Kombucha

The very kind people at Equinox sent me some of their lovely Kombucha to try.  Kombucha is one of those drinks that seems to be suddenly ‘around’.  I love a drink.  I actually really do love drinking, be it water, coffee, wine, gin – I’ll happily spend all day drinking. Great in this hot weather and generally a good thing, however, if alcohol is involved I have to watch myself!

As much as rose and the summer is somehow intertwined in my mind like everything there needs to be a balance.  Not something I’m always great at.  Once upon a time, thankfully now decades ago I lived with a can of diet Coke permanently attached to my hand, urgh! Now the only fizz I drink is San Pellegrino and the occasional glass of proper fizz on special occasions, the start of the week, the middle of the week… ha, ha, I wish.

Kombucha It is a fermented drink made with organic green tea, spring water and cane sugar fermented into a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast).  Equinox and Kombucha is brewed in the Yorkshire hills where they started brewing their artisan ‘booch’ back in 2012.  The drinks now sell in Waitrose, health food shops, cafes and retailers across Europe and Scandinavia.

I’d heard of the many health benefits purported by Kombucha before; it’s great for gut health due to its live probiotic cultures (healthy bacteria), helping to reduce inflammation and disease, and supporting the liver and cardiovascular system but I hadn’t tried it before.  I was very excited to try the different flavours the guys at Equinox sent me; original, raspberry and elderflower, wild berry and my favourite ginger.

I  really enjoy  the taste,  the combination of the fermentation and fizz actually results in it tasting a little like a cocktail or refreshing zingy light Mexican beer. A lot of the samples I was sent were actually snaffled by my husband! Much, to my surprise.

I’m definitely a fan and with the heatwave and school holidays in full flow, a bottle or two of kombucha is my new healthy drink of choice and a great antidote to balance out the days when I do have a  rose, Lidl gin or glasses of white Macon. Chin! Chin!