Making Kombucha

In the last 6 months or so my husband and I have become aware of Kombucha and started to consume it on a daily basis.

It is a fermented drink made from tea and sugar which carbonates naturally, so it is a fizzy and refreshing alternative to soft drink AND it's good for you!

Kombucha is a probiotic and many people believe that it has a range of health benefits, from reducing the grey in your hair to boosting your immune system and aiding liver function.

It is about $8-10 for a 700ml bottle at health food shops, so I decided to try making it myself.

I mentioned this to the lovely people at Peninsula Fresh Organics and they happily gave me tiny SCOBY from their brew to grow, though you can leave a bit of kombucha in the bottom of a bottle and it will start to form solid parts, these are tiny new scobys forming.

What is a SCOBY? It is an acronym- Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast- anyone who has worked in a bar will have seen (and smelled) the beer yeast forming into a scoby, but this SCOBY is formed using tea and sugar which is then allowed to ferment.

I kept my tiny SCOBY in a container with about a cup of kombucha, in a warm, dark place for about two months and after that time something that looked a bit like a jellyfish began to form.

I then looked up recipes for Kombucha on the internet- this is an amalgamation of the info I found:

 You need:
- 1 SCOBY
- 1 cup of kombucha
- 2 large (2litre or more) glass jars- cleaned and sterilized
- 5-6 organic teabags (green or black)
- 1 cup of organic sugar (I used Panela, so my kombucha turned brown)
- 5 cups of water
- a piece of cloth to cover the jar and string or a rubber band to secure the cloth

Instructions:
- Boil 4 cups of water
- Add the teabags and let them steep for 15 minutes
- Add the sugar and stir until dissolved
- Add another cup of water
- Leave mixture for about an hour or until completely cooled
- Place the SCOBY and the ready-made cup of kombucha in a glass jar
- When the tea and sugar mixture is cool, pour it into the jar as well
- Place the cloth cover over the top of the jar and secure
- Leave undisturbed in a warm, dark place (like a cupboard near the stove) for 7 days- must be kept out of sunlight.
- Test your Kombucha after 7 days by dipping in a straw, holding your finger over the end, and drawing out some of the liquid.
- If it is too sweet, leave it for another day or two.
- Don't leave it too long or it will turn bitter.
- Pour into a bottle, leaving the scoby and a cup of kombucha in the jar for the next batch, and store in the fridge.
- Consume about 200ml per day
- Kombucha is naturally fermented product that will become alcoholic if you leave it for too long...