What in the World is Kombucha?

Now that I have been on the Body Fat Challenge for 3 weeks, eating can get a little monotonous. So, I have been on the lookout for foods that are delicious, but also fit into my diet.

One of my favorite finds of the past few weeks is a drink called Kombucha. Literally speaking, Kombucha is a fermented tea that has been used to aid digestion and other issues since the 5th century AD. It may have been around for 1600 years, but I had never heard of it!

The first brand of Kombucha that I tried is made by Synergy. They have a wide range of flavors and have two types of Kombucha drinks. The first is 100% Kombucha and the other is 95% Kombucha mixed with 5% organic fruit juice. Kombucha tastes a little like vinegar and I cannot handle the 100% variety all that well, but I LOVE the kind that is mixed with the juice. Luckily, even the juice-mixed variety is low in calories and carbs!

While I was at Mother's Market, I actually passed by a taste-test for another brand of Kombucha drink made by a company called High Country Kombucha. They also have a wide variety of flavors. This product has a little bit of a mellower taste....which is very good....but I think I prefer the bite of the Synergy brand. The guy handing out the samples pointed out that Synergy uses a dairy-based strain of probiotics, and they don't. This is worth noting for those of you who are vegan, but overall I would still go for Synergy.

So I am the newest Kombucha enthusiast, but there is a lot to learn about this wonder tonic. I found this blog post that sums up what Kombucha is in just a few lines. Granted, the post is a review of Synergy Kombucha that isn't very good, but still great information. It is definitely an acquired taste!

"Kombucha is inappropriately referred to as a mushroom. Actually it is the symbiosis of a live culture, much like what is found in yogurt, when mixed with yeast and fed a diet of sweetened black or green tea. The result is a filtered sparkling beverage, Kombucha tea, that holds the health properties of the cultures, as well as a slight alcohol content (less than 0.5%) from the fermentation. Essential nutrients are then present after fermentation such as active enzymes, viable probiotics, amino acids, antioxidants and polyphenols." - ReallyNatural.com

I will say that every time I drink this I have CRAZY energy!