Around the World in 80 Foods: Kombucha-cha-cha-cha Beverage from the Ural Mts. (with a backwoods mountain twist!)

My rough-riding, dirt-slogging, rock-moving, tomb-raiding Russian pal Mischa from The Kurgan's Secret has recently informed me that the peppy drink I have been indulging in for the last 4 years is, in fact, Russian. 

"Well, how was I to know that kombucha wasn't just something invented by universal health nuts or aliens or something?" I ask. After all, if any of you have ever brewed your own kombucha, no doubt the thought has crossed your mind that the "mushrooms"  or "living symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast " (as somebody put it) infusing your tea with those gut-gurgling bacteria really look like they are a life-form from another planet!

But...noooope! Kombucha tea originates from good old terra-firma, not Pluto, Saturn or the Klingon "Rurapente" Galactic Gulag!

And yet it is so easy to forget all about your kombucha and let it over-ferment until it becomes a throat-burning tonic similar to apple cider vinegar! So I figured out a way to combine my kombucha tea-turned vinegar with several other yummy ingredients to make a drink that is smooth, peppy, and will make you want to get up and dance the Cha-Cha-Cha!!!! 

For the tea, bring 1 gallon of water to a boil, dissolve 1 cup of white sugar in it, add 12 tea bags of mixed green tea flavors (pure, lemon, chai, jasmine, etc.) and a large handful of hibiscus flowers and let steep until the tea is cool or completely cold. (The longer you steep, the deeper the flavor). Place your mushroom(s) in a gallon jar, pour the tea over the top, cover with a cotton cloth and rubber band and let ferment for no less that 14 days! For the wild plum syrup, any home-made fruit syrup can be substituted, but plum is delicate and delicious!

To make, combine:

1 part home-brewed hibiscus kombucha

1 part home-made wild plum syrup

1 part Cascade Pomegranate-Mango sparkling water

Tall glasses and ice cubes