Kombucha
First published in The Truth Campaign
Cultures & Accessories Fermenting Systems
Kombucha is made from the Medusomyces Gisevii Lindau fungus. It has various names in various countries - e.g. Kvass (Russia), Champignon de longue vie (France), Karagasok Tea, Manchurian Elixir, Russian Mother, etc.
Benefits of Kombucha
Kombucha, while not a panacea, costs only tea and sugar, and the culture reproduces itself. Properly made, the tea - by working on the body as a whole - is said to help with:
Increasing energy levels and stimulatintg the immune system
Preventing or alleviating cancer
Kidney problems,
Better functioning of liver and gall bladder, stones
Migraines
Moderation of fluctuating glucose levels in diabetes (with sourer tea)
Normalising blood pressure and cholesterol levels ,
Softening veins and arteries, Improving circulation
Sclerosis
Cataracts and formations on the cornea
Nervous stomachs, Digestion, Gastro-enteritis,
Inflamed large and small intestines
Multiple sclerosis, Arthritic and rheumatic pain,
General muscular aches and pains
Gout (uric acid excreted)
Candida (with recolonisation by beneficial yeasts)
Skin problems such as psoriasis, eczema, acne, tropical ulcers, rashes, boils, warts and fungal infections such as athlete’s foot (with tea or creamed culture dabbed on skin)
Bronchitis, Coughs, Asthma, Sinusitis and phlegm
Allergies
Menstrual and menopausal problems
Disorders of the bowel - its recolonisation with beneficial flora
Reduction of oedema and swollen feet/legs
Constipation
Weight loss (with sourer tea) by stimulating the metabolism - also however normalising the metabolism in the under-weight
Chemical sensitivity and exposure to radiation
Pesticides
Food additives and harmful industrial by-products - by detoxifying the body by excreting (after binding with) waste products such as mercury, lead, etc. from liver and tissues (as glucoronides in urine analysis), including after nicotine/drug use
Impotence
Insomnia
Sensitivity to winter cold and summer heat
Anxiety and stress
Softening wrinkles/scarring, increasing skin elasticity (it is also a skin humectant or moisture attractant)
Better skin tone and colour, Fading of brown spots on hands, Sunspot removal
It is also said to have surprising effects on the scalp, reducing balding, and sometimes eliminating grey hair (3-6 months). Nail and hair growth increases. The tea has natural antibiotic effects after the 7th/8th day of fermentation.
History
The first recorded use of Kombucha, a fermented yeast enzyme tea, was during the Chinese Tsin dynasty in 212BC. It was referred to as the Remedy for Immortality or The Divine Tsche. In 414BC (sic) a “Dr Kombu” is said to have brought it to Japan to treat the ailing Emperor Inkyo. It later spread to India and Russia through travellers and traders and is now known throughout the world.
For the sorts of reasons listed above, Kombucha resurfaced in Japan between the Wars after a Japanese visitor to Kargasok (Russia) found many people there to be not only unusually healthy but over a hundred years old. The women were virtually unwrinkled, with few other signs of ageing. She was told that Kargasoks, young and old, drank a yeast enzyme tea daily and had done so for generations. It was claimed the tea was (along with stress free lives) responsible for their health and longevity. She was given a culture, with instructions, to take home. She shared its use with friends who reported after some weeks astonishing differences in physical wellbeing. Reports included pronounced lowering of high blood pressure, fading of wrinkles and gradual beginnings of hair restoration. Today the tea - once routinely used by Samurai - is widely used again in Japan.
Kombucha was a popular health drink in Europe between the Wars until the World War II sugar shortages. Summing up then current medical opinion, a Dr. E. Arauna (1929) said it had proved itself to be an excellent prophylactic for diabetes, hardening of the arteries, high blood pressure, gout, haemorrhoids, was a pleasant laxative; that it had been used for hundreds of years as a natural folk remedy, also for fatigue, lassitude, nervous tension, rheumatism and incipient signs of old age. Kombucha was used with striking success for senility and arteriosclerosis at Prof. Jaksch’s Clinic for Internal Medicine in Prague between the Wars. Irion (a leading German pharmacologist) wrote in 1944 of striking improvement in the whole glandular system and the stimulation of the metabolism by Kombucha and of it being highly recommend for gout, high blood pressure, nervous tension, furunculosis (boils), constipation and signs of age; also for those involved in sport or strenuous mental activity. Harmful deposits (e.g. uric acid and cholesterin) were transferred to soluble form and excreted; dysenteric bacteria were suppressed.
