How Russian kombucha became kombuchey and conquered the USA

Boris Korkin remembers these three-liter cans with a sparkling tart drink well - they stood on the windowsills in the overpopulated five-room communal apartment in the center of Moscow, where he lived with his mother after the end of World War II. Writes about this journalist. Los Angeles Times Sabra Aires.

Фото: Depositphotos

This drink was made from a strange-looking bunch of bacteria and yeast, which in Russia was called "Kombucha", and the same name he received. Sugar and tea were added to the jar, and then it was left to stand for a week, and during this time, as a result of fermentation, a slightly alcoholic drink was obtained, which Boris eagerly swallowed as a child.

“We drank it because there was nothing else. And this mushroom was, and it was at all, - said 72-year-old Korkin. “On special occasions, we poured it into beautiful decanters and set it on the table.”

In the West, this drink is known as kombucha (kombucha), and it is becoming increasingly popular. However, long before he became popular in the United States, he won a place on many Soviet kitchen tables. For Russians like Korkin, this was an affordable option for a carbonated soft drink such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, which was in the West, but which could not be bought in Russia until the 1980-s.

From the moment Coca-Cola, as well as its sweetish, carbonated counterpart, appeared in Russia in the last days of perestroika, the fermented tea drink began to gradually lose its popularity.

“Nobody wanted to drink this drink in 1990's, because everyone wanted fanta and cola,” said Korkin.

Today, in modern Russia, there is a return of kombuchi, and this is due to young entrepreneurs who believe that the drink can break free from its grandmother’s image.

“It seems to me that my generation got post-traumatic stress disorder from our grandmothers, who forced us to drink combats when we were children,” said 35-year-old Ilya Devedzhan, founder of the Moscow-based Karibu Kombucha company - one of the Russian brands, the number of which is constantly increases. “But, in my opinion, we are now ready to look at it differently.”

When the two sons of Korkin were still young, he made a drink for them, using the same method that his mother taught him, whose childhood passed in a communal apartment. This Kombucha is a soft and slippery disk, which in the United States is called “scoby”, placed in some container along with sugar and tea for 10 days, and only after that it receives the desired degree of acid and effervescence. Then this Kombucha can be transferred to someone else or reused.

The children of Korkin, like many other people who grew up under the Soviet Union in the first post-Soviet years, drank this drink on hot days like refreshing soda.

Фото: Depositphotos

A few days ago, Corkin sat down at the table to eat and drink a glass of vodka with his son, who is now 30 years old and who came to him from his home in Dublin, Ireland. When he poured vodka into glasses, the son asked to give him something to drink. Korkin brought his next can of Kombucha and poured the drink into his son’s glass.

“Dad, but this is kombucha! She is actually very popular in the West, ”the son told him.

Then Korkin first heard the word "combucha." The fact that this bottled beverage is sold in the West was less surprising to him than the fact that his son had forgotten how he drank it in childhood.

"I looked at him and said, 'Oh my God, I've been making this mushroom tea for a hundred years and you can't even remember it,'" Corkin said. Corkin, who still makes kombucha in his kitchen, said he's had the mushroom for probably 12 years. This was a gift from a neighbor who stopped making this drink at home for a while when his son grew up.

“My mushroom is not that old,” he said. “I have a friend who has been using the same mushroom for at least 38 years!”

Kombuchi sales are growing rapidly in the United States and in Europe. Worldwide, it is presented as the “elixir of life” and is touted for its positive effect on the digestive system, as well as its cleansing qualities.

Many people believe that this fermented tea first appeared in China around 220 before the birth of Christ, and it was already accepted then that it has healing properties. In the end, the recipe for the fermented drink of Kombucha spread west and east, and a few hundred years ago it came to Russia.

Worldwide in 2016, Kombuchi sales amounted to 1,06 billion dollars. These data are contained in a report compiled in 2017 by consulting firm Zion Market Research. According to reports, its sales by the year 2022 may increase to 2,5 billion dollars. North America is one of the fastest growing markets, and in 2017, sales of this beverage in the United States amounted to 556 million dollars. This data was published by Bobby Leahy from SPINS, a consulting and research company specializing in natural and organic products.

