What is Kombucha?
Kombucha is a refreshing, healthful beverage made by fermenting sweet tea. It is a folk beverage with a long history in many countries, primarily in Europe and Asia. In Russia, the babushka (Russian grandmother) would pour leftover sweet tea into a crock at day’s end, where it would join tea from previous days. In this crock besides tea would be what they called grib. We call it a SCOBY – Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast – and this matrix of cellulose created by the bacteria from the tea and sugar is a microbiological powerhouse.
I recommend Hannah’s book, The Big Book of Kombucha. It is fun, thorough, and best of all, usually accurate! The book gives citations from research that are not available anywhere else. It gives a historical view which is interesting and yields many insights into kombucha’s popularity and effectiveness.
I endorse Hannah’s site as the most comprehensive and accurate resource on the web. www.kombuchakamp.com
I also recommend Günther Frank’s highly regarded book, Kombucha: Healthy Beverage and Natural Remedy from the Far East. It was an essential guide for me in 1993 when I began brewing. I corresponded with Günther Frank.