A Russian doctor wrote of detailed epidemiological studies in the USSR (1951-53) and accidental findings by twenty scientists in two areas of the Perm region in the Urals where the population drank Kombucha - which were in marked contrast to the rest of the USSR. The Perm region was highly polluted (trees and fish dying) from asbestos, lead, mercury, etc. Nicotine and alcohol use was higher but cancer almost non-existent. Measurements of illness, alcohol offences, work attendance and morals of the people were far better than the rest of the nation. This led to research by Prof. Vinogradov (Stalin’s personal physician) into the Kombucha culture and tea. Research stopped with the 1953 “Trial of the Moscow Doctors” and jailing of Stalin’s team of 12 doctors over their decision to give him Kombucha to allay his terror of cancer. The doctors were later released as victims of a political plot to undermine the KGB’s Beria for sanctioning a mere nature cure and thus diminishing the scientific status of Soviet Medicine. The tea was said (by the same doctor) to have been given to Ronald Reagan (at 1 litre a day) for cancer after American doctors recalled Alexander Solzenitzyn’s description of his own Kombucha cure for cancer while in Soviet labour camps (see “Cancer Ward”, “The Right Hand” autobiographies). Living in the USA at the time, he was interviewed and culture then flown from Japan to the US.
The tea was tested by the German Army (1967) and found to increase stamina and reduce muscle pain and fatigue (200mls 3 daily). Its DR. G. Simon found it “a purely biological strengthening product … increases high performance sporting achievements”. A Dr. R. Weisner (1987) reported a trial of 246 patients with various conditions, comparing Kombucha with Interferon. Asthmatics did better on Kombucha, and other diseases responded only marginally less than to the Interferon product.
The base for 29 herbs in the American-Chinese tonic Dragon’s Brew, Kombucha is said to aid assimilation and promote circulation of blood and Chi (energy) in the body.
ANALYSIS OF FUNGUS & TEA
The fungus is a jelly-like membrane form of a symbiosis of yeasts and bacteria. The principal yeast is Schizosaccharomyces Pombe; others varyingly include Saccharomyces Ludwigii, torula and apiculatus types, Pichia fermentans and Mycoderma. Principal bacteria are Acetobacteria xylinum, Gluconobacter bluconicum and Acetobacter xylinioides; others varyingly include Acetobacter aceti/ketogenum/ pasteurianum.
The Kombucha fungus needs to live in a solution of tea and sugar exposed to oxygen. Its Pombe yeasts don’t build spores as most yeasts do to reproduce but divide (like bacteria) then multiply by sprouting. The metabolic by-products of the process, via tea and sugar, include Gluconic and Glucuronic acids, the L-lactic acid (+) (dextrogyral), Acetic acid, Carbonic acid and Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, Folic acid and various enzymes. Usinic acid produced (a dibenzofurane derivative) is antibacterial and partially antiviral. Acetic acid bacteria produced are strongly antagonistic to streptococci, diplococci, flexner and shigella rods. 0.5% to 1% alcohol is produced as well. (Glucuronic acid, apart from its detoxifying ability, builds important polysaccharides such as: hyaluronic acid for the connective tissues; chondroitinsulfat acid, the basic substance in cartilage; mukoitinsulfat acid for the vitreous of the eye and heparin and lactic acid which benefit the colon).
WHAT HAPPENS DURING FERMENTATION?
After several days the culture will float to the surface towards the air and start to form a clear or translucent thin skin of jelly across all the available surface. This is the new ‘baby’ beginning as a new layer above the ‘mother’. The tea will start to smell fermented and a few gas bubbles appear from the carbonic acid forming. The mother will remain the same size as it went in and stay under the baby. The baby will slowly thicken. It may look like bubble wrap for a while. It will turn a creamy beige colour finally and look like a pancake or piece of rubbery cheese. Cultures can vary greatly in thickness and transparency and vary in colour as well – cream, beige, whitish grey, peach coloured. Brownish yeast sediment forms in the tea and drifts to the bottom. The tea will slowly change from sweet to sweet/sour – like shandy, cider, sherry, etc. when ready. The longer it is left the sourer the tea will become. (At its most acidic it can be used as table vinegar). Not only is each yeast cell in each culture different, but the amounts and types of tea and sugar, the temperature, water softness, etc. will cause variations. Much used cultures will be stained darker by tannins from the tea. Some tea has more carbonic acid and more fizz than others for no clear reason – even in laboratories when all other factors are kept the same. Strong tannins in some teas can give cultures a wrinkled rather than smooth surface. (Antibiotic properties form best over 23ºC).
