The difference between buying kombucha in the store and brewing your own kombucha February 3, 2009

I can break down the difference between store bought kombucha and brewing your own kombucha pretty easily:

PRICE
Probably the biggest thing is price. I’ll put it this way, if you buy a bottle a day, let’s say you have 30 bottles a month, 360-365 bottles a year at 5 bucks a bottle. That comes out to 1,825 dollars a year on kombucha tea alone! So much for that new computer you were planning on buying…BUT if you brew your own bottles it comes out to literally pennies per serving, there is the money that goes into buying a kombucha brewing system but after a month of not buying kombucha bottles at the store it has literally paid for itself.

CONTROL THE SUGAR, (kombucha good for diabetics)
You can control the amount of sugar your kombucha has. Most commercially brewed kombucha you buy at the store is loaded with sugar so unfortunately diabetics can’t enjoy the other benefits of kombucha. To control the amount of sugar simply brew longer and your kombucha will “digest the sugar” if you will. This process also allows you to control the fizzyness, some people like it super fizzy, some don’t, simply let it ferment longer for more fizzy kombucha.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN CAFFEINE LEVEL
Some people are really sensitive to caffeine so the idea of store bought kombucha isnt really a good idea. BUT!!! When your brew your own kombucha you can use non caffeinated tea such as honeybush and rooibos for kombucha brewing. You can check out the entire selection of teas approved for kombucha brewing http://getkombucha.com/reforkobr.html

The Kombucha Hangover cure! January 24, 2009

I will be the first person to admit the sometimes my idea of a healthy lifestyle conflicts with the reality of my lifestyle…make sense? Maybe not, so I’ll come out and say it, I like to drink sometimes. The worst part about drinking is the hangovers. I can remember two times specifically when I was so hung over and dehydrated that I could literally not move, I would drink water and throw it up. I was trying every remedy my weak mind could think of until my girlfriend came to the rescue with some kombucha. Kombucha tea for hangovers! I had heard about this but was in no state to actually remember, and no it was not an instant cure but oh my god did I ever feel a lot better after drinking kombucha. Since then every time I drink heavily which is really not that often, I drink kombucha before I go to bed and I hardly ever get hang overs. I use it as more of a preventative measure (don’t forget to drink lots of water while drinking too!). What made me think of the idea for this post was that last weekend I actually made a vodka and kombucha! This is genius people!

Kombucha 2009!!! January 9, 2009

It’s 2009 and that means resolutions, and for me, this happens to be the year of Kombucha. I’m not going to marry myself to a 30 day challenge or anything like that because…well let’s face it look what happeneded last time when I tried to drink kombucha for 30 days. I crapped out. For me the mental challenge is more difficult then the actual drinking kombucha and documenting the results if that makes any sense whatsoever, it feels like extra credit in high school when you already had the A. I would rather just feel the results and go about my life drinking kombucha. What am I blabbing about? New years resolutions I suppose.

My new years resolutions for 2009 are as follows:
1. Exercise (regularly) – My problem with this in the past was I would exercise but completely irregularly and only yoga. The problem with youga though is that you can get your muscles so loose that you actually lose strength so it made it harder for me to do more body weight exercise, I hope to develop some kind of hybrid routine. Any tips? Post them in the comments.

2. Drink more Kombucha, Green tea, and yerba mate – Something I have more or less already been doing. Sitting here typing this right now I have my green tea sitting next to me and it really is wonderful. OH! And to drink less coffee, in a pinch I really don’t think coffee is that bad.

3. Eat healthy – This is probably the toughest one because it’s not that eat poorly now, it’s that I have poor eating habits. Over eating the wrong foods, under eating the good ones. This is largely do to ignorance on my part and not knowing what to eat. I’m going to be doing some more research on this one.

4. BE PRODUCTIVE and DEDICATED – To go balls to the walls about the things I’m passionate about and to make things happen for myself because guess what nobody else can do this for you.

5. Wake up early! – I’m lucky enough to have the kind of job where I can make my own hours but that doesn’t mean I want to waste y time and day. I wish I had a cold glass of kombucha waiting for me next to my bed in the morning, or better yet in the morning; yerba mate! Yerba gives me such a great feeling of well being, it’s great in the morning.

So my kombucha journey into 2009 has just begun. What are your goals this year?

*Note – After reading this I actually want to do another 30 day challenge of some sort.

Bottle It! October 30, 2007

Hey guys! Sorry for the brief delay. I’ve been pondering my next steps…. the kombucha turned into a MONSTER! It’s big like a jelly fish. And it’s HUNGRY! Every day I taste the k-tea it gets less and less sweet. I was freaking out because I wasn’t sure what to do next… bottle it? Feed it? I talked to Dave, and it eased my mind. He told me to bottle it (in clean glass) and to put in 80% of the k-tea, so I’d have enough left over for the continuous brewing. I was worried about the whole precentage thing– but LUCKILY the tap is at the 20% point! So I was able to just pour it into a bottle until it didn’t pour quickly. Now, Wednesday when I see dave, I’ll pick up more dry tea, and make the kombucha a fresh batch to nibble on. My little Scoby’s so cute. Jodie. Sigh.

TIP!

make sure, as your scoby grows that it’s not popping out of the k-tea. Use a wooden spoon or a clean finger to make sure she’s a little bit submerged.

We don’t want our darlings to choke!