In this article, I am going to talk to you about the health benefits of Jun kombucha and How to make Jun Kombucha.
Jun Kombucha is an ancient beverage that was originally consumed in the Qin dynasty of China around 220 BC. It was known as ‘The tea of Immortality’. It’s consumed by Qin Shi Huang who had wanted eternal youth and the late Jung Joo-Yung who started Hyundai. In recent years, Hollywood stars love the drink. While the trend is new, kombucha tea has rapidly become popular in the world for its detoxifying & energizing properties. I read it was one of the best-selling fermented drinks in the USA supermarkets in 2016. In Australia, its popularity is gradually increasing & a lot of people enjoy drinking Jun kombucha tea nowadays! Then let’s learn the health benefits of kombucha tea.
POTENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF JUN KOMBUCHA TEA
Jun Kombucha is a fermented sweet tea by yeast & bacteria called scoby & scoby stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. The tea itself is a rich source of polyphenols, powerful natural antioxidants that offer many health benefits. Then, the fermentation process makes the tea more nutritious, tastier & healthier. Jun Kombucha is rich in probiotics, enzymes, and organic acids that are good for your health. It also contains essential vitamins & minerals. The process increases the number of polyphenols in the tea as well. Here are the main health benefits of Jun kombucha tea based on scientific evidence.
8 INCREDIBLE HEALTH BENEFITS OF Jun KOMBUCHA TEA THAT YOU MUST KNOW:
1. Support gut health:
Probiotics help keep your gut healthy & improve digestion, so ease constipation, diarrhoea, & irritable bowel syndrome.
2. Boost immunity:
Organic acids & polyphenols support the immune system by killing off all the bad bacteria & populating the probiotics.
3. Help protect liver toxicity:
Organic acids & polyphenols interact with free radicals that can damage cells, so they protect the liver from toxicity & boost liver function.
4. Help prevent cancer:
Polyphenols help prevent the growth of cancer cells & promote the death of cancer cells.
5. Help skincare & anti-aging:
Polyphenols & VC help boost the body’s ability to protect & repair skin damage. They scavenge free radicals causing skin aging such as wrinkles, the loss of elasticity, & sag. They then keep aging skin healthy.
6. Reduce the risk of heart disease:
The study found that probiotics and organic acids help reduce bad cholesterol (LDL) levels. Also, polyphenols help improve the function of blood vessels, increase good cholesterol (HDL), and promote anti-clotting & anti-inflammatory activity. So drinking Jun kombucha tea may help prevent & reduce heart diseases. (such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis, myocardial infarction, heart attack).
7. Help weight loss:
Kombucha tea contains low-calorie, low-fat, and no cholesterol. Probiotics, polyphenols, and acetic acids in kombucha tea help keep your gut healthy & improve digestion. They help speed up metabolism, increase the number of calories you burn, & lose weight naturally. Also, some studies found that probiotics help lose weight & belly fat.
8. Help manage diabetes:
Probiotics help keep your gut healthy. They work for the prevention & control of type 2 diabetes by producing enzymes & releasing hormones. Also according to the study of probiotics & diabetes, the risk of type 1 diabetes was decreased by providing probiotics to newborn babies with risk factors that can lead to type 1 diabetes. Also, some studies show that Kombucha tea may be effective in preventing insomnia, arthritis, osteoporosis, pancreatitis, & lung damage
HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE JUN KOMBUCHA TEA:
Making kombucha tea without a scoby
1st fermentation beginners guide / Jun Kombucha tea
I’m going to tell you how to make a delicious carbonated healthy beverage, Jun kombucha tea. In general, you understand drinking carbonated beverages is bad for your health. However, Jun kombucha tea, a fermented drink made sweetened tea within a scoby, is a delicious drink and good for health. It also helps with weight loss. You will need a scoby to make Jun kombucha tea, but I made my first kombucha tea without a scoby. I’ve just started to grow a scoby & make Jun kombucha tea with store-bought organic kombucha tea. Now I’d like to share my amazing experience with you.
Making kombucha tea without a scoby.
“Scoby” is an acronym that stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. But scoby is sometimes called tea mushroom. It could be due to its shape(looks like a mushroom) or the yeast(both yeast & mushroom are fungi). A little blobs inside a bottle of Jun kombucha tea you bought are tiny pieces of scoby.
PREPARATION:
For Growing a Scoby 200ml store-bought organic kombucha tea 400ml (filtered) water 2 black tea bags 46g sugar Sterilized glass jar Paper coffee filter & rubber band
DIRECTIONS
1. Sterilize the jar. I usually use hot water & vinegar to do it.
2. Steep black tea bags in boiled water for 20 – 30 minutes & pour in the sterilized glass jar.
3. Add sugar & stir to dissolve.
4. Cool down the tea to room temperature & add store-bought organic Jun kombucha tea.
5. Cover the jar with a paper coffee filter, paper towel, or cheesecloth to let some air in. Tightly secure with a rubber band to protect from contamination.
