KOMBUCHA: trendy overpriced miracle beverage for 2008 - on shelves at a health food store near you

i've been on a yerba mate kick but i'm probably way behind the curve on that

oh yeah i was going to call that shit out too.

also jody i knew you'd be the first to reply to this :)

Is "raw" the usual adjective for pure juices? - the only liquid I'd use "raw" with is sewage :-/

when somethin grows in MY tea, i toss it.

haven't they been trying to pimp this shit for at least the last decade?

i drink raw milk (still legal in california, for now)

its not a juice, its a fermented tea that has carbonation-like bubbles.

most brands add a little fruit juice for flavor.

my roommate tried to brew this in a kitchen cabinet, but didn't cover the jar. soon enough there were flies everywhere.

the store-bought kind is sorta good.

The lemon and ginger flavours are very very good mixers for Gin. I love the stuff, the raw organic brand being my favourite. Harder to get in the UK though, my local healthfood store only has peach flavour which is not great.

I had a sip once and thought, well, maybe. But I'm not entirely sure I'd be able to handle a whole bottle.

i'd love to try and brew at home because the store brand shit is hella pricey, but it sounds pretty hard tto get it right and fizzy.

also ed OTM thats my favorite brand and flavors.

http://shop.deliciousorganics.com/images/products/synergykombuchagrp.jpg

i really like the plain one a lot too.

what the hell is this all about"

http://pics.drugstore.com/prodimg/91473/200.jpg

?

http://blogs.indiewire.com/mattdentler/archives/d1_slusho_800x600.jpg

i was just talking with someone like an hour ago about kombucha. basically, fizz = classic, smell = dud.

this stuff has been around for at least a decade.

thousands of years even, but i have only just become aware of it therefore it is new and exciting.

Sadly, I have only heard of this before because of System Of A Down:

The kombucha mushroom people,
Sitting around all day, Who can believe you,
Who can believe you, Let your mother pray

the lovely emma b made some in the boiler room - it tasted like regular iced tea tbh

LOOZA. I drink it.

i am drinking some right now, yes yes.

LOOZA is gr8

one bottle of looza carefully used could last a family a lifetime

I'm beginning to think I'm wasting my money on all this blueberry/pom/acai stuff because it's all pasteurized which I suspect renders it sugar-water. (by killing all the benficial enzymes and phytonutrients and stuff)

http://dev.wilkinsonspharmacy.co.nz/gogoImageManager/feed/DATA=60/p_berocca2.jpg

what is kombucha supposed to do again?

ian's roomates have a culture growing in the kitchen, it looks neat.

i read a description of its taste at one point--that it was like an alcoholic peeing in your mouth. this of course might have been a vast exaggeration, but i don't quite know if i want to find out.

it's got billions of little swimmy living things in it! i had yogurt and a kombucha this morning so my digestive tract must be as teeming as a cambrian tidepool.

(though i suppose all them little micro-orgs are more floaty than swimmy)

so basically it is like super blue-green algae supplement craze redux

MULTI GREEN KOMBUCHA

to those trying this for the first time: DO NOT SMELL PRIOR TO TASTING.

i think it's ok

I resent paying actual money for beverages that don't contain alcohol.

it has trace amounts of alcohol. i checked. proof less than satisfactory.

the gingerade is the best!

I had some of this on 69's recommendation. It was OK. Might do again.

my boss put one of these in the freezer at work and then forgot it. what an explosion of gross.

she also calls them 'snoochie boochies', probably just to annoy me.

hah the trend has been in full swing here for at least a year, but i still only drink them like once every 3 or 4 months.

kombucha is pretty gnarly IMHO. my roommates do it homebrew stylee.

i think if one regularly drinks emergen-c, he/she will be less offended by the taste of kombucha (not that emergen-c tastes bad, but you are used to the fizzy i am drinking something random and weird thing).

kombucha after yoga class >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> kombucha any other time

lol juice bar amirite

"kombucha wonder drink" <--- pussy shit

oxygen bars lol

lol inversion boots / rofl macrobiotic diet

So it's actually good shit? I picked up the ginger flavor on the recommendation of a salesperson, and never drank it...Is the ginger good?

And so, the desperate neverending search for a new taste sensation(!) continues.

"kombucha wonder drink" <--- pussy shit

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Wednesday, January 23, 2008 9:20 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

otm. that shit is too sugary and not vinegarey enough.

the ginger one is awesome, but i'd recommend one of the fruity ones as an introduction.

also sorry for starting this thread when there already was one on noize that actually got bumped yesterday.

