Seedling Episode: Unlocking Kombucha's Secrets

Different plants, different voices, and different ways of having conversations.

It's time to get personal with plant medicine. Welcome to Getting Personal with Plant Medicine. I'm your host, Diana. And I'm your co-host, JR. Thanks for joining us again for a seedling episode. So if this is your first time listening, thank you for listening. But this isn't our normal format. This is what we call our seedling episode, where it's just a little short, little highlight reel.

A little how do you do. A little how do you do to some of our favorite plant medicines we're incorporating in our everyday life. We're not necessarily a plant with this one. No, it is. And I'm going to tell you why. Today we're talking about kombucha. All right. This is Diana's time to shine. Yeah, well, I don't know about that.

Kombucha is plant medicine because well okay i'm gonna give you my reason because because it's tea it comes from black there we go okay there we go so therefore in my opinion in my estimation yeah and it's also i've people talk about it in the herbalism reddit sometimes or subreddit you sold it with tea okay you sold anyway so you won all right so i have been a fan of kombucha for a very long time but But I didn't decide to start brewing my own until, what,

like a year ago now? It's been about a year.

Yeah. It's been about a year that that blueberry's been on our wall. Yeah. There was a lot of trial and error in the beginning. A lot of explosions. And I really usually would give up pretty easily. Yeah. You know, we've had, like you said, explosions. Sorry, this chair is creaking. Yeah. Not trying to. Very safe explosions, by the way. Yeah. But let me tell you, because I'm active in the kombucha subreddit, it happens a lot.

And there's some that actually are dangerous. So you have to be careful. I mean, you're talking about glass bottles exploding. That's true. So, you know, it's dangerous. Luckily, our glasses have not exploded. Knock on wood. I won't do that because we're recording. Yeah. But it all begins with the T, right? So I know people are grossed out by the concept. I'm saying people, I'm generalizing. But a lot of the people I talk to, because I have a lot of SCOBYs. I have three SCOBY motels right now.

Hotels. Hotels, I'm sorry. I was told on the subreddit that the motel sounds kind of like it's a shady. I'm like, what? The hotel and the motel holiday inn.

Because I said I have all these scobies which I was let me tell you I was educated pretty quickly on that apparently I'm using the wrong terminology because you have one mother scoby and if you're interested in brewing it yourself you might have you might have gone through and looked online there are a lot of people selling them and they typically come in a bag with starter liquid they call it now that starter liquid is just tea that's all it is but it's tea with like a high,

acidity right and you can only use certain types of tea so you in the first fermentation okay. So that was one lesson i learned the hard way because i had thought well black tea is black tea But that is not true because some black tea has like a citrus base and you really want to avoid any kind of citrus in the first fermentation. Hashtag not all black teas. That's true. Yeah. You have to really be careful. And also in the beginning, people said organic.

Make sure you use organic tea. It makes all the difference. And I was kind of like, okay, you know. But it turns out that's true because I'm not sure what the reason is. I mean, organic, I assume, is always better. I assume, yeah. Yeah. But I did notice that mold occurred when I did not use organic, and it didn't when I did. There we go. Anyway, the reason why I stuck with it is because I, like many others,

have discovered the amazing gut health benefits that come along with kombucha. And just to be in, On brand today, I am actually drinking some of my homemade kombucha right now. What flavor do you have in there? What you got going on over there? So the flavor happens in the second fermentation. Okay. The first fermentation is just the tea and the sugar, which actually feeds the SCOBY.

Okay, so really quick, let's talk about what is the SCOBY, right? Yeah.

The scoby is that really thick white opaque type of it looks kind of slimy i guess i don't really know at this point i'm not i'm not bothered at all but in the beginning i was like i'm but i can't i know a lot most of the people i talk to are very grossed out by the concept yeah it's i drink the kombucha but i don't even look at those hotels i'm like i don't even want to yeah he doesn't want to because they're live you know they are now i did find

out on the subreddit you really don't need to save your scobies or your as they said pellicles i was using the wrong term i'm not really 100 sure about that so i'm just putting that in there for any kombucha diehards that are listening because don't come for us in the comments right i know there's a mother scoby so i've had the mother scoby for i guess a year now and what happens is every batch you make she gets thicker because she gets fed by the sugar and

also the caffeine so then it gets really thick so you don't want it to crowd up your vessel your brewing vessel so you slice it in half or that's what i do and I put it in another vessel. So then that starts to double and triple and it just gets bigger and bigger. And then I feed those vessels with the starter fluid from... My batch my brewing original brewing. Best so it's pretty much the same starter liquid if.

