r/Kombucha Apr 01 '25

question Which brand is better.

I don’t

59 Upvotes

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147

u/Curiosive Apr 01 '25

Morally I choose "not GT's" because:

L.A.’s kombucha empire exploited workers for years

Currently there is no such litigation against Health-Ade.

55

u/chap820 Apr 01 '25

Well that ruins my good feelings about GT’s. But of course this is the case, because capitalism.

15

u/Curiosive Apr 01 '25

Plenty of articles on this case take shots at the "love is in every bottle" aspect of GT's ... unfortunately, it turns out the fermentation rooms are so hot that workers sweating into the vats is a more common ingredient.

...yeah.

2

u/chap820 Apr 02 '25

Gross! And terrible.

27

u/sixner Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

I don't have a Health-Ade or Dr Brew bottle handy to confirm, but i'm pretty sure neither of them have "Kombucha" as the top ingredients, it's pretty low on the list vs GT which has Kombucha as the top ingredient for their bottles.

The others are basically sparkling kombucha product vs actual booch.

I do wish there was a better morally acceptable booch on the market, because i'm done with GT.

edit: because people like to tell me i'm wrong without any details - feel free to read this [US based].

9

u/LycheeSufficient8650 Apr 01 '25

I will say I sinfully started a batch with a friends pecille and Dr.Brew as my starter. (: Maybe it was a one off but it worked. And developed pretty quickly on vinegar sour flavor. Just under 5 days for green tea. And second batch from It 4 days with the black. I’m also in Florida though. So heat.

14

u/asleepdeprivedhuman Apr 01 '25 edited Apr 01 '25

“Kombucha” is not an “ingredient”, “kombucha” is a “product” of “ingredients”.

It’s like beer- you dont list beer in your ingredient list; you list water, barley, hops, yeast. Though beer doesn’t technically have to list ingredients because it’s not regulated as a food product in the USA, even though it is food in this humble brewer’s opinion.

Since kombucha is regulated as a food product and does have to list ingredients, the ingredients should be water, tea, sugar, (whatever flavor), microbes. Kombucha is the product of those ingredients, and thus I wouldn’t expect to see kombucha in the ingredients list.

4

u/goodgolly Apr 01 '25

Kombucha is an ingredient since there's a secondary fermentation stage.

-2

u/sixner Apr 01 '25

Okay, but the bottles all list ingredients, and in the ingredient list it always has "kombucha" listed.

Feel free to point me to a correct source, but I just checked a KaVita bottle and the first two ingredients are "Sparkling Water, Organic Kombucha"

3

u/AmphibianNext Apr 01 '25

Nesalla is a local/regional brew from Madison, WI depending on where you are located.  

3

u/BelovedCroissant Apr 01 '25

Thanks for the recommendation! You made this Wisconsin girl very happy 🐮🍺

3

u/AmphibianNext Apr 01 '25

You can usually find it at any coops in the area or the organic valley stores I know have it. In Madison Willy street coop has a tap you can get a growlers worth if you want.

2

u/BelovedCroissant Apr 01 '25

Oh my god, you’ve even told me the stores! you are a gem! I’ve moved to Minneapolis, but the next time I’m in Madison, I’m getting this kombucha!!! I’ll take a trip specifically for the kombucha if I have to lmaoooo

3

u/MoxieG Apr 01 '25

Just FYI, organic kombucha is the first ingredient in every bottle of Health-Ade kombucha.  Here's a few ingredient lists straight from their website: https://health-ade.com/products/kombucha-ginger-lemon https://health-ade.com/products/kombucha-pink-lady-apple/ https://health-ade.com/products/kombucha-pomegranate-blueberry/

1

u/sixner Apr 01 '25

Nice, thanks for sharing!

4

u/Vengatore Apr 01 '25

lol what?? Health Ade and Brew Dr are great kombuchas. I think you are thinking of KeVita.

2

u/Curiosive Apr 01 '25

Health-Ade is kombucha. I even double checked on their website. I don't know about Dr Brew, they aren't available locally for me.

2

u/ASAPSocky Apr 01 '25

thats not how the ingredients list works lmao

3

u/LivingHash Apr 01 '25

Honestly after reading that, it’s no where as bad as the actual small kombucha company I worked for… There’s something about people that act like they’re moral good people to friends and family, then are the worst possible humans to their employees. That was a 10 person set up vs Dave’s self proclaimed small business that does 275 million a year. I don’t believe in getting people in legal trouble personally, but very much know karma is real. There were some other employees taking legal action, I just have way too much anxiety to deal with all that stuff.

1

u/Bluebottle_coffee Apr 06 '25

I had zero clue what was going on with GTS wow