Kombucha Mushroom Tea

[Romi]

I am looking for a 'Kombucha starter' and a guy in Mumbai offers it free. If anyone who goes to Mumbai reguarly gets it for me, i will really appreciate it.

FYI This "kumbucha starter' is used to make a probiotic health drink that is similar in its benefits to other health drinks like Indian 'lassi' and 'kanji', tasty health drinks that use fermentation of select health-restoring organisms found in various foods like cheese and the Korean 'Kimchi'.. This mushroom has similar properties to those found in organic yoghurt/curd (Dahi in Hindi) and is a self-perpetuating living colony, again just like "Dahi".

The person who has free kombucha mushroom to give is:

Ritesh Shah
wadala -west
near station, mumbai
400031 Mumbai
Maharashtra
India
Tel. 91-9146078797

He says on the internatinal kombucha exchange : ''I give off Kombucha babies, finished beverage, advice for free if you collect from my home. also I have cure for Cancer, Diabetes, AIDS, THyroid and other chronic ailments, That's also for Free. ''

4all.ritesh <at> gmail.com


I have spoken to Ritesh Shah and he is ready to give a mushroom if somone goes and collects it, after calling him on the number givren to confirm he is at home at that time.




For those who don't know and are interested in this health drink, here is what you do to make it:

1. Take a glass of water and bring to a boil. Add just enough tea leaves (okay, any brand!) that you would use if u were making that much tea (one fourth teaspoon?).

2. Then add as much sugar as you would normally take (one coffeespoon?) in a cup of tea

3. Then when the tea boils, turn the flame off. Let the tea cool to room temperature.

4. Add this cooled tea to a glass container (or stainless steel, but nothing else preferably, not plastic or ceramic since it might leach unwanted additives over time) of around a litre of capacity.

5. Add the Kombucha Mushroom. It is actually like a chappati not a mushroom, but the latter is convenient term to use, for understanding its connection with a colony of beneficial food microrganisms live in it.
6. After a day, you will see the tea is bubbly. This process might take 2-3 days, especially if it is cool in your house. Now add the Kombucha mushroom to this container.

7. The mushroom will float, the tea water will bubble a little like a carbonated drink, and every few days, you will get a new 'chappati' form on top, in around 2 days Kombucha tea will be ready!


Once i have it, i will be glad to let anyone who is interested have one too, since, if kept properly, it makes babies regularly.

Please let me know if it is possible to have it picked up from Mr Shah, and No, he does not ship.

[Arjun Tandon]

Wow! I did a lot of googling on probiotics a long time ago
I know about Kombucha very well and I guess you need to obtain a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) or what people call as the Kombucha Mushroom
It would be great if we can obtain a culture and share with people

If you get Kefir grains (I guess you know about Kefir if you know about kombucha) or SCOBY, please let me know.

[Romi]

I used the word 'baby' instead of 'scoby' (an Americanism) because i wanted to keep it simpler while describing it. The indian term for it is 'Tibbeti Patta'..

We don't want to daze our prospective finder-friend by flinging too many words at him on one matter, he might give up before he even starts...

[Arjun Tandon]

Yeah good way of thinking

[Romi]

to Vishal Romi Dalal of Gurgaon, and an obliging Kombucha-drinking lady of the same area, I received a kombucha scoby this evening. As soon as it grows another baby and i have some kombucha tea ready, i will take pictures and update the thread. The vinegar eels i received are not showing much sign of being alive at present, so I wil keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

So let us see what we are in for, in a week's time or so.

[SCORPIO]

to Vishal Romi Dalal of Gurgaon, and an obliging Kombucha-drinking lady of the same area, I received a kombucha scoby this evening. As soon as it grows another baby and i have some kombucha tea ready, i will take pictures and update the thread. The vinegar eels i received are not showing much sign of being alive at present, so I wil keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

So let us see what we are in for, in a week's time or so.

I am waiting the growth of tea. As it grow, I am in the Que to get some from you.

[VishaalDalal]

to Vishal Romi Dalal of Gurgaon, and an obliging Kombucha-drinking lady of the same area, I received a kombucha scoby this evening. As soon as it grows another baby and i have some kombucha tea ready, i will take pictures and update the thread. The vinegar eels i received are not showing much sign of being alive at present, so I wil keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

So let us see what we are in for, in a week's time or so.

thanks
as for the vinegar eels i think the first batch will be kambucha vinegar.