You unless you completely dump it out which i don't do i always keep the starter liquid because the starter liquid is really the key to success not the scoby apparently apparently i've been doing makes it makes it quicker the scoby definitely yeah makes it quicker and there's easier and there are things you can do with it so i haven't tried any of it yet because it's something I'm really going to have to like take an afternoon you know make sure that I have I have everything set up

because you can make gummies out of the scoby you can make a protein shake one person in the subreddit suggested a face mask which I thought was interesting actually I think she even said she uses it as a whole body mask and she just blends it in the blender the thing is it's a very like thick sturdy kind of it's a thick boy yeah but when you put it in the blender apparently it like liquefies very quickly so all right yeah but people use it for so many different things and one

of these days i will take the time to figure that out because no one wants to take any off my hands oh i also heard somebody say you can dry it out like a leather kind of like a fruit leather but for your dog and it's really good for dogs our dog would never come anywhere near it so i'm not even going to i mean say it enough and i'll make a liar out of you well that's true.

She told the world on the podcast i'm not going to eat this so now i'm going to love every second of it i mean you know that's exactly how it's going to go down but i figure your mom's dogs would probably be more apt to to try and yeah our dog will not so anyway the scoby is the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. And so to keep your SCOBY from getting molds, Which is like the killer, right? You have to, if you see mold on it, it does kind of feel weird.

Like you're like, oh, mold's going to destroy the bacteria in yeast, right? It seems kind of funny, right? Yes. I don't know. Because I feel like mold is like, it's like kind of its own thing, right? It's a fungus, yeah. Right. It's like a different, I don't know, something that came out of something. Yeah. Yeah, and I mean, because molding in and out of itself is the creation of antibacteria. Right. Penicillin, which was the very first antibiotic. It's kind of weird that it would show up.

Well, no, because if you have good bacteria and then you have the growth of something that is antibiotic, they go to war with each other.

And not that it would completely went out but i mean it it it hurts the the civilization of good bacteria resting upon that scoby i don't know this for a fact i'm not a scientist but that's i mean it just all right well so you can keep that from happening i guess i say it's kind of funny because in my opinion when the scoby starts to actually like do its thing it kind of looks like mold so the reason why i say that it's kind of funny is because there are so many posts on reddit where

people be like is this mold it's like is this cake or is this yeah yeah it is like that they're like is this mold and sometimes you're like wow that is couldn't be more clear that that is mold you know but there have been a lot of times in my own personal practice where i'm like i don't know is it mold i don't know and i'm just kind of like give it a few more days. And it winds up being fine. But there have been, you know, I always ask you,

I'm like, does this look like mold? You're like, I don't know. Now I've come to realize that if it's not dry and like white, completely white and dry and patchy, it usually is not mold. But the scobies can take on some really weird shapes. And so you do your first fermentation.

So if you already have a scoby which you can buy from etsy or whatever i mean i'm not i'm not going to say any particular brand or whatever contact me if you want one honestly because i have so many so you have the scoby you can kind of skip ahead the first step because the first step is really like making the sweet tea and waiting weeks for the scoby to form so if you have the scoby already it makes it a lot easier so yes that's a good way to start and you do that with

sweet black tea and you have to brew it you know everyone has their own formulation it's taken me a while to get to mine so it brews in the first fermentation now after your scoby gets thicker and you become You know, if you do one, there's two different methods. There are several methods. I'm saying, I'm just acting as if I'm like the expert on this. I'm not. But I will say that I've tried both continuous brewing, which is when you have the vessel with like the spigot.

And then the individual batches where you have to take the scoby out every time you want to pour it into the other ones, the other bottles. And then it goes into second fermentation. I've stopped doing the individual method because it's a pain, in my opinion. But some people like it because you can tailor it a little bit more.

You can kind of pinpoint where your issues are a little better. But I have not really had any issues with the continuous brewing, and I've been doing that for quite some time now. So you have that, and it goes for like, for me right now, I'm about every five days, I have a new batch. And you can pause it if you want, because, as you know, it can be a little overwhelming when you have so much kombucha. You're like, did you got to drink some of this kombucha? I can only drink so much kombucha.

I'm trying to give it away. No one wants it. Then on the street corner being like, hey, kid, you want some kombucha?

