A "symbiotic, probiotic colony of yeast and bacteria."

Kombucha tea is a popular product in most health food stores. It is made by combining a culture of yeast and bacteria with a mixture of black tea and sugar according to a kombucha website.  It tastes something like a carbonated (by means of natural fermentation) sweet vinegar. Don't scoff, people love this shit. I got interested in Kombucha after it's raw form was pulled from shelves.  The FDA did a random alcohol test on some batches of GT Millenium's raw kombucha tea (which claims an alcohol content of <0.05%).  What they found was an average of 3-4%.  Needless to say, this caused a stir.  And then it caused another stir--some people are lost without this stuff. 


I work at the Good Food Store and i've seen, firsthand, into the depths of raw fermented yeast tea withdrawl. Customers claim (many before it was taken off the shelves) that "it gives you a fantastic boost of energy unrivaled on earth."  "It can improve liver problems, circulation and it works on nail fungus!" "It helps with exzema and psoriasis and can lower your blood pressure!"  "After you have two, you feel like you could run a marathon"...yeah well, I feel pretty great when i'm buzzed too. When it was on sale, we could've hired a person just to restock the raw kombucha 8 hours a day.  Each bacteria junkie smiling, eyes-closed at one another, sharing a secret source of pure, fermented awesomeness.   One website calls it a "miracle used around the world for centuries." There are loads of people in Missoula who brew the raw stuff in their homes. 


Well, we still carry a pasteurized version of kombucha--as does the UC Market and a large handful of other stores. But I haven't heard a single customer rave about the health benefits of pasteurized fermented yeast tea.  Of course, i'm sure there are tons of people riding a high from an hour of having Dr. Oz injected into their brain, just looking for the "kombucha" printed on a bottle when they toss ten of them into their baskets.  They don't notice it's not raw and then they're stuck with something containing only "trace amounts" of the benficial probiotic bacteria (world tea news). Well, maybe the placebo effect will lower their blood pressure.