Kombucha Tea Benefits Include
Improved Health and Great Taste

Kombucha tea benefits include increased health, better digestion and a delicious substitute for soda your kids will beg you for.  If you're not making this fizzy drink and drinking it on a daily basis, you are truly missing out.

I'm a firm believer in probiotic food and drinks and consume fermented drinks and foods daily.  If you want to promote your health and load your gut with the healthy bacteria it needs to digest food and prevent illness, great ways to do that include drinking kefir and eating kimchi, but with these two foods there are drawbacks.

I love kimchi, but I have to say it: it stinks.  I once ate it in a public place and almost got thrown out - the stench was that bad. 

I also drink kefir daily.  The only way I could drink milk kefir was by making a shake out of it, preferably with ice cream.  Not exactly the healthiest of drinks. 

Water kefir is better, in my opinion, and not too bad, but I wouldn't exactly describe it as tasty.

Kombucha tea on the other hand is simply delicious. 

It's fizzy, like a real soda pop and is a cross taste-wise between ginger ale and tea. 

Seriously, you could give this to your kids, tell them it's a regular soda pop and they'd likely never know the difference. 

It fizzes and tastes almost identical to a cola.

What is Kombucha Tea?

It's tea that has been fermented using a scoby, an acronym which stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.  Make a strong, sweetened tea, add a scoby, and in about five days, you have fermented tea.  Easy.

Kombucha Tea Benefits

So what are kombucha tea benefits?  In addition to helping your body absorb nutrients, kombucha may also promote longevity.  Try claiming that with a soda pop.  That's because it's loaded with antioxidants that prevent inflammation.  It will also keep toxic substances from building up in your liver.

Other kombucha tea benefits include killing the harmful bacteria in your body and protecting you from illness.  In test studies, kombucha was shown to  prevent the growth and spread of cancer cells.  It can also reduce arthritic pain and even reduce wrinkles.

It lowers cholesterol and gives you energy.

Kombucha Side Effects?

A few years ago, the FDA made a huge stink about kombucha, saying it was potentially unsafe, despite the fact that people have been making and drinking this amazing drink for thousands of years.

So what are the real kombucha side effects?  None.  Yes, a woman supposedly died back in 1995 who had been drinking kombucha daily for two months before her death, but her death was due to other heath problems.  With the kombucha, it was likely a case of too little, too late.  There are absolutely no risks and far too many kombucha tea benefits not to be drinking this daily.

How to Make Kombucha

You will need the following to make kombucha tea:

  • Half gallon jar
  • piece of clean cloth
  • rubber band
  • scoby (available from Amazon - if you can't get one from a friend)
  • 8 tea bags
  • 1/2 cup of sugar, plus a little more to add to the finished kombucha
  • Approximately six cups of water
  • Kombucha tea - you will need about 1/4 to 1/2 cup.  If you buy your scoby from Amazon, it will come with starter tea.  If you get a scoby from a friend, ask for some starter tea to go with it.
  • At least six clean, reusable beer bottles like these
  • A chunk of fresh ginger (optional)

Place the tea bags in a large measuring cup or bowl and pour two cups of boiling water over the tea bags.  Allow the tea to steep for about five minutes.  Remove the tea bags and stir in half a cup of sugar. 

Pour the strong tea into the half gallon jar and fill the jar up to about 3/4 full with water.  Add the scoby and the starter kombucha.  Cover it with a clean cloth held in place with a rubber band.  Keep it on your kitchen counter for five to nine days.

At the end of that time, remove the scoby and about half a cup cup of kombucha and pour the remaining kombucha into the beer bottles.  Add a teaspoon of sugar and a sliver of ginger (if you're using it) to each bottle.  Vent the bottles daily by opening and then closing them again and enjoy.

Please note: You will need to vent the bottles every day, or the kombucha will explode when you open it.  It won't break the bottle (or at least it hasn't broken mine), but if you neglect to vent the bottles daily, the kombucha may shoot out of the bottle and hit the ceiling.  It's happened to me, so open them daily.  I keep my bottled kombucha on the counter so I will remember to vent them.

After bottling your kombucha, you can place the scoby in small glass jar, cover it with the remaining half cup of kombucha and store it in your refrigerator for up to a year.  But why?  Go ahead and make another batch of kombucha.  Trust me; after you've had your first glass of this amazing fizzy drink and enjoyed all the kombucha tea benefits available, you'll be glad you did.

Related article:  Why probiotics are so important, and the best way to get them.

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