WHEN IT IS READY TO DRINK AND BOTTLE
Wash hands and lift mother and baby out of brew onto a plate to separate. Cover them with another plate if bottling up first. Leave a cup of the brewing tea in your brewing container to start your next batch. The yeast sediment can stay there too.
Pour the brewed tea (that you have just removed the culture from) over a strainer into a jug and then into clean glass or plastic soft drink or milk bottles. This is the tea you drink. You do not have to strain it but most people prefer to remove the bits of stray jelly ‘tails’. The yeasts are beneficial to drink so don’t strain too finely. Put your bottle(s) of tea in the fridge if you wish. The bottle you are going to drink over the next week can stay out of the fridge. If you wish you can add a few raisins or pieces of dried fruit to flavour. A ¼ teaspoon of powdered Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) per litre can be added to aid long term storage. Glass bottles can explode if left for a long time, so use corks. Stored tea will lose its value slowly but at 5 months still has considerable activity left.
SEPARATING THE CULTURES
You can usually peel them apart as layers with your (clean) hands. Otherwise cut with (clean) scissors or a (clean) knife. It doesn’t matter if they tear. (A small new batch of tea can be made from a 10% piece). Rinse off the mother under cool running water to get rid of any jelly-like ‘tails’ or brown bits. Cut out any (dead) dark brown spots. (The mother loses cells in the process and will be thinner and scrappier but is fine to use again). Large cultures can be cut or torn into pieces for several to give away, but remember each will need a cup of starter tea or 1.5 tbs of cider vinegar.
STORAGE OF CULTURES
Put either mother or baby in a glass jar with brewed tea and lid (or cling film and rubber band) with plenty of air, and put in the fridge – as a spare or to give away. Once the still remaining tea and sugar nutrients in the cup of tea in the jar are used up (or ‘eaten’) the culture will starve. It will last about 4-6 weeks in a jar in the fridge. You can tip out some of the tea in the jar and add a little fresh tea/sugar to extend nutrients and life in the jar further still. More fermented tea (for diabetes, weight loss) has less nutrients left – add a little fresh tea/sugar for longer storage. You can store a few cultures in one large container (with their cups of tea) if short of jars. Cultures can also be frozen (up to 3 months) but this is best done quickly (snap frozen) to avoid large ice crystals damaging the structure of the fungus. Frozen cultures should be defrosted in the fresh tea and sugar solution made for the next batch, and may take 2 weeks to rise up to the surface and get going again. Otherwise excess cultures can be frozen (with a little tea in plastic bags) for blending later into face packs or skin creams. (Once made up, keep these in a pot in the fridge with a cover that allows air to the still living yeasts).
NEXT BATCH OF TEA
Make up fresh cooled sugared tea as before. Take the remaining culture, either mother or baby, and add to the pot as you did before. Your starter tea was left in the pot – along with yeast sediment. (If you forgot and poured it all out, take it from the bottled tea). If you are using the new baby for this brew it now becomes the mother. Cover as before and repeat the whole process. (Yeast sediments help fermentation proceed more quickly next time but after 4-5 batches of tea should be washed out of the pot).
TASTE
It should not be too acidic – unless you are using it for diabetes or weight loss (with up to doubled fermentation time and so more like dry white wine). It should approximate cider or shandy. It is healthier on the sharp side (as more sugar has been broken down and more of the beneficial by-products have formed) but should still be pleasant. Taste the tea every couple of days to make sure it doesn’t become over-acid if you need to. (Antibiotic properties don’t appear until the 7th or 8th day between 20 and 30 degrees centigrade.) Advice to leave for 7-10-12-14 days etc. is a guideline only. Temperatures and conditions vary too much between households to be exact. If the tea is too strong, try less tea next time (if you used 2 tea bags or more per litre last time), or more or less sugar until you work out how you like it. Try a milder or different tea. Experiment. If the tea is too strong to drink, dilute it with water, apple juice, etc. (It is less effective diluted but still beneficial).
