Homemade Kombucha Tea

Kombucha

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Very briefly for those that do not already know, Kombucha is a slightly fizzy, fermented sweet tea that is made from a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast, known as a SCOBY for short. You could also think of it as an alien if you'd like, or a jellyfish, because it happens to look like both of those things.

Kombucha is associated with all sorts of health claims, but I personally don't put much stock in them since there are very few scientific studies on it. My understanding though, is that the SCOBY contains probiotic bacteria in it, which may be good for gut health.

I mostly like to make kombucha because I like the tastes and I have fun doing it. If I do get some sort of health benefit from drinking it, than I just see that as an added bonus.

As a side note on the subject, most of the store bought kombuchas have no health properties whatsoever and are really nothing more than expensive sweet tea. For safety reasons, commercial kombucha is often pasteurized in order to kill off any unwanted bacteria that may harm the consumer, a process which inadvertently also kills off all of the probiotic bacteria as well... so much for your gut health claims I suppose. The pasteurization process also makes it impossible to grow a SCOBY at home from the drink, which is just another benefit to the companies that produce it. If you are looking for kombucha with its probiotic bacteria still in tact than you generally need to buy raw organic kombucha that is unpasteurized. You can also use that type to make your own SCOBY at home by adding some sugar to it and letting it ferment in a cupboard for a few weeks.

I've been making Kombucha off and on for years but haven't done so in a long time since we had been living in France. Now that we are home, I decided to get back into making it. I acquired a baby SCOBY (a small layer taken from the main culture) from a family friend and finished my first batch a few days ago.

Here is my recipe and directions for making Kombucha at home. I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients

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The ingredients for this are pretty simple and can be adjusted easily as needed. I used the following to make approximately 1L of Kombucha:

• 1 liter of water
• 4 bags of Green or Black tea
• 4 tsp of sugar
• 1 SCOBY
• 1/2 cup koombacha starter liquid (leftover Kombucha from previous batch).

Note: You can adjust the water to tea ratio based on your preferences but in general, the stronger you make the tea, the more flavorful your kombucha will turn out. Just add 1 tsp or so of sugar per tea bag (maybe a little more if you add a lot of extra water).

Directions

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The directions for making the Koombacha are super simple as well. In fact the only hard part about making it is obtaining a baby SCOBY. You really need to know someone who makes it at home and get one off them. You can also try to make one by buying raw and unpasteurized kombucha from the store and growing one from the liquid - as mentioned above. Some people sell SCOBY's online, so that could be an option as well.

Start by brewing a strong tea by adding your tea bags to hot water. I add in the sugar at this point as well to fully dissolve it in the warm liquid.

Keep in mind that your SCOBY is alive so hot water will most definitely kill it.

Let the tea cool down to room temperature before adding in the SCOBY. You can speed up the cool down process by putting the tea outside in the winter, like I did.

When the sweetened tea has cooled, add your slippery and slimy alien, I mean SCOBY, to the tea. I use wooden chop sticks here because I don't want to transfer any unwanted bacteria to it from my hands. I was also told a long time ago that metal is bad for SCOBY's so I try to never use any metal at any point of the process.

Add about 1/2 a cup (approx.) of starter liquid to the tea. Starter liquid is just leftover Kombucha from your last batch or in my case the liquid that the babies were sitting in.

Cover the jar with a breathable material and an elastic band. I use paper towel but you could also use a clean cloth or cheese cloth. Never use a tight fitting lid because your kombucha could explode. The sugar in the liquid gets fermented by the SCOBY, which in turn produces carbon dioxide (CO2). If enough CO2 builds up, the container could burst and make a mess of your kitchen.

Store the container in a dark cupboard for 10-14 days. The mixture must be stored at room temperature in order to work because that is what the bacteria needs to stay active. Colder temperatures, like those of the refrigerator, will make the SCOBY go dormant, and it will not ferment any of the sugar. This is a good thing because after the kombucha is ready you can store it in the fridge and not have to worry about growing another SCOBY in your drink. You can also store any baby's in the fridge as well.

I allowed mine to ferment for 10 days but I'm going to allow my next to go for 14 to see if there is any sort of difference.

Now lets take a look at our SCOBY.

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Strange looking as expected, but healthy nonetheless. The SCOBY will get bigger and more robust after each batch of kombucha.

Next I transferred the finished kombucha to another glass container, in this case a cleaned out wine bottle. You could filter it through a cheese cloth or plastic strainer if you wanted to, to strain any floating bits. Mine was pretty clear though so I didn't bother.

I put on a (somewhat) pressurized cap in order to maintain the drinks fizziness. This one is cheap, so I'm hoping that some of the built up air will escape naturally through its seals. If there are any remaining sugars left in the beverage then the fermentation process may continue even in the fridge. Just keep that in mind as it could still burst if the pressure gets too great. If you open the container each day to have a drink though, then it should be fine.

You can add extra flavors as well, like lemon or raspberry, but I like it plain so the lemons in the photo are just for show.

I would recommend only drinking a little of the kombucha each day at first to see how your body reacts to the probiotics. Think about what probiotics are associated with and what gut health generally means to say... you don't want to over do it in the beginning.

Anyway, I found the drink to be sweet and flavorful and very refreshing with a nice amount of fizz. I didn't notice any acidity or vinegar flavors, which I was a little surprised by since vinegar is often produced during the fermentation process. I like a little vinegar to be present myself so I am going to go for a longer fermentation for my next batch.

Well that's it for now. I hope that you enjoyed the recipe. Let me know your thoughts in the comments or if you've ever made kombucha yourself at home. Until next time, thanks for stopping by.