A Google search for the words “Lindsay Lohan kombucha” brings up a glut of articles and blog posts from news sites like HuffingtonPost, TMZ and New York Daily News with titles like “Did Kombucha Tea Set Off Lindsay Lohan’s SCRAM?” and “Lindsay Lohan boozing it up with Kombucha tea?!” The articles point to a June 6 incident when the actress’s legally ordered alcohol monitoring anklet, or “SCRAM” device, which monitors alcohol consumption through sweat, went off during an after-party for the MTV Movie Awards, automatically triggering a warrant for her arrest. Lohan, who is on probation for a 2007 DUI conviction and barred from booze, vehemently denied drinking alcohol but can quite regularly be found clutching a bottle of kombucha. Though she never blamed the tea specifically for the ankle device’s reading and was later cleared by a judge, the timing of the violation and the FDA’s interest in kombucha’s alcohol content was too much for the scandal-starved blogosphere to let slip by. For a time even the break room at the downtown Santa Cruz New Leaf sported a photo of the troubled actress with the words “kombucha killer” scrawled across it. Lohan’s manager Jason Weinberg did not return calls seeking comment, but New Leaf manager Amber Willis was happy to weigh in.
“It’s a pretty crazy story,” she says, fighting off giggles. “I’m really not sure if it’s true, but you can see where it would come from.”
Whether the Parent Trap actress-turned-cocaine connoisseur-and-spray-tan-saleswoman played any part in the government’s decision to investigate kombucha, the FDA wouldn’t say. And while kombucha makers like GT Dave of the uber-popular GT brand says he hopes to have products back on shelves in “a matter of weeks,” other more dire prognoses are offered by consumers.
“The companies need to hurry up and get this thing sorted out,” says Jeremy Blevin, a shopper at Staff of Life who’s come to pick through the remains of the kombucha stash. “Because if the government actually makes a recall, who knows when we’ll see it again.”
