Abstract
Kombucha tea is produced by fermenting sweetened tea with a mixture of a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. As it is consumed almost all over the world transport of the kombucha starter is very important. Besides controlled transport conditions, the storage conditions before delivery can have a significant impact on the final quality of this beverage. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of storage time and temperature of the kombucha starter on the activation rate and quality of the final product. The pH value, CO2 and sugar concentrations in the fermentation media were monitored during the fermentation. We used starters with different ages, 1 year, half a year and fresh ones. Kombucha starter cultures were frozen, refrigerated, stored at room temperature and at 40 °C for 72 h, to investigate the impact of the storage temperature. Some differences were detected in the quality of the final product using kombucha starters with different ages. On the other hand, the results obtained after changing the storage temperature of the starter show that higher temperature accelerates the fermentation. The final product has higher CO2 concentration, lower sugar content and lower pH value compared to the product which was produced using frozen and refrigerated starter cultures. The novel finding of this study revealed that storage time and storage temperature of a kombucha starter is important for production of this slightly alcoholic beverage. This could be useful information for distributors of that specific starter culture.
