...I can be overly cautious. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you, but when I have two very beautiful jars of kombucha in the fridge that are about a month old now and am afraid to even open them because they've been in there a whole MONTH, THAT is overkill.
I finally talked myself into opening them, mainly because we plan to make some refrigerator pickles today and I needed some empty mason jars to sterilize for the process. So I open one. Little bubbles from the slowed fermentation of course rise to the surface, and a mini explosion occurs. I'm used to that in my new kombucha, so okay. I sniff. Smells a heck of a lot like Kombucha. I put the lid back on and shake gently. This time a bigger explosion on opening - the bubbles being more inclined to unstick themselves from the liquid, they wanted out. Another whiff. Yep, that's kombucha, all right. SO I dump it in a glass and my mouth starts watering. Bubbles froth to the top. Looks like Kombucha, smells like Kombucha, acts like Kombucha.
Now I'm at the crossroads. Recently we were warned about pickling being a botulism problem. I had never heard of that, but I know botulism is easily obtainable with the right conditions. The specifics had been told to me long ago by Mum, but suffice it to say, the b-word now floated to the surface of my mind given the lack of specific memory to how botulism comes about.
At this point the stuff has not been put into my body. Maybe I shouldn't drink it. But it looks so good, and it's one of two Kombucha jars I have left anyway. The new batch will take a week to finish!! It's been in the FRIDGE for Pete's sake, it's highly acidic, surely that combination, assuming I sterilized everything, will retard growth of other stuff. Right? For the most part, at least. In one month, I would hope so. I'm sure I've done worse.
I take a sip. Tastes like Kombucha. By now, it is possible that millions of tiny little bacteria have infested my stomach. But by now, I have stopped listening to Mum's warnings in my head. I take another sip. I breathe the vapours back through my nose. Yup, that's Kombu-- wait. What was that? I put the glass down, still recycling the vapours through the back of my nose and throat. What IS that? Did it SPOIL? It doesn't taste quite like spoilage. It almost tastes like... Irish Breakfast Tea.
Now I'm perplexed. I've been using Lipton bagged tea. I take a tiny sip and there it is again in the back of my nose. Irish Breakfast Tea. I was just about to dump it when it hit me: A month ago, I was using Irish Breakfast Tea. I had run out of Lipton and added Irish to the brew in its stead.
I hover. Am I sure? Am I 100% sure? I sniff. No sign of the tea there. I sip, another tiny sip. By now I've already got it in me, whatever it is. Why not make it worse? lol. There it is! Irish Breakfast Tea. Very noticeable now. It doesn't taste bad, just... odd.
I have since read up on botulism and found out that acidic items (like vinegar or Kombucha, which makes acid like vinegar), salty ones (like brine for pickling), and refrigerated items (like my Kombucha and future pickles) are amongst the least risky fermented foods you can have when it comes to Botulism.
I was drinking the Kombucha while researching that. There were the specifics. All the while I had been, in the back of my mind, keeping tabs on how I felt. The mildly drunken-like rush had hit me a while ago and cleared, but I'm used to that. It happens almost every time I drink my first half a glass of Kombucha. After that it fades out. It faded as usual. But I was waiting for my stomach to go on strike. I was waiting for sweating. Nausea, dry mouth, paralysis...? Foggy mind? Falling off my chair without any laughter? Nothing happened.
This time, as my mother would say.
Incidentally, cold Kombucha is really, really good. And it just occurred to me that if botulism is going to occur, it would be while Kombucha is brewing. The stuff itself requires warmth, it's moist, and for a while, it's not nearly as acidic as the finished product. Hm. Maybe I should look into this a little bit more...
~paranoid but okay with that
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