Making Kombucha Diary: Day 1 - Receiving Kombucha

Ok, I have to share this.  I'm making kombucha for the first time ever.  The funny thing is that I've never even tried drinking kombucha, but I'm trying to make it!

So first off, since you might be wondering, what is Kombucha?

Ok, suspend disgust for a moment here and bear with me to get to the good stuff.  Kombucha is a type of fungus, or mushroom, that grows on fermented, sweetened tea.  It looks kind of gross, but apparently has a rather addictive vinegar-y, zingy taste (depending on the flavouring you put in it).  BUT, and it's a big BUT, it's very very good for you.  The Food Renegade has a good post on the health benefits and research on Kombucha here.  To sum it up for you though, the Chinese have been using it for thousands of years, and Russians have used it for ages as well as a healthy cure-all type of drink.  There is evidence that it can help aid in detoxification, cancer defence, is antioxidant rich and is noted for reducing or eliminating fibromyalgia, depression and so on...  You can buy it for like $4 a bottle in your local health food store, but you can make a huge batch of it at home for a few pennies (if you're lucky enough to have a friend who has a few kombucha babies to share.  Otherwise you can buy the starter thing-y online for a few bucks). 

I've only recently discovered it.  Not long ago I received an email from the PR team of a doctor promoting his new book on probiotics and fermentation.  Since I'm not really all that familiar with such things, I decided to do some research before responding to their email query.  So I used good ol' facebook and asked some of my friends if they've played around with probiotics and fermentation.  True to West Coast form, I had several friends mention that they've grown or tried Kombucha.  My friend Ashley had some growing at home and kindly offered to bring me one - and I received it today!!  Huge thanks, Ashley, for the big slimy thing you brought me in an old yogurt container ;p

So begins my attempt to make myself a big batch of brewed kombucha.  I'll be sharing the progress, process and more information with you here over the next few days.  It should only take about 10 days for it to brew (the actual labour took me about 10 minutes today, and I'll share that process with you in a couple of days when I have a chance to write about it). 

Fingers crossed it will turn out ok, and maybe even inspire some of you to try it yourself, if you haven't already.

Have you made or tried kombucha?  What has your experience been?  I'd love to hear about it!! 

For the rest of the Kombucha diaries, check out:

   Kombucha Diary: Day 1 - Receiving Kombucha and health benefits    

   Kombucha Diary: Day 2,3 and 4 - Terminology and Tools   

   Kombucha  Diary: Day 5 - How to Brew Kombucha

   Kombucha Diary: Day 7 - What Does Kombucha Taste Like?  

   Kombucha Diary: Day 13 - Bottling and Flavouring Kombucha (blueberry mint flavoured)
   Resurrecting a Kombucha Scoby

*OAS Information: If you have Oral Allergy Syndrome, you *should* be ok with this one.  In fact, an article from the Toronto NOW Magazine refers to Japanese research that suggests green tea may help ease allergy symptoms (unfortunately I can't find the exact source for this study, but here's the article).