Kombucha. It is on every shelf now, usually parked next to the word ‘wellness’ and a price that makes you blink. Strip all that away, though, and it is a genuinely simple, genuinely old drink. Here is what it actually is, in plain English.
The short version
Kombucha is fermented tea. You brew sweet tea, add a living culture of yeast and bacteria, and let it do its thing. The culture works through the sugar and slowly turns a flat, sweet tea into something fizzy, tangy and full of live cultures. That is it. No lab, no magic.
So what is the culture?
It is a little team of yeast and bacteria, often called a SCOBY. The yeast handles the sugar and makes the natural fizz. The bacteria take the next shift and give kombucha its clean, tangy bite. Between them they turn sweet tea into real kombucha. And because it is a live ferment, a proper one still carries those cultures by the time it reaches your glass.
What fermentation actually does
Two things worth knowing. First, fermentation makes a small amount of alcohol along the way, which a good process then turns back into flavour. We wrote the honest version of that here: is kombucha alcoholic? Second, because it starts life as tea, there is a little caffeine in there, less than a cup of tea. That one is covered here: does kombucha have caffeine?
How we make ours
Ours is a Scottish kombucha, and it starts exactly where it should, with real tea and a live culture. We ferment it for a good while so the cultures finish the job properly, which keeps it balanced, stable and effectively alcohol-free. Then, and this is the Life Blood bit, we build the flavour with hops rather than fruit juice or syrups. That is where the tropical, citrus and punchy notes right across the range come from. Real tea, real fermentation, real hops. A lot less sugar, no artificial sweeteners, and nothing on the back of the can we would need to explain to you.
Is it the same as the fizzy stuff also labelled kombucha?
Not always. Some drinks wearing the kombucha name are closer to a flavoured soda with a kombucha whisper. Real kombucha is actually fermented, carries live cultures, and tastes like it. Nothing wrong with a soda. We just make the real thing, and we would rather say so.
The common-sense version
Kombucha is fermented tea with live cultures. Ours is made from real tea, fermented properly and flavoured with hops, with a lot less sugar than most of the shelf beside it. That is the whole story.
Some people call that health and wellness. We call it common sense.
Keep reading
Is kombucha alcoholic?, does kombucha have caffeine?, where the flavour really comes from, and the top 10 kombucha health claims, put to the test. Or just try our real kombucha for yourself.
