Focus on Coop Suppliers:
Katalyst Kombucha

by Suzanne Fisher

Katalyst Kombucha If you have not heard about it from a friend or stopped to check out the bottles of kombucha for sale at Honest Weight Food Co-op, you may be wondering what kombucha is. Kombucha is made from four ingredients: water, tea, sugar and the kombucha culture, which consists of beneficial yeasts and bacteria, and looks like a leathery pancake floating in the weak tea mixture. The tea is brewed and sweetened, then the kombucha culture is added. This mixture is fermented in large containers for several weeks. The resulting brew has a sour, tangy flavor and usually sparkles with natural carbonation. It is also full of things that are good for you!

The sugar is converted through the fermentation process to organic acids and carbon dioxide. Compounds that are nutritious and detoxifying are also generated by fermenting, including gluconic, glucuronic, lactic and folic acids. The result is a mixture high in beneficial bacteria and B vitamins. Kombucha has been used as a health-promoting drink in China since as far back as 221 BCE. It was a Chinese tradition for the kombucha culture to be passed from mother to daughter. Throughout recent history, it has been used in countries as diverse as Russia, India, Germany and Japan. In the 1940s the Russian government researched communities plagued with high rates of cancer, and found that those areas where kombucha was used were free from the disease. During the 1940s and ’50s in Russia, kombucha was regularly used in hospitals for detoxification of patients before initiating treatment. Alexandr Soltzhenitsyn credits kombucha with helping him to survive his internment in Siberian labor camps of the former Soviet Union. According to the GT’s Kombucha website, kombucha is also known by other names, including Manchurian Tea, Manchu Fungus, Tea Kvass, Mo- Gu Fungus japonicus and Kwasson. A recipe for kombucha is provided in the popular nutrition and cook book, Nourishing Traditions.

The founders of the relatively newly formed company Katalyst Kombucha, Kelly and Will Savitri and Jeff Canter, have added to the quality of their kombucha by making it of pure Berkshire Mountain spring water, organic green and black tea, organic evaporated cane juice and, of course, organic kombucha culture. During fermentation, the kombucha is “infused with healing vibrations from sound, crystals and visual art.” After the fermentation process is finished, fresh-pressed organic juices and herbal extracts are added to increase the healing properties of some types of kombucha and to heighten the flavors.

Katalyst Kombucha is available in three flavors currently, with another one soon to come. The original, called Pure Essence, is without additions to the kombucha and has a pleasant, tart taste. It is easy to drink and very refreshing. Ginger Devotion is kombucha combined with pressed organic ginger juice, and is a potent and spicy elixir for true lovers of ginger. Schizandraberry is kombucha combined with a smooth puree of local, organically grown schizandraberries. Known as the five-flavor berry, which addresses the five meridians of earth, wind, water, fire and metal in Chinese medicine, this berry adds all five flavors of sour, sweet, salty, bitter and pungent to the kombucha. This flavor is indescribable, shifting just when the drinker thinks he/she has a handle on it. Schizandraberry is known for being a good liver and kidney tonic, among other health promoting effects. Another flavor is in the testing stages, an organic blueberry and ginger mix, which has only 25% as much ginger as the Ginger Devotion, and which Will says is very delicious. All three of the flavors offered now come in 6.3 oz. bottles and the ginger comes in a half gallon size, which Honest Weight has not yet carried. The folks at Katalyst hope to have all flavors except the Schizandraberry for sale in the half-gallon size soon.

Katalyst Kombucha is not only remarkable because of its wonderful products, but also because of how and where those products are put together. They have been producing kombucha in the Western Massachusetts Food Processing Center, a cooperative kitchen in Greenfield (Mass.) since July 2005. This kitchen has provided technical assistance, advice and licensing guidance as Katalyst has begun to sell kombucha to the public. Here they create their kombucha in 2.5- and 20-gallon glass containers. They brew the teas at night in concentration, and then add them to the spring water to save the time and energy of cooling large amounts of heated liquid. They rent a temperature- controlled space for fermentation.

Will says that the amount of tea in kombucha is only five bags per gallon of water and the amount of sugar is 5% initially. By the end of fermentation, when the ph is right, only 1% of the sugar remains in the solution. The size of the container influences how long the kombucha takes to reach its final stage before bottling, with smaller containers taking 13 days and larger containers taking longer. When the finished kombucha is drained from its container, the kombucha pancake is left in the container for the next batch. This way, other bacteria are not introduced to the containers. Katalyst has plans in the near future to move to their own larger space where they hope to begin using larger ceramic containers for production, allowing them to produce more kombucha and on a more regular schedule. These particular ceramic containers have been analyzed and have been found to be as good as glass at not leaching any other materials into the kombucha. For the long-term future, Will says that, rather than enlarge indefinitely, they want to establish small breweries in other regions to supply those communities’ kombucha needs. This would not only eliminate the need for fossil-fuel transport, but also would be healthier for the consumer, because it is thought that the local bacteria influence kombucha cultures across the world, and what is in your daily environment is also what is best for you.

We at Honest Weight are fortunate to have access to a locally produced kombucha, especially one that is so painstakingly put together with pristine ingredients and ecological awareness. Will said that the encouragement of the many small whole-foods stores that carry Katalyst Kombucha has been “awesome” and he is very grateful for their support. Look for Katalyst Kombucha in the cooler near the refrigerated spritzers—and let me know if you want to split a case of the half-gallon size!

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