Kombucha

We have a friend who voluntarily took the decision to move to a village near Salem, (Tamil Nadu, India) where he lives with his wife and two sons. When I first visited him some years ago, it was a classic rural setting - no running water, no electricity, though he had just moved from a hut to a brick house he had built. I haven't been back (yet) but friends who visit them regularly tell me that there is running water, electricity, mod-cons like a washing machine, and guess what, a computer connected to the net via his WLL mobile! Uncannily, I have occasionally chatted with him over gmail from a remote village in France (to a remote village in Tamil Nadu!!). What does all this have to do with Kombucha? Because of his connection to the net he is frequently well-informed about many matters (like the Gautam Sen blog I mentioned in an earlier post), and it is from him that I found out about Kombucha. Kombucha is a tea or tisane that has been fermented using a macroscopic solid mass of microorganisms called a "kombucha colony," usually consisting principally of Acetobacter-species and yeast cultures. This has suddenly gained a lot of popularity and has been mentioned in TV shows and plugged by celebrities. It is, not surprisingly for a new exotic product, believed to have therapeutic properties. Making it is not difficult once the culture or zoological mat has been procured. And of course, now that you have heard of it, where else would you get more information on this than Wikipedia whence I gleaned some of the details.