Kombucha Pulled From Shelves at Whole Foods and Others: All the More Reason to Make Your Own

Last week I went into Earth Fare (similar to Whole Foods) only to find that they had pulled all their kombucha products off the shelves. No, I don't mean that they had pulled just one brand; I mean every brand that they sell. Apparently, this has been in the works for a while because after Whole Foods began testing the product, they found that many of the brands had more than the .5 percent alcohol allowed for beverages not labeled as alcoholic.

In fact, some of the products had between 3 and 4 percent alcohol, which is equivalent to some beers. This creates a real problem for those that don't drink or are allergic to alcohol. So what causes this? Were the kombucha companies trying to get us all drunk? Well, not really. The problem is complex and due in large part to the transport of the beverage. See, because kombucha has raw and live cultures, they continue to ferment after they're bottled, in transport from the facility to you. This is especially true when there are a lot of sugars added to the product in the form of flavoring because sugar ferments and that's what makes an alcoholic beverage. It's similar to the way wine is made.

This creates a dilemma because when the product leaves the company it's not as boozy as when you take your first sip. But even if you're not trying to avoid the slight buzz that comes with the store bought stuff, there are other reasons to make your own kombucha. It takes a lot of energy to keep this raw product cold in transport. Additionally, kombucha comes with wasteful packaging that you can avoid by making it at home.

We've written before that the most dedicated of all kombucha drinkers make their own. EcoSalon tells you how, so why not give it a try?

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