Kombucha

I wrote a few months ago that I was going to start making Kombucha and I was nervous about how it would turn out. These days besides a bit of water, Kombucha and Water Kefir are all I drink. I'm finally rid of soda in my life and I don't miss it a bit! Now when I drink kombucha I know I'm doing something good for my body instead of feeling guilty everytime I used to drink a soda. Kombucha is naturally carbonated and it is full of probiotics. My favorite way to flavor it is strawberry, but tonight I decided to try blueberry and raspberry for the first time. You can flavor it with whole fruit or juice, but I found that the whole fruit is better. I use frozen fruit for convenience. One thing I've learned is that this is pretty hard to mess up! The SCOBY, converts all the sugar into something that isn't bad for you. You add sugar for a "second" fermentation (or the fruit) to help with the carbonation.

-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.