Kombucha (Larry Stein) Kombucha is a drink made from sweetened tea. You can make this with black or green tea as a base. Kombucha is another of the probiotic drinks that are easy to make and offer many variations to suit your taste. Once fermented you can bottle it for carbonation or drink it still You can mix with juices to add some flavor and cut down on the tartness. Like Kefir, Kombucha requires the help of a group of bacteria and yeasts called a SCOBY SCOBY Symbiotic Culture (community) of Bacteria and Yeasts A Scoby is described as a mother, mushroom, starter, blob.. It replicates as it matures with multiple batches and produces “babies” These babies are the basis for a new starter. You can’t make one from scratch. (sort of) Like Kefir grains you must buy one or get one from a friend. What equipment do we need to make Kombucha Container: The mother will grow to whatever shape the container is, so pick something that’s convenient. I like the Droppar from Ikea, $10, straight sides, lid, hold 3+ quarts Strainer, stainless steel or food grade plastic pH meter or strips if you want to test the final pH Funnel Bottles to store the final product. Flip tops work great. How to make a batch of Kombucha The Scoby feeds on a mixture of tea and sugar. The tea provides some of the nutrients and tannins that are needed. The sugar is food. Plain sugar works fine but you can use other types. Do not use honey. A kombucha Scoby cannot process the sugars in honey. You need another type of Scoby for this. More later. Recipe for a 3 Quart Batch Bring 2 Qts of water to a boil. Let boil for 5 minutes then turn off. Add ½ Cup of sugar for each Qt of water (1 ½ C in this case) Stir until dissolved Add your tea. The amount will depend on how strong you like the tea flavor and tannin. I generally use 10 bags or more of Irish Black Tea or green tea. There is no absolute amount. Adjust to taste. Cool to room temperature. If making your first batch add ¼ C of apple cider vinegar to acidify. If making a subsequent batch then add 2 cups of the prior batch. Add your SCOBY, cover and wait Fermenting It will take from 7 to 30 days for your kombucha to be ready. Don’t bother tasting for the first week. After that you can insert a straw under the Scoby or use a spoon to get a sample. Taste every few days until you get the tartness you’re looking for. Ideally you want a pH of 2.4-4 in order to have a safe drink that will not promote the growth of bad bacteria. Finishing There are many ways to finish the fermented Kombucha. When done, remove the Scoby and set in a bowl. Pour about 1 ½ cups of the finished kombucha on top of this. You can then ladle the kombucha into flip top bottles. If not adding anything to the kombucha then leave a little headspace. Seal the bottle and store at room temp for a 3-7 days. The fermentation will continue and develop some carbonation. If you want this to be still then just put in the fridge. Do not open the carbonated bottle at room temp! It may make a mess. Cool the carbonated kombucha in the fridge and enjoy. More on Finishing Kombucha is a great vehicle for trying different flavors. The ones you’ll try tonight include one or more additions of: Ginger Cranberry juice Orange juice Raspberry juice Pineapple juice Pomegranate juice You only need about 10-20% of the juice for flavor. You don’t want to lower the acidity too much. Experiment a bit. Propagating your SCOBY As your Scoby grows it will thicken. Eventually it will start to peel away like 2 pancakes. At this point go ahead and separate the layers. It’s ok if one tears a bit, it will fill in. You now have two Scobys. Give one away, make two batches, or store it. More later on storing. “Making” a Starter Scoby As mentioned earlier you cannot “make” a Scoby, but you can encourage one to grow. The green tea Scoby was created this way. Get a bottle of commercial Kombucha at the store. Make sure it contains live probiotics. I like the Synergy brand. Make a small 2 cup sweet tea starter. Drink ½ the kombucha and pour the rest into the starter. Cover and treat like a regular batch. After a few days you’ll see a film on top of the liquid. This is the Scoby starting. After a few weeks you’ll have a new Scoby that you can use on a lager batch. Just watch that no mold forms or for any off odors. That could indicate an infection and you should toss it and start over. Storing Your SCOBY If storing for a very short time, like a week, then put the Scoby in a plastic container with 1 a cup or so of the fermented kombucha. You can store this in the fridge for about a week before making more. For longer storage, 6 weeks or less, just make a new batch and let it sit. This may turn very sour but it will survive. For longer storage use the above technique but replace some of the liquid with a sweetened tea every few weeks. If you’re not going to use it for a few months bring it to a meeting and let someone adopt it. Some final Kombucha notes There is a lot of flexibility in making kombucha. There’s no absolute as long as you use tea and sugar. You can adjust the tea strength as you like. Add fruits or fruit juice. Blend away! You do want to make sure the final product is acidic enough to discourage the growth of unwanted bacteria. Have fun. Jun Jun is very much like Kombucha It’s not very common and I just heard about it a month ago. The main difference is that the sugar comes from honey and not simple sugars. This requires a different SCOBY. A kombucha Scoby cannot process the more complex sugars in honey. The Difference in Scobys The kombucha Scoby grows in homogeneous layers like pancakes. The Jun Scoby is more vertical, like a condo building. When separating a Jun Scoby you cut it like toast. Making Jun You make it the same way as Kombucha but with the following differences: Instead of sugar use ¼ cup of honey per quart of tea. Uh…that’s the only difference I can think of.