What's All the Buzz About Kombucha Tea?

Kombucha is a delicious, healthy drink made from fermenting a beneficial "mushroom" in black or green tea. Sugar is added to the green tea, and many healthful properties form over time, giving the beverage an effervescent fizziness and special taste. The flavor can range from a sparkling apple cider taste, to a champagne taste, depending on how strong the tea is brewed and what kind of tea is used.

So what exactly is kombucha and what does it do?

The "mushroom" is really not a mushroom at all but instead a probiotic culture of beneficial yeasts, vitamins, and immune boosters. This beige, living, raw food health powerhouse looks like a rubbery pancake or a big portobello mushroom. The culture can be obtained through mail order, the Internet, or through a friend who grows them, as they are self-renewable.

The culture is placed in a mixture of tea and sugar which has been allowed to cool to room temperature. In about seven days, depending on climate and quantity of tea, the kombucha digests the majority of sugar out of the low-calorie beverage, producing organic acids and B vitamins. Digestive enzymes and amino acids form, as well as vitamin C. The "mushroom" ferments the tea into a sparkling, fizzy beverage, as the carbon dioxide produced floats the kombucha to the top.

When the mushroom finishes it's biological process, the "Mother"(original culture), has a new "baby" kombucha form on top, healthy and new. Now you have two kombuchas! This process automatically happens, almost indefinitely if you have a healthy culture to begin with. You simply discard the older layers after several brewing cycles, and begin again with a newer culture. One mushroom can bring about enough cultures and tea to please family and friends!