Sugar free drinks are all the rage these days. From the big dogs in the drinks biz (you know the ones) to the smaller, local brewers, everyone is taking sugar free drinks to the next level.
Since Sarah and Emmet started Remedy on their kitchen counter in 2012, our kombucha, and later our Sodaly, KICK and Shots, have always been 100% sugar free. But we're always asked how our kombucha can possibly be made without sugar when sugar is an essential part of the fermentation process.
This is true. Sugar IS an essential part of the fermentation process. But thanks to some fermentation magic science, the finished brew remains sugar free. Let's find out how that's possible.
What ingredients are in kombucha?
We always brew our booch with 100% natural ingredients. These ingredients can be divided into a few different categories, such as...
SCOBY: the mother culture that turns sweet tea into kombucha. It's what we call a fermentation culture or a fermentation starter that we add to our brews before we leave it to ferment for 30 days.
Natural flavours: We use 100% natural ingredients in all Remedy bevvies, and this includes our flavours. We use natural fruit extract to flavour our drinks, giving them a fruitalicious taste without the chemical-esque aftertaste you may find in artificial flaves.
Natural sweeteners: Remedy Kombucha is sugar free, so we use 100% natural and certified organic sweeteners to balance out the tartness of a raw kombucha. You can learn more about how we sweeten our bevs here.
See how there is no sugar, for real? Let's find out how that's possible by digging deeper into how kombucha is made the Remedy way.
How is kombucha made?
Brewing kombucha is no easy feat, and our booch is no different.
The first step is to brew a big ol’ pot of tea. We use certified organic green and black tea to kickstart this process before we add organic sugar. Yes, we add sugar to our brew at the start! Butt you'll find out what happens to it a little later on.
Next up, we add our SCOBY to the tea, set the clock, and let the brew ferment for 30 days. When the timer goes off, we have a darn delicious, sugar free kombucha ready to pop into bottles and ship out across the world!
How is kombucha sugar free?
You've just learnt that we put sugar into our brews to kickstart the fermentation process, so you might be scratching your head thinking: How the heck is the finished drink sugar free?
Here's where the magic of science comes in.
Put simply, all of the sugar is converted into organic acids during our 30 day brew. This leaves our kombucha completely sugar free, but jam-packed full of organic acids, which can provide an energy source for the good bacteria in your gut, regulate your appetite, prevent the overgrowth of bad bugs in your gut - the list goes on.
Sugar doesn't get the tick of approval for our Remedy drinks, but organic acids sure do!