FAQ - About Fizzicle


What is Junboocha?

Junboocha is a type of fermented tea, often referred to as "Jun" for short. Similar to Kombucha, Junboocha is made through a fermentation process involving tea, sugar, water, and a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY). Junboocha is excellent for gut health because it includes prebiotics and probiotics that can support balanced gut bacteria and keep you in tip-top shape.

What is Kefir?

Kefir is a fermented beverages similar to Kombucha, made by adding kefir grains, which are a combination of bacteria and yeast cultures. There are several types of kefir available in Singapore, including milk kefir and water kefir

What is the difference between Kombucha and Junboocha?

Kombucha and Junboocha both uses tea and a sweetener to ferment.

junboocha vs kombucha

In Junboocha's case, we use RAW HONEY, which is unpasteurised so that it has prebiotics, which feeds your gut's good bacteria. 

For Kombucha, we use sugar to ferment it. It is VEGAN friendly. Find out more on kombucha health benefits.

What is the difference between Kombucha and Kefir?

Kombucha and kefir are both fermented foods, rich in a variety of probiotics

Kombucha has a stronger digestive effect, with bacteria, enzymes and higher acidity to assist you in the breaking down of food. While most kombuchas contain caffeine, we have crafted a variety of non-caffeinated ones - Calmboocha and Hibiscus Jun.

We also have water kefir - a general probiotic beverage with less acidity, making it suitable for people with gastric issues and children as well. Water kefir also contains more bacteria strains than kombucha. 

Both drinks hydrate and assists with better health outcomes. 

How much Kombucha or Kefir should I consume?

We recommend a bottle a day for best effects, and a lot of water to help flush the toxins out of your body. Fermented foods has a strong probiotic effect and lubricates the gut system to aid in the removal of unwanted waste. Hydration and the consumption of more fruits and veggies help to hasten results. 

Can kids have kombucha?

Sure, they can! Help us out with a few things though...

Buy only CalmboochaHibiscus Jun or our water kefir collection, as they are decaff. Nobody likes a hyper-bunny for their kid.

  1. Give them only 100ml. Our junboocha is made with honey and that's still energising for hyper-bunny children! Or if you are vegan, give your child water kefir.
  2. Keep your kombucha and kefir refrigerated at all times! Nobody wants a drunk hyper-bunny for a child.

Why is Fizzicle's Kombucha more expensive?

  1. We are 100% Singaporean owned. There are no exploited domestic workers or oompa loompas that can be found working for us.
  2. We are 100% artisanal. That's right, every bottle and can of kombucha is all made by hand by us. 100%.
  3. We have staff whom we pay a fair wage to, rental, contractors, and overheads.
  4. We don't make this at home. We are 100% SFA licensed and compliant.
  5. With licensing, we are legally liable for our products. There is a process that we go through and lets just say, we aren't on our tellies at home on the sofa, munching chips while bottling your kombucha. And we don't encourage such behaviours.

Benefits: Why consume Kombucha?

In 2020, there were at least 1,400 documents published onto Google Scholar (We kid you not!).

Dr. Ilkin Yucel Sengun of Ege University, Turkey pointed out that kombucha is a functional food with potential probiotic properties. These properties act as a source of prebiotics to probiotic growth, while balancing intestinal micobiota; with health effects that are anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and aids in longevity.

Closer to home, in a another study conducted by Tanticharakunsiri and colleagues of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, Thailand, it was found that “Kombucha beverage can be used as the healthy beverages for attenuation of oxidative stress in many diseases.”

In other words, kombucha is an antioxidant that helps to relieve our body from diseases. Still having doubts? Ahmed et all (2020) from the Department of Agriculture Microbiology of Ains Sham Univeristy, Egypt went all out to study the "Biological, chemical and antioxidant activities of different types Kombucha", where they found that the antioxidant scavenging power of tea is more than 3 times of that of rice (Sorry, not sorry to SK2).

Citation

Sengun, I., & Kirmizigul, A. (2020, November 21). Probiotic potential of kombucha https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336242150_PROBIOTIC_POTENTIAL_OF_KOMBUCHA

Tanticharakunsiri, W., Mangmool, S., Wongsariya, K., & Ochaikul, D. (2020, November 29). Characteristics and upregulation of antioxidant enzymes of kitchen mint and oolong tea kombucha beverages. Retrieved December 25, 2020, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jfbc.13574 Ahmed, R.,

Hikal, M., & Abou-Taleb, K. (2020, April 28). Biological, chemical and antioxidant activities of different types Kombucha. Retrieved December 25, 2020, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S057

Read here to learn more about kombucha health benefits.

What is the best time to consume kombucha?

Anytime is a best time. Hot day? Drink it to cool down. Cool day? Drink a "warming drink" like our Ginger Junboocha.

It depends on your preference too! We love a drink in the afternoon, after lunch when its hot and give us a final perk to clear our work up. Or in the evening, just to chill with our non-caffeinated options - Calmboocha Jun, Hibiscus Jun, or even our water kefir collection.

Where is the tea from?

You mean where your teas are from! We have 2 choice selections.

1. The deep mountains of Sichuan, China. For real. Its a 2 days drive away from Chengdu, the capital city. And if you follow Chinese wuxia stories/movies, you'd know this place... Mount Emei. The tea is from a trusted family friend's plantation and not available in Singapore. We have to get it airfreighted into Singapore to ensure freshness!

