September 21, 2023 • 47 mins
Kombucha is pretty popular right now. But what is it exactly and where did it come from? The answers await you!
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you
should know the podcast. Although Jerry's not going to be
around for long, everybody, so savor her, relish her, smell
her hair. Yeah, all the stuff that you like to
do to people you like.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Awkward start for one on the booch.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I should probably hold on. I should probably explain Jerry's
not going to be here for this recording session. She's
always going to be around around Oh sure, okay, I
just want to make sure people weren't like, where's Jerry going?
What'd you guys do to Jerry?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Right?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I don't need email like that now?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Who does?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So, Chuck, you already let it slip. What our topic
is today, which I'm surprised.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's right. The butch aka kombucha, which is some people
call it kombucha ti, but everyone calls it kombucha really
in practice. But you know, we're talking about the beverage,
the sort of odd tasting fizzy sweet teed probiotic drink
(01:24):
that is very popular right now that I don't drink.
Emily drinks it every day, No surprise there, although she's
switching brands now. We'll get to that later.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay. I can't wait to hear it because I drink
it almost every day too.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah. I don't like the flavor, so I just don't
drink it. That's just a simple one for me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, you don't like anything vinegary, so of course you
don't like kombucha.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You know, you don't like mustard, you don't you don't
like white vinegar, I don't like pickles, you don't like
apple cider vinegar. You don't like red wine vinegar.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
M I mean, I'll take a little bit of that
or maybe some balsamic vinegar on a salad. Oh, But
other than that, vinegar is a tough sell for me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay. But or the reason we're talking about vinegar is becau.
Kombucha has a kind of a vinegary thing going on.
It's very tart, it's very acidic. And you said something
in there that I don't think I fully realized. Although
I kind of knew it was one of those things
where I had all the information, I just never put
it together into a cohesive hole. Okay, But kombucha is
(02:32):
fermented sweet tea. Yeah, and I mean, of course there's
other stuff in there, but to make kombucha and it
just be raw, pure kombucha. All you need is sugar
tea and then something called the scobie, which we'll talk
about soon. And you put those things together, let them
sit in a glass jar with the lid off and
a little bit of muslin over the top and a dark, warm, dry,
(02:57):
very important place for I don't know, a week, two weeks,
you're going to have kombucha.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, and it sort of belongs alongside other things like
yogurt and sour kraut, where the the microbes are a
big part of the appeal of these things that you
can put in your body.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah. Can we can? I just call out the sentence
that Olivia wrote because it's hilarious. Sure she's she wrote
that kombucha is a food in which microbes are a feature,
not a bug. It was definitely worth a hat tip
at least.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Have you ever seen the Volkswagen Beetles with the license
plate that's his feature?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
No, it's always very I don't get out that much though.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Uh So you'd mentioned scoby. Scoby stands for it's an
acronym se o BI stands for a symbiotic colony of
bacteria and yeast, because that's exactly what it is. If
you look at a scoby, you might hurt it called
a mother or a mushroom, like the mother, Like, what's
(03:59):
it called like a mother? Yeah, But if you look
at a scoby, it looks disgusting. Uh. It looks like
something out of a science lab, like out of a
petri dish. It's round and sort of pancakey and gelatinous,
and it looks like brain matter or something. It looks gross.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It looks like the muffin top of a jellyfish, but
just the muffin top part.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Sure, that's that's another good way to put it's kind
of gross too.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And that that mother, that mushroom, or that scoby is
what I saw far and away, at least in America.
It's most people who grew brew kombucha call it a scoby.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
There's a specific term for it, a solid phase cellulosic pellicle.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And when you dig into it microbal microbially, it's astounding
what it actually is. It's like a really unique kind
of thing that seems to only grow in kombucha from
what I could find.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, and it's what it is actually, or how it
functions at least in kombucha. It's sort of the fuel
that drives that fermentation process that take that sweet tea
from just regular sweet tea to the fermented, bubbly, weird
tasting thing that you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and it's really insolvable, like you can drop it
in just about anything and it will hold its shape.
It has a lot of tensile strength, apparently it can hold.
So it's cellulose made of little tiny fibrils and there
I think one hundred times thinner than the cellulose fibrils
you get from a plant. Plants are lousy with cellulose,
(05:39):
but this cellulose is extruded from bacteria, little tiny, tiny
little things of cellulose that end up getting woven together
to create this large structure that can hold I think
one hundred times the amount of liquid or water that
plant cellulose can and it's a hundred times thinner than
(06:01):
plant cellulose. And it's being extruded pooped out of these
little bacteria that are building this thing over the course
of weeks.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, Like, if you've made one
that was the size of a hammock, you could put
a house on it.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah. Easy, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I haven't done a math on that.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
No, it's in there somewhere, though, So Chuck, I think
we should we'll hold off on how to make it
a batch of kombucha, although it's not that hard. But
it turns out that that that symbiotic colony of bacteria
and yeese, it's a pretty good descriptor because that's what
is in that scobie. And there have been studies of
(06:42):
what's in there, and what they found is that there's
an ever changing cast of characters. Yeah, but that there
seem to be a couple that are really responsible for
forming the scobie and then in turn creating kombucha. One
is a bacterium called chould.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
You want me to do this? Sure, get Koma gatti
bacteria bacter.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, I think that's okay, yep. And then that's the
stuff that forms that cellulose that gives the scobi its structure.
And then inside there's some yeast, and specifically the yeast
from the.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Genus Bretons bretton nomosis.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Sure, and those are the ones that actually seem to
do most of the fermenting.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, and we have, well, at least in this case,
there was some Oregon State University researchers named Keisha Harrison
and Chris Curtin, who a couple of years ago looked
at one hundred and three scobi's that are used by
brewers here in North America. That yeast they call it brett,
and it's sort of an used to be used a
lot for old ales in nineteenth century England apparently huh,
(07:54):
not used a whole lot for beer anymore because it
tastes funny except for like lambs, and also used in
barrel aged red wines. And I think in wine you
just don't want too much of it. And then beer nowadays,
like I said, unless it's a lambic, they usually try
to get rid of it, things like a contaminant in
beer these days.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Even so, it sounds old timey, I guess then the
breat and that actually kind of dovetails with kombucha's image.
It has an image of being like an old timey,
super old timey ancient, I guess is a better word
brew ferment to brew that a lot of people say
dates back to all the way back to two twenty
one BCE, which is when supposedly the emperor of the
(08:38):
Chin dynasty started brewing it himself, and that it was
considered an elixir of life, a tonic for immortality. The
thing is is like, if you talk to anybody in
the kombucha community, they'll give you that story. But it's
just a story, like there's really hazy when you start
(08:58):
to try to trace the LINEA.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, Butcher's that's right. Uh yeah. There was another tale
about six hundred years after that, from the fifth century CE,
about a Korean doctor and this is possibly a name
origin because this doctor was named Kambu Kombu who brought
a medicinal t to emperor. Would that be in Kio?
(09:23):
I think so, yeah, all right of Japan and said
and some people say, well, that's clearly where the name
came from. Other people say, well, I don't know about that,
because there's also this Japanese fermented tea from back in
the day that was derived from kelp that was called
kambu and then cha is t so kombucha, But there
(09:43):
is no seaweed in in kombucha as we know it now,
So I don't think anyone really knows the exact origin
of the word.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
No, but it is possible that that kombucha that seaweed
fermented seaweed ta just got used for the wrong thing
and it's kind of went off on that lineage of
history and that's where it came from. Again, what we're
talking about are stories. There are some ancient documents that
I think mentioned that Korean doctor Kambu. Yeah, but still
(10:13):
it's just not definitive. To get definitive, you actually have
to go to Russia and Ukraine in the late nineteenth century.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, surprising.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That's finally where you can definitively start to trace the
history of what we call kombucha.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, I was kind of surprised to see it there too,
But apparently after World War One they were lousy with
the stuff. It started to spread around Europe. Apparently in
the Westfalia region of Germany, became very popular for a
little while. In Italy in the middle of the twentieth century,
it became so popular that a couple of things happened
(10:48):
that there were people mixing it with holy water to
use as sort of like a tonic and a fokrimony,
which priests there did not love. And there was a
song that you can go listen to, you know, you
can go to YouTube and listen to it from nineteen
fifty five by a guy named Ronato Kerazone, and the
song was called Stu Fungo Chinza or the Chinese Fungus,
(11:13):
and it was a popular song. That's I listened to it,
and it's not very good.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
No, it's got a lot of didd like mixed in
with it. But it's also kind of like a mambay thing.
It's a it's a mess. So strangely enough, Stu Fungo
Chinese did not kick off the kombucha craze in the
United States or in the West. It really was kicked
off by a Swiss study from the sixties. And I
(11:40):
do mean Switzerland, not Sweden. I apparently swapped the two
when I was talking about the oldest periodical in existence
in the Farmer's Almanac episodes. So sorry to everybody who wrote.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
In yeah, we we know that those are two different
places and they're not even close together.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
No, so it was inadvertent, No, exactly like I mix
up the names. I'm not actually confusing Switzerland was writing
like I know that much, so This was a Swiss Switzerland,
Swiss study from the sixties that said, hey, this kombucha
stuff that they're making over in Russia that's associated with
(12:17):
Russian grandmothers. This stuff is it's like yogurt, man, but
you can drink it. It's like drinkable yogurt. And we
don't mean.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Keffer, no, we don't did. It's still popular actually in
some parts of Russia. It remained popular throughout Soviet Russia.
