UAE
Kombucha has become very much a home brew semi-cult in the United Arab Emirates.
Enthusiasts call the starter kit for turning sweet tea into this tangy and fizzy beverage a “scoby”: “Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.” It’s a kind of rubber raft floating on top of the fermenting kombucha. It can be started from scratch but that entails complex home chemistry and great care in avoiding bacterial contamination, mold and some very strange and malodorous bio-blunders.
In the UAE, a home scoby is essential because of the legal grey area into which kombucha has drifted. It is officially not sold there because as a fermented drink, it is viewed as alcoholic. It is unclear which government agency has the authority either to decide if it is so and then to permit its import, production, and sale.
There is a very active discussion of kombucha in online sites used by expats in Dubai. They are predominantly the same question: where can I buy kombucha and equally predominant the response: make it yourself.
It is now commonplace in U.S. craft beer pubs to see lined up together an ale pump, nitro coffee pump – and a kombucha pump. Is kombucha tea or alcohol?
It’s definitely tea but… But as with any fermented drink, it is likely to contain very small traces of alcohol from the probiotic enzymes it produces.
Whether viewed as alcoholic, or non-alcoholic, it’s certainly creating strong demand across the globe.