FAQ

Kombucha (Kom-boo-chah) is a sparkling probiotic tea that contains healthy nutrients that naturally occur during the fermentation process. It has been around for a very long time and is often considered as the elixir of life.

At Wild Leaf Brew we make our Kombucha through a very patient process.

We first make a well balanced brew of black and green organic tea, then we turn it into a sweet tea by adding sugar to it.

Wait, what? Sugar??

Yes sugar, but don't worry, the next step is to add the SCOBY. It's the SCOBY's job to eat up all the sugar (the food that helps it grow and helps create the procress of turning the sweet tea into Kombucha). Healthy probiotics are released during this process.

After 1-2 weeks of waiting the Kombucha is ready to be flavoured and bottled. At this point there is only residual sugars left thanks to the SCOBY.

We choose to flavour our Kombucha with a carefully selected combination of fruit juices and herbs that will benifit you in wonderful ways, all thanks to the knowledge of our experienced herbalist.

Once the Kombucha has reached its optimum taste we gently carbonate it using CO2, bottle it and put it in the fridge. This allows us to ensure that each bottle is consistant in fizz.

It's a long process, but it's definitely worth the wait!

Yes!

Kombucha is filled with good probiotics, B vitamins, healthy enzymes, anitoxidants and glucomic acid.

It helps with gut health and digestion, gives you an energy boost thanks to the teas, helps kill bad bacteria and overall makes you feel good!

And that's just the benefits of the Kombucha, we haven't even mentioned all the good stuff you get from the ingredients we use to flavour each of our bottles.

Kombucha is a great substitute for sugar filled cool-drinks.

Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast.

Sounds a bit strange right? Don't worry, without the SCOBY we wouldn't have delicious Kombucha.

Just like how beer, wine, bread, cheese and yoghurt are made through a fermentation process with added yeast, so is Kombucha. 

The difference is Kombucha has a cool name for their yeast.

The SCOBY's job is to eat up all the sugar to naturally ferment the tea, release healthy probiotics and to carbonate it to turn it into Kombucha.

SCOBY's are pretty hungry, so we put in a precise amount of sugar measured out to the ratio of tea in every batch of Kombucha we make.

After the 1-2 weeks of fermention the majority of that sugar is eaten up by the SCOBY.

As each SCOBY is different there is no way of testing exactly how much sugar is left in each bottle.

But what we can tell you is that there is only residual sugar left over, so you really aren't consuming too much when you drink Kombucha.

When you first start drinking Kombucha we recommened starting with a small amount (that's why we started selling with 200ml bottles)

The reason for this is because you're introducing a lot of healthy bacteria into your body that your body isn't used to. But trust us, once you start drinking Kombucha you'll feel great and you'll want more.

Everyones body is unique, so we recommend you drink as much as you like to make you happy and feeling good!

Due to Kombucha's naturally higher levels of acidity (around 3 on the PH scale) if it's left in contact with plastic for too long it can cause the plastic to leach into the Kombucha.

The same applies for when Kombucha is in contact with metal.

Now why would you want to go and ruin a perfectly healthy drink by doing something like that?!

That's why we only use glass for brewing, flavouring and bottling and recommend our bottles are always stored in an upright position.

Kombucha is made with living cultures (the SCOBY). During the fermentation process new cultures and strands of culture are formed.

When we bottle our Kombucha we try our best to filter out all the bits, but every now and then they get through. You may also find a little bit of fruit sediment in the bottle.

All of this is completely natural and good for you. If you don't want to drink that part, that's totally fine too.

Yes! 

We gently carbonate our Kombucha before bottling, ensuring that each bottle has just the right amount of fizz.

Because Kombucha continues to ferment and carbonate all you need to do is leave it out of the fridge for 30 - 60 minutes with the lid tightly sealed.

If it's still not fizzy enough, leave it out for a bit longer. If it becomes too fizzy put it back in the fridge to slow the carbonation process.

Please note that we do not recommend doing this as it may cause the bottles to become too fizzy and overflow, so please monitor your Kombucha if you choose to do this.

In the FRIDGE and UPRIGHT.

Kombuchas fermentation process doesn't stop after bottling. So by putting in the fridge the cold temperatures slow down the fermentation and carbonation process.

If it's left out at room temperature it will become more fermented and carbonated. If left out for too long it'll also become more acidic and lose some of it's wonderful flavour.

No, DO NOT shake the bottle.

Slightly tilt the bottle side to side to help mix the contents but please do not shake, if you do it'll spill everywhere when opened due to its carbonation. We don't want you to waste any of the good stuff!

We've put screw lids on our bottles in case it does start overflowing. Just screw the cap back on and wait a little before opening.

Right here!

You can order online and we'll deliver straight to your house ( Cape Town only ).

Also take a look at our Where to Buy page for places we're stocked in.

Sign up to our newsletter for details on when we'll be expanding to the rest of South Africa and for news on which stores we'll be available in.

We seem to get this question a lot and there are a few reasons we chose our bottles:

- Not everyone knows what Kombucha tastes like, so we chose 200ml bottles as a good amount for beginners and people who'd just like to try it out. The 500ml is for those that love it!

- We wanted to have screw cap lids not beer bottle caps so you can seal your bottle if you want to save it for later without losing its fizz. Also if you get a bottle that is too fizzy you can close it and let it settle without spilling wasting any of the good stuff.

- Amber glass because we want to protect the healhy bacteria from sunlight as well as protect you and the environment by using a recyclable bottle that won't leech into the Kombucha (like how plastic does).

- Lastly we chose not to use beer bottles because Kombucha can be drunk at anytime of the day. If you're swigging on a beer shaped bottle of Kombucha in the morning you might get some looks!