Kombucha has grown in popularity in recent years, thanks to the benefits it brings. To make kombucha, one of the key ingredients is the SCOBY.
Although drinks like kombucha have existed for centuries — perhaps millennia — today's society has been losing certain ancestral customs and knowledge, leaving some practices forgotten.
One of them is the everyday use and preparation of drinks like kombucha, as living foods that can provide probiotics, vitamins, and help restore energy.
The ingredients
To make kombucha, you basically need 3 ingredients. The first is tea, which is the base. Then you need sugar, which is the food, and finally you need the famous SCOBY, which is the living element.
What do we mean by the living element? In short, we can say that the SCOBY is a colony of beneficial bacteria responsible for the fermentation processes needed to produce the drink.
So, what exactly is the kombucha SCOBY?
Many know it as the kombucha mushroom; others prefer to call it the MOTHER. The name SCOBY is an English acronym for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria & Yeast.
That's right — a kombucha SCOBY, mushroom, or mother of kombucha is really a LIVING element! It's a colony of beneficial bacteria that feed on the other ingredients and give rise to the fermented drink.
As its name indicates, the kombucha SCOBY is a symbiotic colony. This term refers to a biological interaction that exists between organisms of different species.
In the case of kombucha, the symbiosis exists between the bacteria and the yeasts of the SCOBY, which bring different benefits to the human body.
So the kombucha SCOBY isn't really a mushroom — it's more of a gelatinous mass of cells in which bacteria and yeast live, feeding on the tea and sugar and transforming these ingredients into kombucha.
This fermentation gives the final drink a high concentration of probiotics and a varied range of vitamins, enzymes, minerals, and organic acids essential for health.
Can I make it myself?
Indeed, this fermented drink — like many others — can be made by anyone who has the necessary ingredients and the right place.
However, to guarantee proper fermentation, the correct pH, controlled alcohol levels, and other factors, you need to know the process perfectly.
For this reason, if you want to start drinking kombucha regularly, it's advisable to choose a well-known brand that makes kombucha commercially. That way you can be sure the fermented drink has the quality you want.