Kombucha Brand Analysis #1: Wonder Kombucha

Hi everyone,

It's been crazy busy trying to keep up with the coins and all, but I'm back to continue with some updates on Kombucha.

By the way, @haejin has some amazing insights on altcoin charts and predictions, so if you're interested, invest some time to read his posts.

The Company
Wonder Kombucha's brewery located in Portland, Oregon founded in 2001 by Stephen Lee. This company's Kombucha is ranked 18 out of 19 brands according to www.ranker.com and their 2016 list that came out in December. Which is surprising because I find their products enjoyable.

Products
For Wonder, their glass bottle products came first. Most Kombucha companies opt for glass because Kombucha, once it has completed its fermentation, is naturally acidic with the acidity of around 3.2~3.6 pH. If they were to use plastic bottles, they should be taking that extra step to customize their plastic material to be resistant to low acidity liquids; if they do not account for this, the acid will erode the walls of its container over time and into our tummies they go. Something to consider before buying Kombucha Steemians!

Because Kombucha has an overlapping characteristic with sodas, Wonder also provides canned Kombucha. Now I am a little skeptic about this because Kombucha should be contained in 316 stainless materials (food grade stainless) in order for the container to be oblivious to the acidity of the liquid.

I haven't tried their canned Kombucha yet, simply because they're not available in Korea at the moment, but if anyone is in the States and have had their canned product, please comment below and tell me if anyone tasted something 'metallic' on your taste buds.

Brewing Processes
Kombucha at Wonder is brewed the same way any Kombucha will be. One thing is that large companies like Wonder need to distribute their products that are some distance away from their base camp. There are two ways companies can go about this:

1. make sure that their product is always below 10 degrees Celcius so that the live probiotics in the Kombucha stay dormant and do not create excess carbonation/alcohol or change the taste, and
2. go through the process of pasteurization in order to kill the probiotics and prevent any changes in their final products regardless of the temperature it is stored.

Wonder chose the 2nd route and offer a choice to drink raw kombucha on the side in the States but not in South Korea (hopefully they will soon!). So Kombucha lovers beware that what you're drinking may be void of probiotics especially if you were hoping to reload some good stuff into your guts.

My intention here is not to talk Wonder down, but to let people know what they are drinking especially when it comes to Kombucha where the market is very young and sometimes misinforming. As another example, GT is another great brand that chooses to pasteurize as well, but they add-in some amazing probiotics back into their final product. More will be covered in later posts.

Kombucha Flavors
Wonder Kombucha currently has 8 flavors: Traditional, Grape, Peach, Mango, Lemon, Juniper Berries, Cherry, and Pear & Ginger. Only 4 are available in Seoul at this point which is Traditional, Lemon, Juniper Berries, and Pear & Ginger.
I have been buying my friends Kombucha from Wonder because they've been really interested and it's the easiest to find on the market.

Some remarks on Wonder Kombucha after they drank it for the first time
(this is strictly from a biased, small group of my friends;)) :
20% - It's too sweet
30% - There is a distinctive fermented smell and I like it
20% - There is a distinctive fermented smell and I do not like it
40% - Do not mind drinking it for health benefits

Some Thoughts
I found that my love lies with their Juniper Berry flavor, but it does have quite a bit of sugar. The picture below shows their nutritional facts and keep in mind that the bottle is for 2 servings. Per serving there is 12 grams of sugar, and 24 grams if you drink the whole bottle which isn't that hard to do. So just keep in mind that some brands have a good amount of sugar that can bring detrimental effects to health.

A few years back, Kevita funded a lab analysis of 88 samples of Kombucha for their sugar contents. If interest, find the article in the link below!
https://www.bevnet.com/news/2016/kombucha-study-raises-sugar-content-questions

I'll cover Captain Kombucha in my next posting series of Kombucha Brand Analysis.
Thanks for dropping by & Upvote if you found my post informative!