by Woodsbum
Ok…. Hang on a minute…… I gotta get my head wrapped around this:
People leave sweet tea out WAY too long, get some fuzzy crap in it, then clean it up and drink it? It is fermented and has a negligible amount of alcohol in it, but people still drink it?
Seriously?
Wow….. For those of you who have never seen this stuff, the item I am talking about is called Kombucha. It is some fermented, for forgotten on the counter as I call it, and then cleaned up for something to drink. For those of you who didn’t know, this is similar to how vinegar is made.
There are a lot of people that brew this stuff at home. I guess the process is fairly easy and can be done without too much work. There are even constant Kombucha brewing kits that allow you to keep it going on your counter as you drink off the soured stuff, I guess. To be honest, I have never met anyone that is into this stuff and I have only tried it once because the bar I bounce at suddenly got a batch on tap. Yup, I drank it before I knew what it was.
The brew kits are about $54 to $80 from Amazon. From what I can tell, the kit has the jar, tea, some mesh bags for the jar, some sugar, and the mold that you use to ferment with. There are advanced kits with smarter mold from what I can tell that add to the cost.
So here is the reality of the juice: All evidence of this stuff being beneficial is anecdotal at best. Some people love it, while others get sick off it. There were some studies done that proved that the introduction of harmful bacterial is very possible while the tea grows mushrooms on your counter. This isn’t 100% guaranteed in home brew scenarios, but it is possible. Other than that, there is no real evidence that it truly is beneficial.
My take on it is simple. If you like sour and funny tasting tea that you don’t know whether it is truly doing anything good for your body, then go for it. I like tobacco pipes, so I chalk this up in the same category. It might be harmful, but it might also be helpful. It all depends on your perspective. The fact that it isn’t a booze does make me a bit more skeptical. At least my fermented molasses has been boiled and sits at 40% alcohol by volume…. Just saying.
So have some fun if Kombucha is your thing. For those of us who had no clue what the hell this $4 bottle of crap was, I have enlighten you a bit. Happy drinking or choking down vinegar, people!!!
