Why My Goodness! Kombucha? Have you ever asked yourself that or had a friend or family member ask and wondered how to answer them? I thought I'd take advantage of something I came across last night to share the "why".
My Goodness! Kombucha is not pasteurize or heated, and contains all the original raw enzymes (raw means live, not heated). Heat kills the live enzymes and probiotics. This is the #1 reason I started making kombucha! I love the health benefits of kombucha, but once I discovered that the process many companies use destroys many of the benefits, I decided to make my own. I discovered a couple fun things along the way. Using real food rather than extracts and flavoring also gives you the health benefit of the food! For example, ginger is good for digestion and is known for its anti-inflammatory effects ... so I use real ginger root. I find store brands on the shelf to use "ginger extract" or flavoring. Once I realized this I felt fooled by all the marketing I was seeing.
I never felt as fooled by something as I did last night. It didn't actually fool me, but it did confuse me for a second. My husband sent me a link so I could check out a particular kombucha brand because he thought it seemed pretty good. They stated on their site that they DON"T pasteurize, but then they had probiotics and B vitamins listed on the ingredient list (these are only added to the ingredient list when the product is pasteurized because pasteurization kills these off).
They also said it won't continue to ferment if left out at room temperature. Once I read that I knew something was up. I've made salad dressing out of kombucha before and I know that if I'm going to use it right away I don't need to heat (pasteurize) it; however, if I'm not going to use it right away I do heat (pasteurize) it so it won't continue to ferment and turn to complete vinegar. For salad dressing in my home I don't care if it's pasteurized because that's not my source of live enzymes and probiotics. Soooo, once I read their details I realized what they were saying! To pasteurize kombucha the temp needs to come to 140 degrees. They could bring it to 139 degrees and say "it's not pasteurized!". I'm not even an "off the shelf" kombucha consumer, but this really bothered me. I encourage people to ask any company if it's pasteurized, now I guess the question needs to be "is it heated at all".
If you want real, raw, fresh ingredients in non-heated (unpasteurized) kombucha buy My Goodness! You can find us at many local farmer's markets. You can also contact me and stop by my house for pick up.
Email: rachael@shekinahwellness.com
Website: shekinahwellness.com/kombucha