Kombucha 101: What is it and what are the benefits?

Kombucha is a refreshing and powerful live culture health drink, it's made by fermenting tea with live cultures or a “tea fungus” (aka a SCOBY - Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeasts). The process turns a bowl of sweet tea into a live culture pow-pow-powerhouse.

Kombucha is light and bubbly with a satisfying sweet and sour taste. It tastes like a mix between sparkling apple cider and champagne – but without the alcoholic kick.

Despite what you might think, kombucha is not a new phenomenon. Its exact origins are lost, but it’s generally thought to have originated in the Far East . ‘The Tea of Immortality’ drank by the Tsin Dynasty in 221BC appears to be the first recorded version of the ancient health drink.

The fermentation process digests the sugar to produce organic acids, vitamins (in particular Vitamin B and Vitamin C), minerals, amino acids and enzymes. Plus, perhaps best of all, it also produces a bunch of happy gut buddies in the form of powerful live culture microorganisms.

The live culture microorganisms in kombucha come from a living culture affectionately known as a SCOBY. A SCOBY kind of looks like a big, pale, blubbery pancake and under the right conditions digests the sugar in sweetened tea, turning it into an elixir of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and organic acids.

At Nexba we ferment our kombucha for 40 days (longer than most others on the market). The extended fermentation allows even more time for all the sugar to be eaten, leaving our kombucha completely sugar, caffeine and alcohol free.

We could wax lyrical about how incredible kombucha is for hours! It’s honestly quite something. In fact, it’s scientifically proven to be wonderful for your body in so many ways, including:

• Boosted immune system
• Lowered cholesterol
• Reduced eczema symptoms
• Better gut health thanks to the live cultures
• Anti-inflammatory boost from antioxidants

But the main thing to remember is that the fermentation process required to make kombucha creates an abundance of live cultures which are undoubtedly good for your gut health, which in turn can lead to a healthier digestive and immune system.

Most people don’t realise that not all live cultures are made equal – in fact most won’t survive the journey to your gut and in turn won’t provide any health benefits. But after two years of continuous research and development, our Nexba SCOBY packs a punch with a first-of-its-kind durable live cultures.

Our live cultures with their unique protective outer shell, can survive the treacherous journey. In fact, 85% of the 500 million live live cultures in every bottle of Nexba Kombucha make it to your intestines intact. Read more about our unique live cultures here.

Average live cultures are actually so delicate that bottled kombuchas from the supermarket (except Nexba’s!) often take a hit during the manufacturing process which can kill off the living live culture microorganisms, but Nexba’s special protective outer shell saves us here once again.  

They’re so robust you don’t even need to keep them in the fridge. So, you can store your Nexba Kombucha at room temperature and enjoy it on the go, without compromising any of the health benefits.

And while most kombuchas are fermented for around 7 to 30 days, at Nexba we give our SCOBY 40 days to do its thing. Why? That extra time and love allows the SCOBY to digest all the sugar— leaving behind only the good stuff. It also means that our kombucha contains no alcohol or caffeine.

And in case that wasn’t enough, we combine our very special SCOBY with a rolled oolong tea called Iron Goddess. Its light notes of honey mingle with a subtle woodiness resulting in a lightly sparkling, cider-like booch with apple, peach and floral aromas.

Shop Nexba Kombucha online via our retail partners or find a stockist near you. Plus, check out our Kombucha recipes here!