Kombucha, kefir and filmjolk -- Are those the names of the latest bands from Iceland? No, they are age-old cultured beverages that are enjoying a new popularity. Full of vitamins, detoxifying agents and healthy flora for your gut, these drinks are easy to make and delicious, although they may taste a little strange to some American tastebuds. I will be posting a series on DIY cultures here, starting with kombucha.
Kombucha is a fermented, sweet tea made from Bacterium xylinum and yeast cultures. The culture looks a bit like a mushroom, but it is in fact a "symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria," or SCOBY for short.
The first recorded use of kombucha tea, also referred to as "Manchurian Mushroom Tea" and "The Remedy for Immortality," was in 221 B.C. during the Tsin-Dynasy of the Chinese empire. It spread thoughout Asia and into Russia, which has a long and rich history of Kombucha use. Nobel prize winner Alexander Solzhenitzyn mentions using kombucha (grown in a birch-leaf tea) to cure stomach cancer in his novel The Cancer Ward. According to Gunther Frank's book Kombucha, Healthy Beverage and Natural Remedy from the FarEast, Soviet scientists in the 1950s were studying why populations in the western Ural mountains resisted cancer. They found something called "Tea Kvass," aka kombucha, fermenting in a crock in almost every household in the area. Residents drank the tea several times a day for the entire lives and had radically lower rates of cancer and alcoholism than the rest of the country.
Twenty-first century proponents claim that the tea boosts the immune system, detoxifies the body, increases metabolism, aids digestion and weight loss, and improves liver function. No clinical studies have been performed that demonstrate any specific curative properties of kombucha, but anecdotal reports suggest protection against cancer and other ailments.
Kombucha parties are springing up around town. It's easy to brew your own, and once you start, sooner or later you have to find a home for the babies that grow off your mother SCOBY. That's one of my favorite things about cultured foods -- it encourages sharing!
This site from Gunther Frank has good pictures of the brewing process and sells his book. If you live in LA, Get Kombucha will deliver a SCOBY to you in person, even staying to teach you how to make the tea.
Be aware that, although studies have shown no toxicity in Kombucha tea, it can get contaminated with harmful organisms. Paul Stamets, mushroom guru extraordinaire, offers this advice in his very sceptical article on the benefits of Kombucha:
"Should your Kombucha become contaminated—most often the contaminants are green, pink or black mold-islands floating on the surface of the tea—you can try to re-purify the culture by removing a portion of contiguous sheath and introducing it to a newly prepared batch of tea. Prior to insertion, you should thoroughly wash the sheath with cold water. If the sheath you chose falls apart, then you have likely selected one that is infected. The sheath should have good cohesiveness and feel rubbery to the touch. Once placed into the new batch of tea, incubate as before and watch. The general rule of "when in doubt, throw it out" holds true here."
So keep your equipment clean and observe your bacteria garden closely. What could be more Worldchanging than cultivating and sharing culture? Happy brewing!
