Kombucha Kombucha.....

I finally did it.

I made kombucha. What is kombucha?

Good question. A month ago I had no idea either.

Kombucha is  a fermented sweet tea health drink.

Weird? Yep. Tasty and good for you? Yep.

Kombucha is known for its pro-biotic and detoxifying qualities. There are many other health claims, but as to how accurate they are that is up to you to decide. I personally enjoy it. It keeps you, ehem.... going. You know, regularly....

And it is not sweet. I enjoy a good bubbly beverage but get tired of sweet stuff. This , like my husband said is good if you are a beer drinker.

It is not an alcoholic drink. Even though the process is very similar to that of beer making. (According to wikipedia it has an alcohol content similar to that of a non-alcoholic beer. Which is less then you get from your morning mouthwash).

My quest to make and try kombucha started when I first heard of it here...

Seeing as I prefer to make things myself, and can not see spending 3.50$ for a 16 oz bottle every time I want to drink it I had to go about making my own, which includes growing my own scoby.

S-C-O-B-Y- Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast.

Here is the scoby. Icky looking, huh?

The baby scoby

The scoby is necessary to make kombucha. I did have to buy a bottle of raw, organic commercially produced kombucha to first of all, try it and make sure I would drink it. Then to get the strands of the culture to grow my own scoby.

How to grow a kombucha scoby-


Buy, or inherit a "baby" scoby from someone who just made a batch of kombucha (there is a new one every time)

Or like I did, buy some commercially made kombucha, raw and organic, original flavor. Pour into a jar, add some sweet tea. Cover with a  cloth and leave at room temperature until its grown. Its neat to watch the process.

How to make Kombucha-


Now that you have your scoby, you can begin making kombucha!

Brew a gallon of tea (black tea, or maybe green. Stick with the basics first).

Sweeten with 1 cup sugar. Allow to cool completely.  Put in a food grade container (A very clean, sanitized container). I used my 2 gallon crock. A large thermos could work also. Then add your scoby. Cover with a cloth to keep out dust and other undesirables. Do not cover air tight. The fermentation process produces gas with could cause it to bust if covered air tight.

Let ferment somewhere undisturbed for a week or two.

Gather together some bottles. Glass or plastic, but make sure they previously held a carbonated beverage. Or else..... no explosions of stickiness please :)

Make sure the bottles are clean too,  by the way.

Pour liquid in bottles leaving in about an inch of head space. Move the scoby to a cloth covered jar with some fresh sweet tea in it. That will feed the scoby until you are ready to brew some again.

Add either a teaspoon of sugar (no more) or a tablespoon of your preferred juice (I used grape and much preferred it to the plain. It just turned out better) for a 1 liter bottle. More for larger bottles, less for smaller.

Leave bottles to the secondary fermentation in room temps for a few days. Then stick in the fridge, cool and enjoy! I usually strain mine when pouring it from the bottle through a fine metal strainer to filter out any baby scobys that are floating around. They wont hurt you, but I prefer not to drink them.

It takes a few sips to grow accustomed to the vinegary bite of the drink, but I have come to really enjoy it!