Sunday, December 8, 2013

Kombucha Balance

I was thinking of writing a follow-up to my October post about kombucha.

Then I stumbled across this great page by Len Porzio entitled "Kombucha, The Balancing Act: Obtaining and Maintaining the Maximum Taste and Benefit from your Kombucha through Consideration and Application of Balance."

The "balance" that Len is talking about is the balance between bacteria and yeast. Bacteria produce most of the beneficial substances in kombucha; yeast set the stage, by breaking down sweetened tea into compounds accessible to the bacteria. Typical robust kombucha cultures may be yeast-heavy, leading to a suboptimal brew.

In addition to explicitly addressing the question of balance, Len includes sections on other topics, including "SCOBY Escape" (this was new to me!), brewing in varying temperatures (relevant as the weather gets colder), reducing caffeine, etc.

I hope others find this as amusing and informative as I did!

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