What is Kombucha, and Where Can I Get It?
Kombucha. It's like a marginalized child who was always hanging around the cool kids, but was never one of them. Until then, all of a sudden, they have their moment. For according to Whole Foods’ 2018 food trend forecaster, it's the year of mushrooms and bubbly beverages. Given that it's basically mushroom tea, Kombucha is like a hybrid of these two hot trends and has been rapidly adopted by the A-list celebrity sect on account of its supposedly anti-aging properties. Its generally expensive price tag probably doesn't hurt either (at around USD 4 a bottle).
So, what is kombucha? First of all, how exactly do you pronounce it? It's comb-boo-cha. Kombucha is a fermented, effervescent, and sweetened black or green tea drink that has a slight alcoholic content (below 0.05 percent), and origins that are thought to go back to northeastern China 211 BC. The combination of black or green tea with sugar makes it a functional food, and is fermented using bacteria and yeast commonly known as a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). It is believed to be rich in probiotics, antioxidants, detoxifying acids, and Vitamin B complex (B2, B6, and B12). Some cell-based and animal studies have shown that kombucha helps protect the liver, combats yeast infections, and fights the free-radicals that are associated with the aging process.
So, next up, where can we get this beverage in Beijing?
Papp’s Tea
In Beijing, you can find kombucha at Papp’s Tea – one of the very first to carry kombucha in China. There are four flavors: Mint Oolong (infused with tieguanyin tea, mint, and osmanthus), Fruit Disco (featured oolong, dried mango and strawberry), Jazzy Ginger (brewed with dried lemon, dried ginger, black tea, goji berries, and osmanthus), and Super Mate (made of yerba mate tea).
The flavors are added during second fermentation, and Mint Ooling proved to be our favorite for its slightly aromatic flavor from the tieguanyin tea and mint, giving it a lingering tangy (and slightly funky – it is kombucha, after all) taste. As a hopeless beer geek, I found all four varieties of kombucha were a little intense and it took me a while to develop a preference for the drink (just the same way as it did with gose-style beers).
Price: RMB 28 per bottle at their Sanlitun store, RMB 112/4 bottles, or RMB 208/12 bottles on their online shop
Sowhat
You can also get your fermented fix at newcomer Sowhat – established by Peng Ying, who’s also the co-founder of cold-pressed juice brand HeyJuice and chain bakery WithWheat. Sowhat have three flavors: grapefruit with black tea, lemon with black tea, and grape with green tea. They'e not as tangy and tart as Papp’s, but rather, more aromatic and fruity.
Our favorite was the grapefruit with black tea, which had strong zesty and citrusy flavors as well as being sweet and bubbly. They suggest you drink seven bottles so as to make up a detoxing cycle, to be drunk every night as a health supplement, or to replace dinner once a month, or simply to be drunk after oil-heavy food (hot pot, for example) to help with digestion.
Price: RMB 199/7 bottles, or RMB 239/9 bottles (currently half-price on their online shop).
More stories by this author here.
Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
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Photos: Papp's Tea, Sowhat, Tracy Wang, craftycultures
