Kombucha Tea Facts

Kombucha - Basic Facts

: What is Kombucha Tea?; What is a Kombucha Culture?; Where does it come from?; How does it work?; What is it good for?; Is Kombucha a miracle cure-all?; Why has Kombucha drinking become so popular?; Are there any side effects?; How much do I drink?; Is Kombucha Tea difficult to make?; Is there any Medical Research?; How did Kombucha get started in the UK?; How do I obtain Kombucha?; Do I Need any Special Equipment?

What is Kombucha Tea?

Kombucha is a 'living' health drink which is easy to make at home for all the family. It costs very little - basically all that is required is tea, sugar, a Kombucha 'starter' culture and the right information. Placed in a warm environment, the sweetened tea and culture create a little chemical factory which converts all the sugar, transforming it into a drink which can taste something like a 'zingy' (non-alcoholic) apple cider, a refreshing light wine, or even champagne, depending on what kind of tea you use. Kombucha is a nutritious 'food' drink, containing lots of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and health-giving organic acids.

What is a Kombucha Culture?

The culture is a symbiosis of yeasts (candida friendly) and bacteria. Basically it looks like a smooth creamy beige to white pancake. With every brew you make it forms a new layer or culture on the surface of the liquid, which can be divided, enabling you to pass on spare Kombucha cultures to friends and family.

Where does it come from?
Kombucha Tea took a long journey from Manchuria about 2,300 years ago, by Japan and through rural Russia, where babushkas would keep a pot brewing on a shelf of their cosy kitchens. Some people treated it with reverence and regarded making and consuming the beverage as something of a sacred ritual. Alexandr Solzhenitsyn in his autobiography says it saved his life in the slave camps.

How does it work?
Kombucha can help everyone become more healthy and help prevent disease. More and more doctors and health practitioners are recommending Kombucha Tea to their patients. Kombucha does not treat symptomatically, like chemical drugs do, but holistically, by strengthening and balancing the whole body, allowing it to function better and to heal itself. Kombucha is also excellent as a preventative, maintaining and keeping the body well.

Kombucha Therapy
Kombucha is a holistic therapy. Besides drinking the tea, it has many other applications.

Kombucha tea can be applied topically to the skin:

As a poultice or compress for abscesses and ulcers

Made into an effective cream for skin disorders

Added to bath water, in a foot-bath or as a douche

As an aid to beauty treating the skin - and as a hair rinse

Excellent for steam inhalation

As Kombucha drops or nasal spray

For the treatment of animals - small and large

In the garden against bugs and to help plants' fertility

As a natural disinfectant with 100s of uses

In a wide range of food recipes

What is it good for?
Kombucha supports each person's area of need in the body, helping it to function better which alleviates many symptoms and discomforts. Everyone has their own health weakness, eg. arthritis, kidneys, skin disorders, circulation, etc, or just needing more energy on a daily basis. Kombucha is particularly known for detoxifying the body, strengthening the immune system and balancing the metabolism. It helps with a whole range of symptoms, such as digestive disorders, blood pressure, arthritis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME), MS, asthma, elimination, eczema, etc.

Is Kombucha a miracle cure-all?
Kombucha is an ancient medicine. While some media reports have given the impression that Kombucha is some sort of panacea (which is untrue), others dismiss it as a new health fad (which is misleading). The handbook, Kombucha Tea for Your Health and Healing, lays the foundations for Kombucha therapy according to principles that go back to the beginning of medicine. It was Hippocrates who pointed out that true healing happens only when the body is encouraged to heal itself. Kombucha treatment recalls the basics of true medicine.

Why has Kombucha drinking become so popular?
Kombucha seems a very timely rediscovery, at a time when there has been an enormous increase in immune-deficiency diseases, new viruses and stress-related illnesses. It is self-empowering. We can help ourselves, our family and friends at home, for very little cost. Many people are becoming more anxious about their own health, especially with the health services under strain. Kombucha is available for those people who wish to take some initiative in helping themselves, in learning more about their own body and what it needs to be healthy. Kombucha could well help in the drive towards a healthier society.

Are there any side effects?
A few people may experience some detoxification symptoms at the beginning, which is good and is only the body releasing unwanted toxins. This can be eased by taking Kombucha in small amounts to start with, and gradually building up to the recommended amount. It is also advised to drink plenty of water to help flush out the toxins. The other side effect is good health!

