Peace and greetings to everyone! Just wanted to know if anyone had any knowledge or insight on kombucha tea. From my understanding it is a raw living food drink that is bottled without refining and pasturization. The company that makes teh one i have seen is called GT's. Anyone heard of it?

peace & love....Smitty

it's made with white sugar and black, caffeinated tea. it isn't raw but it is tasty.

r u sure it isn'r raw? Why does it say raw on the bottle? And it contains white sugar?!? o no

Love you,
Jamie

huh?

ya got sources?

white sugar?


khale

well, for one i've made it. there are tons of kombutcha creature care sites online for anyone who cares to take a second to look it up.

[en.wikipedia.org]
[www.kombuchatea.co.uk]
[www.stim.com]

may i ask, what did you think was in it?

The one I get occasionally states it is raw on the label. I highly doubt that they would make that claim without being able to back it up.

JMO

Judy

um, i don't know that i can agree with that at all. truth in advertising is a tricky thing, i don't doubt that there are claims on many, many labels that can't be backed up at all. for example, many "raw" nut butters say that they are raw because during the grinding no heat is used but actually the nuts/seeds the butter is made from are cooked (like cashew especially).
how does the company get it's sugar? low heat dehydrated cold pressed cane juice? how about the tea? is the product flash pasturized? most drinks have to be to meet current health standards. i think it's worth it to contact the company and ask about their processes. perhaps it is something other than tradtitional kombucha mushroom tea that can easliy be made raw? i'd still ask about the flash pasturizing.

Hi all.

I spoke with the owner of the Kombucha company ( the GT Kombucha) a few months ago and *yes* the Kombucha is started with a base of sugar. They use evaporated cane juice, but nonetheless it is sugar. It also is caffienated from what I can recall him telling me. I personally had terrible reactions to the product and would never recommend it to the health seeking raw community. I reacted to the sugar and caffiene with exteme heart palpitaions and a mini black-out with lightheadness that lasted for hours. I also got a pulse rush from it like I used to when I would drink too many cups of coffee.

If you only eat raw sweeteners, and like me, don't consume cacao products or alcohol, the evaporated cane juice and the fermented caffiene from the black tea can react like a drug in your system if you are sensitive and run on a higher frequency from your raw diet. Also, because the Kombucha drink is an extremely fermented product, if you do not consume alcohol products at all, and/or have been sober for a while, it will kick your ass like a super beer. I got slightly buzzed the 2 times I drank the GT Kombucha drink. It wasn't a don't drive your car buzz, but I was definately in an alchoholic-like slappy high for about half a day. Not so good for my spiritual practice, or for work.



i breathe in
i breathe out
peace
heart
blessings
Bikini

no no, that wasn't my point. the sugar and caffeine are metabolised by the kombucha, there is NO sugar or caffeine in the final product. there is, however, a very low level of alcohol. not enough to intoxicate at ALL but still, homeopathically speaking, less is more. my point was that kombucha is not a raw product. it may still be very healthy, it is definately very tasty, but raw? no.

My opinion is that it is a "living food" in that it's enzymatically alive due to the fermenting, but not a "raw food "because the starter base is a cooked product. It's much like calling un-pasturized miso a "live food". Miso also starts out cooked, but ends up "live"due to fermenting.

As far as the sugar and caffiene and alcohol content of the GT Kombucha...I can vouch for both. I am alcohol free, caffiene free and sugar free for many many years. I most definately did react to the sugar in the drink immediately after sipping my first taste, which is what prompted my initial call to the company. I knew by tasting it and by my bodily reactions that there was both caffiene and sugar inside that they were not including on the label, and I was really p.o'd that they would be so negligant in not listing what they really use to make the thing.

I was a clean-food strict vegan for many many years before turning raw. My body very easily knows when something not right gets thrown in there. Therefore I was most definately surprised by the buzz like high I got off the Kombucha drink when I was told it's a "healthful" product. The owner of the company told me that it has been known to happen to some customers, and it's due to the strong fermentation.


i breathe in
i breathe out
peace
joy
heart
Bikini

lol

ya got me there coco. I have a very casual relationship with Kombucha. I treat myself to one occasionally for the ride home from the health food store, but its not a part of my regular diet...so, I guess I never really thought about it that deeply. I suppose that somewhere in this brain of mine I realized that there were sugars in it as that is generally necessary for fermentation, but the words "white sugar" took me aback.

anyway, thanks for the info. that is, afterall, why I frequent this site.


khale

Well, I'm not going to stop drinking it. I like it, and I have no reaction to it. I also eat fermented foods, so I allow for that in my diet.

Personally, dehydrated cane juice for the fermenting process does not bother me, and I still drink teas, so I guess this product is just something each individual has to decide for themselves to drink or not drink.

To each his/her own.

Judy

hmm, interesting. i suppose they ferment it for less time to keep it a bit sweet. if you let the process run for long enough the mushroom does metabolize all of the sugar and caffeine. stopping before that time will yeild a product that's still a bit sweet but that's because it isn't finished yet. i can see how a company selling it on a large scale might do that, or even add sugar to the end product. we do have a cultural sweet tooth here!
my comment about evaporated cane juice was meant to illustrate that that is actually a preferable form of sugar. usually what is used in kombucha is white sugar as raw or brown sugar can upset the balance and sicken or kill the fungus (too much iron from the mollases) and honey is deadly. so is mint tea, which i unfortunately found out first hand

judy, no one is telling you to stop drinking it, there are no raw "rules". if you like it then by all means continue. the info in this thread is just here to be helpful for those who are seeking to understand kombucha and who may want to know what is raw and what is not. personally, i like it and if it wasn't such a commitment to grow it i would do it again.

Hey Coco, I totally understand!! I gotcha on the dehydrated cane sugar, too.

I just finished my jar of "Gingerade" and I can tell ya, it weren't sweet at all. I don't drink anything that has sweeteners in it - I don't even sweeten teas or any other drink with honey, agave, stevia, etc. ... the GTs Kombucha has not ever tasted like it has anything in it to sweeten, thus my liking it as a quickie drink when I'm at the HFS.

I've never grown it myself. I'd like to, but I'm concerned that we travel too much for me to properly keep a culture going. I really should try to learn more about it.

Judy

check out those links i posted and see if you can find someone to donate a fungus to you. there is a GREAT worldwide website called freecycle.com where you can post what you need/want and people give it to you! check it out.

Thanks, Coco... I actually have a good friend in Eugene who has offered to ship me a baby. I just have to give hom the word!

Judy

Thank you coco, judy, khale, bikini and jamied1217 I appreciate the love and support. I now know more about this product then i did before...knowledge is power! I can agree that i have gotten a slight buzz from drinking it and i evebn woke up today with a slight hangover feeling....very slight. Wierd but true. Anyway it's been almost 4 years since i had any alcohol so just a small amount is detectible to me. I felt a burst of energy and also a feeling of euphoria. So i knew something was up. Anyway, thanks agin and i will do some further research.

peace & love...smitty

I don't make kombuch with black tea or white sugar. Instead I use a tisane like roibos and raw sugar. It doesn't have to be made with black tea or green tea. Purists believe this. However, I have had no problems with the kombucha I make.

Also, kombucha can be raw. The temperature never goes above 118 degrees. In fact, it's significantly lower. It can't be too high or it will kill the kombucha mushroom.

Cheers,

Marcos

Go Vegan for your life, your health, the planet and, most importantly, the animals that we share this wonderful world with!