MOJO are committed  to  creating  an  authentically  brewed,  all  natural  range  of  beverages  with  minimal  intervention  –  never  artificially  sweetened,  coloured  or  flavoured,  just  packed  full  of  healthy  organic  acids  and  good  gut  bugs.

Our team has spent over ten years refining, living and breathing the recipe for our MOJO, and are proud to have perfected the fermentation process of our kombucha so that is thriving with goodness and has a true potent impact on the palate. 

These days, with so many different kombuchas to choose from, many consumers are often left wondering why there is such a difference in sugar levels between brands. 

As with many fermented products, kombucha requires sugar to fuel the fermentation process. The living kombucha culture consumes most of the organic raw sugar during fermentation, turning the tea solution into a potent powerhouse of healthy goodness, full of naturally occurring organic acids, enzymes, b-vitamins and the beneficial bacteria you see floating around in the bottle, which ultimately gives our consumer nutritional benefit.

At MOJO we’re passionate about creating a real deal, traditional kombucha that has been handcrafted with minimal intervention. We choose not to dilute our ‘booch before bottling, and we do not add any sugar or sweeteners post fermentation. Doing so would disguise the great taste of the gutsy brew we have spent weeks creating!

Some kombuchas on the market use less sugar at the beginning of the fermentation process and then compensate with sweeteners and flavours later on. From our perspective, we are wary of kombucha which contain stevia or erythritol as we understand these highly processed sweeteners are added before bottling to mask unbalanced flavour profiles caused by compromised fermentation. This is because less sugar in fermentation means less healthy acids in the end product.

There is now emerging evidence that heavily processed sweeteners such as stevia can actually have a negative impact on gut health! To quote dietician Rosemary Stanton in her recent article on the topic: 

Stevia is marketed by some as a ‘natural’ product. Although what is added to drinks and other foods is a highly purified extract, often blended with a sugar alcohol (usually erythritol) or complex carbohydrates called oligosaccharides. These bypass digestion in the small intestine and are broken down by bacteria in the colon…its effect on “good” bacteria in the colon may be undesirable…and needs careful evaluation.

Natalie Ford (Clinical Nutritionist, BHSC Nutritional Medicine) also believes artificially sweet drinks can be confusing for our digestive system:

“When it comes to satisfying a sweet tooth, unfortunately our palates aren’t able to differentiate between the sweetness of sweeteners such as stevia and real sugars found in fruits and vegetables.

When stevia, or the like is consumed, our brain is tricked into thinking we are still eating real sugar which automatically sets a cascade of events in motion.

Glucose is moved out of the bloodstream, leading to a drop in blood sugar levels in preparation for the “sugar” (i.e. sweetener) that has just been consumed. When no glucose arrives, our bodies try and compensate by stimulating the release of our stress hormones, adrenalin and cortisol to try and find other sources of glycogen to help stabilise our blood glucose levels.

Although everyone reacts differently, consuming this on a regular basis can have long-term detrimental effects on everything from weight management, adrenal health and immunity, stress and even skin conditions, not to mention the unnecessary production of our stress hormones.

Furthermore, natural fruits and the sugars (both fructose and glucose) that come with them, promote the synthesis of glycogen in the liver, which is essential as part of a balanced diet.“

In recent years, the hype around sugar has left most people scared of touching anything that resembles the sweet stuff, and we understand that many choose artificially sweetened products in an effort to reduce their overall sugar intake. The good news is all MOJO products are still a low in sugar beverage option, especially when compared to traditional soft drinks or fruit juices.

As a full-bodied, home brew style product, our Classic Kombucha has at most 3g of sugar per 100mL. The Crafted range is considered a low sugar product, as we add less sugar before fermentation to achieve a lighter, smoother tasting kombucha. On average, Crafted has less than 2.5g of sugar and 0.5g of fructose per 100mL. 

Furthermore, MOJO’s different kombucha varieties are made with real ingredients, so these numbers on the label also take into account the fructose from the real fruit we use to flavour our ‘booch such as passionfruit pulp, strawberries and blueberries – but we add nothing else, no sweeteners or chemicals, to alter the taste.

This stance against sweeteners extends across our whole range, so although it’s not a traditionally fermented product, you’ll find no sweeteners in our MOJO Probiotic Sparkling Water, a low sugar recipe we have perfected using exclusively all natural ingredients.

It’s easy to get caught up with just one aspect of our diet, such as limiting or removing sugar, but as Natalie reminds us, “we need to remember that we should be looking at our nutrition as a whole and trying to achieve balance through a wide range of foods.”

Cheers to your health!

Team MOJO