What Is Kombucha? Your Quick Overview

A key part of the modern urban experience involves obsessing about beverages—overanalyzing them, overpaying for them, and then discussing how they’ve changed your life. I’m totally on board with this process. Third wave coffee. Natural wine. Craft beer. And I didn’t want tea to feel left out. As such, I’ll take a deep—or maybe shallow—dive into kombucha. What is kombucha? Here’s a quick overview.

 

The Basics

The base of kombucha is sweetened tea, explaining the use of the term kombucha tea. To the sweetened tea is added a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) as well as a starter (a bit of preexisting kombucha). At this point, some serious biochemistry begins. A few processes that take place include the conversion of sugar to alcohol and carbon dioxide (fermentation), the conversion of sugar and alcohol to acids such as acetic acid, and the breakdown of caffeine.

The resultant concoction can be bottled, at which time juices, spices, and other flavors can be added for taste. Fermentation can continue in the bottle, with carbonation becoming more prominent. The final product is a sweet-and-sour, effervescent drink with small amounts of alcohol and caffeine.

The beverage is thought to be of Chinese origin, dating back over 2000 years. Over time, it trickled into Russia, other parts of Eastern Europe, and beyond. In recent times, at least in the US, kombucha has gained significant commercial appeal, sometimes being pitched as a more desirable alternative to soda.

As above, the alcohol by volume is typically quite low, as in less than 0.5 percent, which in the US obviates the need for regulation. That said, kombucha with higher alcohol content can be made easily, sometimes going by the name hard kombucha. Caffeine content is usually less than half that of the tea that was initially used.

 

The Hype

If you’re wondering why I’m even writing about this, that’s a fair question. Because let’s be honest—getting people to drink a borderline fizzy, sweet-and-sour, and barely alcoholic/caffeinated tea with a bunch of bacteria and yeast floating around needs some serious marketing. It turns out that such marketing requires only one word—probiotic.

Microorganisms—a category in which bacteria and yeast are included—that confer a health benefit to the host (in this case a human) are said to have probiotic properties. The general concept is that probiotics positively affect the gut microbiome (the massive number of microorganisms that inhabit the human gastrointestinal tract), skewing the balance in favor of those microorganisms that are beneficial for overall health. While much remains to be learned, this idea seems to have been embraced wholeheartedly.

In the case of kombucha, some of the bacteria in SCOBY are felt to have probiotic properties. (Certain brands actually add in probiotics after the fact, much to the chagrin of hard-core fans.) Given the probiotic/microbiome connection, kombucha has been claimed to be beneficial for a wide range of health conditions. Included on this list are diabetes, blood pressure, digestive health, arthritis, anxiety, and a host of other entities. None of these claims has been verified in large-scale clinical studies, and if verified, a relationship to tea itself (as opposed to the probiotic phenomenon) would need to be excluded.

 

The Opposite of Hype

Of course, chugging bacteria and yeast cannot be perfectly risk-free, and reports of adverse effects have surfaced from time to time. Such reports are typically associated with homemade preparations that have either been contaminated with undesired microorganisms or become overly acidic. Those with compromised immune systems may be advised to avoid the beverage.

 

As usual, feel free to ignore all of the above and remember just one long sentence. Kombucha is a sweetened-tea-based drink that, when exposed to a culture of bacteria and yeast, becomes a fermented, sweet-and-sour, effervescent, slightly alcoholic, and minimally caffeinated creation to which other flavors can be added. Depending on whom you ask, it may or may not be a bunch of other things. If you opt not to ingest it, I guarantee you’ll be fine.