Kombucha Tea

I know you all will call me a liar but im swearing off booze, Beer and coffee for a while. Believe it or not Im switching back to Kombucha tea, Yerba Mate and Water. Just like back in the day when I was an Ultramarathoner.

I found this decent brand of Kombucha at the local "Hippy" co-op store and just bought a bunch of it instead of making it myself. Besides being too lazy to make my own,I dont possess a starter for it.

We did make some decent Kombucha in Maine over the past month.

Below is a bit of info about Kombucha from wikipedia, Im wayyyy to lazy to write about it myself.

Enjoy,

Tomahawk - Scouts Out!

Biology

Yeast and bacteria in kombucha at 400X

The kombucha culture is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, comprising Acetobacter (a genus of acetic acid bacteria) and one or more yeasts. These form a zoogleal mat. In Chinese, this microbial culture is called koubo (Chinese: 酵母; literally "yeast mother").
A kombucha culture may contain one of more of the yeasts Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Candida stellata, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Torulaspora delbrueckii, and Zygosaccharomyces bailii. Alcohol production by the yeast(s) contributes to the production of acetic acid by the bacteria. Alcohol concentration also plays a role in triggering cellulose production by the bacterial symbionts.^{[citation needed]}
Although the bacterial component of a kombucha culture comprises several species, it almost always includes Gluconacetobacter xylinus (formerly Acetobacter xylinum), which ferments the alcohols produced by the yeast(s) into acetic acid. This increases the acidity while limiting the alcoholic content of kombucha. G. xylinum is responsible for most or all of the physical structure of a kombucha mother, and has been shown to produce microbial cellulose.^[1] This is likely due to artificial selection by brewers over time, selecting for firmer and more robust cultures.
The acidity and mild alcoholic element of kombucha resists contamination by most airborne molds or bacterial spores. As a result, kombucha is relatively easy to maintain as a culture outside of sterile conditions. The bacteria and yeasts in kombucha may also produce antimicrobial defense molecules.
The kombucha culture can also be used to make an artificial leather.^[2]

Etymology

The English kombucha (putatively pseudo-Japanese, *酵母茶 *koubocha, "yeast tea") is often confused with the Japanese drink 昆布茶 kombucha, literally "kelp tea", from Japanese 昆布 kombu or konbu, "kelp", which is dried and powdered to produce the kelp-based beverage. ^[3]
In Japanese, the fermented black tea-based drink is known as kōcha kinoko 紅茶キノコ ("red tea mushroom"). In Chinese, kombucha is called jiàomǔchá 酵母茶 ("yeast tea"), hóngchájùn 红茶菌 ("red tea fungus/mushroom"), hóngchágū 红茶菇 ("red tea mushroom"), or cháméijùn 茶霉菌 ("tea mold").
Both the actual Japanese and Chinese names incorporate the characters 红茶/紅茶 for (zh) hóngchá/(jp) kōcha, literally, "red tea," as Asian languages denote what is known in the West as "black tea", in contrast to "green tea".

History

The recorded history of kombucha began in Russia during the late 19th century.^{[citation needed]} In Russian, the kombucha culture is called čajnyj grib чайный гриб (lit. "tea mushroom"), and the drink itself is called grib гриб ("mushroom"), "tea kvass" чайный квас, or simply kvass, which differs from regular kvass traditionally made from water and stale rye bread.

Some promotional kombucha sources suggest the history of this tea-based beverage originated in ancient China or Japan, though no written records support these assumptions (see history of tea in China and history of tea in Japan). One author reported kombucha, famously known as the "Godly Tsche [i.e., tea]" during the Chinese Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), was "a beverage with magical powers enabling people to live forever"