what are your experiences with this funky tea? i've recently started drinking it, and i'm ambivalently effected, but mostly feelin positive about it. in my experience, it makes me feel good. the other day, i was ridin a kombucha high! sometimes i feel just a bit energized, but sometimes i feel grrrreat. but it tastes yucky and so very funky and sometimes have trouble encouraging myself to drink it. but i typically end up drinking it anyways. it's like vinegar soda! someone told me to be careful, because there are anti-biotics in it. i didn't understand or agree, because everything i know, plus what the bottle says, says it's a probiotic. which brings me to another question ~ is there such a thing as too much probiotics in someone's diet? between this and the bioK/kefir, miso, tempeh, and kim chee just to name a few, i'm ingesting quite a bit of probiotics/good bacterias/fermented foods. i'm trying to be mindful of not overdoing it, but i haven't found any good info on portion, etc.
kombucha tea cured me of my mono. Nothing was helping and my liver was failing. My mom just got a shit load of those bottles and I drank about 24 ounces a day (it was so gross at first, I drink the grape flavored now and like that) and was feeling better in about a week. This is really gross but I would let out these unreal burps when I was drinking a lot of that stuff. They would come out from the very bottom of my stomache. I wish I tape recorded them. I don't know about your other questions. I don't take probiotics anymore. I had to consume a lot of them and take a lot of achidopholus (sp?) pills but then after I cut out the sugar I found I no longer needed them.
kombu is seaweed and cha is tea yes? so therefore kombucha is seaweed tea? There is a seaweed stock made from kombu here that you can put in a hot cup of water and drink and it is quite nice, it is also the secret ingredient to getting your homemade miso soup to taste just right. Are we thinking of a similar thing? :H
No, stephanie. good logic on the guess. it is fermented (usually) black tea, no seaweed to it. Kombucha is basically a live tea "vinegar" (not quite, but that's the closest fermrntation process, living vinegar- such as Bragg's) probiotics are the "good bacteria" that people have a hard time keeping in the intestine. I have used 'bucha with antibiotics, they way some use live yogurt, and 'bucha was a bit better at making me feel the balance was back. the folks saying antibiotics in the tea are either confused or clueless. Kayte, are you getting GTs or another commercial, or are you brewing your own? is it live, with all the thready sediments? if it is live, it is great for you (UNLESS your body doesn't click, and it will tell you very clearly). We intend to brew in spring, winter temperaures are too unstable in the house. for now, it is GTs and We found we have to make sure the bottle is live. as a daily or close to daily tonic, half the bottle is good. If I'm sick/ trying to get sick, I can drink the full bottle, but I have trouble drinking enough water when I do that. That's when I get 'bucha headaches from overdoing it. I know people who will blend the "pancake"/ "Scooby" into a drink after harvesting a baby for the next brew. that's a bit much for me, but I also don't look at wheatgrass as a daily thing if well.
hmm...interesting. the tea i drink is live and raw, and certainly has those little floaties! i think the brand is called 'rejuvenation', whatever, it's the kind they sell up front at whole foods. it makes me feel peppy. i'm glad to know that it's full of goodness for me. thanks for the thoughts! i'm not ready to brew my own yet - one day, when i'm more acclimated to the taste and have done more research on it. and yes, i've definitely found grape to be the tastiest!
LOL i just saw one of those 'pancakes' the other day and I dont know that I could stomach that in a smoothie either. Kombucha is a traditional Chinese mushroom tea. I drink GT's green sometimes, with spirulina and chlorella and klamath lake blue-green algae. Theres no culture in the green one, just algae mush @ the bottom that resembles it. I usually pick the floating culture out of the other kinds and just drink the drink. I've drank the culture before though, and I never feel different doing that...One thing I have noticed is it is only the tea in GT's that is organic, not the strawberries or grapes or the actual flavor/content of the drink...which I find disturbing, which is why I stick with the green one since algaes are usually organic and sustainably harvested. I've never had a headache from downing a whole kombucha. I get a very mild alcohol buzz with them sometimes though. As for doing too many ferments, it seems like it would be healthy @ first. Most people's good/bad bacteria balance is like 70-30 where it should be 70-30. I've heard a lot of great things about Donna Gates "body ecology diet" book thats all about fermented foods and making your own kefir. But if your not consuming a lot of starch/bread/whitepotatoes, or too much sugar of any kind(even fruit), your intestinal flora is probably good and balanced with very little candida. If you've ever had antibiotics in your life, a lot of probiotics are always good to balance it out =) A little cultured food is always found in cultures with a lot of longevity. Usually it's just one food though...like Germans made saurkraut...the oriental people have miso...Europeans have yogurt(+kefir too probably), etc. KNowing how to culture foods and preserve them was once a critical survival skill. Food that can age forever and only get better allows people to age forever and only get better
It is definatley pricey for a drink that somebody just let go bad and ferment. You can get kombucha starter kits online for like 30 bucks. Once you get going though, you can keep growing off the same mushroom, since the 'mushroom' keeps giving birth to babies...so its essentially free after the first investment. You can learn how to make...whats it called, fermented wheatberry water....... not kefir....uhm.... REJUVELAC, that's it. That's pretty easy and cheap to make if you can find wheat seeds which are very cheap. The directions are all over online. You can also learn how to make nut and seed yogurts and cheeses somewhere.
my Nan used to have Kombucha shroomage growing in her fridge in a jar... I never tried it... looked gross. Sorry if this seems immature, but I am a person that gags easily and my parents used to feed my athletic sisters green barley drinks which I also thought were gross. I think if you are athletic you are.. you shouldn't need sups. Ehh I was the fat one.. the rotten egg if you will. Life!
yes, synergy, that's it. that's the one i drink. the grape and the triology aren't bad tasting, either!
kombucha freaks might share their extra babies, too. there is a Yahoo group for it, and I think a TRIBE. i'm looking for jun directions...
thank you so much! You don't know how much help you have been this past week to me! I wish you lived on this coast so I could try this new raw resturaunt.
Kombucha is very easy to brew, and pretty easy to find in my area. I see people all the time on craigslist giving it away for free, or sometimes just a fee for glass jars or tea.
