Blog Review: Get Kombucha, Culver City, CA
Some kombucha blogs are the one place where opinions and advice are shared. Others are a hub, from which a rich variety of spokes radiate out to multiple forms of social media. Get Kombucha is an example of the second type. Their blog is just the tip of iceberg of a rich store of information. Be sure to check out their Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook and especially YouTube channel for a fantastic library of ‘booch-related information.
Dave Lindenbaum owns a company that claims to be the “#1 source to learn about kombucha tea and shop cutting edge kombucha products.” (As proclaimed in the site header: “Since 2006, voted #1 Kombucha website by 92,399 customers!”).
Rather than sell ‘booch they sell the supplies for home brewing: “We Help You Make Free Kombucha Tea.” As we noted when reviewing the Brew Your Bucha blog, supplying home brewers is a growing business. The Kombucha Shop crushed it on Shark Tank. Get Kombucha is another vendor in this space.
Stats
Blogging since: N/A
Last Updated: N/A
Posting Frequency: N/A
Post Length: 150 – 3,500 words
Aesthetic Appeal: Solid design, content rich.
Graphics: Minimal pictures, but great YouTube videos are embedded.
Categories: BUY Kombucha Mushroom Kits; Brewing Supplies/Mushroom Cultures; Brewing Supplies; MUSHROOM KITS; Buy Kombucha SCOBY; GT Kombucha Recall; Kombucha Alcohol Content; Kombucha Benefits; Kombucha Culture; Kombucha Jars; Kombucha Mother Culture; Kombucha Mushroom; Kombucha Products; Kombucha Recipes; Kombucha Side Effects; Kombucha Starter Kits; Kombucha Tea; Lindsay Lohan Kombucha; Make Kombucha; Making Kombucha FAQs; Podcasts; What Is Kombucha
Comments allowed: Yes, once logged in.
Alexa.com global traffic ranking: 2,769,551
Social Media: They have 19,200 followers on Twitter and have tweeted over 4,500 times since they joined in March, 2009. Their 608 posts on Instagram have attracted nearly 1,177 followers. Their Facebook page has nearly 15,000 followers. They attract 25,600 monthly views on Pinterest and 587 Followers viewing 63 pins. Most impressive of all is their YouTube channel where 152 videos have been viewed over 1 million times and they have over 9,000 subscribers. They also have 9 podcasts on iTunes.
The Continuous Brewing System
Get Kombucha subscribe to the Continuous Brew (CB) system (vs. the Batch method). This was popularized by the Kombucha Mama — Hannah Crum — who sells a similar ceramic vessel. It’s important to understand that others prefer the Batch method and blogs such as this from Yeabucha argue against CB. (Full disclosure: We have a CB system and bought our first kit from Hannah Crum six years ago and now have five containers that produce multiple gallons a week.) It’s fair to say most commercial brewers use the Batch method. If you’re thinking of getting into home brewing the two links above present both sides of the argument.
The Get Kombucha 8-gallon Brewmaster system sells for $399 and a Basic Edition for 4-gallons is $199, and while our Resources page lists the supplies you’d need to build your own CB home brew system, there’s obviously convenience in buying from a single source.
Valuable Information
Dave is great at explaining what’s involved in successful home brewing. We were impressed that his tips on setting up a starter kit are meant for anyone who “purchased a starter kit online, either from our company or from somebody else .” This blog post includes both the script and the YouTube video of his friendly and informal presentation.
An lengthy post on the Top 10 Kombucha Benefits is an extensive list which includes three complementary videos. A nice touch is a hat-tip to the ‘father’ of the whole industry in the US, GT Dave
Though gt dave has never said that it cured, or even treated, his mother’s cancer; but he does say it helped her during chemotherapy of the cancer cells. You can read her more here. Both Dave and his mother have been a huge inspiration for me in my quest!
Dave L. surveyed his customers in 2006 and again in 2011 and asked what benefits they experienced. They reported results of drinking ‘booch that totally in line with our experience, and include improved digestion; weight loss; stress reduction; increased energy and so on.
There’s advice on incorporating kombucha into the diet of someone with Candida (what about all the yeast? Dave has the answer!). He covers issues to be aware of when pregnant and even how to deal with the potential problem that kombucha can stain your teeth!
Podcasts
While not as extensive as their 152 videos on YouTube, the nine podcasts offer brief (sub-5 minute) snippets of information on topics such as flavoring kombucha, how to avoid kombucha dangers (from brewing in a non-sanitized environment) and more.
Other Social Media
As noted, Get Kombucha’s blog branches out to most of the other popular social media platforms. We’ve featured some of their great Instagram images in past posts. Here’s another sample.
Videos such as this show Dave’s friendly and open approach to sharing ‘booch info.
Suggestions
While not essential, since much of the blog is “evergreen” information, there’s no dates on the posts (hence the “N/As” in the Stats above). I also found it confusing where some posts (e.g. the Top 10 Health Benefits) refer to courses and advanced classes that must be where the content came from.
There’s also a couple of places where HTML code needs cleaning up (as in the <iframe> shown after Weight Loss in the Health Benefits post.
A search button would be an advantage. The Tags and Categories could be cleaner and simpler. For example, the tag for ‘candida’ doesn’t point to the right post (which is why I have not linked to it above — I couldn’t find it again!
In Conclusion
Get Kombucha share a lot of valuable information for anyone who brews kombucha at home or is curious about best practices. This is a blog worth bookmarking,
