Kombucha Malaysia

I received this a while email a few weeks ago from Miss Farzana which I think is worth sharing (with her permission of course). Dear Boon, I am eagerly interested to try kombucha on my son who has eczema since he was born. He's now 5 and i've been reading about probiotics foods and came across kombucha but I am   not sure if there are parents in Malaysia who takes kombucha to treat their kids with skin problems. My question is why is it called kombucha tea?does it taste similar to tea?my son loves tea so i thought if kombucha tea could become a substitute for his usual tea,plus the probiotics benefits that comes with it..i'd be a happy mom at this point,i am looking into fixing his gut lining in d belly.so im starting with some probiotics packed foods. Thanks! Dear Farzana, With regards to your questions, it is a yes. Parents had approached me before about the consumption of kombucha to.cure eczema. My answer is this. Kombucha is never a cure for ...

2 weeks ago I was invited to conduct a clinic on kombucha by a wellness group. It was a totally different experience altogether compared to the usual one on one coaching. The leader of the Wellness group, Mei was kind enough to offer her place to conduct the clinic. Some of the ladies already had experience with Scoby fermentation with Kefir while others were totally new to the experience. So I started off by showing the “pancake” aka Scoby and what it does to the sugar tea. Naturally most of them were worried when they saw the amount of sugar needed to brew and I assured them that the sugar was food for the bacteria. I took them through the step by step process to start the brew, talked about the importance of sanitation and ventilation and common mistakes made by novices. The Wellness group was anything but boring and there were so many colourful comments on the brewing process and kombucha. Case in point, there was a question on “the floating bulu” in the brew wh...

The logic goes like this; Premise 1 : White Sugar is harmful to the body Premise 2 : Kombucha has white sugar Conclusion : Kombucha is harmful to the body? Yes it is true, white processed sugar is a vital ingredient in Kombucha. In fact, if you say that kombucha Scoby has a sweet you are spot on!! Before you put your arms up high and swear off kombucha for life, let me make it clear. The sugar is not for you its for the Scoby! Hear me out. In a typical brewing process, for each liter of tea, the default amount of sugar is 80g/liter. The amount of sugar looks like this:                           Sugar amount day 1 During the brewing process, yeast will break down sugar to fructose and glucose. The yeast will then consume the glucose producing carbon dioxide, etanol in the process. The main bacterium in kombucha, Acetobacter sp . will then oxidize ethanol to acetic acid. Fructose will still remain ...

Jun Scoby looks like Kombucha Scoby and even brews like Kombucha but its not Kombucha Scoby!! There is one marked difference though. Jun Scoby feeds exclusively on Honey! I managed to get a Jun Scoby shipped all the way from US via the Happy Herbalist. Did the brewing with green tea but the final brew turned out to be quite disappointing; no bubbles, no new layer of Scoby and the drink was flat. In short, I failed. It turned out that the honey that I was using was not pure enough (bought from Giant hypermart). By the time I used real organic Acasia honey it was too late, the Scoby had failed to function.  Disappointed, an idea cropped into my head.  Why don’t I try to train my kombucha Scoby to “feed” on honey? Off I went to brew with the same procedure, replacing sugar with honey with kombucha Scoby.  Fast forward two weeks into the future all I got was another failed brew, proving once and for all that kombucha Scoby and honey does not mix. After t...

I had a chat with a fellow brewer Erin who regularly brews in Canada and currently relocated to Malaysia. Based on that conversation there were certainly several differences in the brewing process. Shorter Brewing Duration   Malaysia being a tropical country is always hot and humid 24-7. Thus the brewing duration to complete a kombucha brew is only 10-14 days compared to 18-24 days in a temperate country. Thinner baby Kombucha Scoby As the time needed to brew is way shorter compared to temperate countries, the baby Scoby that are formed are also notable thinner. To make the baby Scoby thicker you might need to lengthen the brewing process but you might end up with a more vinegarish brew. Thicker baby Scoby Thinner baby Scoby Higher risk for mold growth The risk of mold infestation on kombucha Scoby is very high here in Malaysia. The high humidity and temperature is a potent mix to encourage growth of mold if proper steps are not taken during the brew...

No 1: Is SCOBY and Kombucha the same thing? Scoby and Kombucha are not the same thing. Scoby is an acronym for a symibiotic culture of yeast and bacteria.It is the interaction of the bacteria and yeast  with sugar tea via the fermentation process that creates the end product which is kombucha. A simplified relationship for kombucha and Scoby is as follows;  Kombucha Scoby + Sugar Tea = Kombucha No 2: How much kombucha should I drink daily? For starters it is best to start at around 50ml.  This is to get your body to get used to the introduction of good bacteria into the body. From there on you can gradually increase the intake. No 3: How long can I keep a brewed kombucha? In room temperature I usually keep my brew for around 2 weeks.  If kept in the fridge I will stretch the duration up to 4 weeks. Kombucha has lots of good bacteria. If you keep it way too long the number of bacteria will start to reduce thus reducing the health i...

7 days later I went back to the brew that was produced by the dehydrated Scoby. Below is the result. Unfortunately the re-hydration process did not work out as planned and the result was a very thin Scoby infected with mold. For the time being, I will have to go back to the drawing board and maybe shorten the dehydration process and rehydration and perhaps achieve a better result. If all else fails, well, I can start to knit the dried Scobies and well use it as a table cloth. :)