Category: Odd + Funny Author : Duncan Riley Posted: November 19, 2008
Tags : bizarre, Kombucha, New York
Subscribe: Tech Feed, Email, Twitter

Kombucha: tastes like feet and coming to a store near you

If you haven’t heard of Kombucha before, you’re probably not alone, but its likely coming to a store near you in the near future.

Kombucha is a fizzy, fermented drink that results from adding a colony of bacteria and yeast to sweetened tea. Supporters say it has cleansing properties, and the craze can be traced back to the health food/ alternative medicines sector, or as the New York Post puts it “health nuts and hippies.”

Kombucha went on sale in New York in 2005, and has slowly grown in popularity since then, but it’s a mention in the TV series Gossip Girls that has seen the product truly boom, including Kombucha dedicated cafes.

It sounds great except for two things: the taste and the health risks. According to the Post, Kombucha has a tangy, sour taste that has been likened to “feet” or “drinking a douche.” Wikipedia notes that Kombucha has been shown to increase the size of both the liver and spleen in mice, that care should be taken when taking medical drugs or hormone replacement therapy while regularly drinking kombucha, and it may also cause allergic reactions. The home-brewed variety has been linked with several health issues in people, ranging from bacterial infections to liver damage and to death.

Somehow I think I’ll pass the first time someone offers to buy me a Kombucha.

kombucha fan

This article is poorly written - most of the copy is cut and pasted from the Post article - and more importantly, poorly researched. I'm curious if the author has even tried Kombucha. If you haven't, I suggest you do, and you may be surprised at how much you like it and how much your body craves it. It's a detoxifier, great for digestion and an amazing hangover cure, to name a few benefits. It's definitely not for everyone, but there's gotta be something good about it because it's been around for more than 2,000 years. So next time you say something 'tastes like a douche' you should try it first.

Tracy Kaufman

I must agree with the first commenter; this is not a very well-informed article. To merely mention that kombucha is said to have cleansing properties is a massive understatement considering the array of health benefits that the tea has demonstrated. Also, the craze can be traced much further back than to "health nuts and hippies" - kombucha has been around for thousands of years and has existed in various forms in China, Russia, Australia, and numerous other parts of the world. I'd also say that the health risks are pretty few and far between compared with those associated with other foods (such as meat, dairy, artificial sweeteners, and processed foods), and it's certainly a safer health treatment than taking prescription drugs.