Kombucha how to!!!

Kombucha is an amazing drink! It is made from fermented tea and it tastes SO GOOD! For a while I had been wanting to make my own, and I have finally been able to do it!!! So, if you love kombucha like me, here is how YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN, too! 🙂

What you need:

To make your first batch of kombucha, all you need is:

(Note: this recipe makes one gallon of kombucha. If you want less, remember to make the measurements smaller.)

14 cups of water

1 cup of sugar (and yes, you need the sugar. The scoby eats it all, though, so it doesn’t affect the end result.)

8 bags of green or black tea (I like to use a mixture of both)

2 cups of already finished kombucha

1 scoby (THEY ARE SO CUTE, by the way. XD)

(You’ll also need a big pan, a wooden or plastic spoon, a gallon glass jar and some paper towels.)

Note: you want to avoid prolonged contact of your scoby with metal.

How to make it:

First you want to make the base tea. You do this by putting the water in a pan and bringing it to a boil. Once it has reached a boil, remove from heat and add the tea bags and the sugar.

Cool the mixture. It can take a LONG time. If you want to speed it up, put it in the fridge or give it an ice bath.

Once it is cool, add the 2 cups of kombucha. This will make the liquid acidic and will prevent unfriendly bacteria from taking up residence in the first few days of fermentation. 🙂 )

Strain out the tea bags and then pour the mixture into a CLEAN glass jar. Then gently add the scoby. (BTW, the scobies feel so WEIRD! I absolutely love touching them! XD)

WHAT A CUTE LITTLE SCOBY!!! *Screams* They can look pretty weird sometimes, but they are usually fine unless you see mold growing on them. If you see that, you’ll have to get rid of the little colony. 😦 *Sobs*

Once the scoby is safely in the jar of tea, put a layer of paper towels on top and secure them with a rubber band. Set the jar at room temperature in a dark place where it won’t get bumped. Then you can forget about it for a while. 😉 After 7 – 10 days, you can start tasting it. (The longer you leave it, the more it will begin to taste like vinegar.) When it gets to the flavor that you want, you can #1 drink it right away #2 give it a second ferment.

How to do a second ferment:

Doing this will add carbonation to your kombucha and it is really easy to do.

After it has reached the flavor that you desire, pour it into bottles (saving out 2 cups for your next batch of kombucha) and then leave it for 1-3 days. (This is the time when you can also add different flavorings) After that store it in the fridge and ENJOY it!

To make another batch of kombucha:

Pretty much follow the steps above. Clean out your jar in between batches and make sure everything stays really clean. 🙂 ENJOY!!!! 🙂

~Hattush