Kombucha ?

[chef neil 25]

Hi-

I wanted to share this with you-

I drink Kombucha- it is a living tonic, you can buy it or make it your self.

The only think wrong with buying it is, it is made with tea- which has caffeine, and being that us WLS peeps should not be drinking caffeine pre-op or post op, or effervescent drinks... how would one go about getting their "booch" fix?

The tea- which is a living thing- made from tea and sugar and the scoby, left to ferment.

(google that) Scoby

it's a culture of living organisms that are good for you- especially for your GI tract!

similar to keifer and the yogurts.

however it is fermented so there is a trace amount of alcohol and sugar.

I started drinking this when I wanted to get off soda drinks-- it helped with withdrawal symptoms. especially the cravings...also when I was craving fried foods and breads...

What I did was start my own culture from a bottle of store bought kombucha-

I put it in a sun tea jar with a spigot- added 1 cup of sugar and filled it up with Decaf tea.

Left on counter 2 weeks- it started to bubble around edges. Pretty soon I could smell it- it was sweet- then went vinegary. this means it is almost ready- also had a slimy thing growng on top- like plastic wrap- this is the new scoby- it will soon become up to an inch thick. (also called a mushroom- but it isn't really one)

I drank several glasses and then started to replace what I was drinking with more decaf tea and a little sugar. apparently if you want a glass aday, by adding back- the culture devours the raw sugar and each day you have fresh kombucha ready for you.

You can google and get recipes and more ideas on it- (endless kombucha)

The thing I like about it is- WLS friendly using decaf tea and fermenting it down so it has no/little sugar

as well as leaving in the sun tea jar- has no carbonation.

if you never tried it- give it a gamble- just be careful, for your tummies sake. Some people think it tastes too sweet while others say it tastes like vingar- depending on how balanced your body is- is how it will taste- when I first started it was sweet - after a while it got vinegary to taste- then it went back to tasting good.

just a general info post- drink at will.