Benefits and Scary Stuff

If nothing else, Ramirez certainly turned out to be quite the conversation piece. No fewer than 3 people have walked into my kitchen and, in mid-sentence, stopped and said “what’s that?” to the floating goop-like colony I was so lovingly feeding. I also had someone come in and tell me that he was going to let himself in while I was away and throw Ramirez down the toilet. That lead to a mild argument that ended in me being pronounced a hippie and him being labeled “closed-minded.” In any case, Ramirez has been a source of great amusement for me thus far. 

And so, to show my appreciation, I decided to be brave and take a small sip. He seemed alright. It was a little sweeter than my first kombucha taste, but I did recall that G. told me that she’d brewed hers longer than normal, which resulted in a stronger, more acidic flavor. I decided to follow what my research suggested was best: drink a small amount at first and work up to drinking more. I drank about 4 ounces and noticed in a few hours that it had a considerable cleansing effect on the body. I shall expound no more on that topic. But consider that much of the bacteria in the drink is the same or similar to the bacteria found in yogurt, which promotes healthy digestion. I’ve also read that kombucha can aid in weight loss (noted with mice), promote a healthy immune system (rather than actually curing cancer, it supposedly helps the body fight off any invaders), and even changes grey hair to black (I’m afraid that I’m unable to test this theory on myself as, at the ripe old age of 30, my hair is still quite dark.) The scarier side of kombucha includes claims that it has increased the size of the livers and kidneys of mice, although it also increased the expected life spans of those very same mice by 5% each. Since we can’t really ask the mice how the swollen livers made them feel, I can’t say for sure if that extra 5% was spent happily or instead, sadly suffering through lower back pain. I discussed this with another friend of mine who, although he hasn’t actively been drinking kombucha, suggested that none of these tests or reports of illness mentioned how much was administered to the mice or people, how strong it was, how long it was brewed, or with what kind of tea. We also don’t know if it was brewed in sanitary conditions or haphazardly with people’s hands in the jar. It seems like the same several cases are being mentioned over and over and, with the hundreds of years of history kombucha has behind it, there are surprisingly few failures that MIGHT be linked to the drink, especially when compared to the thousands of people that have drunk over that time period.