All right. Well, anyway, so I just talked a lot about the method. So you get your first, brew and then you put it or first fermentation and then when you want to like tailor the taste and all of that that that's what you do on the second fermentation and this wasn't really supposed to be a lesson on how to brew kombucha i don't know why i devolved into that but that's what happened but it's such a great tool for gut health but beyond gut health i've seen people in the reddits

talk about having it helps them lose weight it helps them with their endometriosis, and i have endometriosis and crohn's disease so i need all the gut health help i can get and, it's really an integral part of my overall wellness plan because not only does it help with gut health but it it gives me a little boost you know i need all the mental clarity i can possibly. Well, no, the gut, gut health is incredibly important when it comes to mental health and mental clarity and stuff like that.

There's a big connection. It's that gut-brain axis where a lot of times, if you're ever anxious, where do you start feeling it first? Your stomach. In the stomach, you know, that they're very closely connected. So the gut actually helps produce metabolites, neurotransmitters. Hormones like serotonin and dopamine, Things that help regulate your mental health and your mental clarity all come from the gut.

So if you don't have proper homeostasis in there, it's going to kind of wreak havoc on your mental well-being. You know, that's why I personally, you know, I'm constantly saying that marriage between Eastern medicine and Western medicine, you know, when you forget, you know. That Eastern medicine philosophy, that homeopathic, that homeostasis of the body, that mentality, and you start taking things like antibiotics, that destroys all the bacteria in your gut.

Not just the bad stuff, it doesn't pinpoint, it wreaks havoc on everything. And you lose that homeostasis. It's really important to be taking something that is more of a probiotic to kind of re-nourish that gut health. But growing up, especially in the, I mean, probably forever, until recent times, you know, I can't go back further than the 80s because it didn't exist then. But, you know, it was, you got the antibiotic, you took your antibiotic, and that was it.

You know we didn't learn until probably mid-20s even yeah that probably like around late 20s early 30s that someone was like you really need to be taking a probiotic if you're being prescribed an antibiotic prebiotic now we're learning about prebiotic exactly and it's the like really the gut is almost like the the axiom it's it's what kind of drives a lot of homeostasis throughout your entire body it's really important.

Outside of just what you originally assumed gut health is important for, indigestion and stuff like that, and really look at it in a big picture way of how it really contributes to a lot of other health benefits. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And to answer your question from earlier, this flavor is pineapple and mango. Mm. I like that. I'm making a lot of noise over here. I apologize. But before we end, let's just run through a couple of other things that kombucha can be beneficial for.

It can help regulate blood sugar levels. It can support weight management by promoting better digestion. It may improve insulin sensitivity over time. It can lower bad cholesterol and raise good cholesterol. Yeah. Do you want to say more? I was trying to throw it at you, but you were catching. I thought you were just trying to call me out for my cholesterol. I was like, my cholesterol's fine. I got my checkup. It's fine cholesterol. Okay.

Helps with cardiovascular health, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial properties. Mm-hmm. And it's delicious. Yeah.

I mean, not all of it's delicious. Let's just be honest. Mine is delicious. Yours is delicious. I tell you what, though. If you're somebody that, like, decided that they wanted to stop doing, not doing alcohol, stop drinking alcohol, you know, a lot of people are moving to, like, these mock towels and using just, like, non-alcoholic whiskeys. I actually think having something like a kombucha, because it still has, like, that bite to it.

So, like, you know you're drinking something. Right. It kind of feels like you are drinking. Yeah. Like, oh, give myself a shot of kombucha. You know, you feel like that. Yeah, you feel like that. You feel that bite. You know, I feel like that kind of helped that adds to that sensation a lot more than just non-alcoholic whiskeys. And if you follow us regularly, you know that we love to combine our kombucha. That's right. As you famously do. With our sprig drinks. Yep. So, you know, THC.

I'm seeing a future of a THC kombucha. That's all I'm saying. The future is now for me. I make it myself. I have premonitions of something that's happening right now. Okay, but maybe there's a future where, I don't know. It's actually like mass produced. Yeah. You can say it's loud. Did I? You have to mouth it. This chair is so loud. I apologize for people listening.

That's right. I'm making so much noise in it. But anyway, so yeah, that's pretty much our seedling episode for kombucha. Yes. Our little love letter, a love note, if you will. And if you want to learn how to make it, go listen right here. I did do a kombucha post on Our Your Highness Media that gives a lot of tips. Ooh. So if you go back. So a reason to like and subscribe. Your Highness Media on Substack. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Until next time. Bye. Your Highness Media.

Subscribe to our podcast. Why don't you subscribe to Your Highness Media? This podcast has been a product of Your Highness Media. Each episode is written, produced, and edited by Your Highness Media. Thank you for listening.