It contains a well-known fruit.
Kombucha is a very fashionable health drink. It is a sweetened black or green tea to which a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, called “SCOBY”, has been added. This culture will ferment the tea by transforming the sugars into acids, gases and alcohol, giving the kombucha its slightly sour and fizzy flavor… but also special since not everyone likes it. The resulting drink contains beneficial bacteria and bioactive compounds, including flavonoids, phenolic compounds and anthocyanins which may have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Kombucha is also renowned for its richness in probiotics, excellent for intestinal health, and for its vitamins (especially group B). Researchers at ACS Agricultural Science & Technology may have found an interesting alternative to kombucha that tastes better and is even richer in antioxidants.
They began with the observation that there were few studies investigating whether liquids other than tea could be brewed like kombucha-style drinks with increased antioxidant levels. They then decided to conduct their test by fermenting apple juice and passion fruit juice with a SCOBY. Each juice was put in a jar. A third jar contained fermented tea for comparison. The fermentation lasted 10 days at room temperature and then the researchers measured the levels of bioactive compounds in each infusion.
They then discovered that the apple drink had the highest level of flavonoids, followed by kombucha and fermented passion fruit juice. Apple drinks and kombucha contained as many but more phenolic compounds than passion fruit juice. All three contained similar amounts of anthocyanin, a red-colored antioxidant. Fermented apple juice was therefore the big winner in the comparison. Then came the time to have the drinks tasted by 12 volunteers who also had to give their opinion on the color and aroma.
These testers felt that fermented fruit juices had stronger, fruitier flavors than kombucha. The apple drink had the advantage of being sweeter while the passion fruit drink had a more bitter taste. Since fermented apple juice contains more flavonoids and has a pleasant taste compared to other drinks, researchers say it could be “a successful alternative to tea-based kombucha”. In their conclusions published on September 27, they announced that they would soon explore the health benefits and flavors of other fermented fruits.
