CommuniTea Kombucha

We have lots of news (having not written here since August … hmm). This post will be brief but we will be expanding on the headlines here in coming days.

Perhaps the biggest news, because it affects the quality of our kombucha, is our move to using biodynamically grown tea. We have always used high quality tea (Mao Feng from our good friend Shiuwen at Floating Leaves Tea in Ballard). We are now using tea with extraordinary potential: Biodynamic tea from the oldest tea estate in Darjeeling, India, called Makaibari. To quote from the www.biodynamics.com website:

Biodynamics is

• An impulse for deep social change rooted in the practice of farming. Biodynamics calls for new thinking in every aspect of the food system, from how land is owned to how farms are capitalized to how food is produced, distributed and prepared.
• A type of organic farming that incorporates an understanding of “dynamic” forces in nature not yet fully understood by science. By working creatively with these subtle energies, farmers are able to significantly enhance the health of their farms and the quality and flavor of food.
• A recognition that the whole earth is a single, self-regulating, multi-dimensional ecosystem. Biodynamic farmers seek to fashion their farms likewise as self-regulating, bio-diverse ecosystems in order to bring health to the land and to their local communities.

Now, in addition to Farmers Markets, our kombucha is available in several new places. A number of fine restaurants are serving CommuniTea on tap:

• Sutra in Wallingford
• Oddfellows Cafe in Capitol HIll
• Uneeda Burger in Fremont
• Terra Plata in Capitol Hill

Restaurants serving kombucha from bottles include:

• Judkins St Cafe in Central District
• Miro Tea in Ballard
• Sunlight Cafe in Roosevelt
• The Fat Hen in Ballard
• Atlantic Crossing in Roosevelt

Ballard Farmers Market will be open this Sunday, the 18th, but closed on December 25 and January 1. Come and stock up!

This Sunday, December 18, will be the last market for Broadway until spring. Come say good-bye to Christina.

University District market will be operating on both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve.

We look forward to seeing you and to serving you from the winter Farmers Markets and from an increasing number of new venues.

We are late arrivals to the Madrona Market, but happy to be there. Self-professed tea geek, Brett Boynton, recently of the The Teacup on Queen Anne, is in charge of our booth there. Stop and see him, buy some delicious, hand-crafted, full strength* green tea kombucha. The Madrona Farmers Market is at the corner of MLK and Union.

*Full strength means the naturally-occurring alcohol is still there, providing nourishment for the bacteria which produce so much goodness for us. When regulations changed last year, we got an alcohol license to continue making our tried-and-true brew.

In the summer of 2010, kombucha was taken off shelves across the country as it was learned that it contained more than the allowed level of alcohol.

Brewers everywhere scrambled to find ways to address this challenge. Many methods were tried; we tried, too (see our blog). In the end, we realized the important question was not “how can we make a beverage that will fit current regulations?” but “what does kombucha want to be in the world?” We had started making kombucha in 1993 because it meant something, just as it has meant something to people for 2,000 years.

We listened to our hearts and we went back to our old recipe. We spent the necessary resources, got the licenses, and are once again making

kombucha without compromise.

Try it … your body will feel the difference.

We are still coming to the Saturday market at U District, but you’ll have to find us in a new location.

We are a load-off, in the north facing row along 50^th between Mt Townsend Creamery and Bluebird Grain Farm.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Below is a fuller version of a letter I just sent to the editor at PCC. (For folks outside Seattle,  PCC is the country’s biggest grocery co-op; nine stores).For space reasons, the letters to the editor are limited to 250 words. (That’s challenging. )

I read with great interest your piece on kombucha in the March, 2011 PCC Taste, and then followed to the referenced “Online Extra.” I am particularly interested because I have been making kombucha since 1993 and my company, CommuniTea Kombucha, makes kombucha here in the CD. Last Summer, for a few exciting weeks, our kombucha was available on tap in the PCC Fremont deli.

The kombucha world was rocked last summer when kombucha was pulled off store shelves all over the country after it was learned that it contained too much alcohol. I’m concerned that there is more to this story that PCC shoppers will want to know.

As many of PCC’s customers know, to make kombucha, one begins with steeped tea and sugar and adds a naturally occurring symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. In this age-old process, the yeast eats the sugar and produces alcohol. This alcohol becomes the food for the bacteria, and it is these bacteria which produce much of what is good for us about kombucha. The production of alcohol in kombucha is, therefore, critical. Our sense is that when alcohol is reduced to  an extremely low level, we risk compromising the activity of the bacteria.