They were you know, they didn't have like, you know,
American soda and stuff like that, so this is a
fizzy drink they could make, which sort of sub for that.
It seems like prisoners would brew it there. There was
(12:46):
even a case here in the United States in twenty
fifteen where arms dealer Victor Bout was brewing it in
a prison in Illinois. And we'll get to the alcoholic
content later, but the prison officials basically said, like, you're
making booze. You can't do that. So they added some time.
And apparently like kids in Russia these days, or not kids,
(13:07):
but younger people are kind of on kombucha that they
rejected when they were younger because they were like, we
want American tasting sodas, and now there's a newer trend
where they're like, oh no, this is sort of like cool,
this is the old Russian version, and they're back into
brewing it again.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, it's so it got exported somehow to the US.
It blew up in the US, and we exported it
back to Russia, and now Russian hipsters are into kombucha.
Even though it was their grandparents like homebrew, and I
think it was also not just they wanted coke and
pepsi and probably mostly coke. They associated it with their
(13:45):
grandmother giving it to them as if it were almost
like medicine or a health tonic, and nobody surrounding and
drinks a health tonic. No, you rarely do. And this
kind of had that association with it too that got
stripped of it. Even though it's considered a healthy drink.
Health tonic is really stretching how it's considered in the
United States. So it got kind of repackaged and gussied
(14:06):
up and turned into a really fun beverage that kids
are really into and that will just make you immediately
cooler if you're seeing out in public drinking it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, as far as the Chinese connection, It sort of
depends on who you're asking. It sounds like it may
have been regional because there was this writer what was
her first name, Zong is her last name for Folk
Life magazine.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Her first name, Chuck is precisely Laura.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Laura. Okay, Well, she wrote about this in folk Life
Magazine and asked her immigrant Chinese parents and they were like,
I don't know what you're talking about. She said, well,
let me ask my friend who still has a bunch
of contacts in China, and her friend got in touch
with her people in China and they're like, I don't
know what you're talking about. But then there was another
Chinese American writer named Betty Lou and her father a
(15:00):
like recalled, you know, fond things about kombucha from Shanghai
and these big neighborhood batches. So I think theirs was
green tea and honey though instead of black tea and sugar.
So maybe it was a variation, a regional variation.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, they called it hong cha June. Yeah, not kombucha,
but it does sound similar, and if you stop and
think about it's just how it's a simplicity of what
kombucha actually is fermented sweet tea. It's entirely possible that
cultures that have tea and have had tea for hundreds
and thousands of years and stumbled onto this, you know,
(15:35):
independently and just called it different things, made it with
slightly different ingredients. But it seems very clear that the
kombucha we drink today was exported from Russia and Ukraine
in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, and before we break, I think we should cover
this last little bit that's super interesting about how it
regained popularity in the eighties here in the US though.
Was it was for AIDS patients. There was specifically one
AIDS patient. He was a act up New York member,
an activist named Sander Katz who had this kombucha and
(16:12):
it you know, those AIDS drugs early on at least,
were really rough on the stomach, and it helped him
and it helped him keep his food down. It kind
of settled the stomach, and then it got passed around
the gay community. And I think he found out about
it from a friend in like nineteen ninety four who was,
(16:32):
you know, a home brewer and went on to write
a book called Wild Fermentation in two thousand and three,
and so it was the AIDS community of the Northeast
United States.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It really kind of got it going again here. Pretty cool,
very cool. You want to take a break, then let's
do it. Okay, we're taking a break. Everybody's starting now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
All right, So now we are back in the United States. Uh,
kombucha these days, well, for a while before sort of
this this modern time that we find ourselves in. Who
was spaceship just flew by? Uh? Someone should ask Chris
Christie about that?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Oh man, that was crazy.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Did you see that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Terrible question?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, he was pretty funny about it, though he's he
is a likable guy. Uh So, kombucha for a while
was and it and it's still sort of popular with
hobbyists because brewing in general, and home brewing is really
regained in popularity with beer and meat and all kinds
of crazy things.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I also, I think there's a suspicion too among people
who make kombucha that the stuff that's mass produced just
can't hold a candle to the stuff you would make
on your own.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Probably, But that's how it was for many many years,
starting in the eighties, until about the midish nineteen nineties,
when a guy who we're going to talk about a
little bit now that you may have heard of named
George Thomas Dave or GT. Dave started brewing kombucha at
home and his bell airhouse as a teenager. As legend
(18:31):
has it, he got his scobie from a friend who
got it from a trip to the Himalayas and his
mom was drinking this stuff Dave was making going through
cancer and claimed that it helped her beat cancer, which
was officially part of the company's lore until they were
forced to remove it after a lawsuit in twenty ten
about deceptive health claims. But he is the maker. If
(18:55):
you've seen Synergy kombucha in the store, it's the biggest
player out there. And that's the one Emily drank until today,
and that's that's Gt. Dave.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, if you've ever seen kombucha in the store, you've
seen Gt. Synergy. I mean, it's just there's such so
many different flavors of it, and like the it's just
it's clearly been around longer. It's got its thing down path.
And like you said, this guy was brewing this when
he was in high school and he started in ninety five.
(19:27):
In two thousand and five, he took it National, and
you can say that pretty much is when kombucha really
started to make headway. Didn't take off like a rocket
quite yet. If you go back and look at the
dates on a lot of the research articles that you'll
find on kobucha, I'm like CNBC or Forbes or whatever,
(19:49):
they're like twenty seventeen eighteen, and they're all like, what
is this stuff? So it took a while to gain
some traction, but he took it out of the health
food store and started to get into grocery stores, and
that was what really kind of laid the foundation for
kombucha to be introduced to America as a whole.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That's right. And the sort of unfortunate part that has
come out more recently is that Synergy is going through
a few different lawsuits right now because allegedly it is
even though this is a drink that is touted is
being made with love and good vibrations, there are some
(20:28):
lawsuits going on now because allegedly it is a terrible
place to work and Gt. Dave allegedly would purposefully hire
undocumented workers so they could be taken advantage of with
brutal work hours, no breaks to eat, no breaks for breaks,
go to the bathroom super fast and get back to work.
(20:51):
It's so hot in there that you're sweating into the beverage,
and then you have to go to a freezing place
and your clothes freeze up. Just some sounds like some
pretty bad stuff happening there, allegedly.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Well you say allegedly, but you don't have to say
that anywhere because as of I think this month, California
judge said, nope, this is all true. I'm ruling against Gt. Dave.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah. Well, yeah, that was a lawsuit from that's long standing,
but there are I think some new ones, and he's
been denying this the whole time. Basically, I think his
quote was something like, I don't want to paraphrase it.
Well I guess I have to paraphrase it, so I'll
have in front of me. Sure, But basically like, yeah,
you know, lawsuits are just the cross eye bear, you know,
(21:37):
when you get popular like this, that's just how things go, right.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That this is he just dismissed them all as frivolous
in that quote, like indirectly basically, although these are have
been brought by multiple people in multiple lawsuits over multiple years. Yeah,
so yeah, this judge apparently does not like him, and
the judge is in charge of all the cases and
apparently has said before that Dave lies through his teeth
(22:04):
and is totally not credible, and if you put him
on the stand, I'm going to tell the jury not
to believe him.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Like this.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
This judge has said this like in court. So he's
having a rough time of it for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, And of course I told him this. She was like, oh, well,
I guess I'll find a new brand.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Well, there's so many great brands out there too, Like
I mean, there's a lot of Like if you are
into kombucha or you're about to be into kombucha, after
listening to this, you are in a beautiful time to
be into kombucha because there's a lot of good brands
that you could find in just about any grocery store.
And yes, indeed, it is a golden age for kombucha
(22:41):
right now.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
We love our golden ages. Sure, there's another big player
in KeVita k e v I t A because Pepsi
bought that one in twenty sixteen. And you know, anytime
in the beverage industry, it's a tough racket anyway, So
you're you're probably looking to cash out to a larger company.
Is the exits strategy generally for beverages? Sure, I watch
(23:02):
a lot of Shark Tank, that's what they say. Okay,
Coca Cola got into it a little bit because they
own Honest Tea.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
I just got that name.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Oh Honesty. Yeah, but I don't think they make that anymore.
But they do have some sort of Australian kombucha Coca
Cola does, called Organic and Raw Trading Company.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
They don't like to talk about it, though, I don't
think they do. So it is a golden age and
that's kind of reflected in the market. It's like a
two and a half billion dollar industry, which is not bad.
