Kombucha: Tea for Two

Ruth Patras wanted to make the best, purest Kombucha for her daughter Ciara to take with her to college.

The best what?

Kombucha, (pronounced come-BOO-shah), is a fermented, organic tea-based drink made from a live “starter,” a thick brown patty known as a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast). Kombucha tea has been documented from at least the 19^th century and has enjoyed an anecdotal reputation as an immune system enhancer by alternative and holistic practitioners for decades. Patras credits Kombucha with helping her daughter stay healthy and staving off the need for a liver transplant.

"The whole thing started when the doctors told me there was nothing I could do," she said, recounting the painful early days of her newborn daughter's life.

Ciara Patras was born with biliary atresia, a congenital liver disease where the bile ducts fail to drain properly. The prognosis for this disease is grim, and doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia told Patras that Ciara would likely need a liver transplant before she turned three. In the meantime, a procedure known as a Kasai portoenterostomy (which allows for bile drainage) had a 50-50 chance of buying her some time until then.

“It was a bleak time,” she said.

Seeking to increase the odds in her tiny daughter's favor as surgery loomed, Patras began giving Ciara small quantities of Kombucha daily – without telling her doctors.

“Kombucha is a living enzyme drink, known for being a serious immune system enhancer,” said Patras, who had been making Kombucha at home and drinking it herself for some time. “I believe it fell into my lap at a time when we needed divine inspiration.”

The operation went well, and Ciara's liver function showed steady improvement over the next weeks and months. Patras, though grateful to her doctors, couldn't help but attribute her daughter's remarkable progress to the tea.

"I wanted to believe it and I did believe it,” she said. “I think it put her on the good side of 50%.”

It wasn't until Ciara was nearing her second birthday that Patras came clean with her doctors. Predictably, perhaps, it didn't go well.

“My first doctor yelled at me for giving her the tea,” she recalls.  “He had a very strong reaction.”  

Subsequent doctors were more willing to listen, although medical science hasn't found support to claims of health enhancement. Still, Patras was invited to share her story at a symposium for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Chronic Liver Disease in August 1999. 

With Ciara doing well, Patras, who acknowledges no medical or nutritional training (her background is in accounting) began reaching out to other parents of children with biliary atresia. Her website attracted seven families willing to try her tea, and her anecdotal findings suggested to her that Kombucha was helping others improve.

So far, Ciara, who will be 17 in April, hasn't needed a liver transplant. With college on the horizon, Patras began worrying about the logistics of supplying her daughter with fresh, high quality tea on campus, since she drinks 32 oz. a day. Unimpressed with commercial Kombuchas already available, (”they don't even come close to the living enzyme tea I make at home, it's like comparing Tang to orange juice”), Patras was encouraged by family and friends to make her own and market it.  So with her sister-in-law as a partner, she started her own company a little over two years ago.

In a 2000 sq. ft. facility in Toms River, she personally oversees as staff of six in the creation of “Ciara's Kombucha” and "Ciara's Komboost" where she insists on strict quality control.

“I'm the only one who handles the cultures,” said Patras. “If I can't give it to my daughter to drink, I'm not selling it.”

So far, about 50 stores sell "Ciara's Kombucha" tea, including Whole Foods and Harmony Health Food store in Middletown. Black and green are the classic tea flavors, but Patras has answered demand with mango berry, blueberry pomegranate, totally berry, peach Bellini, ginger, and apple spice flavors too.  A 16 oz. bottle sells for $3.99. 

“Whether to increase vitality and boost your health or just because it tastes good, anyone can drink Kombucha,” said Patras, who drinks it daily.