DON'T SHAKE YR KOMBOOCH OR IT WILL ESSPLODE

its tricky because you need to shake it a little bit to mix it up.

open it and have a few sips before shaking.

oh, i'll shake yr komboocha, mr.!!!
xpost

i am liveblogging my first kombucha. it is a gingerade.

first sip, pretty good. i like. tza otm about emergen-c type fizz (which i dig).
second sip still pretty good.

now the smell test.
not a pond smell, more like cheese and old socks.

i shook before i opened, but it didn't explode. i'm going to shake again to get that sediment goodness off the bottom.

i saw ian's roommate's science project type jug. this seems far more palatable for a beginner.

I like the Synergy green one a lot.

but yes, the shit is insane overpriced

maaaannnn how do i shot kombucha in durham

i know this is some bullshit new age placebo effect, but i really do feel calmed down and focused. is that from the 1% alcohol?

what is this drink going to do to my pooper in two hours?

ya know what's cool? It's a symbiotic combination of yeasts and bacterias, not a fungus or mushroom.

also it has glucoronic acid which is what your liver uses to filter out toxins. we used to make it in a house I lived in back in like 1994. recently my roommate started a batch, but we couldn't drink it all fast enough.

And so, the desperate neverending search for a new taste sensation(!) continues.

Well, one does like to experience the varied bounty that the world offers.

swamp burp is.. interesting.

what is this drink going to do to my pooper in two hours?

^^it's been at least two hours, pooper update please.

maaaannnn how do i shot kombucha in durham

whole foods, back in the dairy case weirdly enough though they also have some up in the impulse buy/lunch packages/cold beer case up near the cash registers

this is the one down by ninth street

i drink raw milk (still legal in california, for now)

Do you mind if I ask why?

What the hell is kombucha supposed to do? I do like symbionts.

What the hell is kombucha supposed to do?

Taste great and mix well with Gin.

But I have four things in my fridge for this purpose. Koimbucha now categorized below "curiosity."

You can never have enough ways of drinking gin, and it is a really good Gin mixer.

I am thinking "surreptitiously, in public" might be a good new way for me to drink it.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/txmed/Slurm.jpg

it's the opposite of a drink mixer

probiotics are detoxifiers, good for liver and kidneys. there's also a subtle yet real rush on ingestion, a little head-singing snap. I find myself able to skip coffee sometimes after a small cup. also, because it's a cleanser the effects are cumulative. good stuff to balance yourself out with after taking antibiotics.

brewing your own = x 5 times the effect of retail bottles as you'd expect, they got the taste right but the rush is tempered.

ahhhhh, Durham talk is makin' me crazy-homesick. if I told someone in Chapel Hill I didn't know where to get kombucha they'd probably do a spit-take right in my face. and then, because they would probably be drinking kombucha at the time, I guess I could just lick my face off and satisfy my curiosity.

My sophomore year, I had this awesome hippie student teacher (with dreads!). She brewed a batch of kombucha for me and put it in a pickle jar. Though its aftertaste reminded me of vinegar, i still liked it...then i got to that white organism.

i read a description of its taste at one point--that it was like an alcoholic peeing in your mouth

actually, i imagine it tastes a bit like this, yes

i had my first kombucha in chapel hill at the co-op! but anyway now im back in DC where kombucha is plentiful

i've been on a yerba mate kick but i'm probably way behind the curve on that

it makes me wired but the 2-hours-sleep frayed nerve type of wired, not for me.
funk a kombucha, a beverage has not truly arrived until it has its own pyramid scheme:
http://www.waccobb.net/forums/waccobb/Images%20for%20Members/xango_juice.jpg

a distant uncle is convinced he went into remission last year because of this stuff and basically made his house a shrine to xango. I don't want to just poopoo that, god bless whatever did it for him, but $25.00 + a bottle?????

http://www.nonihealthnut.com/images/noni_multi01.jpg
finance!

http://www.kombucha.org/banan4.gif

removes rust!

Unexplained Severe Illness Possibly Associated with Consumption of Kombucha Tea -- Iowa, 1995, from the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/00039742.htm

holy shit crazy christian former co-worker wont stop bombarding me with xango emails.

I think for the Xango price, the equivalent-priced bottle of scotch would do my spirits better.

the gt's gingerade flavor is awes. yea this shit is overpriced, but i think i could afford like one of these per week.

didnt read the thread, but you couldnt pay me to drink this fucken fagsauce

i used to brew this stuff at home in the mid-90s in a bucket. tasted ok but i don't think it was the health revelation i was hoping for.

