly increases the fruits’ natural flavours that sometimes get a bit lost in a sour kombucha.
What Kombucha Makers Can Do To Make Fizzy Kombucha At Home
As with all carbonated drinks, the fizziness comes from the carbon dioxide (CO2) bubbles. During the first fermentation, the yeast does in fact produce carbon dioxide (CO2) as a byproduct, but the CO2 is usually allowed to escape into the air. This is because the primary fermentation vessel is typically covered with a cloth or paper towel to allow air to flow in and out of the vessel, which helps to maintain aerobic (“with air”) conditions that promote the growth of the SCOBY and continue the fermentation process.
The primary fermentation is focused on the growth and activity of the SCOBY, which contains both yeast and bacteria. As the SCOBY consumes the sugar in the sweet tea, it produces a variety of byproducts, including acetic acid, lactic acid, and ethanol. The yeast in the SCOBY is responsible for producing the ethanol (yes, small amounts of alcohol are created in ANY fermented foods!), which can then be converted to acetic acid by the bacteria in the SCOBY.
During the primary fermentation, the yeast is primarily focused on consuming the sugar and producing ethanol. While it does produce some CO2 as a byproduct, this CO2 is typically allowed to escape into the air, rather than being dissolved into the kombucha to create carbonation.
In contrast, the second fermentation is focused on creating carbonation in the kombucha. By transferring the fermented tea to an airtight container, the CO2 produced by the yeast during the fermentation process is not allowed to escape and is instead dissolved into the kombucha. Once you open the bottle of kombucha after a few days, this dissolved CO2 rapidly comes out of the kombucha (hey, physics!), creating those super awesome bubbles of carbonated goodness we all love.
Kombucha Benefits
What kombucha has also, in addition to organic acids and a variety of other beneficial compounds? The answer is polyphenols!
These are antioxidants that help protect against oxidative stress and inflammation. Kombucha also has vitamins and minerals such as B vitamins, vitamin C, and iron. There’s trace amounts of all these compounds though – so use kombucha as a supplement rather than a main source of your wellness requirements. Well, except the antioxidants which are magnified as what kombucha is, is it’s basically an extremely strong cup of tea. What tea you use in making your kombucha will determine the antioxidant level.
Green tea is commonly used as the base tea for making kombucha and is known to have high levels of catechins and polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants. According to studies, green tea-based kombucha had the highest levels of antioxidants compared to black tea and oolong tea-based kombucha. The study found that green tea-based kombucha had significantly higher levels of total polyphenols, flavonoids, and catechins than black tea and oolong tea-based kombucha. The authors of the study concluded that green tea is the most suitable tea for making kombucha due to its high antioxidant and polyphenol content.
The biggest purported benefit from kombucha, is that it also contains a variety of probiotics, which are strains of beneficial bacteria that can help support gut health and boost the immune system.
As the Head Brewer at KombuchaWOW, I prefer to use a mixture of both green and black teas. I’ve experimented with white tea also, but the flavour profile is a little too delicate for our brand. What kombucha needs in my opinion, is a little sweetness, a little sourness – but something that kind of grabs you and makes your face light up. This is highly personal though, and why our KombuchaWOW! brand is popular.
Look, I suggest you give it a go though if you want to try brewing with white tea, and compare yours to a bottle of our mixed berry kombucha once you add your berries to the white tea booch.
Conclusion
Kombucha is a healthy drink, providing you choose a raw unpasteurised brand. When kombucha is pasteurised, it means it’s been held at a high temperature (70-80 degrees) for a few minutes. This is designed to keep the kombucha as shelf-stable as it can be for commercial purposes (fridges are expensive to run in stores!), as the yeasts and beneficial bacteria are killed during the process. No yeast and bacteria means no more fermentation can take place as the kombucha stays on the shelf in the shop, thus the shelf life is greatly increased. However, the massive downside to this pasteurisation process is that it also means that all the delicate compounds – including the beneficial probiotics and organic acids: They’re also killed off.
Manufacturers often add back in a narrow selection of sweeteners, probiotics and even vitamins, but essentially all you’re drinking at that point is a glorified soda. I’m not being a kombucha snob on this, either. I am truly my own worst critic and I try kombucha brands from all over the world as part of my job. I can easily tell you which kombuchas have been made shelf stable, and once you try a raw, unpasteurised kombucha brand such as our KombuchaWOW!, then I know you’ll also be way more selective where you spend your money in the future!