My family's introduction to kombucha came from an... unusual man who came up to our house, which was on a dirt road deep in a forest, and asked us about our water supply. We had a natural spring and he claimed to have "smelled" it. I suppose he may have looked up the historical records of the house, which was established as a tuberculosis sanitarium next to the spring...
For whatever reason, he came to us wanting some of our water. In exchange he gave us a kombucha "sapling" (slice), and instructed my father in its use. My father moves from interest to interest with obsessive focus, and this unusual event piqued his interest. At least to some extent - cultivating a kombucha shroom is a mostly hands-off process, besides feeding it sugar (the details escape me).
What I will say is that I maybe should have been more afraid to drink from the weepings of a giant flat shroom. But curiosity and familiar duty won me over, and honestly, it was... kinda good. Due to my weak taste buds I've always had a preference for very strong or very bland tastes, and this was certainly the former. Only technically alcoholic- we were told it was on par with normal fruit juices- but with a wonderfully harsh *bite*. My brother thought my father and I were crazy, and maybe he was right. But it turned out fine.
Drinking bottled kombucha from the local health-food store doesn't have the same impact. Nostalgia, but also the lack of watching the mushroom- a gift from a stranger- grow. Like sourdough, another lovely hobby!
Besides, non-alcoholic ginger or birch drinks have a similar bite and I think I prefer them. It's still nice to have a bit of kombucha from time to time though, to remind me.
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Topic: [MILK] There were 12 eggs here what did you do with them? (Happy thread?!) (Read 16309011 times)