But no, it's not bad. It's expected to grow to
eleven and a half billion within the next seven years
because kombucha is so good and because we're living in
(23:43):
that golden age. Apparently considered a functional beverage with energy
drinks and vitamin fortified.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Waters and you who yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
It gives you great strength, yeah exactly. But one it's
considered a non alcoholic. But that was up in the
air until fairly recently because there's a well known story
at least in the kombucha community about a I think
an inspector for the main Department of Agriculture who was
(24:16):
going through a Whole Foods and noticed that these bottles
of kombucha. This was twenty ten, so he's still like,
what is this stuff that they were bubbling out from
under their caps. And he's like, yeah, not a good sign. No,
He's like, this is that's fermentation. These things are fermenting
before my eyes. That means that it's producing alcohol by definition.
And he's like, I'm gonna I'm going to test some
of these and what he found exactly, he went on
(24:40):
a seven day bender, right, and when he came to
he said, these things should not be sold as not alcoholic.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
To me, I went on a booch bender. Not good. No, yeah,
I think if you're homebrewing it and this is you know,
it's a variable product. Anytime you're making something where there
it's like alive for a little while, it's it's going
to be different depending on the batch and the maker
and all that stuff. If you're homebrewing it, you may
(25:08):
get up to three percent ABV. There have been cases
where I think the guy in Maine some of those
went up to two point five and that's when Whole
Foods was like, we can't sell it, like it's over
the point five percent threshold. So Whole Foods had to
pull it there.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And this was like this this industry was still in
its cradle, Like this is a really dangerous thing to
have happen all of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, totally, but that's why. Kind of around that same time,
the kombucha's Kombucha Brewers International was formed, which is a
trade organization that basically is like, hey, listen, we need
to sort of standardize this. Here's an alcohol test that
everyone should be using, and we should all be on
the same page about the AVV.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right, So they really kind of swooped in to standardize
things and save the day. And there is there is
hard kombucha. Apparently they're crazy for it. In California, it
goes up to eleven percent, which, man, that'll knock you
on your duff. Yeah, But for the most part, the
people who make kombucha have figured out how to keep
(26:16):
it from going beyond the point five percent point zero
five percent.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Alcohol point I think point five.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I don't know if I've ever told this story before,
have I about how when I was a youngster, I
really loved nick at night, and sometimes on Fridays and Saturdays,
I would go to the Open Pantry, which was a
convenience store across the railroad tracks from my house. Yeah,
and I would buy some slim gyms, gets twigs, maybe
some starbursts, really load up. And then one of the
(26:47):
things I would get every every time was a six
pack of Kingsbury non alcoholic beer. And every time I'm
like ten, eleven, twelve, maybe oh du every time I
had to argue with the person checking me out at
the at the register, like this is no alcoholic, it
has nothing to do with any age limit. I'm allowed
(27:09):
to buy this, And every time I was successful. I
think most of them were just like, Okay, if this
kid's gonna say that to me, then fine, you can
have this non alcoholic beer. And I would go home
and crack some Kingsbury and need some slim jough, my watch,
Stef Troop and stuff. It was amazing, good Friday.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
You know, I do have a new answer now. And
when they say if you could go back in time,
because it used to obviously be go back and kill
Hitler and do some good for mankind, but now it's
go back and live next door to young Josh. So
we could have been kid buddies.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, that would have been fun.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I would have been older. You would have been the
one corrupting me though somehow.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, it.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Would have been pretty funny. You would have been I
would have been like what he six years younger? Seven?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Uh no, I'm like five five.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
You would have been the ten year old corrupting like
the fifteen or sixteen year old. But I would have
my license first and be like, yeah, I know you
can drive install the bad place.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, let's go get some Kingsbury Chuck. Should we take
a break and come back and tell everybody how to
make kombucha? Because I'm ready to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, okay, let's do it, all right.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Everybody, as promised, We said that we are going to
teach you how to make kombucha, and it is super duper.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
S really you should also, you know, really, look if
you're going.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
To oh yeah, there's a that's a really good point.
The kombucha brewing community is really supportive and helpful and
nice and not snipy or caddy. They're just very like,
whatever information you need to brew your own kombucha. They'll
give it to you, and you could probably also make
(29:11):
friends with somebody who will send you your first go
b Yeah, because here's the thing. You can't make kombucha
without kombucha. You have to have kombucha, which I think
Chuck and I couldn't find this. That would mean that
all kombucha is related in some way, shape or form,
because if you just took tea and sugar and water
(29:33):
and left it out to be inoculated with whatever yeast
and bacteria in the air, you're not necessarily going to
attract the same yeast in bacteria those Bretts and the
other one that are in kombucha, so you'll make something
that isn't actually kombucha. So to make kombucha, you need kombucha,
(29:53):
which means all kombucha is related. They have some sort
of shared lineage over time. Okay, that's kind.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Of like ill set up. Yeah, it is, and that
kind of lends itself to the hippiedippy community aspect for sure.
So like you said, you need a scobie, and like
you also said, you can probably find some hippie online
that'll send you some.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
You can buy it too. There's everything Kombocha dot Com
recommends for mental holics. They'll send you a Scobe for
thirteen dollars and forty nine cents on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
All right, and you get that that gross little membrane
looking thing. Maybe look up a recipe that you might
want to use. There are lots of recipes online, of course,
But like you said, you got to have that unpasteurized,
unflavored kombucha at the root of it. Uh And like
you know, you kind of tease it earlier, you put
that kombucha in a in a glass jar. Everything's got
(30:45):
to be super super clean. Of course. You're gonna want
for your tea a few specific things. You want organic
tea because if it's not organic, then that tea you
get hasn't been washed yet and it's got pesticides and
stuff on it.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
No good, not just for you, but also for the
Scobe because it's a living thing.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, Scobey's gonna eat that stuff. You want to use
pure tea because you know it tastes better, it's the
cleanest flavor, it's got the most nutrients, and you're also
gonna it's gonna be caffeinated. You can't make decaf kombucha
as far as I know, right.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
You literally cannot because the caffeine is one of the
most essential nutrients for the bacteria and or the yeast
they use it to they convert it into nitrogen, which
they use for all sorts of stuff during the fermentation
project process. So you cannot make kombucha without caffeine.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All right, the thing gets your tea. You got your caffeine,
and what else you need? Sugar?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yep, you want to use cane sugar. I've seen and
all of this, Like, you can get organic cane sugar
for very little money even compared to like just cheap
white granulated sugar. Splurge for that. Splurge for good loose
organic tea. Use filtered water, or you can just get
like a gallon of distilled water while you're at the
grocery store buying chine sugar. Just it's that whole garbage in,
(32:10):
garbage out kind of mentality. It also applies to kombucha.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Too, all right, So you've got your ingredients, You've got
your Scoby from a guy named you know, Scooby Goby,
Scoby Scooby Bro, Scooby Bro one two three, and you
get your sweet teammate. You add your starter kombucha, you
put in your scoby and then you put it in
(32:36):
that jar like you said, with the what's it called it,
the musslim over the top, Yeah, the muslin over the top,
and then you put it in that dark, dry place
like a cabinet or something, and let it do its
thing for how long? Like a week or so?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Yes, if you're fermenting kombucha, it takes seven to fourteen
days for the first ferment to finish, all right. Then
after that you bottle, and that you leave it again
for another usually a few days, maybe seven days, and
it does it second ferment in the bottle, and that's
where the alcohol and the bubbles really start to come about,
(33:11):
because those are both byproducts of fermentation CO two and alcohol. Again,
though depending on I'm not actually quite sure how you
control the amount of alcohol that gets developed. I think
it's maybe the amount of sugar you add initially, and
then also how long you let it ferment to you
(33:31):
in that second fermentation. And then to stop it from
the second fermentation, you start refrigerating it, and that makes
everything go dormant.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, and when you bottle it, that's when you're also
gonna you know, juice it up a little bit. If
you want to put some ginger or some herbs, some
other kind of like fruity juices or something. That's where
you can you know, experiment with your own taste and
flavor profiles that chilling.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, and you want to use glass for everything. The
reason why is because it's so acidic. As we'll see that,
it can leech metals right out of a metal container.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So, and you can also leach lead out of the
glaze of a ceramic container. So you basically just want
to use sterilized glass, like really well washed class. And
you also want to keep yourself clean, and this I'm
sure is very hard for a lot of the kombucha
brewer community. Sure, but you definitely want to wash your
hands thoroughly before you ever touch your scobi because again,
(34:27):
it's a living thing, and if you accidentally get some
bad bugs on it, it can grow mold, it can
get weak, it can die, all sorts of stuff can happen.
So you want to be very gentle and kind with
your scoby and very clean too. So you want to
make sure you and your glass bottles are all super
clean before you make kombucha.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, Scooby bro one two three. In this video, it's like,
all right, this next part man is a real bummer.
But you're gonna have to take a shower.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Man. The hippies are not gonna like this.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Oh that's okay. They're surfing right now.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
There's one other thing you can do too, or one
other thing you're gonna have to do. You remove your
scobie from the bottle or from the glass that you
fermented in after the first ferment. It doesn't go into
the bottles, but it's reusable. It actually will grow I
wondered about that. Yes, so it actually will grow as
you're fermenting new kombucha each time, because it's sitting there
(35:25):
eating love and life. And after a while it'll grow
thick enough that you can just basically peel off. From
what I understand, the bottom layer is the youngest layer, okay.
And there's stuff you can do with the old scobi
it's cellulo. Some people cut it up and dry it
out and give it to their dogs. Some people eat
it directly because it's full of probiotics, as we'll see.
