Food, From the Nutrition Classroom

Kombucha.

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Good Morning!

Ready for the weekend?!  I just need to get through 6 hours of work and then I’m free…besides work tomorrow and Sunday, but you know how that goes.  Wherever you are, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!  See you all Monday!

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Have you ever heard of Kombucha?  If you’re like all of my friends and family, then you probably haven’t.  And if you’re my mother, you call it Pombuka.  And if you’re my father, you call it vinegar.  🙂

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Kombucha is a raw, fermented, probiotic, and naturally carbonated tea.

There are debates on the health benefits of Kombucha, but this is what I found on the internet: Analysis of the contents of kombucha confirms that it is rich in amino-acids, probiotics, antioxidants, glucuronic acid, trace minerals, B vitamins and more… It is a living, enzyme-rich drink. Just about every established medical research university claims that all these things are excellent for your digestion, immune system, and in the case of amino–acids, glucuronic acid and antioxidants, potentially cancer preventatives etc. etc. 

Pictured above is my second batch of Kombucha.  The Nutrition Department at West Chester has a bit of an underground Kombucha ring going on.  What I mean by that, is that there is a black market for the SCOBY, which is the jelly looking thing floating in the tea.  The SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) is actually what ferments the tea, and with each new batch that is made, a Baby SCOBY is formed, which can be given away for someone to make their own Kombucha.

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You can see it floating around in there.  And here it is from the top:DSC_0065 It’s kind of gross, but I got over that quickly.

Anyway, Kombucha is fairly easy to make, but the entire process takes about a week and a half.  The fun part comes during the second fermentation, when you can decide on the flavors for the Kombucha.DSC_0055-001That’s what you see floating in the bottles.

For this batch, I have the following flavors:

  • Mango
  • Apple Cinnamon
  • Apple-Pomegranate
  • Apricot

The best flavor so far is the apple cinnamon because the cinnamon adds sweetness and cuts some of the sharpness of the Kombucha.  I’m looking forward to trying apple-ginger and blueberry in the future.

Anyone want to give it a try?!DSC_0066

**If you would like to know how I make it, please let me know!

 

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