To address alcohol concerns, new regulations now apply to the production of kombucha. To see a very clear  FAQ,  do a web search on “TTB kombucha”. It says that for kombucha to be a non-alcohol beverage, it is not enough for it to be below 0.5% when it is sold. The alcohol level must always be below 0.5%. It may not exceed that level at any time during manufacture, it must of course be below 0.5% when it is sold, and it must be below afterwards, regardless of whether it is stored according to manufacturer’s instruction. If the level ever does or ever could exceed 0.5%, it’s an alcohol beverage. As such, it must be made in a facility that is “qualified with the TTB,” that is, a brewery or a winery.

My concern is that most of the current kombucha either

1. is not compliant with the law because its alcohol level actually does rise above 0.5% during brewing and is subsequently reduced, or
2. is not really worthy of the name because the components which are made by the bacteria will have been compromised by inadequate levels of alcohol during manufacture.

An additional concern is that some kombucha is pasteurized which of course affects the probiotic content.

It is of course, possible to make and sell kombucha which is as good as it was before June of 2010. The bar to doing so has been raised, however. We respect the wisdom inherent in the traditional recipe and procedures. CommuniTea Kombucha’s commitment to making high-quality, healthful kombucha was the basis of our decision to secure appropriate alcohol licenses.

PCC, for many of us, is a standard bearer. When PCC makes a statement, we count on it to be based on wide research and knowledge. It is in this spirit that I write; I want PCC to be able to provide the community with information which is more complete.

These last few days, I have been wandering through the thicket of laws regulating alcohol. Although the journey isn’t over yet, it has become clear that since we are now producing kombucha that is categorized as beer, we are not allowed to fill bottles at the Farmers Markets. We can fill bottles freely at our kitchen (brewery). In days to come, we may discover other options for refilling that will make sense for us.

We loved refilling bottles at markets! It is an inexpensive way to provide kombucha: it saves resources as well as money. And it was just plain fun to be reusing the bottles so many times! While this development saddens us, we feel more committed than ever to providing healthful, delicious kombucha in ways that increase our connections to each other and to our environment.

We will, of course, continue to swap full bottles when people bring us empties.

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We’re looking for ways to facilitate communication among us CommuniTea Kombucha drinkers.

• Selling at Farmers Markets has been and will continue to be a great way to do that.
• Electronic media seem very useful . . . we’ll be learning how to do it!
• This blog — communitea-kombucha.com/wordpress — seems well suited as the primary means of communicating. Its contents will be “echoed” on Facebook.
• Some discussions may develop more naturally on Facebook.
• The email list will be reserved for announcements we want to be sure everyone gets.

I just want to note quickly, and with a bit of amusement, that our entry into the world of beer has not gone unnoticed. We’re listed in the Washington Beer Blog: Everything Beer in the Evergreen State. Here’s the link

• “Communitea Kombucha – Seattle. It’s not beer; it’s Kombucha. Still, it is mildly alcoholic and they want to make it legally. http://communitea-kombucha.com/“

As I was reading this evening an advertisement for a probiotic supplement, I was reminded of  the strong focus on the health aspects of kombucha we had when we first started making and using kombucha, in 1993. We did considerable research and worked hard to weigh the various things we read. I re-read for the first time in many years the original paper on kombucha (that Warren Stetzel and I wrote)  and am gratified and proud. It puts many things well and emphasizes the things I still emphasize. There are very few things I would change.

It confirms my strong sense that it is wise for us to move slowly and have high barriers to changing the basic kombucha recipe which has come down to us through the generations. Making and selling an alcohol beverage was never part of our vision, but in the present regulatory environment that seems to be what is necessary in order to make good kombucha.

Kombucha is a healthful and refreshing beverage made by fermenting tea. Until last summer, most of us assumed that ”fermented” meant that kombucha was something more like sauerkraut and miso than wine or beer. Then we all learned that kombucha did indeed contain more alcohol than was permitted by law for a non-alcohol beverage. And because kombucha contains live cultures the alcohol levels could change after bottling, depending on storage conditions and how long it was stored before being consumed.

Kombucha across the country was removed from shelves for several months as manufacturers grappled with the challenge of how to comply with the law. The dust has not entirely settled, but it is becoming clear that at least for now, almost all varieties of kombucha have been reformulated in some way so that they do not contain more than 0.5% alcohol, the legal limit for a non-alcohol beverage.

At CommuniTea Kombucha, we are concerned about taking any approach that may compromise the essential character of kombucha. We asked ourselves: if so many of the fundamental benefits come from the metabolic activity of the bacteria, could we really have good kombucha if we reduce to almost nothing the alcohol, which is their food source?

So, out of respect for the practice of 2,000 years, we have decided not to change our traditional recipe and procedure. The consequence is that we were required to get alcohol licenses from the federal and state governments. We have now accomplished that.

We are very happy with our decision and excited to be back at Farmers Markets. The five month delay was much preferable to reshaping our kombucha in order to meet some arbitrary regulatory standard.

Our delicious, raw, full-strength kombucha contains 2 to 2½% alcohol.