For a drink that’s been around for probably hundreds of years and enjoyed by countless older generations, I find it curious that kombucha has made such a resurgence recently (for other victims of this phenomenon see: knitting, gardening). While I would love to assume that the popularity is because of its touted health benefits and less sugar/calories compared to soda, it’s probably due to its reputation as a possibly alcoholic tea enjoyed by such outstanding citizens like Lindsay Lohan.
If you don’t know much about kombucha, it’s basically a fermented tea made by utilizing a squishy, pancake-like yeast culture (usually called a scoby). Like most other fermented products (beer, wine, vinegar, yogurt), kombucha has attracted quite the cult following, generally of hippies, yuppies and the aforementioned celebrities. Keeping this in mind, I do constantly fear for the day that kimchi and kefir are featured in People magazine (thankfully, the Oprah show isn’t a threat anymore) and I’ll have to insist that I liked them before they went mainstream. Read the rest of this entry »
