Kombucha is a home fermented probiotic drink. It tastes
quite like a nice fizzy lemonade. I am enjoying it from the fridge in these
summer days. You make Kombucha from a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and
yeast) which is like a flat mushroom which grows on top of the fermentation.
The culture, also sometimes referred to as the
"mother," resembles a light brown, tough, gelatinous disk, which is a
living, growing organism. With each batch of the tea, the organism can
regenerate and create a new culture called the "baby," which can be
shared with a friend much like the sharing of a sour dough starter.
It may have been introduced to Japan
by a Korean physician by the name of Kombu around 415 AD. Today the tea - once
routinely used by Samurai - is widely used again in Japan .
Kombucha appeared in Germany
about the turn of the century from Russia .
This fermented tea drink became quite popular across Europe
until World War II with the shortage of tea and sugar.
For hundreds of years a tea has been made from Chaga (a
birch-tree mushroom) by the Russian peasants of the Alexandrove district near Moscow
to cure cancer. There is speculation that the Kombucha mushroom is related to
the Birch-tree mushroom.
Visitors to Russia
can observe the following typical sight on Moscow
street corners: a large metal drum, larger than a
beer keg, turned sideways and mounted on wheels. A spigot on one end releases a
brown bubbly liquid into a glass. Customers line up to pay for a draught, down
it in several gulps and return the glass to the vendor who wipes it clean for
the next customer.
The beverage enjoyed by Muscovites, other city dwellers and
villagers throughout Russia
is kvass, a lacto-fermented beverage made from stale rye bread. It tastes like
beer but is not alcoholic. Kvass is considered a tonic for digestion, an
excellent thirst quencher and, consumed after vodka, an antidote to a hangover.
It is also recognized that kvass is safer to drink than
water. Tolstoy describes how Russian soldiers took a ladle full of kvass before
venturing from their barracks onto the Moscow
streets during a cholera epidemic. Because kvass protects against infectious
disease, there is no worry about sharing the glass.
Russians have been enjoying kvass for at least one thousand
years. Wrote Pushkin: “Their kvass they needed like fresh air. . . ” Lomonosov,
a prominent scientist of peasant origins lived in “unspeakable poverty” as a
student. “With a daily allowance of three kopecks, all I could have by way of
food was half a kopeck’s worth of bread and half a kopeck’s worth of kvass. . .
I lived like this for five years, yet did not forsake study.”
Sometimes called "mushroom tea," kombucha has been
associated with a long list of health benefits. It's helpful bacteria
that support digestion and the immune system. It also contains enzymes, amino
acids, antioxidants and polyphenols. But relatively little scientific evidence
has confirmed the health claims of traditional cultures drinking the tea.
Recently, researchers from the University
of Latvia
For each litre of Kombucha you make, the recipe is:
1 litre water
1 green tea bag
1 black tea bag
4 Tablespoons Sugar (80-100g)
Be careful not to use hot tea near the SCOBY & allow I to
cool.
Sterilise thoroughly, unless you are using a batch process.
Initial fermentation: 7-14 days. Secondary fermentation can
be more than a month (I’ve never reached a limit where it becomes unpalatable).
[1] Ilmara Vina et al,
"Current Evidence on Physiological Activity and Expected Health Effects of
Kombucha Fermented Beverage." J Med Food 17 (2) 2014, 179–188
DOI: 10.1089/jmf.2013.0031
North Utsire
