What in the holy heck is kombucha?

Kombucha is a pretty intimidating word.

It's a bit like Worcestershire or pâte à choux.

While I've only been sipping on the stuff for a couple of years, the drink has been around for thousands of years. I've seen it credited to almost every single Asian country as well as Russia.

In short, it is a fermented beverage made from tea, sugar, a scoby, and a starter from a previous batch.

When making at home, you may be shocked by the amount of sugar you add to the tea but don't fear, all of that sugar (and caffeine) is fuel for your scoby and the fermentation process. The final product has very little of each but a slight amount of alcohol. Don't worry, it would take a truckload of "booch" to get a little tipsy.

When done right and in a delicious manner, kombucha is effervescent and the basic tea flavor is enhanced with fruit and herbs, leaving you with a refreshing and healthy (and pretty low-calorie) drink.

But besides tempting labels (just search Instagram for #kombucha), why should I care about kombucha?

We'll get to that soon...