Kombucha Tea: Drinking Fungus?
Not many teas are made from mushrooms, but kombucha tea is the exception. It is a tea and not a broth, as can be made from almost any kind of edible mushroom, but this tea has to be made from a specific mushroom, conveniently called the kombucha mushroom. There are even arguments among gourmets and scientists as to whether kombucha is a mushroom or a combination of yeast and bacteria. “Mushroom tea” sounds a lot more appetizing than “yeast and bacteria tea”, doesn’t it?
But, Whatever It Is
Unlike green matcha tea, Kombucha tea has been popular for donkey’s years in the Eastern part of the world, but has become well known as a health tonic in the Western World. However, none of the health claims have been proven by clinical scientific tests, although many people swear it helped them recover from such ailments as asthma, high blood pressure, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, eczema, psoriasis and even migraines. Kombucha tea definitely has B vitamins, which the body needs for various functions.
How To Make It
It takes five or six days to make kombucha tea, on average. Some tea needs two weeks in order to brew to the proper flavor. It’s not just “pop in mug and add hot water”, no. You have to get a kombucha culture and feed it and then let it mature and then strain it and then….well, you get the idea. This is perhaps the main reason this tea really hasn’t sold like hotcakes in the West. Most Westerners are just too busy to go through the bother of making it. You need a minor degree in chemistry to make this stuff. Of course, the more you practice, the easier it gets.
Warnings
There are many more health warnings attached to kombucha tea than to most other kinds of herbal teas (yes – technically, this is classified as an herbal tea, although no herbs are actually in it). People with immune deficiency disorders should stay far away from this tea. If you are not careful in the culture growing, you could possibly be making anthrax tea instead of kombucha tea.
Allergic reactions happen, and tend to be severe when they occur. These signs include vomiting, jaundice, nausea and, as the Mayo Clinic website reports “one suspected death”. You cannot make kombucha tea in a ceramic tea pot or ceramic mug, as chemicals in the tea create an adverse reaction in the ceramic glaze, which gives you lead poisoning.