(35:47):
But you can also just toss it out or compost it.
I think is another thing people do, and you take
that younger part and just start over. It's the healthiest,
it's the most vibrant, it's the youngest part of the Scobie.
Or you can also take that part and give it
to a newbie as their first go b too, if
you want to be super kind, as the hippies call it.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, or you can rub it under your arms to
prevent yeasts growth there gross in your armpit. Yeah. Well,
we talked a little bit about health benefits. They have
done not a lot of like controlled human trials in
these published papers. There was a twenty nineteen review at
(36:28):
two hundred and fifty three papers boots that call them
the Booch papers, and there.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Were there were help my dream.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I'm sorry, that's fine, but there were no controlled human trials.
So it's like you can't really point to hard science,
but it is, you know, it is something that contains
good stuff, Like there are probiotics, and we do know
that probiotics are good for your gut. We've talked about
them before. I take a probiotic every day now and
(36:58):
it's really helped my system out, like in a hugely
noticeable way. Yeah. But you know, if you read the
bottle of a Synergy or another brand. If you're making
that switch, you're gonna see stuff like you find on
a pill bottle of other probiotics like Basillis coagulans or
(37:18):
lacto basillis, like these really common bacterium probiotic bacteriums. It's
what's going on basically.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yes, So, yeah, we know probiotics are good for you,
and kombucha as allows you with probiotics. That's the upshot
of that. And there actually was one human trial very recently,
it came out in the last week from Georgetown University
that found that it actually lowers fasting blood glucose levels,
(37:48):
So it could be useful for people with type two
diabetes to drink kombucha while they're eating a meal because
it will keep your glucose from spiking, according to this
newest trial, and it's one of the first human clinical
trials ever done on kombucha.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I got two words for that, go hoyas.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's been a while.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Have you ever understood what the difference between a hoya
and a bulldog is? Because I've never heard anything called
a hoya except in the context of Georgetown.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
They have never even thought about it now that I think.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
But that's their mascot. It's a bulldog, but they call
it a hoya like they're out of their minds.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Is it the same? Like is it supposed to be
the name of the bulldog? I don't or not the
name of But does it mean bulldog?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
I don't know. In Georgetown it does.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Because I'm seeing that the hoya is a plant.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah it is. It's called the Indian roade plant now
that you mentioned it, or one of the hoyas. I
think it's a family of plants.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Well, somebody, because we're not going to stop to look
this up because I'm sure the ANSWER's out there. I
would love a Georgetown hoyata, right and let us know.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Okay, fair enough, moving on then right?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah? What about antioxidants.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Well, that tea that you make this out of is
lousy with polyphenols, depending on which kind of tea you use.
Apparently green and red have the highest amounts of polyphenols
in the end result in kombucha. But you can't really
sneeze at the polyphenols in black tea too, which is
traditionally the type of tea that's been used to brew kombucha.
(39:20):
Those polyphenols do all sorts of things, like they neutralize
free radicals in the body. And we did our episode
on whether or not free radical health theory is legitimate
or not. But considering that the jury is still out,
if it is legit, then the antioxidants in kombucha are
really super helpful.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I wonder if you could make a macha kombucha.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I don't know, I don't know. I wondered that myself
from what I saw. You want loose leaf tea, but
I don't know why you wouldn't be able to use macha.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Might be interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Also vitamins, there's lots of B vitamins in kombucha. Vitamins
are great for you. But again, because it's a variable product,
it's not like you can say, al kambucha's have this
amount of this vitamin. I believe some of the leading
brands taut as being like, you know, it's a great
source of V twelve or whatever, but it's not like
listed out on the ingredients like exactly how much. No.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And the reason why it's, like you said, it's variable
because this stuff is grown, it's not manufactured, and B
vitamins are a byproduct of fermentation. So unless I guess
they test every single batch and create a new label
every single time. Right, they can't say accurately how much
B vitamins is in there, but usually it's enough to
knock your.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Socks right off, as will the acid. Right.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yes, so acids are anti microbials, and they've been found
to fight off stuff like E. Coli, Shigella, salmonella, cholera. Again,
this is in vitro. This is like putting some of
the acids from kombucha in a petri dish with shigella
and seeing what happens, and those acids kill the shigella.
So this is all just like assuming that the same
(41:05):
stuff is going to happen in the human body, because
again there hasn't been a lot of human trials. But
we know that the acids that are produced in kombucha
as it ferments, do have antimicrobial properties in a petri
dish at least.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, exactly. As far as if it could be bad
for you, probably not. I mean, it might upset your
tummy a little bit, as any probiotic could initially, at
least until your thumbs gets used to it. Anything unpasteurized,
like if you're having if you're trading like homemade kombucha's
with friends and stuff like that, there could always be
(41:43):
a chance that there are some bacterias in there that
aren't great for you. I think you can get a pasteurized,
like professionally pasteurized kombucha, but that would kill off the
live culture. So it's kind of like, what's the point.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, I mean it still has the acids in it,
so it's gonna have some benefits. But yeah, the kombucha
brewing communities, like what, you don't want to kill off
all of this beneficial bacteria. You know.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
It's very anti booch.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
It is super anti booch. I say, before we wrap Chuck,
we we name check a few other brands because I
love a few. So health Aid is really really great,
Lady Apple, I would point people too, all right. Two
twenty one BC, I think is made in Florida. They
make a lavender one that's just amazing, and their kombucha
(42:31):
is real mild. It's not nearly as tart, and it's
not nearly as fizzy as most other kombucha's. It's not
quite as dense, so it'd be a good introduction to kombucha.
Hum is another great one, and then Big Easy, Butcha,
all of those make really good kombucha, and you can
usually find all of those brands in just about any
(42:52):
grocery store.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
That's great. I'm going to pass those along to Emily.
Do you take a probiotic in a dish or is
this sort of covering your basis here?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I take mine intraveniously, okay, just a slow drip. I
don't actually take a probiotic. I'm really terrible at keeping
up with supplements on a daily basis. I kind of
take them when I think of it. I hear probiotics
definitely fall into that category for me.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, I've gotten good at it with my diverticulate problems.
So I've a friend of mine sister said you should
take this probiotic every day, and it really has changed
my toilet routine.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
What's the Do you know the brand and or what's
in it?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Oh? I can picture it in my head. No, but
I could always follow up if people are interested. It's
sort of just a good all around probiotic and it
is right in my tummy.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Nice, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Goodway.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, Yeah, I don't take probiotics, but I use so
much fermented stuff every day that it's kind of tantamount
to it.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, we should do one eventually. On the other thing
that I don't enjoy, which is kimchi.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Oh man, I eat that almost every day too. There's
I know you love all us I do love it.
And if you're nowhere near an Asian market, there's something
called Cleveland kimchi and you can find that in like
you're I think you're produce section, along with like tofu
and stuff like that. And it's it's really good for
package kimchi.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
You could make that too at home, could don't you
berry kimchi?
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I think so? That sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
All right, we'll have to look into that. That'd be
a good topic.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Okay, So while we go off and think about kimchi,
let's all just wait a second and pause for a
listener mail.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Should I read one? Or are we really pausing?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Go ahead and read one.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Okay, Hey, guys, recentish listener discovered you during second year
of the pandemic. You've gotten me through a lot, including
graduate school in the beginning of my most recent career transition,
which brings me to the point of this email. At
a really difficul time, shifting my career trajectory from engineering
to veterinary medicine in the sense of making such a
(45:06):
major time commitment to pursue more schooling after completing a
master's degree. I desire to learn far outweighed my concerns, though,
so I applied a needless to say, I was extremely
nervous going to VET school through the interview process. It
was an absolutely wild coincidence that you released her podcast
The Large Equine History of Veterinary Medicine the day before
I had my two interviews. That episode reminded me of
(45:28):
how much I love this field and how fascinating it is,
and I accepted this as a happy coincidence at Comma
Nerves a bit allowed me to go into my interviews
the next day with a high sorry with the level
head and renewed faith in my decision. I was accepted
to both programs I interviewed for that day, as well
as a few have awesome. Fast forward to today, my
second day of veterinary school, and you released how We're
(45:50):
Learning to Talk to Animals. I have now accepted that
you're somewhat my guardian angels, as you're shepherding me through
this very exciting and very scary transition. Aside from those times,
the podcast has given me so many laughs, fun facts,
and overall sense of calm and what can be an
overwhelming world. And I know you heard a lot, but
I'm officially joining the ranks. You have made such a
(46:11):
positive impact on my life. Please keep doing it. Can't
wait to see what the future scenarios that you hold
my hand through. Sending love. The sign offs are getting
so good. That is from Gabby.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Thanks Gabby. I remember that email. I responded to her
say congrats.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
It's crazy, love it, love it.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Great email, Gabby. Thanks. If you want us to sing
your praises about what a great email you wrote, take
your shot. You only missed the shots you don't take.
You can send that shot off to Stuff Podcasts at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
Chuck and Jerry's here too, and this is stuff you
should know the podcast. Although Jerry's not going to be
around for long, everybody, so savor her, relish her, smell
her hair. Yeah, all the stuff that you like to
do to people you like.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Awkward start for one on the booch.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I should probably hold on. I should probably explain Jerry's
not going to be here for this recording session. She's
always going to be around around Oh sure, okay, I
just want to make sure people weren't like, where's Jerry going?
