Kombucha is an often-pungent type of fermented tea, of apocryphal East Asian origins, touted as something of a miracle cure among health nuts for more than a century. Kombucha is the strange jar of cloudy-orange liquid sitting on top of your eccentric family member’s fridge, the sun streaming through string-like tentacles dangling from a fleshy white disk. Kombucha is mysterious. And weird. And disgusting.
But the first time you take a sip of Mother Kombucha, that’s all forgotten. The St. Pete-based brewer, launched in early 2014, makes beverages with the complexity and subtlety of a wine or beer, but as bright and refreshing as a soda.
“There’s that health-food mentality that things that are healthy have to taste bad,” says Josh Rumschlag, Mother’s co-founder. “We decided very early on that we weren’t going to be part of that.”
Brewing kombucha at home for a few years, Rumschlag crossed paths with co-founder Tonya Donati, who wanted to make the drink more marketable. They joined forces just after Rumschlag welcomed a new son, and when Donati had a kid on the way. The company’s name came naturally since “mother” is a common nickname for kombucha’s defining characteristic: the floating puck of yeast and fungus that forms atop the
fermenting tea.
Rumschlag got hooked on all sorts of fermented stuff — kimchi, sauerkraut — because of an intestinal condition. Fermented foods can do wonders for your insides, delivering so-called “probiotics,” bacteria that balance your body’s essential payload of microscopic hitchhikers. Once he started to drink kombucha (and cut out gluten), Rumschlag says, his health problems receded.
Despite this, he’s skeptical of some of the more outlandish health benefits attributed to his beloved booch (slang for kombucha). For him, the drink should be a good choice for most people since it contains less sugar than soda and fewer carbs than beer.
Commercial kombucha brewing is growing fast, too.
“You can maybe compare it to the craft beer industry,” Donati says, “Because everybody’s tastes different.”
The kombucha-making process is similar to that of beer and wine. Yeast, bacteria and sugar are combined in a tea solution, and then the critters eat the sugar, producing acids and alcohol that deepen the flavor. Yes, alcohol. Kombucha is usually between 1 and 2 percent, so watch out, teetotalers.
It’s fairly simple to make the beverage at home. All it requires is some tea, a jar, a culture and sugar. But as with home-brewed beer, the devil’s in the details, with a range of possible outcomes from delicious to disgusting, depending on fine variations of timing and temperature.
Add that to the subtleties of flavoring and Mother’s nicely carbonated tap brews, and drinkers may opt to rely on the professionals, at least occasionally.
…
To DIY. When brewing kombucha at home, you need a starter culture, which Mother Kombucha sells in compact kits at farmers’ markets and other local events. If you buy it elsewhere, Donati and Rumschlaug encourage going through a commercial grower since cleanliness is vital to kombucha success.
Use lead-free glass. American-made is safest, unless you like your probiotics with a side of brain damage.
Use plenty of sugar. Roughly a cup of sugar per gallon of tea. It’s better to be a little over than a little under.
Keep the booch cool. Meaning: under 85 degrees. In the Florida summer, that means the AC is your friend.
Whoa, mama. What people refer to as the kombucha “mother” (technically it’s a cellulosic pellicle) is a little less life-giving than advertised. While the disc is important, most of its mass is cellulose. It’s kind of like a squishy piece of wood. The bulk of the critters that drive kombucha’s fermentation process thrive in the liquid.
…
Kombucha’s lightly alcoholic, but luckily, its carbonation and tang make it a great mixer — kind of like that pickle juice thing from 2013, only not idiotic. Here’s Donati’s favorite kombucha cocktail, a twist on the Tequila Sunrise.
Diabolique
Makes 1
Ingredients
4 ounces Mother Kombucha’s Sunshine City
1.5 ounces reposado tequila
Splash of cassis
Splash of organic orange juice
Generous squeeze of lime
Directions
Combine and serve over ice with an orange garnish.
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2015.