Kombucha

Kombucha is the Western name for sweetened tea that has been fermented using a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). You may have seen it in the store like this:

And it is expensive!

At our local herb shop (a real shop that sells just herbs), they offered a class on how to make Kombucha and supplied us with a start-up a kit: 2 jars (since both of us did it), black tea, cheesecloth for the cover, and the culture (or SCOBY).

Here is what we did:

We took our kit home and got everything ready. The culture is the white stuff in the bowl that looks like a bunch of fat. We also had our jar and bags of black tea.

We brewed the tea in some water with dissolved sugar. When it was cooled we added more cold water and then placed the cultures in the jars with the mixture.

Here is what it looked like.

We put our jars in a semi-open place not in the kitchen (you don't want the cooking odors to change the reactions in the Kombucha). I think we need another bookshelf! Can you find the clown?

Today our first batch was ready...it only took 2 weeks. It won't take as long once we have established cultures. We strained our finished product into this fancy maple syrup bottle. Nice isn't it!

As you can see, we already drank half the bottle! We love how it tastes and have enjoyed mixing it with juice and seltzer. Our instructor also suggested mixing it with liquor...it may defeat the health benefits, but it tastes delicious!