Kombucha What and why?

I have recently begun culturing my own Kombucha. Let's get straight to the halaal/haraam debate: 


As we know, alcohol is not permitted in islam. Therefore wine and spirits is totally out. Unless taken for medicinal purposes (for example in homeopathic medication) alcohol is not tolerated, and even then, its best avoided. 


So, it's best said upfront that when culturing Kombucha  you must never leave it to culture too long, or you WILL end up with an alcoholic beverage, even though the  amount of alcohol in it is negligible and certainly less than many homeopathic drops you can get over the counter. Its best to use  PH sticks available at the chemist that will help you to know when you Kombucha has reached 2.5 in acidity. Beyond that, you're going to get into a tricky halaal/haraam debate. Either that, or culture it until it turns to vinegar, in which case it will probably be difficult to drink but certainly halaal!


So what exactly IS Kombucha? Known by many other names such as:
 The Remedy of Immortality, 
Kombucha Fungus, 
Kambucha, 
Japonicus, 
Gout Jelly-fish, 
Kombucha Mushroom, 
Hongo, 
Tea Mould, 
Indian Tea Fungus, 
Japanese Tea Fungus, 
Kambotscha, 
Kouchakinoko, 
Manchu Fungus, 
Manchurian Mushroom, 
Teekwass Fungus,
Miracle Fungus, 
Mo-Gu, 
Mother of Vinegar, 
Mushroom of Charity, 
Russian Jelly-fish, 
Tea Mushroom, 
Teepilz, 
The Divine Tsche, 
Tea Mushroom,  
The Tea Beast, 
Volga Fungus, 
Volga Jelly-fish, 
Manchurian Tea, 
Russian Tea-vinegar, 
Tea beer, 
Tea Cider, 
Tea Kvass


Here's what kombucha looks like: 

Here's a picture of my first Kombucha scoby as the "mushroom" is called. Scoby stands for "Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts." It isn't a mushroom at all, though, its actually a floating, gelatinous bunch of yeasts and bacteria that are placed into tea and will proceed to slowly transfer the tea into what is also called "Kombucha". The scoby is also called a culture (it is used to culture tea) and NOT a fermenter or a yeast, although it contains yeasts.


As a child (many years before I came to Islam) we made wine yearly. It was the old fashioned get-together of washing feet and stomping the grapes, then tossing in sugar, yeast, and waiting, turning, waiting, and turning and keeping constant temperatures on the heavily covered purple muck . After about 2 weeks, the grapes started to ferment and the smell was dizzying! The first wine extracted was known as the "sweet swine" and was a lot like incredibly sweet, thick grape juice. From there, the wine was placed into barrels for curing and the skins were held back and further processed, squeezed through a huge thing that looked much like a cotton reel with thick ropes, and then that thicker ooze was distilled in huge brass vats. The result was the kind of firewater that's measured on an alcohol thermometer at about 70% alcohol, and pretty much ignited the moment it touched the tongue.


Kombucha is nothing like this. It smells nothing like this, and if it ever got to that point of smelling anywhere near wine, I'd have to toss it into the compost heap, insh'Allah! So when we say it ferments tea, we're not talking about making an alcoholic beverage.


WHY drink kombucha tea? How does it belong on a herbal website? Here's what it does:



-It's a Probiotic – it contains healthy bacteria to boost your intestinal and reproductive flora and helps the body to recover from illness, strengthening the immune system against things like colds and flu
-It Detoxifies the liver – the liver governs the eyes and skin and regenerates every 4 years

-It alleviates kidney concerns, kidney stones and a thinning uterus lining

-It Alkalizes the body – balances internal pH - hence great for people suffering from bladder or  

-It increase the metabolism – this can help with weight loss, and achieving your best BMI
-It aids digestion – in these days of junk food and food additives, its a must
-It helps to rebuild connective tissue – thus helping with arthritis, gout, asthma, and rheumatism
-Kombucha is being used successfully with cancer patients although no medical trials are known of at this stage - probably since Big Pharma doesn't really want something cheap and effective to affect its bottom line
- It alleviates constipation - which will assist with alleviating haemorrhoids
- It provides energy, thus helping with chronic fatigue
- Kombucha reduces blood pressure, relieves headaches & migraines
- It is high in antioxidants – destroys the  free-radicals that cause cancer
- It's high in polyphenols
- It soothes eczema – and can be applied directly to the skin
 -It prevents arteriosclerosis
 -It speeds the healing of ulcers – kills h.pylori on contact
- It helps to clear up candida & yeast infections, and impacts therefore on acne, Rosacea and even wrinkles
 - It reduces your gray hair
 - It lowers  glucose levels – preventing spiking from eating

Simply put, Kombucha is an all natural health beverage with wonderful attributes of encouraging the body to heal itself. It doesn't on its own cure anything, but it helps the body to strengthen against dis-ease..

I've started making it and will be manufacturing soon for public consumption.