In our corner of the world the Kombucha culture has been exploited and degraded beyond all recognition, certainly over the course of the 20 years I’ve been keeping GO Kombucha “real and true”.

So it was most welcome to see ‘El Pais’ - Spain’s main daily newspaper and ‘the most influential online medium in the Spanish-speaking world’ - publish a report on 31 October headlined: ‘Kombucha is not what it appears to be: How to avoid being deceived’.

Unlike the UK, Spain is a country where kombucha is experiencing explosive growth and none of it wholesome, according to the newspaper’s gastronomy correspondent, Sarah Serrano Pino, who reports on the lack of kombucha labeling standards and concludes:

“Beware! None of these products is what it claims to be or has the qualities it promises,” with some even likened to Coca-Cola.

“The trendy drink exists in a legal vacuum in which anything goes,” Pino continues. “The food industry has seen a boom in this supposedly healthy alternative to sugary soft drinks, and has taken advantage of the lack of regulation to bring soft drinks and other ultra-processed products to the market that have little to do with the age-old formula.

“Under this umbrella, tea bags are marketed as ‘kombucha infusions’, as are powders to dissolve in water, and vinegars with sweeteners and industrially created CO2. They all claim to be kombucha when in reality they are not.”

Absence of labeling standards

Pino lays blame on the absence of labeling standards, claiming that [the US-based] KBI - Kombucha Brewers Association’s - Code of Practice lacks credibility: “The organization sets the values of what a real kombucha available for purchase is.

However, its link with the industry, which is widespread in the United States, has caused the code to become lax over time. The latest version allows the addition of forced carbonation, flavorings, vitamins and colorants, among other ingredients.

As the kombucha industry continues to expand, there’s a growing need for a clear and consistent set of labels so that consumers know what they are drinking.

El Pais’ takedown of fake booch took particular aim at Manna-K, a lab-engineered concentrate sold as an alternative to traditional kombucha, enabling anyone to enter the market by eliminating the need to learn the craft of fermentation by simply adding sweetened tea and flavouring to a dense vinegar, and bottling.

“Manna-K has lost the microscopic life it had at the beginning,” Robert Ruiz, co-founder of Barcelona’ Lov Ferments told El Pais. “It is an ingredient widely used by startups wanting to compete quickly, allowing them to skip steps and yield more stable drinks suitable for large distribution, but which do not differ much from soft drinks full of gas and sweeteners.”

Manna-K: “a gift for industry grifters”

UK based Manna-K seller Good Culture Kombucha boasts of “over 150 companies in Europe and the US” using the generic lab creation produced by Mannanova Solutions of Quebec, Canada, and insist their “Frankenbooch” is a fermented Kombucha base high in organic acids and guaranteed alcohol-free; itself a claim that alludes to adulteration.

A testimonial on its web site by a lab engineer at Liquid Fusion - a UK drinks development company that recommends Manna-K to clients looking to start a kombucha brand - confirms Manna-K is in a “pasteurised format” that’s easier to work with than a live product, noting:

“Everyone knows what they're getting. It's always the same consistent quality”. As opposed, that is, to live, traditionally fermented kombucha that naturally varies between batches.

“The perfect flavour balance on which to build your product!”, shouts Mannanova Solutions on their web site, and no doubt too by Good Culture owner and salesman Dennis Kelleher to the 150-strong captive audience at Kombucha Summit in Berlin each autumn; ostensibly an annual meeting place for brewers to exchange info.

But some have described the event as a “bait and switch” organised by Good Culture to pitch to unsuspecting attendees on a continent that’s been slower to buy into Mannanova Solutions’ creation.

The need to protect kombucha’s integrity

Spain’s El Pais has done our sector a great service in bringing to the surface the many dubious practises employed to co-opt, cheat Mother Nature’s process and profiteer from mass produced “kombucha”, not least Manna-K’s instant-mix concentrate.

GO Kombucha was emailed Manna-K’s sales pitch by Kelleher in September 2018. In no uncertain terms we replied:

"We are clearly out of alignment with what each of us perceives kombucha to be, and the need to protect its integrity which is fast disappearing under a welter of pseudo/fake brands, who are jumping into the market to cash in and get rich quick off the back of exploiting and diluting a commodity gifted from nature...

“I’ll continue to speak out for, support and encourage those who honour and respect the heritage of traditional kombucha. Those seeking to exploit the legacy with ruthless zeal earn only my disdain and contempt...

“Every time someone chooses generic or fake over traditional kombucha it’s a loss; for the consumer as well as for the carriers of the flame.”

~ Gary Leigh, GO Kombucha Founder

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