Results and Discussion
Cultures of "Frit z," "Toby," and "Olinka" grown in sweetened t ea were similar in appearance.
The top of the cultures was ochreous in colour ; the underside was umber. Olinka cultures grew
thickest (approx. 4.1 mm after one week) and tended t o capture air bubbles, giving rise to a
bumpy culture surface. Fritz and Toby cultures were thinner (approx. 3.9 and 2.5mm, respectively, after one week) with a smooth surface. CFUs of macerated consortia from
sweetened tea are shown in Fig 1; CFUs from pure sucrose solution are shown in Fig 2 and
CFUs from sweet ened tea without the addition of starter are displayed in Fig 3. All colony types were isolated from all three Kombucha cultures under all three growth conditions; however, their proportions differed. The total colony count tended to increase when the cultures were grown in a sucrose solution lacking tea. Black tea is a complex in fu s ion containing a variety of methylxanthines and polyphenols ; the amino acid theanine; and numerous other compounds
(Taylor & McDowell, 1993). Some of these may have an inhibitory effect on the growth of the
organisms in the Kombucha consortium. In contrast, the number of total bacterial CFU's
decreased when starter (but not tea) was omitted from the preparation protocol, and in
these trials, for both the 'Fritz' and the 'Olinka' cultures , the number of consortial CFUs increased.