Try as I might — and I have tried, a little — I can’t stomach the idea of drinking the fermented, bacteria-rich tea called kombucha. According to The New York Times, I am well behind the foodie curve. Excerpt:

To make kombucha, brewers rely on what’s called a starter — a bit of already fermented tea–passed between makers and referred to reverentially as “the mother.” Once the mother is added to sweetened tea and allowed to sit in a glass jar unrefrigerated for 7 to 14 days, a glop known as a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast grows over the surface.

This “mother” will expand and split into smaller patties called “babies,” which brewers often give to friends or sell online. “I have kombucha babies available in several different types of tea (pu-erh, oolong, white tea, some others),” reads a post by Ms. Most on the Kombucha Exchange, an online forum catering to kombucha brewers worldwide who want to exchange recipes, fermentation techniques and viscous offspring.