I had favorite flavors for different moments: ginger for stomach malaise, lemon for a hot day, cranberry for a cocktail mixer.Īnd now that I was brewing Kombucha myself, I could enjoy it on a daily basis without forking over $4 a bottle. If it was a particularly good day-or a particularly bad day-I might let myself have two. Wherever I was, I had a mental map of where to purchase a bottle and the price difference at each location. I started bringing my own to dinner parties. Over the years, what began as an occasional treat evolved into a daily need. It soothed me, similar to how I imagine the effects of Xanax, or catnip, might feel. I drank it when my stomach hurt, or when I needed to de-stress before a test, or when I had a reason to celebrate. With kombucha, I was changing the part of myself that thought I’d always feel bad for tasting something good.Įach week I started trading in some of my paycheck for kombucha. Growing up in LA, the only way to have your cake and eat it too was to make the cake gluten-free and vegan and not eat anything else that day. At 60 calories, 4 grams of sugar, and one billion probiotic organisms per bottle, I marveled at how something so delicious could actually be good for me. The store stocked just one brand and flavor, GT’s Original. It was effervescent and tangy, reminiscent of champagne life-affirming. I first tasted kombucha at the health food store where I worked during college. I showed off Toby to anyone who visited my apartment, as slap-happy as a kid at a science fair. Each week I moved the prior week’s batch into an airtight jar in the fridge to further ferment. To start the brewing process I sterilized a large glass jar, brewed black tea with sugar, and fed it to my newly christened treasure: Toby the SCOBY. When I mentioned my interest in brewing, he offered to bring a SCOBY to our first date. Using a keyword search I found a blond grad student who listed kombucha brewing as one of the “six things he couldn’t live without.” He wasn’t my type, but that was of little concern. New to San Francisco, I was already using OKCupid to date and expand my social circle, so I decided to use it to procure a SCOBY. As a daily kombucha drinker, I’d decided to save money (and admittedly develop a deeper relationship with my favorite beverage) by brewing it myself. Kombucha purportedly aids digestion, boosts immunity, reduces inflammation, increases energy, alleviates anxiety and depression, and-according to the most ardent believers-cures cancer. Let me explain: a SCOBY (“symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast”) is the fermentation engine of kombucha, a probiotic tea drink made from tea and sugar. It reminded me of a placenta, slippery and grotesque and beautiful. As soon as I could get away, I raced home to examine my prize. I made my best small talk, occasionally grazing his arm and offering a compliment, so he wouldn’t change his mind about the SCOBY. He arrived holding a mason jar covered in saran wrap. How big would it be? What would it smell like? I waited on a bench at the park. Kombucha is a good source of probiotics, which are beneficial bacteria that support several aspects of gut health.On the day of our OKCupid date, I woke up thinking not about my suitor, but about his fungus. Keep in mind that these studies are focused on the effects of probiotic supplements rather than probiotic-rich foods like kombucha.Īdditionally, because the probiotic content of kombucha varies widely, it’s unclear how much kombucha you would need to drink to achieve similar results. What’s more, one review found that probiotic supplements significantly reduced symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition whose symptoms include constipation, diarrhea, stomach pain, and bloating ( 4). In fact, studies show that they may reduce inflammation in your gut, alleviate diarrhea, and enhance nutrient absorption ( 1, 2, 3). Probiotics are associated with a long list of impressive benefits, especially when it comes to digestive health. Like other fermented foods, kombucha is loaded with probiotics, a type of beneficial bacteria found in your gut.
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