What is kombucha?

Kombucha is a solution of tea, sugar and water that is fermented by a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.  Or to put it another way, it's a cup of sweet tea (without milk), that has undergone a completely natural biological process to convert much of the sugar into other beneficial organic compounds (read more about these in our kombucha).  If you have an understanding of cider making, you can think of kombucha as being fermented sweet tea in the same way as cider is fermented apple juice - the processes are quite similar.

How is kombucha tea made?

Fermentation, as a process of food production might not sound all that appealing.  But, bear in mind, that it is an essential process in producing a variety of food and drink - cider, beer, wine (and their derivative products such as whisky and brandy); bread, cheese, yogurt and even chocolate. These are all (save for a few exceptions) produced by fermentation by yeast, bacteria, or both.

One of the key differences between kombucha and other fermented drinks is that it naturally contains trace levels of alcohol.  This is the result of using a combination of yeast and bacteria - the yeast creates alcohol, and the bacteria blasts it, converting it into other organic acids.  So the end result is a refreshing drink with a rather aromatic tea flavour.  In fact, the quality of the tea is paramount to the final product - supermarket own-brand tea bags just won't cut it.

Because it is a fermented drink, it has a maturity of flavour that is far beyond the original tea.  Of course, the same is often said of all the other products described above.  You could take a quantity of milk, split it three ways, and produce a range of different cheeses from the same raw material, all the result of the power of fermentation.

Without a contribution from yeast and bacteria, there would be no kombucha.  We hope you enjoy their work. Please have a read of reasons to drink our kombucha.