Jun of Xun (pronounced Joon) originates purportedly from the high mountain regions of Tibet where it is said that khampa warriors used it to garner strength and vitality for their fight against invasive Chinese imperialists.
A similar and more popular beverage called Kombucha which ferments Sugar and black tea (instead of honey and green tea preferred by the Jun culture) is a huge industry in the United States alone, bringing in 500 million + USD per annum.
If you go into any sizeable health food store like Wholefoods or Planet Organic in the London area, you will see 8-10 brands of Kombucha in the fermented beverage section. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that the trend is fast spreading in the UK and even as far afield as the EU.
Kombucha is created by making tea and then sweetening the tea with sugar, usually white refined sugar. After this step you allow the tea to cool down and then add the Scoby (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) along with about 10 percent from a previous batch of Kombucha. This kick-starts the fermentation process and ensures that no pathogenic organisms or mould are able to contaminate the brew due to the lowering of PH.
Jun is made in a very similar way but the black tea is supplanted by green tea and the sugar is replaced with raw honey. This slightly different methodology causes the ensuing brew to have much more exciting flavour profiles than Kombucha and also much more carbon dioxide production, so, once the secondary fermentation is done during the bottling and maturing process it is a much more lively beverage than kombucha making refrigeration more of an imperative, this is why it is often referred to as the champagne of Kombucha.
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The primary purveyor of Jun in the western world is a company called Herbal junction elixirs based out of Eugene Oregon in the USA. They have been brewing it for almost 30 years now but for much of that time up until present day have been very secretive about their whole operation, probably out of fear of creating competition for themselves. Several years ago their facility was broken into and some of their heirloom Tibetan Jun cultures were stolen, subsequently, these cultures or
Scobys started to turn up on the west coast of the US and in Hawaii. Now that the cat is out of the bag, so to speak it seems as though Jun is much more pervasive and is now available commercially in several countries as well as the US.
Certainly, the knowledge of how to produce it is available more readily via the internet. So if you don't have an outlet near to where you live, if you are willing, the means to start enjoying this incredible beverage (which by way has numerous health benefits Which will be listed in a future article) are totally within your reach. There is not as much info on Jun as there is on Kombucha but they are similar enough for you to study the info and draw your own conclusions regarding the potential benefits.