Kombucha, the fermented tea drink sometimes credited with promoting good gut health and boosting the immune system, may have given drinkers something else: a good buzz.
Whole Foods pulled the drink from its shelves last week when some of it turned out to be a tad too fermented, exceeding the usual 0.5 percent alcohol level, which is considered a trace amount.
"Some of the varieties had more alcohol, slightly elevated levels," Seth Goldman, president of Honest Tea, told me in a phone interview.
The Bethesda-based company added kombucha to its line of tea drinks last fall.
Whole Foods pulled all brands of kombucha from its shelves, not just Honest Tea's.
An Honest Tea rep said the company tests every batch of the stuff to make sure the alcohol level is no higher than 0.5 percent. The company is investigating what might have lead the alcohol level to rise after bottling.
Honest Tea's kombucha is still available at other natural food stores, including Mom's Organic Market, Roots Market.
Sun photo by Lloyd Fox