Kombucha?

[Supnut]

Anyone looked into this much?
I've had a bottle or two before from WF out of curiosity.
I've always said the best foods on earth involve yeast or bacteria (with very few exceptions). The word 'ferment' is occasionally tossed around with tea production as a misnomer this is actually fermented with both yeast and bacteria.

Looking at the preparation it appears there's lots of ways to tweak this and possibly incorporate methods from other beverage hobbies.

So since the only non-alcoholic beverages in the fridge are lipton diet ice green tea and milk anyway I may try and play around with this.

[Josh]

...I've always said the best foods on earth involve yeast or bacteria (with very few exceptions)...

Pardon my generalising the topic, but I have been fascinated by fermentation as a means of preprocessing food to increase nutrient availability.

This started off with live yoghurt, which made consuming large amounts of proteins from dairy sources. My latest fermentation project is on sprouts, cabbage and broccoli.

I have been toying with the idea of building some kind of bioreactor, where food slurries such as pureed veg, whey, etc individually can be combined with digestive enzymes, various live cultures etc. The purpose being to pre-digest these foods (break down proteins into aminos), make nutrients more bioavailable, and to perform any gas producing reactions outside the body so as to avoid bloating.

As an aside, I have been looking at using phidgets to provide some level of control with the processing (sensors, pumping reagents in and out of the reactor), a magnetic stirrer which can be programatically controlled, and airlocks with protection against backflow when the temperature drops. I still have a lot of work to go.

Any thoughts,
J

[Supnut]

First thought..... its probably going to stink like hell and taste like ass.

I'm not sure we can say that fermentation DOES increase nutrient availability. The point is usually preservation, flavor change or to produce alcohol. Any living cultures inside will inevitably consume some of the nutrients themselves as well.

If you're going to play with it though it might be interesting to add enzymes to make cellulose available as a carbohydrate which would make the fiber digestible. Because I always wanted to know what its like to eat like a termite.

[surbulation]

I've been making kombucha for a few months now, and I like it. That's about all I can say. I've heard plenty of huge claims about its benefits (anti-aging, cancer preventing, gives you a shiny mane, etc) but like many supplements it's hard to say for sure. I do enjoy making it though - I typically split a batch up into a few jars and ferment them a second time with some fruit or ginger or something to add some cool flavors.

Adding enzymes sounds like a great idea though... how would you go about that or what would you use?

[DeniseXan]

First thought..... its probably going to stink like hell and taste like ass.

How does Mr. Supnut know what ass tastes like?
However that happened, he must be doing it wrong.

[surbulation]

How does Mr. Supnut know what ass tastes like?
However that happened, he must be doing it wrong.

There are a lot of things that are only ok right after a shower.

[HaiUGise]

Maybe Mr. Supnut is one of those weird food gastronomers. Maybe he made sous vide pizzle sticks, with a side of pig anus?

[Colourful]

I have been curious about the claimed health benefits of kombucha too.

I can tell you that you can make it with waterever kind of tea you like, I believe it is only the sugar in the tea the kombucha is interested in. I've tried it made with green tea (a little bitter, but not wful and green tea has its health benefits too). I believe you can make it with fruit tea of your choice. Surbulation, the ginger sounds nice, I am now wondering if you could ferment your kombucha in a home made ginger tea. I have not made kombucha myself (yet?), I like ginger tea though.

Josh, did you complete your unorthadoxed sauerkraut project?

[musclehead]

I've never made kombucha and I don't know much about it, just that it's a traditional fermented drink. How do you prepare it?

I started incorporating fermented foods into my diet when I was suffering from some gut issues. At the moment I only make fermented vegetables but I'm open to trying new recipes.

[Monique Seibel]

I would like to at least try it. The first I actually heard of Kombucha was from Anna Paquin, who drinks it quite obsessively.