Kombucha Fermented tea
I happened to read some articles about Kombucha cosmetics in American website the other day. I thought this products would be ones made from Japanese Kombu-cha, which means Konbu(seaweeds) tea. It was new to me. After checking the article, I found out that I was wrong. Kombu-cha in USA is different from Kombu-cha in Japan. In our country, Kombu means seaweeds.
Kombucha in America means Kocha-kinoko(Black tea fungi) . There had been a boom of Kocha-kinoko about 30-something years ago in Japan. I have never tried Kocha-kinoko, as my mother had no interest in it and never kept it growing in the refrigerator. From the picture of Kocha-kinoko I saw in my youth, I got a weird impression against Kocha-kinoko cosmetics. I am not sure if my impression is correct and hope it would be just my misunderstanding.
Anyway, I would like to show you Kombucha in Japan for your information. We put one TS of kombucha powder in a cup and pour hot water in it. This drink is caffeine-free. The taste? The taste of Kombu. It’s difficult to describe. Not bad.
Kombucha contains glutamic acid,which makes umami taste.
Sometimes we use Kombucha in cooking. This is easy substitute to kombu.