[Romi]

to Vishal Romi Dalal of Gurgaon, and an obliging Kombucha-drinking lady of the same area, I received a kombucha scoby this evening. As soon as it grows another baby and i have some kombucha tea ready, i will take pictures and update the thread. The vinegar eels i received are not showing much sign of being alive at present, so I wil keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

So let us see what we are in for, in a week's time or so.

thanks
as for the vinegar eels i think the first batch will be kambucha vinegar.

when i was in school i had a great book on aquariums Practical Fishkeeping, author Anthony Evans, printed in 1935 (still available on Amazon!).He described Rams as almost having a great future in aquariums. He called it beautiful, well behaved, plant-loving, intelligent, a good parent, and a community fish to boot! After many years of keeping Rams, i can say he was spot on. But even he underestimated what WE can do to a fish species: greedy breeders who do not bother to find unrelated fish and just breed brother to sister like mad. As Apuda and the other experts say, this little jewel has suffered massive gene pool deterioration. That is why i do not keep fry from related Rams. Why add one more generation to the inbreeding abyss?

As we discussed on the phone, i would urge you, Romi, to try and deworm them if you can.

They love Grindals! Tetrabits are good too, and mosquito larvae are the best medicine-food for them that i know of.

Bolivian Rams are less inbred because they were never in such high demand. Simple reason, isn't it? A good fish no doubt, but not a patch on a real Ramirezi in beauty.

[djmankotia]

Romi-ji,

I read about this Kombucha Tea when I was searching the whole of Delhi (practically the whole of India!) for Kefir grains (Kefir is also a type of SCOBY, very famous in Europe - I'm sure YOU of all people would have heard about it!). I am glad you found a source of Kombucha, I would also like to give it a try, once you have optimized for Delhi conditions (you have to be very careful for contaminating molds in Delhi heat) and have 'Tibetti Pata' to share. Add me to you list!

I also highly recommend you to try Kefir, I know someone who has them, but is not ready to part with the grains. They sell Kefir drink, but not the grains. Let me know if you are interested. Like Kombucha, there is also a Kefir exchange list, I tried to contact people from the list in India, but no success yet. Come, lets hunt together and try to source them also.

[Romi]

Romi-ji,

I read about this Kombucha Tea when I was searching the whole of Delhi (practically the whole of India!) for Kefir grains (Kefir is also a type of SCOBY, very famous in Europe - I'm sure YOU of all people would have heard about it!). I am glad you found a source of Kombucha, I would also like to give it a try, once you have optimized for Delhi conditions (you have to be very careful for contaminating molds in Delhi heat) and have 'Tibetti Pata' to share. Add me to you list!

I also highly recommend you to try Kefir, I know someone who has them, but is not ready to part with the grains. They sell Kefir drink, but not the grains. Let me know if you are interested. Like Kombucha, there is also a Kefir exchange list, I tried to contact people from the list in India, but no success yet. Come, lets hunt together and try to source them also.

Yes i do know about kefir grains, for around 2 years now, both Tibicos (water kefir) and Milk Kefir, and like you, i mailed the people on the Kefir list. No response so far...There is a 'kefirlady' on the internet who is selling them for around 800 bucks, milk kefir only. I think she is an honest person and has a good reputation. But i don't know if we can hope to get the package unmolested by Customs A friend of mine in Paris has also tried in vain to get in touch with somone who has spare grains, but sadly, the people who post offers on the internet that they have them, often go inactive.

I have also come to know that FoodWorld Chain in Bangalore sells them. But we will need a friend who is passionate enough to go and search which of their variuos health food stores has actual grains, as opposed to the drink.

I think it is very shameful that some people in india are seling kefir drink but not the grains. That amounts to refusing to share what is a heritage food, and that is illegal. But since we have no regulatory body that can take note of that and punish wannnabe monopolists, we can't do much about it.

If you know anyone in America let me know what city it is. I will try and find out a confired kefir grain person who can provide them to him, and he can bring them along to us.