HOW MUCH TO DRINK
A ¼-½ full glass a day (and sometimes more) – ideally for the rest of your life. You need to work out your own level and what works for you. In countries where Kombucha has been known longest, about a third of a litre a day is drunk – not necessarily all at once. (Cancer patients usually follow Dr. Sklenar’s prescription of the tea at 1 litre per day – ½ to ¾ litre for pre-cancer). Up to 2 litres + per day has been drunk for several weeks for specific reasons. Amounts can be temporarily increased during illness, radiation, infection or exposure to environmental toxins. (2-3 glasses at the onset of a cold will fight the cold). Many Westerners drink more than they need to for maintaining health. The tea has slight blood thinning qualities over time – if you prick your finger and bleed too freely you are drinking too much. (Not useful during surgery or accidents).
CHILDREN
The tea is fine for children – in amounts adjusted to age or weight. It can be mixed with juices if really necessary – e.g. apple. Kombucha given undiluted in the evening may keep a child wide awake (and some adults). The usual 0.5% alcohol in an average brew is not a problem. (Some bread and juices have small amounts too).
CAUTIONS
Detoxification too rapidly can cause discomfort if too much tea is drunk too soon in some people. Work up slowly week by week from a quarter of a glass (60ml) in divided doses. At 20ml 3 daily any discomfort can be avoided. This can include headaches, stomach aches, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, mild diarrhoea, pimples, rashes and wind. These are temporary cleansing effects lasting from a day to a week or so in basically healthy people. Drink extra water to counteract them. People with disease conditions may experience a healing crisis if they drink too much too soon – which not everyone can cope with. Kombucha effects appear to begin in the weakest part of the body, then the second weakest, and so on.
Pregnancy and lactation. In Germany the tea is not drunk during pregnancy because of the alcohol it contains – up to 1%. In Brazil it appears to be recommended in pregnancy “to avoid poisons forming in the cells”. Best avoided in the first trimester, especially if prone to miscarriage, due to anticoagulant effects. Seek professional advice for 2nd and 3rd trimesters. With lactation it would be sensible to take small amounts only and monitor the baby for colic.
Diabetes. In Europe, diabetics who can afford them use Kombucha drops – pressed from the fungus directly. Otherwise the tea should be drunk more fermented (i.e. sourer) when the residual sugar is fructose. Saccharose splits to glucose and fructose at onset of fermentation, glucose fermenting quickly to glucuronic acid. Making the tea with less sugar (less than 50 grams per litre) will reduce the nutrients/energy needed for the formation of beneficial metabolic products and makes it not worth making the tea at all. (Tea made with fructose alone produces almost only acetic acid, no glucuronic acid or antibacterial products).
Haemophilia. Kombucha has some anticoagulant qualities.
Candida. The tea’s yeast will over-run other yeasts but need time to do so. Do not drink too much too soon, or too much thereafter. Don’t overstrain yeast sediments out while bottling tea – this also applies to non-candida use.
Kombucha contains lactic acid. Excess lactic acid over very long periods can cause joint pain, dizziness and sinus problems.
WHEN TO DRINK KOMBUCHA
When it suits you, but best during the day. Antibiotic properties during infections are probably more effective when the tea is drunk away from meals, but other properties in the tea benefit digestion when drunk with or after meals. The committed take some first thing in the morning. For weight loss, drink it ½ – 1 hour before meals.
TIME TAKEN FOR BENEFITS TO HAPPEN
Most people feel better after 4-6 weeks of daily use, some much sooner. Increased energy and better skin colour are commonly first noticed. Some disease conditions may take 4-6 months. Some dramatic differences in disease conditions are occasionally only seen after 1-2 years. Great variation is to be expected due to individual differences. Weight loss is usually slow and gradual after 1-3 months.
BREAKS
Some people prefer to have breaks of 3 weeks on, 1 week off, or 6 days on, 1 day off. Some drink tea daily. Do what is best for you in relation to why you are drinking the tea. Breaks occur naturally with going away, forgetting or running out between batches.
TIRED, SICK OR DEAD CULTURES
A culture can last up to 6 months with active brewing if carefully treated, but the average is 2-4 months. Many prefer the appearance of fresh vigorous new cultures and, food grade acid resistant containers can be used if available, e.g. polypropylene. (German Kombucha is brewed commercially in such.) Polyvinyls, polystyrenes and cheap plastics can also cause chemical reactions in the brew. If in doubt stick to ceramic, etc. 3 litre glass storage jars from kitchen shops, etc. can be used. Much bigger jars of that shape have too much volume of tea beneath the culture and not enough surface area for it to grow to a size able to quickly ferment tea. Fermentation is quicker in a wider shallower pot and bacterial growth better. Mixing bowls, crock pots, casserole dishes, glass fish bowls, jardinieres, etc. are fine. Continuous fermentation pots are easier – large (18-20 litre) squat ceramic pots with a tap like a wine cask. Tea is drawn directly from it, a few litres of freshly sugared tea is added every now and then and the cultures fished out. Unfermented sugar mixed in with the rest deters some people, but you can draw off 2-3 days supply before topping up. The tap needs to be 5 cm up to avoid clogging by yeast. Once a year drain to clear out excess yeast sediment. Try specialist water suppliers or local potters.
