Hey everyone, today I will be doing a quick DIY post. Lately, I have been really into Kombucha, which is essentially fermented tea. Since it is fermented, it has probiotics, live enzymes, and phenols that offer various health benefits. The only problem with Kombucha...it can be pretty pricey if you constantly buy it at the local health store. I have the solution...DIY Kombucha that costs pennies on the dollar to make when compared to buying it retail. This post will only rely on making the SCOBY. Lets get to it...
What is SCOBY you ask? It is an acronym that stands for Symbiotic Culture of friendly Bacteria and Yeast. The SCOBY metabolizes the organic sugar and the caffeine in the green and black tea resulting in a beverage that contains billions of probiotics, vitamins such as B, C, amino acids and enzymes. It is an essential ingredient in making your own Kombucha. Without the SCOBY, all you are left with is sweetened tea.
First you are going to need a bottle of Kombucha. Your best bet is to buy a "Plain" flavor. I used GT's (pictured) for my personal DIY Kombucha. Each bottle contains very small amounts of living SCOBY that we can harvest and grow into our larger SCOBY. Then you are going to need 4 bags of black tea with caffeine (preferably organic), organic cane sugar, and a Glass Mason Jar.
1st step, bring 3-4 cups of water to a boil. Next, insert 4 black tea bags and 1/2 cup of cane sugar, and let steep. Once it cools to a warm temperature, transfer to your glass mason jar and add your "Plain" flavored Kombucha. Cover the mason jar with a cheese cloth or any other cover that allows the tea to breathe, but keeps out flies. And set aside in a dark cupboard for 4 weeks.
After a week or two you will see the SCOBY start to form at the top of the mason jar. You want it to have cloudy, white, rubbery consistency, and there should be NO mold. After about 4 weeks your SCOBY will be large enough to ferment an entire 1 gallon batch of your own Kombucha.
Well that is all for now. In a later post I will teach you how to make a whole gallon of Kombucha for primary fermentation, and then how to give it some flavor and fizz after a secondary fermentation. Good luck DIYers...