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How much do I drink?
Dosage: The full recommended amount to take is 150ml (a wine glass full) three times a day, or about 3 litres per person per week. (See Handbook for more on dosage.)

Is Kombucha Tea difficult to make?
Kombucha Tea is easy to make, as long as the simple instructions are followed. However, there are some do's and don'ts to successful brewing, as well as the need to understand Kombucha therapy in general. We have found that many people who start making Kombucha Tea with insufficient information inevitably make simple mistakes, get discouraged and can give up (which is a pity). The Kombucha Tea Network undertakes to help you understand Kombucha fully so that you know how to brew and care for it correctly, ensuring good quality Kombucha cultures, and for optimum health benefits. We advise you to obtain the handbook which contains all you need to know for successful Kombucha brewing.

Is there any Medical Research?
After World War II, the medical authorities in Moscow heard of communities living in areas of horrendous industrial pollution and, surprisingly, found that Kombucha Tea was responsible for the immune strength and health of those people. This stimulated much research into its properties. Kombucha made its way westwards, and a number of German doctors, impressed by Kombucha's properties, isolated its constituents and published papers about its health-giving qualities. In America, where Kombucha drinking is popular (four million), and in Britain too, the research has been desultory, probably because research in these countries is undertaken only by large pharmaceutical companies. There's no money in a product that anyone can make for him/herself!

How did Kombucha get started in the UK?
Alick and Mari Bartholomew of Bath, Somerset, UK, first heard about Kombucha in June 1994, from Alick's cousin Bob in Los Angeles who had grown up in an unhealthy environment where most of his family became ill. He found drinking Kombucha helped strengthen his immune system. Bob's health improved and he gave the Bartholomews a Kombucha starter culture to bring back to England where they decided to start a national Network and spread the word about Kombucha brewing.

After running the Kombucha Tea Network for 4 years, they decided that the information available on Kombucha was inadequate and set about writing their own book from their wealth of experience and research, and from what others had eagerly passed on through the Kombucha Tea Network. The handbook, Kombucha Tea for Your Health and Healing was published. The book contains an introduction by Dr Campbell-Brown, a physician who used Kombucha with patients for 10 years, and who advocates its use by medical and health care professionals. Since Kombucha's introduction, there are now hundreds of thousands of cultures and many thousands of people making Kombucha Tea, all derived from that first one.

The Kombucha Tea Network is created by people passing on their spare cultures to others in their communities. They feel that Kombucha is a gift of Nature and should be shared with others.

How do I obtain Kombucha?
Contact: Kombucha Supplies, The Hollies, Wellow, Bath, Somerset BA2 8QJ, UK, Tel. 44 (0)1225 833 150 for a free catalogue, or to order the Kombucha Starter Pack (handbook and kombucha culture), complete the enclosed Order Form.

Ready-Made Beverage - If you are unable to make your own, you can buy or order ready bottled Kombucha in your local health food shop. In Britain there are several brands available, most of which are either expensive or adulterated. We therefore recommend only one:

Kombuchai

Very good and best value Kombucha at £4.35 per litre retail - made with organic sugar and organic Japanese Sencha green tea (has Soil Association symbol). It is also available mail order at £38.50 for 6 x 1 litre bottles (including postage & packing, and insurance) from Kombucha Health Ltd., Unit A, 3b New Brunswick Centre, Brunswick Dock, Liverpool L3 4BS. Tel/Fax: 0151 709 0008.

Do I Need any Special Equipment?
Kombucha brewing is very simple and you will have most items that you need already in the kitchen, bowl, tea, sugar, strainer, etc. The other main requirement is constant gentle warmth, e.g. from a clean airing cupboard or radiator.

Kombucha Supplies: Our online catalogue of Products.

Kombucha Helpline: If you live in Britain and have any questions about Kombucha that are not answered in the handbook (please read it first!), we will be happy to help you.
Please phone on Monday, Wednesday, or Fridays only, 10am-1pm GMT. Tel: 01225 833 150

Kombucha Tea for your Health and Healing

Kombucha Tea for Your Health and Healing
The Kombucha Tea Network recommended handbook
Bartholomew, Alick & Mari

A mine of information essential to every Kombucha brewer.
Read sample chapters.

192 pages, 30 photos and line drawings; Softcover, 235 x 163mm (7" x 9.75")
ISBN: 0-7171-3134-3
£16.00 (US $32.00) + p&p