6. Keep it in a dry dark place (out of direct sunlight) at room temperature to ferment. 10 days later I could see a baby scoby like a thin clear film. One month later it grew bigger & thicker as I could use to make kombucha tea with it. Finally, I got my first scoby & 600ml kombucha tea. It’s time to drink or bottle the kombucha tea!!! Sweet & Sour~ It’s delicious itself!! Now I am going to make more kombucha tea with my beautiful scoby & 100ml kombucha tea/starter liquid. With the remaining 500ml finished kombucha tea I am going to go through more fermentation by adding my favorite fruits & bottling. Through this 2nd fermentation process, the kombucha tea will be healthy delicious natural carbonated drinks.
Making kombucha tea with a scoby:
PREPARATION:
1000ml (filtered) water 5 black tea bags 100g sugar Sterilized glass jar 100ml Jun kombucha tea from the last batch Scoby Paper coffee filter & rubber band
DIRECTIONS
1. Pour boiled water in the glass jar & steep the black tea bags for 20 – 30 minutes.
2. Add sugar to the tea & stir to dissolve.
3. Cool down the tea until room temperature. Add scoby & starter liquid/ kombucha tea from the last batch in it. Wash your hands thoroughly before handling a scoby. I wash my hands with water & vinegar.
4. Cover the jar with a paper coffee filter, paper towel, or cheesecloth. Secure a rubber band around it tightly to keep the bugs out.
5. Keep it in a dry dark place (out of direct sunlight) at room temperature to ferment. The kombucha tea has fermented very quickly with a scoby. It took only 5days to get a new baby scoby.
♧ Important tips to know for a successful Jun kombucha tea brew:
Filtered water is good for brewing kombucha tea.
Minerals in spring water & chemicals like chlorine in tap water can harm the Jun kombucha scoby. If you use tap water, boil the water in uncovered pots for 10 – 15 minutes. This will vaporize most of the chlorine in the water.
The sugar you need to make Jun kombucha tea is used for feeding a scoby, not for you. The yeast & bacteria convert the sugar into ethanol then healthy acetic acid during fermentation process.
When done fermenting, there will be left only little amount of sugar. I used black tea bags, but you can use any type of tea you prefer. All teas, Black Tea, Green Tea, Oolong Tea, yellow tea, white tea & post-fermented tea, come from the leave of the Camellia Sinensis plant. But they become different in flavour & nutritional content depending on the region they are grown, the time of the year they are picked, or the processing method etc. You can also use loose leaf tea instead. Steep the black tea in boiling water for 20 – 30 minutes. As a general rule, the tea should steep for about 5minutes for good flavour. Of course it will be strong & bitter by increasing the brewing time.
Research has found steeping for 20 – 30 minutes extracts the maximum level of bioactive compounds such as catechins & L-theanine that may impact health. Also in my experiments, it has taken longer to get my scoby when I steeped the tea for about 5minutes than I steeped it longer (up to 30 minutes).
Make sure to cool down the tea to room temperature before adding a scoby & starter liquid. A scoby in kombucha tea is alive & it dies at above 45⁰C.
How do you know if 1st fermentation is complete?
The ideal brewing temperature is 23⁰C – 28⁰C. Jun Kombucha tea can be fermented for about 7 – 30 days depending on the temperature. That’s why it takes longer to ferment in winter. How do know when 1st fermentation is done?
Signs of fermentation
♧ Look ♧ Colour change: Dark black tea colour to nice golden brown. Form a new baby scoby (a new thin layer) on the top of your tea. Produce some bubbles(carbonation) on the surface of the tea.
♧ Taste Change: Turn sweet tea into tart & acidic Jun kombucha tea. You should be careful because the tea will be sourer when you ferment it longer. Check the PH: It needs to be between PH 3.5 – 2.5
♧ How much kombucha tea should you drink?
The centers for disease control and prevention (CDC) in USA recommend that drinking 4 oz daily may not cause adverse effects in healthy people. So, if you’ve never had Jun kombucha tea, start to drink 4 oz per day for adults, then increase up to 12 ounces or the volume based on your tolerance. Pregnant women, breastfeeding women, children, people with compromised immune systems, and those who need to avoid drinking alcohol should not be recommended to drink. It is because live bacteria (probiotics) in Jun kombucha tea could be harmful. Also, Jun kombucha tea can contain low levels of alcohol & caffeine.
“If raw kombucha is left to ferment, the amount of alcohol can increase almost to the levels found in some bottles of beer.”(Richard N. Fogoros, MD, 2019). For reference, normally Jun kombucha tea contains less than 0.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) while beer contains between 4% and 7% ABV. However, kombucha tea is a live cultured drink, so it can contain up to 3% ABV if it is left out at room temperature too long.
Basically Jun kombucha tea is a health drink, not an alcoholic drink, but this is why some people need to avoid drinking kombucha tea. Consult your healthcare professional if you are concerned about adding Jun kombucha tea in your diet as alternative therapies. The longer your Jun kombucha tea ferments, the more acidic your Jun kombucha tea will be. Once the flavor reaches the desired sweetness & acidity, you can drink it immediately. Remove the scoby. Pour the tea into a glass container with a lid & store it in a fridge to stop fermentation.