What'd you guys do to Jerry?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Right?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I don't need email like that now?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Who does?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So, Chuck, you already let it slip. What our topic
is today, which I'm surprised.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
That's right. The butch aka kombucha, which is some people
call it kombucha ti, but everyone calls it kombucha really
in practice. But you know, we're talking about the beverage,
the sort of odd tasting fizzy sweet teed probiotic drink
(01:24):
that is very popular right now that I don't drink.
Emily drinks it every day, No surprise there, although she's
switching brands now. We'll get to that later.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Okay. I can't wait to hear it because I drink
it almost every day too.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah. I don't like the flavor, so I just don't
drink it. That's just a simple one for me.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Well, you don't like anything vinegary, so of course you
don't like kombucha.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You know, you don't like mustard, you don't you don't
like white vinegar, I don't like pickles, you don't like
apple cider vinegar. You don't like red wine vinegar.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
M I mean, I'll take a little bit of that
or maybe some balsamic vinegar on a salad. Oh, But
other than that, vinegar is a tough sell for me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Okay. But or the reason we're talking about vinegar is becau.
Kombucha has a kind of a vinegary thing going on.
It's very tart, it's very acidic. And you said something
in there that I don't think I fully realized. Although
I kind of knew it was one of those things
where I had all the information, I just never put
it together into a cohesive hole. Okay, But kombucha is
(02:32):
fermented sweet tea. Yeah, and I mean, of course there's
other stuff in there, but to make kombucha and it
just be raw, pure kombucha. All you need is sugar
tea and then something called the scobie, which we'll talk
about soon. And you put those things together, let them
sit in a glass jar with the lid off and
a little bit of muslin over the top and a dark, warm, dry,
(02:57):
very important place for I don't know, a week, two weeks,
you're going to have kombucha.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Yeah, and it sort of belongs alongside other things like
yogurt and sour kraut, where the the microbes are a
big part of the appeal of these things that you
can put in your body.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah. Can we can? I just call out the sentence
that Olivia wrote because it's hilarious. Sure she's she wrote
that kombucha is a food in which microbes are a feature,
not a bug. It was definitely worth a hat tip
at least.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Have you ever seen the Volkswagen Beetles with the license
plate that's his feature?
Speaker 2 (03:34):
No, it's always very I don't get out that much though.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Uh So you'd mentioned scoby. Scoby stands for it's an
acronym se o BI stands for a symbiotic colony of
bacteria and yeast, because that's exactly what it is. If
you look at a scoby, you might hurt it called
a mother or a mushroom, like the mother, Like, what's
(03:59):
it called like a mother? Yeah, But if you look
at a scoby, it looks disgusting. Uh. It looks like
something out of a science lab, like out of a
petri dish. It's round and sort of pancakey and gelatinous,
and it looks like brain matter or something. It looks gross.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
It looks like the muffin top of a jellyfish, but
just the muffin top part.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Sure, that's that's another good way to put it's kind
of gross too.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And that that mother, that mushroom, or that scoby is
what I saw far and away, at least in America.
It's most people who grew brew kombucha call it a scoby.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
There's a specific term for it, a solid phase cellulosic pellicle.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
And when you dig into it microbal microbially, it's astounding
what it actually is. It's like a really unique kind
of thing that seems to only grow in kombucha from
what I could find.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, and it's what it is actually, or how it
functions at least in kombucha. It's sort of the fuel
that drives that fermentation process that take that sweet tea
from just regular sweet tea to the fermented, bubbly, weird
tasting thing that you enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah, and it's really insolvable, like you can drop it
in just about anything and it will hold its shape.
It has a lot of tensile strength, apparently it can hold.
So it's cellulose made of little tiny fibrils and there
I think one hundred times thinner than the cellulose fibrils
you get from a plant. Plants are lousy with cellulose,
(05:39):
but this cellulose is extruded from bacteria, little tiny, tiny
little things of cellulose that end up getting woven together
to create this large structure that can hold I think
one hundred times the amount of liquid or water that
plant cellulose can and it's a hundred times thinner than
(06:01):
plant cellulose. And it's being extruded pooped out of these
little bacteria that are building this thing over the course
of weeks.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, Like, if you've made one
that was the size of a hammock, you could put
a house on it.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah. Easy, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I haven't done a math on that.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
No, it's in there somewhere, though, So Chuck, I think
we should we'll hold off on how to make it
a batch of kombucha, although it's not that hard. But
it turns out that that that symbiotic colony of bacteria
and yeese, it's a pretty good descriptor because that's what
is in that scobie. And there have been studies of
(06:42):
what's in there, and what they found is that there's
an ever changing cast of characters. Yeah, but that there
seem to be a couple that are really responsible for
forming the scobie and then in turn creating kombucha. One
is a bacterium called chould.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
You want me to do this? Sure, get Koma gatti
bacteria bacter.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, I think that's okay, yep. And then that's the
stuff that forms that cellulose that gives the scobi its structure.
And then inside there's some yeast, and specifically the yeast
from the.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Genus Bretons bretton nomosis.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Sure, and those are the ones that actually seem to
do most of the fermenting.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, and we have, well, at least in this case,
there was some Oregon State University researchers named Keisha Harrison
and Chris Curtin, who a couple of years ago looked
at one hundred and three scobi's that are used by
brewers here in North America. That yeast they call it brett,
and it's sort of an used to be used a
lot for old ales in nineteenth century England apparently huh,
(07:54):
not used a whole lot for beer anymore because it
tastes funny except for like lambs, and also used in
barrel aged red wines. And I think in wine you
just don't want too much of it. And then beer nowadays,
like I said, unless it's a lambic, they usually try
to get rid of it, things like a contaminant in
beer these days.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Even so, it sounds old timey, I guess then the
breat and that actually kind of dovetails with kombucha's image.
It has an image of being like an old timey,
super old timey ancient, I guess is a better word
brew ferment to brew that a lot of people say
dates back to all the way back to two twenty
one BCE, which is when supposedly the emperor of the
(08:38):
Chin dynasty started brewing it himself, and that it was
considered an elixir of life, a tonic for immortality. The
thing is is like, if you talk to anybody in
the kombucha community, they'll give you that story. But it's
just a story, like there's really hazy when you start
(08:58):
to try to trace the LINEA.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yeah, Butcher's that's right. Uh yeah. There was another tale
about six hundred years after that, from the fifth century CE,
about a Korean doctor and this is possibly a name
origin because this doctor was named Kambu Kombu who brought
a medicinal t to emperor. Would that be in Kio?
(09:23):
I think so, yeah, all right of Japan and said
and some people say, well, that's clearly where the name
came from. Other people say, well, I don't know about that,
because there's also this Japanese fermented tea from back in
the day that was derived from kelp that was called
kambu and then cha is t so kombucha, But there
(09:43):
is no seaweed in in kombucha as we know it now,
So I don't think anyone really knows the exact origin
of the word.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
No, but it is possible that that kombucha that seaweed
fermented seaweed ta just got used for the wrong thing
and it's kind of went off on that lineage of
history and that's where it came from. Again, what we're
talking about are stories. There are some ancient documents that
I think mentioned that Korean doctor Kambu. Yeah, but still
(10:13):
it's just not definitive. To get definitive, you actually have
to go to Russia and Ukraine in the late nineteenth century.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah, surprising.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
That's finally where you can definitively start to trace the
history of what we call kombucha.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, I was kind of surprised to see it there too,
But apparently after World War One they were lousy with
the stuff. It started to spread around Europe. Apparently in
the Westfalia region of Germany, became very popular for a
little while. In Italy in the middle of the twentieth century,
it became so popular that a couple of things happened
(10:48):
that there were people mixing it with holy water to
use as sort of like a tonic and a fokrimony,
which priests there did not love. And there was a
song that you can go listen to, you know, you
can go to YouTube and listen to it from nineteen
fifty five by a guy named Ronato Kerazone, and the
song was called Stu Fungo Chinza or the Chinese Fungus,
(11:13):
and it was a popular song. That's I listened to it,
and it's not very good.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
No, it's got a lot of didd like mixed in
with it. But it's also kind of like a mambay thing.
It's a it's a mess. So strangely enough, Stu Fungo
Chinese did not kick off the kombucha craze in the
United States or in the West. It really was kicked
off by a Swiss study from the sixties. And I
(11:40):
do mean Switzerland, not Sweden. I apparently swapped the two
when I was talking about the oldest periodical in existence
in the Farmer's Almanac episodes. So sorry to everybody who wrote.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
In yeah, we we know that those are two different
places and they're not even close together.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
No, so it was inadvertent, No, exactly like I mix
up the names. I'm not actually confusing Switzerland was writing
like I know that much, so This was a Swiss Switzerland,
Swiss study from the sixties that said, hey, this kombucha
stuff that they're making over in Russia that's associated with
(12:17):
Russian grandmothers. This stuff is it's like yogurt, man, but
you can drink it. It's like drinkable yogurt. And we
don't mean.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Keffer, no, we don't did. It's still popular actually in
some parts of Russia. It remained popular throughout Soviet Russia.
