Brew Your Own Kombucha!
Kombucha tastes delicious and has some amazing health benefits and it's so easy to brew your own!
Kombucha is basically fermented sweet tea. I had no idea it was this easy to make cause it's not cheap to buy. BUT you do need some previously brewed, raw kombucha and a scoby (that contains all of the cultures, bacteria and yeast) to get started.
I got a kombucha kit from The Kombucha Shop with everything I needed to make my first batch and now I can become a kombucha master! ;) There's other options and you can even grow your own scoby if you really want to!
Steps to making your own kombucha:
1. Brew about 4 cups of plain black tea.
2. Dissolve in about 1/2 - 1 cups of sugar. This sugar is what the yeast feeds on!
3. Add the sugar/tea mix to your fermenting jar, ideally a gallon widemouth glass jar
4. Add another 4 cups of cold water
5. Add scoby & about a cup of raw kombucha from a previous batch (this will get the yeast and cultures brewing!)
6. Cover the jar with a cloth & set in a warm, undisturbed place
7. Let ferment for 1-2 weeks, depending upon the temperature
8. After about 10 days, I started using a small syringe to get a sample from below the scoby. If it's too sweet, let it ferment more.
9. When you're satisfied with the tartness - bottle and refrigerate!
You can also add fruit, etc to the kombucha after it is bottled and keep it out of the fridge to ferment more and gain flavor for a couple of days. But I like mine plain!
Scoby - you can use this for about 5-7 batches! Each time you use it a new layer will grow. When the scoby gets too thick or becomes discolored, it's time to cut off the old layers and discard.
I got about 7 bottles from my first batch of kombucha and immediately started a second batch with that scoby and a cup of my first batch of kombucha. So this kit and detailed instructions from The Kombucha Shop will pay for itself quickly!
Have you brewed your own kombucha? What's your favorite flavor to brew? For now, I'm on team plain!
PS - I provide affiliate links for products that I use and love and may get a small commission if you purchase through the links.