Category: Alternative Uses

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New Nordic Cuisine Inspires Kombucha Brewers

Copenhagen has emerged as a destination on the vegan food scene internationally. Given the creativity of all the food options, it is no surprise that they have also taken the next step in brewing kombucha.

Chef Rene Redzepi shares his recipes for kombucha brewed with apple juice. By using a fruit base, it results in a beverage more like wine, another fermented fruit beverage. It opens up a world of possibilities with fruit juice and expands the ability of kombucha serve as a mixer.

Hybrid beverages, such as an alcoholic kombucha, result in more shelf (or cooler) space for the beverage. Kyla Hard Kombucha is one example of this, currently available in the US in two flavors. The market response will definitely drive the ongoing creation of new, hybrid kombuchas and related beverages.

Here’s How To Make Kombucha According To Noma’s René Redzepi

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Kombucha Has Some Proven Health Benefits

Kombucha has always been touted for its health benefits—sometimes based on clinical research, sometimes based on the wisdom of the foodie forward crowd. In reality, recent studies find some unexpected benefit from the probiotic component in this popular fizzy brew.

As we age, it’s a fact our bones lose their calcium composition which can lead to such issues as obstreperous and osteopenia. With either of these maladies, bones become brittle and subject to fractures and other related problems. A study from the University of Gothenberg which was published in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that the probiotic strain Lactobacillus reuteri is effective at significantly cutting bone loss.

Lactobacillus reuteri is not only found in kombucha but also in such fermented foods as kimchi and miso soup.

Before rushing out to supplement your kombucha supply to keep your bones strong and supple, keep in mind that selecting a bottle (or can) that uses green tea as its base can offer your health benefits beyond a strong gut. Green tea has bioactive compounds that can do everything from reducing cell damage, offer powerful antioxidants, and provide a form of caffeine that stimulates your brain without giving you the jitters associated with coffee.

A British Heart Foundation study has found a “compound found in green tea, currently is being studied for its ability to reduce amyloid plaques in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease, also breaks up and dissolves potentially dangerous protein plaques found in the blood vessels.”

A few notable brands that offer flavors made with green tea include Wonder Drink Kombucha, CommuniTea, and if you find yourself in Germany (especially Berlin), Barbucha. Read the label of your favorite brew to see if it uses green tea in one of its offerings

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Here Comes Vegan Gelatin

Like many, you have no doubt looked at the scoby used to brew your kombucha and gazed in amazement. As we have written about several times, beyond creating a batch of brew, there are many uses—some straightforward, some quite creative—for that odd-looking powerful, probiotic, squishy matter.

An article in Live Kindly profiles, perhaps—and we only say perhaps—that is some of the foundational thinking beyond the work taking place at Geltor, a company producing a vegan substitute for gelatin. Traditional gelatin—used in more recipes than anyone imagines—is a byproduct of animal collagen. Yes, it is gross. Gelator and others in this area may have looked at a scoby and wondered if a microbial-based vegan rennet could be created that resembles or has the same properties as a scoby.

The largest benefit to a vegan gelatin would be in the manufacturing of such tasty treats as marshmallows and Gummy Bears. It would also make sense that the makers of Jell-O (Kraft) might consider a line of vegan gelatins.

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Kombucha Scoby as Packaging

Young people are out to save the world. Or at least as much of it as they can.

Case in point: Polish design student Roza Janusz has devised a method to make edible packaging from a scoby (that odd looking biological substance used to make kombucha) that farmers can use for their harvest which allows them to bring them to market (or other destination) without any waste.

This story in Fast Code Design has all the details.

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News Roundup for May 6, 2018

We’re a day late, but not a drink short, as we find a great recipe for making margaritas for Cinco de Mayo using kombucha. (Heck, they sound good for any day).

This combo from the music pub Paste Magazine adds a nice touch by adding a probiotic chia seed. Not sure what it does to enhance the result, but it makes the adult beverage a bit healthier.
There are other recipes that all sound like a fun tribute to the Mexican holiday that commemorates our neighbors to the south, holding off the French who were trying to support the South during the Civil War. Look it up.


There’s nothing like an endorsement from the Mayo Clinic to get people to pay attention.
In the Rochester (MN) City Newspaper, there’s a piece about Katboocha, a kombucha produced by Kat Schwarz which is available at Fifth Frame Brewery and other locations in the area that Mayo calls home. In the article, there’s a comment from the renown medical center that says:

“…there is evidence to suggest that drinking kombucha may produce similar effects to taking probiotic supplements, including improved digestion and immune function.” Broadly applied, the comment can refer to kombucha but also to other probiotic beverages (Jun, for example) and foods such as pickles and sauerkraut.

Schwarz pointed to kombucha being favored by millennials because of its appeal as an alternative to heavy alcoholic beverages. “Young people are thinking more about what they’re putting in their bodies,” Schwarz said in the article. “They want it to be something special.”


