Kombucha is a nasty drink that stinks like alcohol and yeast and tastes like straight up vinegar. It’s brewed by leaving tea and sugar out at room temperature for weeks, letting bacteria feed on them and form a gross slimy mushroom-like colony at the top of the liquid. And yet, everyone from the “radical fringe” to Hollywood are sucking it down by the quart these days. Why is that?
Probably because it has been brewed by cultures all over the world since the B.C. days, and there’s lots of anecdotal evidence to suggest that it does everything from ward off cancer to improve the digestion. Some people actually even come to enjoy the taste, and there’s some things you can do to smooth over the more pungent aspects of it.
GT Dave’s kombucha brewing operation began with this story (from the GT Kombucha website):
“In 1995, founder GT Dave’s mom, Laraine Dave, had been diagnosed with a rare form of breast cancer with a trajectory of illness known to move quickly to the lymph and bones. When she was diagnosed, doctors held out little hope for her given the aggressive type of cancer and its advanced stage. But to the surprise of everyone, her cancerous cells were found to be dormant with no metastasis. Her physicians were baffled and asked what she was doing that others in her situation were perhaps not doing. The only thing she could think of was that she had been drinking homemade Kombucha every day for the last couple of years.”
It should be said in all fairness that, for all the claims in favor of kombucha, in-depth clinical studies by medical professionals have not been undertaken on humans yet (kombucha did do some good stuff for rats in trials, however.) Still, many people simply feel better and like the taste, and that’s good enough to make it a growing market.
I have to say, I actually like the taste of GT Dave’s original, raw, no flavors added kombucha. Basically, think less sweet apple cider with just a hint of vinegar. If you like bubbly non-sweetened drinks like mineral water, it’s not much of an adjustment really.
If straight kombucha is a little too much, you can ease in with a “flavor infusion”. I found these to have varying degrees of effectiveness, however. GT Dave offers Citrus, Multi-Green, Gingerade, Strawberry, Cranberry, Raspberry, Grape and Mango. I found that the Mango doesn’t really effect the flavor at all, just makes it an orangey pulpy mess. Multi-Green does something to the whole thing that I’d rather not remember. Gingerade, on the other hand, is pleasant, with less of a “bite” and a vinegar touch than the “hard stuff” (but still composed of 95% kombucha.)
As far as health effects, I’m still pretty young and don’t have any major diseases to fight off, so I don’t know. One thing I’ve noticed it does do, however, is sort out my digestive tract in a jiff when it starts acting up. So I like one every now and then just for that if nothing else. Brewing it at home may still be a little beyond me at this point, however.
GT Dave bottles usually retail for around $3 to $4, but one bottle is easily good for at least two servings (this is not the kind of drink you want to chug.)
