Last week The Economist carried an article about kokumi, a putative sixth flavour longing to take its place alongside umami. In it, I read that:
Dr Sasano supplemented the diets of his volunteers with kombucha, an umami-rich infusion of kelp.
That brought me up short. As far as I know, kombucha is a sort of fermented sweet tea. I shared my perplexity on social media. Back, eventually, came a reply. ((Not, I should add, from Twitter but from the much more useful ADN.)) “I think it’s a classic case of the anglicised word being ascribed the wrong meaning,” said my friend who has lived in Japan, helpfully pointing me to the introductory paragraph in the Wikipedia article on kombucha:
In Japan, Konbucha (昆布茶, “kelp tea”) refers to a different beverage made from dried and powdered kombu (an edible kelp from the Laminariaceae family). For the origin of the English word kombucha, first recorded in 1995 and of uncertain etymology, the American Heritage Dictionary suggests: “Probably from Japanese kombucha, tea made from kombu (the Japanese word for kelp perhaps being used by English speakers to designate fermented tea due to confusion or because the thick gelatinous film produced by the kombucha culture was thought to resemble seaweed).”
So, that settles it? Not quite. For the original paper by Sasano et al. actually says:
We used Japanese Kobucha (kelp tea: tea made of powdered tangle seaweed) …
I can only guess that somewhere along the line a dumb spell-checker or an intelligent Economist proofreader overstepped the mark. Or, just possibly, the original authors got it wrong.
Perfect, Jeremy. My mind is spinning with the possibilities of marketing this confusion. The mysterious Orient and all.
Thanks Rachel. And that isn’t the half of it. I am now learning about the subtleties of Japanese mora (no idea what the plural is) and all that.
Dear Jeremy, I am a long-time reader and agricultural biodiversity fan living in Japan.
In reference to the spelling question of konbucha (or kombucha) vs kobucha, I think that it was not so much a spelling mistake on the part of either author as a case of multiple pronunciations for the same meaning.
The characters for konbucha (昆布茶) can also be read correctly in Japanese as kobucha, omitting the m/n sound altogether. (Not sure whether this relates to Japanese mora…morae (?), if at all).
According to the Japanese Wikipedia page, it’s not clear whether the word is actually Chinese or Ainu in origin and many different pronunciations and characters have been used historically to indicate the word in different regions of Japan.
In my experience, konbucha or kombucha (with the n/m sound included) seems to be the most common spoken version these days.
And although I have never seen the other kombucha (fermented, sweetened tea) available in any grocery store here in Japan, the misnomer is mentioned on the Japanese Wikipedia page, with the other kombucha referred to as “black tea mushroom” (紅茶キノコ), so no chance of confusion here.
As a side note, kelp tea or broth is often used in cooking to replace salt or traditional fish broth (dashi) for those on low-sodium diets or in vegan, temple cuisine (shojin ryori). It’s also mixed with dried, sour plum and served as a tea to drink along with traditional sweets so that one can alternate between sweet and sour/savory tastes.
Some people find it unpleasant but I find it very tasty and mild and I enjoy using kombu broth as the base for miso soup and other dishes.
Thank you, as always, for the thought-provoking comments and fascinating reading material!
That makes a lot of sense cuz Kombucha doesn’t taste like it’s got umami in it like a kelp tea would. I actually have no clue but it’s sweet how important umami is and also sense of smell right cuz of you block your nose while eating you can’t taste things as good. Man I speak eloquentally.
Hopefully, this is clear from Julia’s well-stated comments abobve, but just to be clear: the Japanese kana symbol ん can be written either as ‘n’ or ‘m’ in the Roman alphabet. Coming before a ‘b’ sound, it sounds like ‘m,’ so こんぶちゃ (usually written in kanji as 昆布茶) would more commonly be Romanized as ‘koMbucha,’ not ‘koNbucha.’ But *both spellings are legitimate Romanizations of the same Japanese word*. So, basically konbucha and kombucha are the exact same thing in Japanese. (Similarly, many Japanese cities have a district called ほんまち (本町), and on street signs it’s often Romanized as ‘hommachi’ but sometimes ‘honmachi,’ but there is no difference in sound or meaning in Japanese.)
Now, since the English word ‘kombucha’ doesn’t seem to be a plausible loanword from any other language besides Japanese, I agree with the several dictionaries that state it’s likely a misloan. Somehow, the name of Japanese kelp tea was misapplied to the fermented beverage we call ‘kombucha,’ and the name stuck. It probably sounded mysterious and Asian and hip, so it fit the bill. It does sometimes confuse the heck out of Japanese people who order ‘kombucha’ when traveling abroad, however.
Very interesting. Thanks Matthew. So, what do you think of my latest musing, that kombucha could be a portmanteau of kombu and cha?