OBTC has recenty partnered with Gypsy Soul Kombucha, LLC. and now offers fresh, live kombucha available on tap in our stores! We are super excited about this partnership! Kombucha is a growing industry and many people that I know aren't familiar with what it is. I was able to talk with Gypsy Soul Kombucha, LLC.'s brew master, Justin Huffmon, about everything kombucha, and I hope to answer many of the questions our guests and readers might have!
What is kombucha?
- Kombucha is a non-alcoholic (containing less than 0.5% alcohol by volume) fermented probiotic tea beverage. It contains tea, a bunch of sugar, and SCOBY.
What is SCOBY?
- SCOBY is a symbiotic colony of healthy bacteria and yeast. The healthy bacteria and yeast remain living within the kombucha, and is great for gut health.
How is kombucha made?
- Kombucha is made with a black tea base and sugar. Gypsy Soul Kombucha, LLC. uses about 55-60% of OBTC's Ceylon Sonata Black tea for a base, a blend of other tea varieties for other added flavors. raw and organic cane sugar, quality filtered water and SCOBY on top.
- The blend must be stored in a room temperature environment for the SCOBY to thrive and ferment the mixture! If the blend is too hot for your skin, it's too hot for the SCOBY.
- The SCOBY will spread out to cover the surface, creating a film on the surface of the sweet tea called a pellicle. This prevents outside bacteria from entering the tea.
- The scoby will continue to ferment the mixture until the kombucha reaches a desired acidity level. The batches that Gypsy Soul Kombucha brews are so large that this fermentation process takes up to a couple of weeks! At home, though, in smaller batches, it can ferment for a couple of days. The longer the scoby ferments, the more sugar consumed, and more acidic the kombucha is.
- A large amount of probiotic material is also produced during the fermentation.
- Gypsy Soul Kombucha adds other flavors to the brew by juicing whole fruits and foods - there is no added natural or artificial flavorings
Can you use any black tea for a base?
- Huffmon mentioned previously experimenting with Rose Black and Lychee black teas, which adds a whole new flavor profile to the kombucha!
- Earl Grey black teas are NOT recommended to be used for kombucha. Earl Grey contains bergamot essential oils, and teas containing oils or extracts are actually harmful to the scoby.
- Huffmon also mentioned that loose, whole leaf teas are best!
Why should someone drink Kombucha?
- Kombucha, and the cultures of probiotics and yeast it contains, are great for gut health.
- Today, our natural gut biomes are not as healthy and thriving to how they once were. We eat junk food and over sanitize our fruits and vegetables, which can harm our gut biome and make it harder for it to thrive on its own.
- When consuming kombucha, we are supplementing our gut biomes.
- The probiotics in kombucha will feed off the prebiotics in your gut. The byproduct of this consumption is short term fatty acids which help to heal and strengthen the cell walls in your gut.
- The probiotics and healthy bacteria in kombucha help detoxify the human body.
- The probiotics help aid in digestion and can help provide help relief for IBS, diarrhea, and constipation.
- It is believed that a healthy gut is also closely tied to a healthy immune system, mood, and skin.
- Kombucha also contains antioxidants. Antioxidants are substances that fight free radicals, reactive molecules that can damage your cells.
Does kombucha have the same probiotics as yogurt?
- Yes! Similar strains of probiotics have been found in yogurt, kefir, and kombucha.
- Some yogurts sold in stores are pasteurized - subject to a process of partial sterilization, especially one involving heat treatment or irradiation. As mentioned before, the probiotics and cultures in kombucha are sensitive to heat, so the strands might not be the same if the product you're consuming has been pasteurized. Gypsy Soul Kombucha, LLC. has not been pasteurized, so you're consuming the live strands of probiotics and healthy bacteria!
What is a safe amount of kombucha to be consumed a day?
- We recommend 10 oz of kombucha per day for the novice kombucha drinker. More can be added as your system adjusts to the kombucha.
How is kombucha being sold at OBTC?
- OBTC sells Gypsy Soul Kombucha, LLC. by the 10 oz cup for $5.95 and by the growler for $20.00.
What flavors of Gypsy Soul Kombucha, LLC. can I find on tap at OBTC?
- All of our stores have different flavors! When you stop in, you may find:
- Peach
- Pomegranate
- Lovely Lychee
- Grapefruit Ginger
- Coconut Grapefruit
- Guava
- These flavors will be rotated as new flavor batches are brewed!
Other facts:
- This kombucha is unfiltered and may contain some fruit sediment as well as new forming micro SCOBY's. 🌱
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