They were you know, they didn't have like, you know,
American soda and stuff like that, so this is a
fizzy drink they could make, which sort of sub for that.
It seems like prisoners would brew it there. There was
(12:46):
even a case here in the United States in twenty
fifteen where arms dealer Victor Bout was brewing it in
a prison in Illinois. And we'll get to the alcoholic
content later, but the prison officials basically said, like, you're
making booze. You can't do that. So they added some time.
And apparently like kids in Russia these days, or not kids,
(13:07):
but younger people are kind of on kombucha that they
rejected when they were younger because they were like, we
want American tasting sodas, and now there's a newer trend
where they're like, oh no, this is sort of like cool,
this is the old Russian version, and they're back into
brewing it again.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, it's so it got exported somehow to the US.
It blew up in the US, and we exported it
back to Russia, and now Russian hipsters are into kombucha.
Even though it was their grandparents like homebrew, and I
think it was also not just they wanted coke and
pepsi and probably mostly coke. They associated it with their
(13:45):
grandmother giving it to them as if it were almost
like medicine or a health tonic, and nobody surrounding and
drinks a health tonic. No, you rarely do. And this
kind of had that association with it too that got
stripped of it. Even though it's considered a healthy drink.
Health tonic is really stretching how it's considered in the
United States. So it got kind of repackaged and gussied
(14:06):
up and turned into a really fun beverage that kids
are really into and that will just make you immediately
cooler if you're seeing out in public drinking it.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Yeah, as far as the Chinese connection, It sort of
depends on who you're asking. It sounds like it may
have been regional because there was this writer what was
her first name, Zong is her last name for Folk
Life magazine.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Her first name, Chuck is precisely Laura.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Laura. Okay, Well, she wrote about this in folk Life
Magazine and asked her immigrant Chinese parents and they were like,
I don't know what you're talking about. She said, well,
let me ask my friend who still has a bunch
of contacts in China, and her friend got in touch
with her people in China and they're like, I don't
know what you're talking about. But then there was another
Chinese American writer named Betty Lou and her father a
(15:00):
like recalled, you know, fond things about kombucha from Shanghai
and these big neighborhood batches. So I think theirs was
green tea and honey though instead of black tea and sugar.
So maybe it was a variation, a regional variation.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, they called it hong cha June. Yeah, not kombucha,
but it does sound similar, and if you stop and
think about it's just how it's a simplicity of what
kombucha actually is fermented sweet tea. It's entirely possible that
cultures that have tea and have had tea for hundreds
and thousands of years and stumbled onto this, you know,
(15:35):
independently and just called it different things, made it with
slightly different ingredients. But it seems very clear that the
kombucha we drink today was exported from Russia and Ukraine
in the nineteenth century.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, and before we break, I think we should cover
this last little bit that's super interesting about how it
regained popularity in the eighties here in the US though.
Was it was for AIDS patients. There was specifically one
AIDS patient. He was a act up New York member,
an activist named Sander Katz who had this kombucha and
(16:12):
it you know, those AIDS drugs early on at least,
were really rough on the stomach, and it helped him
and it helped him keep his food down. It kind
of settled the stomach, and then it got passed around
the gay community. And I think he found out about
it from a friend in like nineteen ninety four who was,
(16:32):
you know, a home brewer and went on to write
a book called Wild Fermentation in two thousand and three,
and so it was the AIDS community of the Northeast
United States.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
It really kind of got it going again here. Pretty cool,
very cool. You want to take a break, then let's
do it. Okay, we're taking a break. Everybody's starting now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
All right, So now we are back in the United States. Uh,
kombucha these days, well, for a while before sort of
this this modern time that we find ourselves in. Who
was spaceship just flew by? Uh? Someone should ask Chris
Christie about that?
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Oh man, that was crazy.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Did you see that?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Terrible question?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, he was pretty funny about it, though he's he
is a likable guy. Uh So, kombucha for a while
was and it and it's still sort of popular with
hobbyists because brewing in general, and home brewing is really
regained in popularity with beer and meat and all kinds
of crazy things.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I also, I think there's a suspicion too among people
who make kombucha that the stuff that's mass produced just
can't hold a candle to the stuff you would make
on your own.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Probably, But that's how it was for many many years,
starting in the eighties, until about the midish nineteen nineties,
when a guy who we're going to talk about a
little bit now that you may have heard of named
George Thomas Dave or GT. Dave started brewing kombucha at
home and his bell airhouse as a teenager. As legend
(18:31):
has it, he got his scobie from a friend who
got it from a trip to the Himalayas and his
mom was drinking this stuff Dave was making going through
cancer and claimed that it helped her beat cancer, which
was officially part of the company's lore until they were
forced to remove it after a lawsuit in twenty ten
about deceptive health claims. But he is the maker. If
(18:55):
you've seen Synergy kombucha in the store, it's the biggest
player out there. And that's the one Emily drank until today,
and that's that's Gt. Dave.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Yeah, if you've ever seen kombucha in the store, you've
seen Gt. Synergy. I mean, it's just there's such so
many different flavors of it, and like the it's just
it's clearly been around longer. It's got its thing down path.
And like you said, this guy was brewing this when
he was in high school and he started in ninety five.
(19:27):
In two thousand and five, he took it National, and
you can say that pretty much is when kombucha really
started to make headway. Didn't take off like a rocket
quite yet. If you go back and look at the
dates on a lot of the research articles that you'll
find on kobucha, I'm like CNBC or Forbes or whatever,
(19:49):
they're like twenty seventeen eighteen, and they're all like, what
is this stuff? So it took a while to gain
some traction, but he took it out of the health
food store and started to get into grocery stores, and
that was what really kind of laid the foundation for
kombucha to be introduced to America as a whole.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That's right. And the sort of unfortunate part that has
come out more recently is that Synergy is going through
a few different lawsuits right now because allegedly it is
even though this is a drink that is touted is
being made with love and good vibrations, there are some
(20:28):
lawsuits going on now because allegedly it is a terrible
place to work and Gt. Dave allegedly would purposefully hire
undocumented workers so they could be taken advantage of with
brutal work hours, no breaks to eat, no breaks for breaks,
go to the bathroom super fast and get back to work.
(20:51):
It's so hot in there that you're sweating into the beverage,
and then you have to go to a freezing place
and your clothes freeze up. Just some sounds like some
pretty bad stuff happening there, allegedly.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Well you say allegedly, but you don't have to say
that anywhere because as of I think this month, California
judge said, nope, this is all true. I'm ruling against Gt. Dave.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah. Well, yeah, that was a lawsuit from that's long standing,
but there are I think some new ones, and he's
been denying this the whole time. Basically, I think his
quote was something like, I don't want to paraphrase it.
Well I guess I have to paraphrase it, so I'll
have in front of me. Sure, But basically like, yeah,
you know, lawsuits are just the cross eye bear, you know,
(21:37):
when you get popular like this, that's just how things go, right.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
That this is he just dismissed them all as frivolous
in that quote, like indirectly basically, although these are have
been brought by multiple people in multiple lawsuits over multiple years. Yeah,
so yeah, this judge apparently does not like him, and
the judge is in charge of all the cases and
apparently has said before that Dave lies through his teeth
(22:04):
and is totally not credible, and if you put him
on the stand, I'm going to tell the jury not
to believe him.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Like this.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
This judge has said this like in court. So he's
having a rough time of it for sure.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Yeah, And of course I told him this. She was like, oh, well,
I guess I'll find a new brand.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Well, there's so many great brands out there too, Like
I mean, there's a lot of Like if you are
into kombucha or you're about to be into kombucha, after
listening to this, you are in a beautiful time to
be into kombucha because there's a lot of good brands
that you could find in just about any grocery store.
And yes, indeed, it is a golden age for kombucha
(22:41):
right now.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
We love our golden ages. Sure, there's another big player
in KeVita k e v I t A because Pepsi
bought that one in twenty sixteen. And you know, anytime
in the beverage industry, it's a tough racket anyway, So
you're you're probably looking to cash out to a larger company.
Is the exits strategy generally for beverages? Sure, I watch
(23:02):
a lot of Shark Tank, that's what they say. Okay,
Coca Cola got into it a little bit because they
own Honest Tea.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
I just got that name.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Oh Honesty. Yeah, but I don't think they make that anymore.
But they do have some sort of Australian kombucha Coca
Cola does, called Organic and Raw Trading Company.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
They don't like to talk about it, though, I don't
think they do. So it is a golden age and
that's kind of reflected in the market. It's like a
two and a half billion dollar industry, which is not bad.
But no, it's not bad. It's expected to grow to
eleven and a half billion within the next seven years
because kombucha is so good and because we're living in
(23:43):
that golden age. Apparently considered a functional beverage with energy
drinks and vitamin fortified.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
Waters and you who yeah, because.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
It gives you great strength, yeah exactly. But one it's
considered a non alcoholic. But that was up in the
air until fairly recently because there's a well known story
at least in the kombucha community about a I think
an inspector for the main Department of Agriculture who was
(24:16):
going through a Whole Foods and noticed that these bottles
of kombucha. This was twenty ten, so he's still like,
what is this stuff that they were bubbling out from
under their caps. And he's like, yeah, not a good sign. No,
He's like, this is that's fermentation. These things are fermenting
before my eyes. That means that it's producing alcohol by definition.
