We’ve all been there. That awkward feeling when everyone else is all over something, and you have a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y no idea what they are on about... kombucha what? You wanna ask, but you know it’s too damn late.
We get it. Kombucha has a long history and a big reputation of being the ultimate gut health / probiotic / detoxing / digestion drink. Really, just about any kind of health label you’ve come across in the last 10+ years, you’ll probably have heard it about in conjunction with kombucha.
But what actually is this drink everyone’s banging on about and is it worth a go?
What is kombucha?
In a nutshell, kombucha (often lovingly referred to as “booch”) is fermented tea. The traditional method of making kombucha – which we follow at Remedy – involves a natural fermentation of sweet tea with a live culture. The live culture is known as a SCOBY, which stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.
The result is a sparkling drink with sweet and sour flavours that contains the goodness of live cultures, tea polyphenols and organic acids. Better yet, it’s downright delicious! You can even brew your own booch at home.
Now, before you go passing it off as a fad, you should know that kombucha has quite a history behind it. It’s believed to have originated in China around 2000 years ago. People around the world have been making and enjoying kombucha for thousands of years, particularly throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.
At Remedy, we make our kombucha according to the same ancient traditions as the origins of kombucha. Long-aged brewed and FULL of the good stuff. In fact, Remedy started out on our founders’ Sarah and Emmet Condon’s kitchen bench, and we are still brewing with the same live culture they first started out with!
What does kombucha taste like?
Kombucha is a live cultured sparkling drink - emphasis on the sparkling. A classic kombucha is fizzy and a little tart, giving off a similar vibe to a sparkling apple cider without the sugary sweetness.
But the taste of kombucha depends hugely on which flavour you pick. There is a huge range of kombucha flavours going around these days, some with that classic tartness of an original kombucha (e.g. Remedy Kombucha Ginger Lemon), and others with a crisp, sweet taste that tends to balance out the tartness (e.g. Remedy Kombucha Wild Berry).
We always suggest new kombucha drinkers start with a more mainstream flavour, like Raspberry Lemonade or Orange Squeeze!
What ingredients are in kombucha?
Kombucha is a pretty crafty drink, made with a super specific set of base ingredients to get all those organic acids and live cultures kicking through the fermentation process. These key kombucha ingredients are:
1. Black and/or green tea – by definition, kombucha is a fermented tea, so no tea = no kombucha. We use only the best organic black and green tea in our brews, which can be seen to have anti-oxidative effects
2. Wild Kombucha Culture/SCOBY – AKA Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. AKA the mother culture. AKA the flubbery bit that ends up forming a thick layer on top of the brew at the end of the fermentation process
3. Sugar – the key ingredient to kickstart the fermentation process. But don’t worry, we brew out all the sugar and convert them into organic acids, so our booch is left with no sugar, for real
The rest of the ingredients will change depending on which brew you're going for! Using Remedy Kombucha Ginger Lemon as an example, you'll also find freshly crushed ginger in the ingredients list, which not only tastes deliciously zesty but also may have digestive and anti-oxidative effects.
Is there alcohol in kombucha?
Kombucha is generally non-alcoholic. Like many fermented foods and drinks, a trace amount of alcohol can be produced during the natural fermentation process. We can’t speak for all kombucha brands, but we thoroughly test each and every batch to make sure Remedy Kombucha meets the national standards for non-alcoholic drinks (an ABV of below 0.5%).
Is there caffeine in kombucha?
Yes, but not much. Kombucha is made from black and/or green tea, both of which are known to contain caffeine. However, each 250ml can of Remedy Kombucha contains less than 15mg of caffeine, and each 330ml bottle contains less than 19mg. To put this into perspective, a single cup of coffee can contain more than 100mg of caffeine, depending on how strongly it is brewed.
What types of kombucha does Remedy make?
We have a bucketload of different kombucha flavours in our range so that just about every set of tastebuds can find a flave to tickle their fancy.
Our cult classics that have been around since the dawn of (our) time in 2012 are Ginger Lemon and Raspberry Lemonade. Ginger Lemon is on the more savoury side, with ginger crushed fresh at our fermentary in Melbourne to give it a fiery kick. Raspberry Lemonade is a lighter and sweeter fan fave flave, and one the kiddos tend to love!
But we’re always bringing out fresh new flaves to shake it up, too! Lemonade and Pink Grapefruit are two of our newest recruits, and they are dreamy to take along to your picnics in the park or smash at your office during lunch.
Whatever flaves you usually lean towards, we’re pretty darn confident we’ve got one that’ll catch your eye. So why not have a squizz and take Remedy Kombucha for a spin?
