It is thought that the Kombucha mushroom originated in China or the Middle East and spread via the caravan routes of trade. The first recorded mention of the tea was in China in the year 221 BC where it was known as "the Tea of Immortality".
It is possible that thousand of years ago someone made a batch of regular sugary tea and set it aside forgetting to drink it. During the period of days that it was forgotten some rare airborne bacterial and yeast spores took up residence in the tea. When the tea was tasted it was found to be very pleasant. After additional batches were made health benefits began to be noticed and its popularity quickly spread.
Other speculations offer that the Kombucha Mushroom is related to a birch-tree mushroom that is called Chaga. For hundreds of years a tea has been made from Chaga by the Russian peasants of the Alexandrove district near Moscow to cure them of cancer. Peasants from this area are reported to have no cancers in their communities.
Kombucha Mushroom tea has been known by many names in many cultures. In 18th century Russia it was known as Cajnyj Kvas, in China as Cha Gu, in Germany as Heldenpilz. The word Kombucha is its Japanese name. It may have been introduced to Japan by a Korean physician by the name of Kombu around 415 AD. It was known to be popular among European nobility in the 18th century but its popularity possibly faded because of the wars of that century which made it difficult to obtain sugar and tea.
How To:
make your first batch of tea you simply add to a gallon of water 6 to 8 tea bags of green tea or orange pekoe/black tea and about 1 to 1.5 cups of sugar and a little apple-cider vinegar. You place the mushroom in the tea and wait 7 days, then strain off tea and place in the fridge to cool.
During the brewing (fermentation) period the new "baby" mushroom that grows in the container with the "mother" mushroom metabolizes the sugar in the tea. The "baby" mushroom can be used to make your next batch of tea or given away to a friend. The "mother mushroom" can be reused to make additional batches of tea if you do give away the baby mushrooms.
