Sure, it happens that we forget things or leave them behind: a call we meant to return, the sock under the bed, or a cup of tea just made and left to sit. But let’s not forget that while we forget, life goes on and things go also on doing their things.

While no one knows the exact moment, the first kombucha likely arose many centuries ago in East Asia, where tea originated. Someone must have simply left a jar of sweet tea sitting around. The temperature was just right, wild yeasts and bacteria got to work, a slimy pellicle formed on the surface, and the sweet tea slowly turned into a fermented brew.

Once people began to enjoy this strange fermented tea and associate it with their wellbeing, they kept brewing it and passing it on. Word of mouth, and plenty of traveling carried it across Asia and, slowly, into Russia, Eastern Europe, and beyond.

As for the name, it’s all a bit mixed up. “Cha” means tea, but exactly how the fermented drink came to be called “kombucha” isn’t entirely clear. Somewhere along the way, the name simply stuck.

People kept brewing it, and because making kombucha doesn’t require much more than tea, sugar and starter, that is the already fermented kombucha, the culture was easy to share. Someone saved a piece, passed it on, and the person who received it could grow more and pass it on again. What may have started as a chance discovery became a very DIY fermentation tradition. Eventually, one of those SCOBYs, that is the symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast, found its way to us in a small zip bag.

So what exactly is kombucha?

Let’s get a bit scientific. Kombucha starts with sweet tea and a community of yeasts and bacteria.

The yeasts first break sucrose down into simpler sugars with the help of enzymes such as invertase, then ferment those sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide. The bacteria take over part of that ethanol and convert it into organic acids, including acetic acid, while some of them also produce the cellulose that forms the familiar SCOBY layer on the surface. As the acids build up, the pH drops and the tea gradually becomes tangy, fizzy and recognisably kombucha. If the kombucha is left unpasteurized, live microorganisms from the fermentation can remain in the drink.

That’s exactly what makes it so fascinating to us: it’s the result of a living process, not simply a finished drink sitting in a bottle. When we drink it, these microorganisms enter our digestive system, where they can interact with our gut microbiota. The role they may play in gut health, metabolism and the immune system is still being researched. We stay curious. For us, kombucha is above all a good, conscious alternative to soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, and a fascinating brew with plenty of room for experimentation.

We’ve been brewing kombucha for years, trying different cultures, tweaking ratios, and testing different ways of doing things. There’s still a lot to learn, and we hope to share some of what we’ve learned and our curiosity and enthusiasm for fermentation with you.