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Melbourne Company Launches Alcoholic Kombucha

Melbourne Company Launches Alcoholic Kombucha

There are three flavours and they sound pretty delicious.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Kombucha is something that has been rocketing up the list of people's go-to drink because it claims to have some health benefits.

It's a beverage that's made from fermenting sugared tea using a 'symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast', otherwise known as a SCOBY. Essentially, the SCOBY is live bacteria that's grown inside the drink and is meant to be a probiotic and healthy.

While that claim is dubious (and we'll get to that later), what is an interesting turn of events is some genius has fused kombucha with alcohol.

Home grown Kombucha with the SCOBY floating on top.
Bekathwia/Creative Commons

Melbourne company Tailored Beverage Company has designed this incredible liquid marriage and has three flavours out at the moment.

You can whet your willy with Apple and Berry, Watermelon, Cucumber and Lime or Ginger and Lemon.

"Naughty Booch fuses the juicy flavours of Kombucha with a cheeky bit of cider. Booch is deliciously fruity, with 4.6% alcohol, no preservatives or added sugar," the blurb reads.

"This Australian-made small-batched Kombucha, brewed with real leaf tea and also vegan friendly."

Well, that sounds pretty decent and you can already pick them up at Liquorland for $26 for a four-pack.

The Tailored Company

Now, if you're onboard with this purely because you drink kombucha like it's water and you think it's doing yourself a load of good, then we have news for you: apparently it's not as healthy in Australia as everyone would believe.

When the drink is made properly, with careful attention to detail and adherence to the recipe and the process, then it's all good.

However, according to the Courier Mail, Aussie labelling laws have created a system that means manufacturers don't have to reveal how much kombucha is in the drink.

The laws also allow producers to hide whether the drink underwent pasteurisation, which would essentially kill off all that live bacteria that you want from the drink.

Jason Callender from Brisbane's Buchi Kombucha told the Courier Mail: "Unfortunately, what's happened is there's been a lot of big players that have discovered there's a lot of money to be made and it's a booming market so...what's on offer is not necessarily the most authentic or living kombucha in the marketplace."

Buchi Kombucha/Instagram

The end result: you could be essentially just consuming a fizzy drink.

The science also hasn't yet stacked up people's claims that kombucha is beneficial.

A systematic review published this year found that all the alleged health benefits are solely based on animal studies and it's not known whether that translates to humans.

The study concluded that human trials were needed to determine whether us regular folk would be better off by drinking the beverage.

The American Cancer Society even went as far as saying that 'serious side effects and occasional deaths have been associated with drinking Kombucha tea'. It's because some people like to homebrew Kombucha and there's a risk of over-fermentation, which could make the drink overly acidic.

Featured Image Credit: Tailored Beverage Company

Topics: Food, Community, Australia