{"id":5309,"date":"2024-01-17T22:14:37","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T20:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ohm-bucha.com\/?page_id=5309"},"modified":"2026-08-25T16:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:53:15","slug":"kombucha","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/ohm-bucha.com\/en\/kombucha\/","title":{"rendered":"Kas yra kombu\u010dia"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What is kombucha?<\/h1>\n

Kombucha<\/strong> (or kombucha tea<\/em>) is a naturally fermented tea drink. It is made from black and green tea which, together with sugar, is worked on by a live culture of bacteria and yeast known as a SCOBY. The result is barely sweet, brightly sour and naturally sparkling.<\/p>\n

The history of kombucha goes back thousands of years. The drink is believed to have its roots in Manchuria and China, where it was called the elixir of life. Fermented drinks were nothing new in our own ancestors' kitchens either, so kombucha is not a stranger to the Lithuanian palate.<\/p>\n

How kombucha is made<\/h2>\n

The process is simple in principle and painstaking in practice:<\/p>\n

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  1. The tea is brewed.<\/strong> Black and green tea, with sugar added. Here sugar is food for the culture, not a sweetener.<\/li>\n
  2. The SCOBY goes in.<\/strong> The live culture starts the fermentation.<\/li>\n
  3. Fermentation.<\/strong> The culture consumes most of the sugar and turns it into organic acids and carbon dioxide. That is why there is little sugar left in the finished kombucha.<\/li>\n
  4. Flavouring.<\/strong> Ohm!Bucha is flavoured with real fruit and berry juices, with no artificial flavourings.<\/li>\n
  5. Bottling.<\/strong> The drink is bottled unpasteurised, so the culture stays alive in it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The carbon dioxide in kombucha forms on its own, during fermentation. No gas is added.<\/p>\n

    What a SCOBY is<\/h2>\n

    SCOBY stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast<\/em>. In Lithuanian it is better known as the tea fungus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    It is a dense layer with the feel of a rubbery film, floating on the surface of the fermenting tea. It is not a fungus in the biological sense. It is a living community: the yeast breaks down the sugar and the bacteria turn what comes out of that into organic acids. With every batch the SCOBY grows a new layer, and it can be split off for new batches.<\/p>\n

    We wrote about it separately: What a SCOBY is<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    What kombucha tastes like<\/h2>\n

    Kombucha is neither a lemonade nor a tea. The taste is barely sweet with a clear sourness, somewhere near a dry cider or a fresh apple cider vinegar, only gentler. It does not take long to get used to.<\/p>\n

    The Ohm!Bucha range has seven flavours:<\/p>\n