You may have noticed that fermented food and drinks have begun to take common place in the UK health scene. Known for it's living cultured goodness, kombucha is fast becoming a favourite of these good-for-your-gut beverages.
Wild Fizz founder and good-bacteria enthusiast Gina Geoghan is leading the way to giving a little more love to our guts with her delicious, wild, probiotic, fizzy, health tonics.
We had a little chat with Gina to find out more about why she’s loving the brew, her experience of the extrodinary health benefits of these fermented drinks and what sparked her vision for Wild Fizz.
Where did you first try kombucha and start your journey leading to Wild Fizz? Was it love at first sip?
I found it In LA when working out there. It took a little adjusting, but after two weeks I loved it, and it was also then I noticed that I started to feel better. I looked into it more, wanting to see if I was mad, or if I was being healed- and found love.
It changed my life, literally and I am now obsessed with helping this product become known better in the UK - I want to heal peoples guts! One gut at a time.
I quit my quite lucrative day job to become a factory worker. I now spend every moment I have in my brewery singing to my brews.
Simply put, what exactly is kombucha and how is it made?
Kombucha is a fermented tea. It's made by adding a colony of bacteria and yeast (called a S.C.O.B.Y) to sweet tea and allowing it to ferment over time to produce a tart, slightly fizzy probiotic drink.
There seems to be a lot of buzz around fermented foods and drinks in the health and well-being world. Why would you suggest including these in our diets and what are the key health benefits of kombucha?
I believe that food is medicine. I believe that Kombucha is an amazing living product which can help certain people and certain issues. As it's a living product each person reacts differently and health brands have to be careful with what they claim. For me, fermented foods, such as sourdough bread, saurkraut, kimchi and of course Kombucha are going to be part of the way we heal people in the future. Eating foods which are alive, not pasteurised, carbonated or had additives, sweeteners and colours added to them will enable us to become healthier, happier people. At the risk of sounding 'hippy dippy' - fermented foods nurtures the mind, body and spirit.
In your experience, how has drinking kombucha benefited you personally?
I have since my early 20's suffered from bad IBS. After 2 weeks of drinking organic, non- pasturised, non- carbonated Kombucha I felt better, and most of my symptoms have either gone away entirely or greatly reduced.
I believe that it has given me better stamina, more resilience to flu and colds, given me more energy as well as added a new and healthy alternative to soft drinks.
Benefits which my friends have experienced after drinking Wild Fizz- hang overs cured, more energy, reduced candida growth (no more thrush basically), glowing skin, better gut health.
How often would you recommend drinking Wild Fizz?
Every day if you can! I recommend you ingest something probiotic everyday (Mine are homegrown, naturally), because our bodies fight off pollution, toxic food and stress every moment of the day and needs all the love it can get. Organic, wild, fermented, raw anything is great! If I could make people eat a little bit of dirt every day I would too. It's good for you!
My happy place is: Next to my tanks - Ariadne and Atlas. I love them dearly and am not whole unless I see them every day. Failing that, in nature, preferably in water naked. Somewhere wild. Always with my man next to me. He makes my soul shiver with happiness.
My intentions for the next few months are: Work to make Kombucha a household name. Make Wild Fizz the best it can be, something I can be proud of. Try to also sleep, excersise and walk in nature more. Kiss loads.
At the moment, I am:
Reading - The Spell of the Sensuous- by David Abram, an incredible book and will make you see magic in everything.
Eating - kimchi, kimchi, kimchi
Wearing- my friends old ACNE clothes- she is moving back to Sweden and gave me all her stuff. As a start up money is tight, so no shopping for me. So I'm wearing all free stuff basically. Worrying about - money. the state of the world, how technology is making us more isolated and lonely.
Dreaming about - having more time to be quiet in a quiet place, doing nothing, loosing my phone so I can't be reached, next years swimming plans.
Feeling grateful for - For everything! We are living in a paradigm, things will shift beyond our wildest dreams in my lifetime, for good and bad so I feel grateful for every moment in which I am healthy, full and loved and able to love.