-Amanda
Kombucha
about 1 gallon of filtered water
6-8 black tea bags, preferably organic, for the healthy of the SCOBY
1 cup of organic white sugar, turbanido or rapadura. Succant isn't preferred.
1-2 cups of plain kombucha from previous batch (your SCOBY will come with some.)
1 SCOBY, acquired on line from a place like Cultures for Health or from a friend.
Make a batch of sweet tea, using the filtered water. A Brita filter system works fine. You want something that will remove the choline, or it will kill the SCOBY. When tea is room temperature, add SCOBY and Kombucha from previous batch. Cover with a tightly woven cloth (I used a t-shirt doubled over) and a rubberband. Fruit flies and gnats are attracted to kombucha I hear and you don't want them laying eggs in your SCOBY! I haven't had any problems, but it isn't exactly the season for them either.
Leave your covered Kombucha in a darkish place where it will be undisturbed for 7 - 10 days. Then bottle it. You can add fruit when you bottle it or add 1 tsp sugar per cup for plain Kombucha. If you use fruit, I'd say 1-2 whole strawberries per 16 oz. So it isn't much. If you use fruit juice you are only going to use about 1 oz to flavor 15 oz of Kombucha, it isn't much. Let sit at room temperature for 1-3 days (you can go longer, it will just get stronger.) Refrigerate and enjoy!
Top view, SCOBY floating on top of tea (now Kombucha.) By the way if your SCOBY sinks, that is okay!
The SCOBY will regenerate after 7 days. You can kind of see the old SCOBY hanging down, and the new one is on top. The old SCOBY you can give to a friend or put in your compost pile. (I throw mine in my garden)
My "new" SCOBY, the old one is floating in the Kombucha still. Holes are okay.
My bottled Kombucha, now sitting for it's second fermentation. I did blueberry, 2 strawberries and a raspberry. Sometimes I bottle it in individual bottles using old store bought Kombucha bottles, old beer bottles or swing top bottles. (I bought a beer capper at Amazon for $15.) This time I just poured it in old yogurt containers, old juice bottles and a pickle bottle! Don't store Kombucha in plastic, it will kill the SCOBY.
UPDATE 3/17/11: My SCOBY (also known as a Mother) gave birth... I gave my first SCOBY away to my friend Wendy so that she can now make Kombucha at her house. Read more about her Kombucha project at her blog: Just One Momma.
How many times can you use the scoby, just once?
ReplyDeleteOh no! That is the most awesome part of Kombucha... it is SO cheap to make. The SCOBY regenerates every single time you make it. You can reuse it to double your batch or you can give it away, compost it or whatever and start a new batch with the baby.
ReplyDeleteThank You so much! I had bought some fine olive oil and the batch was around $16 to produce. It was my second (chipotle) mayo batch and I actually had to let it sit for a ew hours as I had other plans and it still came out great, actually even tastier then the first batch! You are a mayo saver!!
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