SUGAR
Feeds the culture, not you, and is converted to other things during fermentation, e.g. glucuronic acid. White sugar is more purely saccharose than raw sugar and also gives a better acid/alkali ratio (pH). While earlier ages would have used raw sugar products, these give more unpredictable and unsatisfactory results in laboratory analysis than white sugar. Reducing sugar does not make the drink healthier, but starves the culture of energy (see also Diabetes). Longer fermentation = greater conversion of sugar to beneficial by-products. This and enough initial sugar gives the healthiest tea. Too much sugar gives more alcohol and a quickly souring drink. Honey (up to 40% fructose) has antiseptic (bactericidal) qualities which will affect the long-term structure of the fungus and its own necessary bacteria, although it will work in the short term.
TEA
Provides nitrogen, purine and minerals as necessary nutrients. Black tea has more nitrogen and purine than green (unfermented) tea and gives a smoother flavour. Extra tannins in green tea give the tea a slightly bitter taste. Epigallocatechin gallates in green tea have documented anti-tumour effects.
Either green or black tea can be used or a mixture of both – preferably mild, low caffeine brands. Ordinary tea is fine but makes a fairly strong tasting drink. Herbal tea can be used for flavouring or therapeutic reasons mixed in lesser (10-30%) proportions to ordinary tea. Those with strong volatile oils, like camomile, sage, rosemary, mints, thyme, yarrow and St. John’s wort, can alter the structure of the fungus (and its babies). Elder flowers and rosehips are popular additions. Use 2 teaspoons of herbs per litre. (Grated ginger or dried apple rings can be soaked for a day, the liquid then boiled and added). Some herbs have long term side effects and knowledge is advisable. (Dr. Sklenar spent decade experimenting with ingredients and ended up using just ordinary teas and white sugar as best).
HEAT
Warming plates can be used under a pot in the winter. Some pots sit in water with a fish tank heater. Constant temperatures are best. Little happens below 18C.
DO NOT ADD
…vitamin tablets or capsules – fillers and binders can kill or damage the culture; other yeasts; real mushrooms; artificial sweeteners in place of sugar; more than minimal oxygen drops for water purification – beneficial bacteria are affected (leave water in glass jars in the sun for a day in preference); fresh fruit with its contaminating bacteria; coffee; anything outside the basic guidelines if you expect good effects.
STERILITY
Normal household. Hot water and soap. (The fungus sometimes dies for no obvious reason but is generally very hardy).
GIVING CULTURES AWAY
Lots can be grown in jam jars. Please do not give away without notes. Ask for photocopying costs if necessary. Label jars. Put in fridge with a use-by date for busy people.
EXCESS CULTURES AND TEA
School fetes (out of sun); health food shops; creams; face packs (see Storage); blend and eat if very keen; feed to plants; add tea to bath; foot baths; bottle for skin use; add to stir fries or trifle; horses seem to run faster with tea in their diet, etc.
NB. Should mould (hairy black, green or orange growth) develop in your culture, discard it immediately and begin again using a fresh culture and ensuring that great care is taken with regards to cleanliness.
Basic Instructions
YOU NEED –
1. Measure your pot for how many quarts it holds.
2. Pour the measured quantity of water into a pan
3 Use the 10% rule, if you are doing a quart, which is 32 ounces put in 3.2 ounce starter and 3.2 ounces sugar.
4. Boil water for several minutes
5. Turn off the stove and add 1-2 tea bags for each quart in the pot
6. Leave tea bags in for 10-15 minutes
7. Remove tea bags and leave to cool until luke warm.
8. When cool, poor the sugared tea into your ‘brewing’ pot.
9. Add the culture and its cup of starter tea
10. Cover with an openwave cloth to allow air in.
11. Tie down
12. Put in a warm, quiet spot for 7-14 days to ferment,
13. Remove cultures (now two) and bottle the ’ tea’