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Bangalore · Not a pamphlet

Fermented, then left alive.

Kombucha is sweet tea and a SCOBY. A lot of the shelf is heated after that, because dead kombucha is easier to sell. KBUCHA is unpasteurised on purpose. The culture stays. That is the good part.

Live pour. The sediment that settles is the SCOBY, still working.

SCOBY

Bacteria and yeast, working together.

Sugar

Food for the culture. Most of it gets eaten.

Cold

A live bottle has to stay refrigerated.

~1g

Sugar per 100ml on most KBUCHA.

Buy this

  • Says raw, live, or unpasteurised
  • Must be kept in the fridge
  • A little cloud or brown yeast is fine
  • Shorter shelf life than a soft drink

Leave this

  • No fridge, long shelf life
  • Perfectly clear, every time
  • “Probiotic” on a cooked drink
  • Tastes like sweet soda, not tea
Cloudy live kombucha beside a clear, still glass

Same category. Not the same drink.

KBUCHAPasteurised
After the fermentLeft aloneHeated
CultureAliveKilled
FridgeRequiredOften optional
SedimentNormalRare
ShelfShorterLonger

Both were fermented. Only one still has the organisms. Live is not a clinic dose. It is a drink that was not cooked afterwards.

Non-pasteurised kombucha with natural SCOBY sediments in the bottle and a poured glass
Those specks are SCOBY sediment. They show the bottle was never pasteurised, so the ferment is still going.

1. The culture eats

Yeast in the SCOBY takes the sugar and makes a little alcohol and gas. Bacteria turn that alcohol into acids and build cellulose.

2. It gets heavy

Yeast cells clump. Strands of cellulose and tea solids come loose. They are denser than the liquid, so they fall.

3. It keeps going

If the bottle is not heated, a little of that work continues in the fridge. New cells form, then settle. That pile is the sediment.

Why we leave it alive

Not built to win the volume game.

Pasteurised kombucha suits a commercial map. It keeps, it travels, it looks the same in every city. We know that. We still don't heat the bottle.

Unpasteurised means a fridge, a shorter date, and SCOBY sediment at the bottom. That sediment means the ferment never stopped. It is still going in the bottle. That is the point of KBUCHA. Not the biggest sales. The best bottle we know how to make.

If you like the story, drink it cold and pass it on. Tell someone the cloud is not a fault. That is enough love.

Read why we started

Short answers.

Sweet tea fermented with a SCOBY, a culture of bacteria and yeast. The microbes eat most of the sugar and leave a tart, lightly sparkling drink.

See the bottles