Thanks for the Congratulations. Now how about you share some links to where you've gathered this information so we can all become more enlightened? I'd like to see more credible research papers on KT, as last I looked it seemed quite lacking.
I didn't mean to sound condescending, so I appologize for that.
Z. Kombuchaensis is new to me.... here's an abstract of a study done by australians in 2004:
"Abstract
Kombucha is a traditional fermentation of sweetened tea, involving a symbiosis of yeast species and acetic acid bacteria. Despite reports of different yeast species being associated with the fermentation, little is known of the quantitative ecology of yeasts in Kombucha. Using oxytetracycline-supplemented malt extract agar, yeasts were isolated from four commercially available Kombucha products and identified using conventional biochemical and physiological tests. During the fermentation of each of the four products, yeasts were enumerated from both the cellulosic pellicle and liquor of the Kombucha. The number and diversity of species varied between products, but included Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Candida stellata, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Torulaspora delbrueckii and Zygosaccharomyces bailii. While these yeast species are known to occur in Kombucha, the enumeration of each species present throughout fermentation of each of the four Kombucha cultures demonstrated for the first time the dynamic nature of the yeast ecology. Kombucha fermentation is, in general, initiated by osmotolerant species, succeeded and ultimately dominated by acid-tolerant species."
And here's a very insightful analysis by the University of Cornell:
http://www.happyherbalist.com/analysis_of_kt_cornell.htm
Also, don't feel averted to experiment with kombucha or any other source of (unharmful) bacteria, just because I sounded like an *******. I did just what you did, I even tried kombucha in coffee, apple juice, and even grain wort.
But after a while, my scobys all did the same thing: they mutated.
The medium didn't contain the same strains as they used to, obviously, because the conditions changed.
Acidity, sugar types, the presence of oils, etc all had an effect: organisms that were previously "symbiotic" turned to being competing for resources.
It just happens that the apple vinegar sitting on my counter is made by what "used to be" a very usual-looking scoby, but not anymore.