Sipping on Kombucha

By: Evelyn Lee

While shopping in the supermarket, you feel a little thirsty. As you make your way down to the refrigerator aisle, another shopper swoops in front of you and grabs the last bottle of kombucha. Known for its profoundly unique taste—a blissful combination of tangy, acidic, and flavorful—kombucha is a popular drink amongst most age groups. Additionally, the health benefits from drinking it only make it more likable. But how is kombucha really made? The main key ingredients are sugar, tea, and SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). The process starts off with brewing tea; green tea and black tea are most commonly used due to the fact that they have many specific nutrients & create an ideal environment for SCOBY. Sugar is then added to the brewed tea, which acts as a source of food for the bacteria to grow. When SCOBY is finally added in, it begins to convert the sugar into acetic acid. This is achieved through a series of 2 types of fermentation: yeast fermentation & bacterial fermentation. During yeast fermentation, table sucrose is converted into glucose & fructose through an anaerobic process called glycolysis. From there, the sugars go through alcohol fermentation to produce ethanol and Carbon Dioxide. Carbon Dioxide is what makes the kombucha bubbly! In bacterial fermentation, ethanol is used to produce acetic acid, which is what makes kombucha tangy and acidic. As SCOBY grows, it forms a large, flat, gelatinous-like “plate” and floats at the top of the container. The bacteria in it help with the probiotic side of kombucha by supplying many microorganisms known to improve gut health (digestion, inflammation, immune system, weight loss, etc.). Next time you drink kombucha, take a moment to think about the fascinating journey that brought it into your hands!