Is fermented tea ‘Kombucha’ making people feel enlightened because of alcohol content or just health benefits?

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Fermented tea, which is popularly known as Kombucha, is a fermented, sweetened black or green tea commonly intended to serve as functional beverages for their assumed health benefits. The tea is produced by mixing a "symbiotic colony" of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) and then set aside for fermentation to take place.

The actual population of microbes present in a SCOBY cultures varies, but the yeast component includes Saccharomyces while the bacterial component includes Gluconacetobacter xylinus to oxidize yeast-produced alcohols to acetic and other acids.

Together, the culture looks like the slab of human subcutaneous tissue or an undercooked pancake. It is alive and self-perpetuating. New starter colonies typically come from another kombucha. Although it is claimed that Kombucha has numerous health benefits, there is no authentic evidence that drinking Kombucha has such effects.

 In contrast to the above, there are various documented cases of adverse effects, including fatalities, possibly arising from contamination during unhygienic home preparation. However, since the risk of taking Kombucha outweighs the mostly unclear benefits, it is not recommended for therapeutic use.

Kombucha originated in present day Manchuria around 220 BCE and was exported to Japan around 400 CE by a physician named Kombu.  Kombucha became readily available in the market during the 1990s, in North American retail stores.

According to The Atlantic, Kombucha is a smart choice as the drink has the fastest-growing segment of the functional beverage market in the U.S., a category that is vaguely defined by one industry publication as

"Drinks with added functionality, such as ingredients and associated health benefits and functional positioning. Kombucha now occupies about one-third of our refrigerated functional-beverage shelf."

Kombucha sales in the U.S. this year will be up to $600 million, with 25 percent annual growth projection. Last month. Pepsi company acquired the small Kombucha company Kevita for around $200 million.

The unique functional ingredient of Kombucha is microbes. Recent increase in awareness that not all bacteria are are harmful and most of which is said to be necessary to human health has created a sort of fascination with live cultures and fermented products.

That idea has brought this centuries-old drink roaring into high-class consciousness at $5 per bottle in New York bodegas. Part of the idea is that ingesting life micro organisms is good for the balance of the ecosystems that live in human guts, popularly known as the gut microbiome.

These beliefs are just marketing strategy by the largest producer of Kombucha in the U.S., GT's Kombucha. The company's mission is to "Combine the wisdom of ancient medicinal foods with modern day resources to create products that uplift and enlighten the health of all those who enjoy them."

According to Stockprices, the founder, GT Dave describes himself as "a lifelong practitioner of health," whose bottled microbial product 'bolsters immunity." Other Kombucha producers and consumers have made claims about improved liver function, improved complexion, weight loss and reduced hair loss.

Such claims are not authenticated. Gut microbes are vital to health but maintaining them is not necessarily best approached by introducing the random microbial colonies floating in fermented tea.

Therefore, Kombucha contains alcohol. Yeast present in the culture consumes the sugar thereby fermenting it into carbon dioxide and ethanol. Some of which are converted by bacteria into acetic acid, but the process is however not perfectly predictable, so alcohol remains in various amounts, but GT's label said "a trace amount of alcohol."