Even PepsiCo joined this game by purchasing KeVita, a kombucha company, in 2016. KeVita began its work in 2009 in the city of Ojai (Ojai) and quickly became one of the largest fermented beverage companies in the United States. These data were presented by the association Kombucha Brewers International, which in February of this year held the fifth annual conference in Long Beach.

Kombucha drink was popular in the overcrowded Soviet prison cells, because the prisoners there knew how to breed him and treated the guards with their drink. In 2015, Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer, presented by Nicholas Page in the film “Lord of War”, was found guilty of producing Kombuchi in his prison cell in Illinois, where he is serving 26 a one-year term for trying to sell missiles to one paramilitary groups in Colombia. Bout’s 26-year sentence was increased by 40 days for what he, according to prison officials, was trying to produce an alcoholic beverage.

In the process of fermentation in the production of kombuchi, in fact, a small amount of alcohol is produced, and this issue has become a legal problem in the United States.

Kombuchi's reputation as a beverage that promotes digestion is again becoming common in Russia, where a healthy lifestyle becomes fashionable among members of the Next generation in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. The studies conducted by specialists of the Higher School of Economics show that Russian young people began to drink and smoke less than their parents, and instead they began to turn to vegetarian and vegan diets. If the older generation used vodka and brandy, the new generation prefers local enterprises producing cider and local beers.

Kvass, another fermented drink made from rye bread, also retains its popularity among Russians of different generations. It can be bought in plastic bottles at any grocery store, and in summer it is often sold directly from a cistern on the street.

Do it yourself - this trend is popular in a place like the Brooklyn neighborhood in New York, but now it has spread here too, as happened with farm-to-table products, as well as grocery stores that advertise vegetables and other local products.

People who lead a healthy lifestyle are exactly the category that the Devedzhan fermentation enthusiast was counting on when he created the Karibu Kombucha company last year.

Five years ago, Devedzhan worked in the state of New Jersey in an ocean shipping management company, and there he first saw a bottled combucha in one of the grocery stores. He began drinking it after the 20-year break and found that he liked her more than he had tried in childhood.

Returning to Russia, he began to produce his own kombucha at home, using only Russian products, including tea leaves. He brought a large batch of his drink to the mushroom festival, which was organized in 2016, in the suburbs of Moscow for fans of mushroom picking, and there his drink turned out to be quite popular, which led him to the idea of ​​its commercial production.

He called his drink "Caribou Kombucha" by the name of deer, which are found in the northern part of Russia.

“We get our tea from Krasnodar, located in southern Russia, and this is the northernmost place in the world where tea is grown,” said Devedzhan.

But there are no caribou deer in Krasnodar - it is a port city located in 1300 kilometers south of Moscow. However, according to Devedzhan, the image of a deer was supposed to give a touch of Russianness to his drink combucha. Drink "Karibu Kombucha" is sold in stores in three versions - classic combucha with green tea, black currant with juniper, and tarragon wormwood with pine needles. He works on the quadruple flavoring option - buckthorn tea with sage.

It is also sold in a Deganzhan vegan cafe called “MOX”, which it opened in January 2017 on the Moscow Danilovsky market. This place is a renovated Soviet market under the roof, where dozens of stalls selling products of ethnic and regional cuisine are located, and it is popular with Moscow city hipsters.

Karibu Kombucha has to compete with at least two larger mushroom drink producers from St. Petersburg. According to Devidzhan, he is fairly confident in the market, and therefore in the spring of this year, the production of "Karibu Kombucha" was established on a large scale in Moscow, having doubled.

According to Devedzhan, he was surprised that two bars in Moscow began to make a Kombucha cocktail using the Karibu Kombucha beverage.

“I think that we, Russians, love our commander more carbonated and stronger than the Americans,” he said. - for us, this drink should be sour and not too sweet - the way we remember it from childhood. ”

Text translation prepared edition ИноСМИ

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