A New Obsession

Mike has two friends from Denver named Promethius and Lioness (Burning Man names that have become more common than their real names). When we were visiting over Thanksgiving, Lioness mentioned a drink that she uses to keep her energy up when she works as a masseuse. When I got back to Seattle, I tried it and LOVED it. It's delicious. Sort of like drinking cranberry-flavored beer. Or, since it's non-alcoholic, it would be more like cranberry-flavored O'Doul's.

There are few things on this earth that disgust Mike more than this drink. The drink is "Kombucha." From Merriam-Webster:

"a gelatinous mass of symbiotic bacteria (as Acetobacter xylinum) and yeasts (as of the genera Brettanomyces and Saccharomyces) grown to produce a fermented beverage held to confer health benefits; also : the beverage prepared by fermenting kombucha with black tea and sugar."

Delicious, you say? You just have to try it--but at the store it's over $3 a bottle. I thought to myself, "I grew up on a farm making redneck apple cider. I can make this!"

WikiHow: How to Make Kombucha Tea

Then I started reading further on the internet. This process involves caring for a new pet--my brand new blob of fermenting mushroom goo. I have to treat it nicely or it will start growing "wild" yeast (didn't know there was feral yeast) or it will grow mold that could possibly send me to the hospital. As far as dirty pets go, keeping up with Revi's weekly molting is more than enough.
After exploring the page comparing healthy gross-looking globs to possibly dangerous gross-looking globs floating on the surface of effervescent tea, I made a decision: no homemade kombucha for me. If there is a limit to making things from scratch for this blog, I have certainly found it! I will continue to buy my overpriced "Cosmic Cranberry" and pity the poor hippies who work in their very stinky factory.