Nastiest beverage I've ever tasted. That jellyfish shit in the bottom made my skin crawl.

i like this but oh say can you see the creeping influence of the RAW FOODS LOBBY on our overpriced organic supermarket culture??? oh noes!!!

i mean, i will totally drink this but mostly for taste reasons -- i like tangy, acidic, slightly fermented stuff

obviouslt the health benefits of the commercially available stuff is way overstate, but i don't really drink it for those reasons. e.g. i do not put brewers yeast into an goji-berry & algae smoothie/enema

plain yogurt's active cultures are much better for you.
― Steve Shasta, Tuesday, April 10, 2007 2:16 PM (1 year ago)

for people who have made kombucha: can you get it to be very carbonated?

http://webimgs.bevnet.com/bestof/2011/besttea.jpg
every day

That's my new favourite brand.

I've also discovered that kombucha can be useful at the end of a booze binge. Its mildly alcoholic nature (+ the sugar) tricks your body into thinking you're still drinking beers. But, the helpful microorganisms actually start helping out your gut!

kombucha and raw coconut water are going to put me in the poorhouse

I didn't know i was sick but drinking this every day has cured me

The ginger one

It's great for a hangover. Your body sort of thinks it's more booze.

I was into it but then I got food poisoning on the same day I drank some at lunch & now I can't touch it it makes me gag :/

yeah so good as a hangover cure, totally works imo

haha totally, i partied w/ my siblings pretty late and was feeling pretty rough the next day, i went out to my brother's farm where they brew jugs of homemade kombucha and water kefir and i drank a mix of the two all day and it helped a ton. i love that sour acidic effervescence, so tasty

a little weed helped the hangover too tbh

roommate used to brew this: very mother brain. does make you feel clean.

my friends who don't drink alcohol consume vast quantities of kombuch & ginger beer.

i think my brother might be brewing kombucha and water kefir too, but that's just because his house is disgusting

lol

my brother-in-law saw the jugs and said to me later "they gotta put that shit away when they have guests over, shit's digusting"

jar w/ the mother in it, it is pretty intense. looks like an organ floating in formaldehyde

i am drinking the synergy ginger one but with chia seeds in it. very fucked up. it's the same dumb part of my brain that makes me try bad-but-conceptually-interesting-sounding hummus variations, sometimes, while the one i should get (regular hummus / chia-free ginger synergy) is right in front of me, i guess thinking i will never make progress in life if i do not throw myself selflessly into the raw heat of innovation. very texturally distracting slurping seeds though.

Oh yea the seeds are weird. I don't really like when it's a weird color either. It's Gingerade or Original for me when it comes to GT products

I feel kind of stupid for throwing out an almost year-old bottle that was at the back of my fridge. I mean, what more could possibly happen to it?

i am cultivating my scoby and am on my second batch of buch. the first one is fermenting so i will see how that goes before i start to experiment with flavoring. cannot wait to try my first batch!!

i liked using up pineapple cores and other texturally unfavorable parts of fruit -- what do you have queued up for flavoring candidates?

Im thinking on it but no plans yet beyond ginger. I’d welcome ideas & tips!

More of an anti-tip, but I found that ignoring common wisdom (like "Don't reuse the scobys from flavored kombuchas" or "Don't use corn-syrup sweetened tea as a substrate") didn't result in the catastrophes I thought they might.

Not that 'leftover sweet tea from popeyes' Kombucha ended up tasting great...

But in line with reusing scobys, you can cultivate a mother from the dregs of a retail kombucha like GT's, if you're ever in a situation where you have to start from scratch and there are no donors around.

Oh that’s where I’m at — my scoby has cultivated for 3 weeks and now I’m on fermentation phase for the first batch.

I will never understand why the store-bought kombucha drinks are invariably sweetened with stevia etc. Would have thought that the market attracted by the qualities of kombucha would be put off by sweeteners. Shows what I know, I guess.

what's the deal with boozy kombucha? I'm assuming the alcohol would kill off any healthy probiotic bacteria, am I wrong on this?

Alcohol cleanses you from the inside

(Im joking — i have no idea about malt bev buch. I tried it once and would have rather had a beer and a buch separately.

kombucha pretty easily turns into a beverage with alcohol if you mess it up

finally achieved carbonation!! when i opened the bottle to "burp" it i discovered it was done!! it's so tasty!! now that i have this figured out i can get to flavoring. thank you powerful scoby <3 <3 <3

Congrats! How would you describe the unflavored version compared to what you're used to?

It tastes p much the same!? That same tangy kick (but not vinegary) and small bubble carbonation.

it does taste faintly of tea as well