Speaking of recipes and uses for kombucha, here’s 61-year-old Abha Appasamy, an Indian woman who uses kombucha to make a special hummus. She sells her fermented version of the popular dish by adding liquid from her fermented sauerkraut to the chickpeas for an up-to-date version of this creamy delight.
Appasamy sells her line of kombucha and other one-offs after feedback and interest from fans of her products on Facebook.

“I just wanted to see what sauerkraut juice (fermented for six weeks) added to the hummus might taste like. But then everybody who tried it seemed to love it,” she said in an interview with Indian Express.


Via Twitter, here’s a video post from the BBC about how to make kombucha as well as the reaction from a few folks about whether they fancied this probiotic beverage.

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An Earth Day Special: Creative Reuses for Scobys

When brewing kombucha, there are many beneficial byproducts. A healthy, probiotic liquid is the primary reward, but after many brews, a typical result is a large number of spooky-looking substances called scobys. Like me, most home kombucha makers house them in scoby hotels that take up most of the tall refrigerator space.

Personally, I have experimented with scoby sorbet and dehydrated scoby fruit leathers, as well some chunks of treats for my 90-lb. chocolate lab — who surprisingly loved it!

Kombucha Kamp, with Hannah Crum, shares five ideas for using scobys around the house and garden. Tips on using scobys for facials, gardening, feeding pets and as an ingredient in vegan sushi are the start of creative ideas.

Most fascinating of the potential uses is topical as a living band-aid or, in some cases, as a second skin or a biofilm. Kombucha Kamp points out that “one of the terms for the SCOBY is zooglea, which translates as “living skin” and helps heal the skin from burns, wounds and other skin ailments. Biofilms are not new and have a wide range of applications from medicinal bandages, replacement blood veins, speaker diaphragms and more. They have one of the bacteria native to the Kombucha culture – to create this biofilm.”

At home, you can apply pieces of the scoby topically. Put a piece on a cut, burn or wound and place a band-aid over it. This will prevent the growth of bad bacteria and start the healing process.
But there is so much more that can benefit others with this goopy mass of bacteria. And there are some people that are doing amazing things. Suzanne Lee gave a Ted talk about making clothing from dried scobys, given that it contains the cellulose similar to some fabrics. It is called ScobyTec.

Sasha Laurin is manufacturing the material in the form of a leather, making Kombucha Couture a trendy fashion statement. It creates a sustainable fabric out of the natural brewing byproduct.

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Kombucha For the Garden

As we again struggle with our veggie garden, it’s good to know there are myriad ways to enhance your chances of a bumper crop.

But who would have thought adding kombucha to your garden would be one way of turning your thumb (and garden) green.

Read this piece in the local Seattle Greenlaker about a local woman and her tips on using our favorite probiotic beverage in her garden and its results. Dr. Sarah Pellkofer has even started her own company, Micra Culture to share her discovery with others.

Kombucha For Your Plants Created By Local Mom

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News Roundup for April 6, 2018

Kombucha as a job perk? You heard that right.

Seems that Goldman Sachs has a new office in San Francisco, and to appear hip is offering all sorts of cool perks to perspective engineering employees. The buttoned-up look so familiar on Wall Street? Forget about it; jeans and t-shirts are cool (I think footwear is required). And, you got it, kombucha on tap in the break room.

A piece in Bloomberg, attempting to make Goldman Sachs seems relevant, profiles new manager Jeff Winner as a man who cares more about what’s inside a candidate than his or her appearance. The bank still has a “significant amount of stuffiness, but they’re getting rid of it,” Winner said in a phone interview with Bloomberg.

Seems like a healthy approach to hiring.


Anyone who lives in the Los Angeles area or lands on one of those $49 Southwest Airlines fares should mark May 28th on the calendar. That’s the day of Eat Drink Vegan 2018 at the Rose Bowl in sunny Pasadena.
Dubbed the “Vegan Coachella,” the event is a plant-based lollapalooza with more than 250 beverage vendors on display. Think kombucha will be flowing? (That’s a rhetorical question).


That’s a lovely kombucha scarf you are wearing. No, that’s not a joke.
Arizona State University students are going fashion forward, and as part of that exercise, there are experiments will all sorts of new materials being used. Kombucha is one of them.
“For waste pollution, we wanted to find a different type of material to use,” Cindy Tran, a design student told The State Press. “We used kombucha … It can be an alternative material that can be used in textile. It’s also very sustainable by taking the waste product of the kombucha drinks and turning it into something that people can wear.”


Need some probiotics in your life and are turned off by the price (not to mention the taste) of probiotics liquids and tablets, Mens Health has eight foods that will give you all the probiotic coverage you need.
The eight include kimchi, yogurt (please, the non-dairy kind), sauerkraut, pickles (make your own), tempeh, miso (try the chickpea version if you want to avoid soy) and kombucha.
Not only does kombucha give you probiotics, the magazine reports, it also has a healthy helping of B-vitamins.