The swap: Pour kombucha, not juice

As runners know, hydration is key. Getting enough fluids in is essential but which beverages you choose to drink is equally important. For runners, pouring a glass of kombucha makes for smart sipping. 

What is kombucha?

This fizzy, tangy beverage is sort of like a healthy tea/ pop fusion. It’s bubbly like pop but uses tea as the base. Kombucha is a fermented tea that uses bacteria culture in its brewing process. It can be served hot or cold and flavoured with fruit juices to give it a little extra zing.

Why drink it? 

While it quenches the thirst the same way as pop, it lacks the high sugar and caloric content. Because it’s made with tea, it’s also much healthier than artificially flavoured juices. The big take-home health bonus though is that kombucha gives runners their dose of probiotics since it’s made with bacteria and yeast. Why is this a good thing? Probiotics are considered “good bacteria” which benefit your gut and overall digestive health.

Make your own. 

Adventurous in the kitchen? While there are many great store bought kombuchas out there, many choose to get brewing at home. For that, you need tea, sugar, and a culture starter known as a scoby (standing for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). That’s something you can usually find at specialty food shops or health stores and looks sort of like a pancake. It’s fairly simple: brew the tea, let it cool, add in the scoby and let it ferment for about two weeks. Remember to use only extra clean supplies so as not to introduce any contaminants or unwelcome bacteria. Need recipe ideas? We’ve rounded up a few.

Strawberry basil blend: For a mid-afternoon treat or post-workout hydration drink back the fresh flavours of berries and basil leaves.

Ginger thirst quencher: Ginger is one of the best flavours of fall. As cold/ flu season hits, this ginger drink is sure to nip any sore throats or upset tummies right in the bud.

Chia seed brew: Because of the introduction of kombucha wasn’t healthy-nutty enough, now you’ve got a dose of chia seeds to really up the ante.