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Kombucha is a fermented drink made from sweetened tea. To make it, you need a starter culture, tea, sugar, water, and a heatproof glass container. After brewing the tea, add the starter culture and let it steep for several days. The finished kombucha can be stored in bottles or jars. It’s important to keep everything clean to avoid bacterial contamination. The kombucha culture, or SCOBY, can be obtained from mail-order sources, local enthusiasts, or health food stores. After five days, taste the liquid to see if it’s ready to drink. Reserve some fluid and SCOBY for future batches.
Kombucha is a traditional fermented drink made from sweetened tea. The ingredients needed to make kombucha include a starter culture, tea, sugar, water, and a little liquid kombucha or apple cider vinegar. You will also need a heatproof glass container or large mason jar, a muslin cloth, a large rubber band, and bottles or jars to store the finished kombucha. You will make the kombucha by first brewing a strong tea and then adding the kombucha starter culture and letting the mixture steep for several days.
Any type of tea can be used to make kombucha, although the best quality teas can produce a superior tasting drink. Chinese black teas from the Yunnan province, as well as dark oolong teas, work well in kombucha. However, even standard black tea in tea bags works well. A more difficult item to come by is the kombucha culture, sometimes referred to as the mushroom or mother. Among kombucha makers, this culture is better known as a SCOBY, an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. There are several mail-order sources for SCOBY, though you can get one from a local kombucha enthusiast or health food store, too.
Before making kombucha, it is very important to make sure that your hands, utensils, and containers are all very clean. Bacterial contamination can ruin kombucha. To start the process, make a batch of sweet tea. Add three to four tea bags or teaspoons of loose leaf tea to two liters of very hot water. The water temperature should be boiling or near boiling if you are brewing black or dark oolong tea, slightly cooler for green tea. Add a cup of granulated sugar to the hot tea and stir. Let cool.
While the tea is brewing, add about 6 fluid ounces of kombucha or 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar to a glass bowl or container. Add the cooled sweet tea to the cider vinegar or kombucha liquid and then add the SCOBY. Cover the bowl with the muslin cloth and secure with a rubber band. This step is very important when making kombucha, as the cloth will protect the fermented kombucha from fruit flies. Place the container in a warm place and let it sit for at least five days.
After the tea has brewed for the recommended five days, you can taste the liquid to see if it’s ready to drink. Lift up the muslin cloth, you will notice a new SCOBY now covering the surface of the liquid and dip it into a spoon. As the days go by, the bacteria digest more and more sugar, so if you like your kombucha sweet, you’ll want to stop the fermentation sooner rather than later. When you are ready to pour the kombucha, wash your hands carefully and gently lift the SCOBY out of the bowl. Strain the liquid into storage bottles and tightly cap. Reserve approximately 6 ounces of fluid and place this fluid along with the SCOBY in a clean container, which should be opened periodically to release gas buildup. Keep this starter and SCOBY for when you or a friend want to make kombucha.
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