2. A small family owned plantation near Galle, Sri Lanka owned by a British-Ceylonese doctor. It has been in his family for nearly 80 years; and thanks to partners like us, they are able to continue to subsist and exist, even in Covid-19 with its extremely fickle lockdown policies within Sri Lanka. 

Are Fizzicle products pasteurised? 

No. We don't. We can't. And we don't want to.

Why don't we pasteurise? Pasteurisation robs the kombucha of its raw probiotic potential. We got lucky, when we found Ahmed et al (2020) paper where they used heat treatment onto their kombucha in a bid to preserve. They found that the heating resulted in a significant decrease of antioxidants and phenolic compounds! So we don't want to kill our probiotic buddies!

And why can't we pasteurise, when even the top Australian kombucha brand does so? Our Chief Fizzician can't sleep at night if she knows she's not selling a legitimate product. She wants to make people healthier! We make good products for your health!

Must I refrigerate the kombucha?

Well, we don't pasteurise. The only other way we can slow down fermentation is with the lowering of temperature. Please keep your kombucha in the fridge from the time you get it. ASAP. STAT!

And keep it that way. Unless you are ok with overpriced alcohol or vinegar.

What's the shelf life of Fizzicle Kombucha? 

We've sent our kombuchas for lab tests and it returned to say its pretty good for 3 months. However, we have serious doubts on the conditions of most Asian household fridges. We love food and stuff the fridge full of food as a our love language to the household. So in a stuffed home fridge, its only good for 1 to 2 months. Our young collaborators from Republic Polytechnic did a sensory study and told us that our kombucha taste better at 1 month versus "fresh", but you know... taste is subjective.

Why is my kombucha not fizzy?

The hallmark of a good kombucha isn't actually in the fizz. The fizz does make the whole process more enjoyable and adds to the palatability. Sometimes your kombucha is what we describe as a little on the young side. To increase the fizziness factor, please reseal your bottle and leave it out overnight. Put it back into the fridge after to chill. If you got a can, pour it into a bottle, seal up and leave it out overnight. Put it into the fridge after to chill.

Do you recycle empty Fizzicle bottles?

We are aiming to do so some time in 2021. Here's a big, big, big reveal - Did you know that the COVID19 virus survives up to 28 days on glass? We are responsible for our small staff team and lack the space to actually keep them.

As a small company who wants to do the best and right thing when we are in a very unknown situation, we encourage you to upcycle your bottles with our great friend at Refind.sg (and support her art!) or wash the bottle clean to put some scents and reed sticks into it (just check out our diffuser gift kit).

Is your kombucha halal?

In the strictest sense in the paperwork and documentation world, the answer is no. But hold up, did you know that a ripe banana has more naturally occuring alcohol than our kombucha? Fermentation is a natural occuring biological reaction, and if you like nanas as much as the next person... please read on.

A fatwa was released stating the following.

"Kombucha is a drink made of yeast, sugar, and fermented tea. There is a small amount of alcohol that occurs as a bi-product due to the fermentation process. This is negligent and not considered enough to constitute an intoxicant (1)


(1) Raddul Muhtar Page 639 Arabic"

Also, a review published by the Halal Certification Services in Switzerland states that an alcohol concentration of less than 1% is allowed. In Islam, its called “Mubah” which is neither forbidden nor recommended. It is recognised that this level of alcohol is needed to maintain the acidic condition and prevent the growth of harmful microbes in some food.

Please make a decision on your own, if you are ok with bananas or otherwise.

How many calories are there in your kombucha?

30 calories per serving and there are 2 servings in each bottle. We don't like to calorie count. So please, go exercise?

Can pregnant women and breastfeeding moms take kombucha?

Consult your medical doctor. Due to natural fermentation, there may be trace amounts of alcohol and small pieces of culture. So despite watching 9 seasons of House, M.D., our boss woman is still just a regular kombucha maker. Her advice, while grounded in science, isn't medical advice.

Can diabetics have kombucha?

Don't take our word for it. Research about it on the internet.

Anecdotally speaking, we do have that ONE friend who is a Type 1 Diabetic. He said his "numbers have been much better", since he started taking fermented foods and kombucha. But here's the thing, he does come with real, actual six-pack abs and exercises... a lot. It is still important to exercise.

Why is my tea foamy looking? 

Its from the natural carbonation from the kombucha. Please open it carefully in the sink into a cup to enjoy with ice.

Where to buy Kombucha in Singapore?

Look no further than Fizzicle! With our extensive range of refreshing Kombucha flavors, conveniently available for purchase online, getting your hands on a bottle of our premium probiotic drinks has never been easier. Whether you're craving the classic tang of Original or feeling adventurous with our exciting fruit-infused varieties, Fizzicle has something for everyone. Plus, enjoy hassle-free islandwide delivery straight to your doorstep, so you can sip and savor the goodness of our handcrafted Kombucha wherever you are in Singapore. Order now and elevate your beverage game with Fizzicle!

Where to buy water kefir in Singapore?

You can either purchase online or opt for in-store pickup at Fizzicle's shop. Alternatively, you can also drop by at any of our stockists to start indulge in the finest kombucha and kefir beverages in Singapore!

Do you do collabs?

We LOOOOOOOOVE collabs. But we really don't like freeriders (Sorry, influenzas). Drop the boss a line at hello@getfizzicle.com and like everyone’s British detective says "Don't be boring".