And he's like, I'm gonna I'm going to test some
of these and what he found exactly, he went on
(24:40):
a seven day bender, right, and when he came to
he said, these things should not be sold as not alcoholic.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
To me, I went on a booch bender. Not good. No, yeah,
I think if you're homebrewing it and this is you know,
it's a variable product. Anytime you're making something where there
it's like alive for a little while, it's it's going
to be different depending on the batch and the maker
and all that stuff. If you're homebrewing it, you may
(25:08):
get up to three percent ABV. There have been cases
where I think the guy in Maine some of those
went up to two point five and that's when Whole
Foods was like, we can't sell it, like it's over
the point five percent threshold. So Whole Foods had to
pull it there.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
And this was like this this industry was still in
its cradle, Like this is a really dangerous thing to
have happen all of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, totally, but that's why. Kind of around that same time,
the kombucha's Kombucha Brewers International was formed, which is a
trade organization that basically is like, hey, listen, we need
to sort of standardize this. Here's an alcohol test that
everyone should be using, and we should all be on
the same page about the AVV.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Right, So they really kind of swooped in to standardize
things and save the day. And there is there is
hard kombucha. Apparently they're crazy for it. In California, it
goes up to eleven percent, which, man, that'll knock you
on your duff. Yeah, But for the most part, the
people who make kombucha have figured out how to keep
(26:16):
it from going beyond the point five percent point zero
five percent.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Alcohol point I think point five.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
I don't know if I've ever told this story before,
have I about how when I was a youngster, I
really loved nick at night, and sometimes on Fridays and Saturdays,
I would go to the Open Pantry, which was a
convenience store across the railroad tracks from my house. Yeah,
and I would buy some slim gyms, gets twigs, maybe
some starbursts, really load up. And then one of the
(26:47):
things I would get every every time was a six
pack of Kingsbury non alcoholic beer. And every time I'm
like ten, eleven, twelve, maybe oh du every time I
had to argue with the person checking me out at
the at the register, like this is no alcoholic, it
has nothing to do with any age limit. I'm allowed
(27:09):
to buy this, And every time I was successful. I
think most of them were just like, Okay, if this
kid's gonna say that to me, then fine, you can
have this non alcoholic beer. And I would go home
and crack some Kingsbury and need some slim jough, my watch,
Stef Troop and stuff. It was amazing, good Friday.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
You know, I do have a new answer now. And
when they say if you could go back in time,
because it used to obviously be go back and kill
Hitler and do some good for mankind, but now it's
go back and live next door to young Josh. So
we could have been kid buddies.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, that would have been fun.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
I would have been older. You would have been the
one corrupting me though somehow.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, it.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Would have been pretty funny. You would have been I
would have been like what he six years younger? Seven?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Uh no, I'm like five five.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
You would have been the ten year old corrupting like
the fifteen or sixteen year old. But I would have
my license first and be like, yeah, I know you
can drive install the bad place.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Yeah, let's go get some Kingsbury Chuck. Should we take
a break and come back and tell everybody how to
make kombucha? Because I'm ready to do that.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Yeah, okay, let's do it, all right.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Everybody, as promised, We said that we are going to
teach you how to make kombucha, and it is super duper.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
S really you should also, you know, really, look if
you're going.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
To oh yeah, there's a that's a really good point.
The kombucha brewing community is really supportive and helpful and
nice and not snipy or caddy. They're just very like,
whatever information you need to brew your own kombucha. They'll
give it to you, and you could probably also make
(29:11):
friends with somebody who will send you your first go
b Yeah, because here's the thing. You can't make kombucha
without kombucha. You have to have kombucha, which I think
Chuck and I couldn't find this. That would mean that
all kombucha is related in some way, shape or form,
because if you just took tea and sugar and water
(29:33):
and left it out to be inoculated with whatever yeast
and bacteria in the air, you're not necessarily going to
attract the same yeast in bacteria those Bretts and the
other one that are in kombucha, so you'll make something
that isn't actually kombucha. So to make kombucha, you need kombucha,
(29:53):
which means all kombucha is related. They have some sort
of shared lineage over time. Okay, that's kind.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
Of like ill set up. Yeah, it is, and that
kind of lends itself to the hippiedippy community aspect for sure.
So like you said, you need a scobie, and like
you also said, you can probably find some hippie online
that'll send you some.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
You can buy it too. There's everything Kombocha dot Com
recommends for mental holics. They'll send you a Scobe for
thirteen dollars and forty nine cents on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
All right, and you get that that gross little membrane
looking thing. Maybe look up a recipe that you might
want to use. There are lots of recipes online, of course,
But like you said, you got to have that unpasteurized,
unflavored kombucha at the root of it. Uh And like
you know, you kind of tease it earlier, you put
that kombucha in a in a glass jar. Everything's got
(30:45):
to be super super clean. Of course. You're gonna want
for your tea a few specific things. You want organic
tea because if it's not organic, then that tea you
get hasn't been washed yet and it's got pesticides and
stuff on it.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
No good, not just for you, but also for the
Scobe because it's a living thing.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Yeah, Scobey's gonna eat that stuff. You want to use
pure tea because you know it tastes better, it's the
cleanest flavor, it's got the most nutrients, and you're also
gonna it's gonna be caffeinated. You can't make decaf kombucha
as far as I know, right.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
You literally cannot because the caffeine is one of the
most essential nutrients for the bacteria and or the yeast
they use it to they convert it into nitrogen, which
they use for all sorts of stuff during the fermentation
project process. So you cannot make kombucha without caffeine.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
All right, the thing gets your tea. You got your caffeine,
and what else you need? Sugar?
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yep, you want to use cane sugar. I've seen and
all of this, Like, you can get organic cane sugar
for very little money even compared to like just cheap
white granulated sugar. Splurge for that. Splurge for good loose
organic tea. Use filtered water, or you can just get
like a gallon of distilled water while you're at the
grocery store buying chine sugar. Just it's that whole garbage in,
(32:10):
garbage out kind of mentality. It also applies to kombucha.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Too, all right, So you've got your ingredients, You've got
your Scoby from a guy named you know, Scooby Goby,
Scoby Scooby Bro, Scooby Bro one two three, and you
get your sweet teammate. You add your starter kombucha, you
put in your scoby and then you put it in
(32:36):
that jar like you said, with the what's it called it,
the musslim over the top, Yeah, the muslin over the top,
and then you put it in that dark, dry place
like a cabinet or something, and let it do its
thing for how long? Like a week or so?
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Yes, if you're fermenting kombucha, it takes seven to fourteen
days for the first ferment to finish, all right. Then
after that you bottle, and that you leave it again
for another usually a few days, maybe seven days, and
it does it second ferment in the bottle, and that's
where the alcohol and the bubbles really start to come about,
(33:11):
because those are both byproducts of fermentation CO two and alcohol. Again,
though depending on I'm not actually quite sure how you
control the amount of alcohol that gets developed. I think
it's maybe the amount of sugar you add initially, and
then also how long you let it ferment to you
(33:31):
in that second fermentation. And then to stop it from
the second fermentation, you start refrigerating it, and that makes
everything go dormant.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, and when you bottle it, that's when you're also
gonna you know, juice it up a little bit. If
you want to put some ginger or some herbs, some
other kind of like fruity juices or something. That's where
you can you know, experiment with your own taste and
flavor profiles that chilling.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, and you want to use glass for everything. The
reason why is because it's so acidic. As we'll see that,
it can leech metals right out of a metal container.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
So, and you can also leach lead out of the
glaze of a ceramic container. So you basically just want
to use sterilized glass, like really well washed class. And
you also want to keep yourself clean, and this I'm
sure is very hard for a lot of the kombucha
brewer community. Sure, but you definitely want to wash your
hands thoroughly before you ever touch your scobi because again,
(34:27):
it's a living thing, and if you accidentally get some
bad bugs on it, it can grow mold, it can
get weak, it can die, all sorts of stuff can happen.
So you want to be very gentle and kind with
your scoby and very clean too. So you want to
make sure you and your glass bottles are all super
clean before you make kombucha.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, Scooby bro one two three. In this video, it's like,
all right, this next part man is a real bummer.
But you're gonna have to take a shower.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Man. The hippies are not gonna like this.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Oh that's okay. They're surfing right now.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
There's one other thing you can do too, or one
other thing you're gonna have to do. You remove your
scobie from the bottle or from the glass that you
fermented in after the first ferment. It doesn't go into
the bottles, but it's reusable. It actually will grow I
wondered about that. Yes, so it actually will grow as
you're fermenting new kombucha each time, because it's sitting there
(35:25):
eating love and life. And after a while it'll grow
thick enough that you can just basically peel off. From
what I understand, the bottom layer is the youngest layer, okay.
And there's stuff you can do with the old scobi
it's cellulo. Some people cut it up and dry it
out and give it to their dogs. Some people eat
it directly because it's full of probiotics, as we'll see.
