IS KOMBUCHA HALAL? WHAT IS IT ANYWAY AND WHY DO I KEEP HEARING ABOUT IT?

Kombucha normally, is any of a variety of fermented, lightly effervescent sweetened black or green tea drinks that are commonly intended as functional beverages for their many reported health benefits. OMBucha® Kombucha, an organic home brewed craft kombucha, is produced by fermenting tea using a “ symbiotic ‘colony’ of bacteria and yeast ” (SCOBY). Now, the actual alcohol content of the kombucha is usually less than 1% but increases with fermentation time. You can read about how we brew our OMBucha® Kombucha here and also, how we ferment our tea here .

From our roots in Kenya, and our own mixed spiritual background, so many of our friends and family are Muslim. One of the biggest questions we are asked often is whether producing, or, drinking kombucha, due to the fermentation process, is haraam or halal. Kombucha, the fermented tea beverage that has gained massive popularity over the past few years due to the many health benefits it possesses, as we know is a fermented tea product. When people see the word “fermented” they often automatically assume it is an alcoholic beverage (especially being a drink in glass bottles) and therefore believe it to be haraam. As you will discover below, this is actually not the case with the elixir of life – OMBucha® Kombucha !

Does the alcohol in kombucha tea make it haraam?

The big question of course, regarding the fermentation of tea in the production of Kombucha, is whether the beverage is Halal or Haraam, according to Islamic law. As with all fermented foods, a small amount of naturally occurring alcohol is typically present in kombucha. The alcohol is a by-product of the fermentation process. The yeast consumes the sugar and converts it to alcohol. The bacteria converts much of the alcohol to acetic and other organic acids. You can read about the full process of fermenting tea here.

When we hear the word “fermented” we automatically turn the other way and assume it is not halal. However, with kombucha, the general consensus is that, YES, it is, halal. Fermentation is simply a natural biological reaction. If you eat bananas then you should have no issue with drinking kombucha.

A fatwa (non-binding legal opinion on a point of Islamic law) was passed in November 2015, suggesting that it is permitted the consumption of low-alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages. The caveat of the fatwa being that as long as the beverage contains an amount of 0.5% or less leading to the consumption being none intoxicating. This was in response to qualms about non-alcoholic beverages still constituting a certain percentage of alcohol. Some have even likened these alcohol-free drinks to be the same as drinking grape juice.

A ripe banana has more naturally occurring alcohol than OMBucha® Kombucha!

The amount of alcohol in the final OMBucha® Kombucha product is so low and insignificant that it would have no effect on the person drinking it. There is no added alcohol and only naturally occurring alcohol that is common in many fruits.

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

Everything that is called water is pure and a means of purification, whether some impurity has fallen into it or not, if it is known that it has dissolved into it and disappeared. As for that in which traces of impurity are apparent, it is haraam to use it, because it comes under the heading of using something haraam.

Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa, 19/236, 237

He also said:

Allah has forbidden impure things (khabaa’ith), namely blood, dead meat, pork and so on. If any of these things fall into water etc and disappear, so there is no blood, dead meat or pork left at all, similar to the case where alcohol disappears in a liquid, then the one who drinks it is not drinking khamr.

Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa, 21/501, 502

Remeber also, that the fermentation of tea that is mentioned in this article is not the same as the fermentation that happens to grapes, dates etc in order to make them intoxicants. Rather what is meant by fermentation here is more-so like oxidisation, i.e., exposing the tea to oxygen to create a chemical change, according to the experts.

With green tea, the leaves are treated with steam after picking, then they are dried immediately, and not exposed to any oxidisation, rather they are preserved with the same properties as are found in fresh tea.

This differs slightly with black tea, where the leaves are separated after collection and are sorted into fine layers on a net made of wire or sackcloth in order to get rid of excess water, then the leaves are crumbled and sifted, then subjected to an oxidisation process, by exposing the fresh leaves to oxygen for three hours, until the tea loses its green colour and becomes dark coloured, after which it becomes black tea.

If this oxidisation is done only partially, we get tea that is partially fermented, between green and black. This is called tannin and it combines the qualities of both black and green tea. Tannins can be extremely beneficial for you.

For further reading, please see: Mawsoo’ah al-A’shaab al-Tibbiyyah by the pharmacist Dr Ahmad Muhammad ‘Awf; Qaamoos al-Ghidha’ wa’l-Tadaawi bi’l-Nabaat by Ahmad Qudaamah, published by Daar al-Nafaa’is; al-Ghidha’ la al-Dawa’ by Dr. Sabri al-Qabbaani, published by Dar al-‘Ilm li’l-Malaayeen. All of these books are arranged in alphabetical order.

We feel strongly that the increase of such non-alcoholic beverages has proven how inclusive Islam strives to be, and we certainly feel that the bigger picture highlights how Muslims around the world always have a choice when it comes to deciding between what’s right and wrong. The religion also encourages that if we’re not comfortable or not 100% sure about something, it’s better to stay away from it. Certainly, in recent years, the Muslim world continues to evolve and attempts to be accommodating to trends and ever-changing needs such as in the alcohol-alternative market.

The rise of “halal alcohol” might also be a movement to promote inclusiveness amongst the Muslim community so that no one is left out in any celebration.

This is what we have been able to find out about expert opinions on this matter, and with great thanks to Islamic Questions and Answers https://islamqa.info/.

Thus it is clear that the process of fermenting tea leaves is not haraam, and we do no know of any scholar who says that this is haraam.

Based on that, there does not seem to be anything wrong with drinking this fabulous health promoting OMBucha® Kombucha tea.

And Allah knows best.