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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.
![](http://ed-ish.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/DSC00202-300x200.jpg)
Kombucha contains glutamic acid,which makes umami taste.
Sometimes we use Kombucha in cooking. This is easy substitute to kombu.