(35:47):
But you can also just toss it out or compost it.
I think is another thing people do, and you take
that younger part and just start over. It's the healthiest,
it's the most vibrant, it's the youngest part of the Scobie.
Or you can also take that part and give it
to a newbie as their first go b too, if
you want to be super kind, as the hippies call it.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, or you can rub it under your arms to
prevent yeasts growth there gross in your armpit. Yeah. Well,
we talked a little bit about health benefits. They have
done not a lot of like controlled human trials in
these published papers. There was a twenty nineteen review at
(36:28):
two hundred and fifty three papers boots that call them
the Booch papers, and there.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
Were there were help my dream.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
I'm sorry, that's fine, but there were no controlled human trials.
So it's like you can't really point to hard science,
but it is, you know, it is something that contains
good stuff, Like there are probiotics, and we do know
that probiotics are good for your gut. We've talked about
them before. I take a probiotic every day now and
(36:58):
it's really helped my system out, like in a hugely
noticeable way. Yeah. But you know, if you read the
bottle of a Synergy or another brand. If you're making
that switch, you're gonna see stuff like you find on
a pill bottle of other probiotics like Basillis coagulans or
(37:18):
lacto basillis, like these really common bacterium probiotic bacteriums. It's
what's going on basically.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yes, So, yeah, we know probiotics are good for you,
and kombucha as allows you with probiotics. That's the upshot
of that. And there actually was one human trial very recently,
it came out in the last week from Georgetown University
that found that it actually lowers fasting blood glucose levels,
(37:48):
So it could be useful for people with type two
diabetes to drink kombucha while they're eating a meal because
it will keep your glucose from spiking, according to this
newest trial, and it's one of the first human clinical
trials ever done on kombucha.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
I got two words for that, go hoyas.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
It's been a while.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Have you ever understood what the difference between a hoya
and a bulldog is? Because I've never heard anything called
a hoya except in the context of Georgetown.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
They have never even thought about it now that I think.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
But that's their mascot. It's a bulldog, but they call
it a hoya like they're out of their minds.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Is it the same? Like is it supposed to be
the name of the bulldog? I don't or not the
name of But does it mean bulldog?
Speaker 2 (38:35):
I don't know. In Georgetown it does.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Because I'm seeing that the hoya is a plant.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Yeah it is. It's called the Indian roade plant now
that you mentioned it, or one of the hoyas. I
think it's a family of plants.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Well, somebody, because we're not going to stop to look
this up because I'm sure the ANSWER's out there. I
would love a Georgetown hoyata, right and let us know.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Okay, fair enough, moving on then right?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah? What about antioxidants.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Well, that tea that you make this out of is
lousy with polyphenols, depending on which kind of tea you use.
Apparently green and red have the highest amounts of polyphenols
in the end result in kombucha. But you can't really
sneeze at the polyphenols in black tea too, which is
traditionally the type of tea that's been used to brew kombucha.
(39:20):
Those polyphenols do all sorts of things, like they neutralize
free radicals in the body. And we did our episode
on whether or not free radical health theory is legitimate
or not. But considering that the jury is still out,
if it is legit, then the antioxidants in kombucha are
really super helpful.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
I wonder if you could make a macha kombucha.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
I don't know, I don't know. I wondered that myself
from what I saw. You want loose leaf tea, but
I don't know why you wouldn't be able to use macha.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Might be interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
Also vitamins, there's lots of B vitamins in kombucha. Vitamins
are great for you. But again, because it's a variable product,
it's not like you can say, al kambucha's have this
amount of this vitamin. I believe some of the leading
brands taut as being like, you know, it's a great
source of V twelve or whatever, but it's not like
listed out on the ingredients like exactly how much. No.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
And the reason why it's, like you said, it's variable
because this stuff is grown, it's not manufactured, and B
vitamins are a byproduct of fermentation. So unless I guess
they test every single batch and create a new label
every single time. Right, they can't say accurately how much
B vitamins is in there, but usually it's enough to
knock your.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Socks right off, as will the acid. Right.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yes, so acids are anti microbials, and they've been found
to fight off stuff like E. Coli, Shigella, salmonella, cholera. Again,
this is in vitro. This is like putting some of
the acids from kombucha in a petri dish with shigella
and seeing what happens, and those acids kill the shigella.
So this is all just like assuming that the same
(41:05):
stuff is going to happen in the human body, because
again there hasn't been a lot of human trials. But
we know that the acids that are produced in kombucha
as it ferments, do have antimicrobial properties in a petri
dish at least.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, exactly. As far as if it could be bad
for you, probably not. I mean, it might upset your
tummy a little bit, as any probiotic could initially, at
least until your thumbs gets used to it. Anything unpasteurized,
like if you're having if you're trading like homemade kombucha's
with friends and stuff like that, there could always be
(41:43):
a chance that there are some bacterias in there that
aren't great for you. I think you can get a pasteurized,
like professionally pasteurized kombucha, but that would kill off the
live culture. So it's kind of like, what's the point.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, I mean it still has the acids in it,
so it's gonna have some benefits. But yeah, the kombucha
brewing communities, like what, you don't want to kill off
all of this beneficial bacteria. You know.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
It's very anti booch.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
It is super anti booch. I say, before we wrap Chuck,
we we name check a few other brands because I
love a few. So health Aid is really really great,
Lady Apple, I would point people too, all right. Two
twenty one BC, I think is made in Florida. They
make a lavender one that's just amazing, and their kombucha
(42:31):
is real mild. It's not nearly as tart, and it's
not nearly as fizzy as most other kombucha's. It's not
quite as dense, so it'd be a good introduction to kombucha.
Hum is another great one, and then Big Easy, Butcha,
all of those make really good kombucha, and you can
usually find all of those brands in just about any
(42:52):
grocery store.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
That's great. I'm going to pass those along to Emily.
Do you take a probiotic in a dish or is
this sort of covering your basis here?
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I take mine intraveniously, okay, just a slow drip. I
don't actually take a probiotic. I'm really terrible at keeping
up with supplements on a daily basis. I kind of
take them when I think of it. I hear probiotics
definitely fall into that category for me.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Yeah, I've gotten good at it with my diverticulate problems.
So I've a friend of mine sister said you should
take this probiotic every day, and it really has changed
my toilet routine.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
What's the Do you know the brand and or what's
in it?
Speaker 1 (43:39):
Oh? I can picture it in my head. No, but
I could always follow up if people are interested. It's
sort of just a good all around probiotic and it
is right in my tummy.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Nice, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Goodway.
Speaker 2 (43:51):
Yeah, Yeah, I don't take probiotics, but I use so
much fermented stuff every day that it's kind of tantamount
to it.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah, we should do one eventually. On the other thing
that I don't enjoy, which is kimchi.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Oh man, I eat that almost every day too. There's
I know you love all us I do love it.
And if you're nowhere near an Asian market, there's something
called Cleveland kimchi and you can find that in like
you're I think you're produce section, along with like tofu
and stuff like that. And it's it's really good for
package kimchi.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
You could make that too at home, could don't you
berry kimchi?
Speaker 2 (44:28):
I think so? That sounds very familiar.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
All right, we'll have to look into that. That'd be
a good topic.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Okay, So while we go off and think about kimchi,
let's all just wait a second and pause for a
listener mail.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
Should I read one? Or are we really pausing?
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Go ahead and read one.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
Okay, Hey, guys, recentish listener discovered you during second year
of the pandemic. You've gotten me through a lot, including
graduate school in the beginning of my most recent career transition,
which brings me to the point of this email. At
a really difficul time, shifting my career trajectory from engineering
to veterinary medicine in the sense of making such a
(45:06):
major time commitment to pursue more schooling after completing a
master's degree. I desire to learn far outweighed my concerns, though,
so I applied a needless to say, I was extremely
nervous going to VET school through the interview process. It
was an absolutely wild coincidence that you released her podcast
The Large Equine History of Veterinary Medicine the day before
I had my two interviews. That episode reminded me of
(45:28):
how much I love this field and how fascinating it is,
and I accepted this as a happy coincidence at Comma
Nerves a bit allowed me to go into my interviews
the next day with a high sorry with the level
head and renewed faith in my decision. I was accepted
to both programs I interviewed for that day, as well
as a few have awesome. Fast forward to today, my
second day of veterinary school, and you released how We're
(45:50):
Learning to Talk to Animals. I have now accepted that
you're somewhat my guardian angels, as you're shepherding me through
this very exciting and very scary transition. Aside from those times,
the podcast has given me so many laughs, fun facts,
and overall sense of calm and what can be an
overwhelming world. And I know you heard a lot, but
I'm officially joining the ranks. You have made such a
(46:11):
positive impact on my life. Please keep doing it. Can't
wait to see what the future scenarios that you hold
my hand through. Sending love. The sign offs are getting
so good. That is from Gabby.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Thanks Gabby. I remember that email. I responded to her
say congrats.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
It's crazy, love it, love it.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
Great email, Gabby. Thanks. If you want us to sing
your praises about what a great email you wrote, take
your shot. You only missed the shots you don't take.
You can send that shot off to Stuff Podcasts at
iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1 (46:48):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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