Kombucha is soured and lightly carbonated fermented beverage, traditionally made from sweetened black or green tea. Its origins is believed to go back to Manchuria(now North-Eastern China) around 200 BCE. Historically, kombucha has been consumed in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China and parts of eastern Russia.

Kombucha is produced by a collective of microbes that works in sync to first turn sugar into alcohol, then alcohol into acetic acid(same as vinegar acid). As the microbes perform their duties, they form a visible raft that is called “mother” or “SCOBY”(Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast).

Kombucha is a Potential Source of Probiotics, contains Antioxidants and may help protect against cancer.

This recipe will teach you how to make your own SCOBY and kombucha as a finished product. The longer you ferment kombucha, the more acidic it grows. There are two recipes to follow. It will take 4-6 weeks to make this refreshing drink. Taste the kombucha often. Once it’s reached your ideal balance of sweetness and acidity, you are ready to bottle it.

It is a great refreshing beverage as well as lively ingredient in marinades or vinaigrettes or interesting substitute for white wine or Champagne in sauces.

Note: The liquid used to grow scoby will be strong and too vinegary to drink. Save 500ml of the liquid to make kombucha and the rest you can use as a natural plant fertilizer. I personally use it for my apple tree which seems to keep away all those annoying pests.

MAKING SCOBY RECIPE:

Yield: 1 Kombucha SCOBY

Time: 1-4 weeks

Equipment: 2 L saucepan, 2.5 L sterilized glass jar, linen towel, rubber band and wooden spoon

Ingredients:

• 1500 ml filtered water

• 90g white sugar

• 4 tea bags of black tea

• approximately 400-500ml Raw Unflavored Kombucha from the health store

Instructions:

1. Boil water in the saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and add sugar. Mix sugar until completely dissolved.

2. Add the tea and let it steep until tea has cool down. Remove and discard the tea bags.

3. Pour tea into the sterilized jar, and top up with full bottle of the raw kombucha. Stir it gently.

4. Cover the jar with linen or cotton cloth and secure it with rubber band.

5. Leave the mixture to ferment for 1-4 weeks (depending on room temperature), ideally at slightly warmer than room temperature (21 °C is perfect). Kitchen is where I keep mine. Away from direct sunlight. If your house is very bright, wrap the entire jar with the thick towel. Scoby will not form if the jar is exposed to sunlight.

6. In the first week, bubbles will form. As time progresses, the bubbles will connect into a thin and transparent film.

7. The film will thicken into a solid jelly and it will look like a floating raft. When the SCOBY is about 0.7 cm thick, it is ready to be used to make kombucha tea.

   Note: Your first scoby might look small and that is Ok! It will grow with time.

Making Kombucha: to buy two 5 liter jars

Yield: approximately 4200 ml

Time: 7 to 10 days

Equipment: Stock pot, 5 L glass jar, linen towel with rubber band an8 x 500ml glass jars with lids and small funnel

Ingredients:

• 3500ml filtered water

• 220g granulated white sugar

• 8 tea bags black tea

• 500ml the starter tea or from your last batch of kombucha

• 1 scoby

Instructions:

1. Boil water in the saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and add sugar. Mix sugar until completely dissolved.

2. Add the tea and let it steep until tea has cool down. Remove and discard the tea bags

3. Pour tea into the sterilized jar, and top up with the starter kombucha. Stir it with the wooden spoon and add the scoby.

4. Cover the jar with a thick layer of cotton or linen towel to ensure fruit files don’t get to it. Secure the mouth of the jar with the rubber band.

5. Let it ferment for 7-10 days. Keep the jar at room temperature and out of direct sunlight.

6. Check the kombucha and the scoby. It is not unusual for the scoby to float at the top or bottom. Each time a new scoby attaches itself to its mother or sometimes will separate and float on its own. You might also see brown bits floating beneath the scoby. All that fermentation creates bubbles around the scoby. This is all normal healthy fermentation.

7. Once it has reached your ideal balance of sweetness and acidity, you are ready to bottle it. If you are not sure you can use pH strips to check acidy (optional).

   I personally like kombucha to be at 3.5-4 acidy level.

8. Measure out 500ml kombucha from this batch you made and set it aside for the next batch.

9. In meantime, prepare another batch of black tea as per recipe to make your next batch of kombucha. With clean hands, transfer SCOBY from the kombucha and place it on a clean plate and prepare glass jar for a new batch of kombucha. Start your new batch by adding cold sweetened tea, scoby along with 500ml of reserved kombucha( as per recipe)

10. Strain the remaining fermented kombucha and pour it into bottles using small funnel. Leave 1.3 cm space in each bottle. Cover jars with lids and refrigerate in order to stop fermentation and carbonation. Consume kombucha within a month.

11. If you wish to add a bit fruity flavor to kombucha continue to next step for making strawberry flavored kombucha before you bottle kombucha.

Making Strawberry Flavored Kombucha:

Yield: approximately 4200 ml

Time: 24-48 hours

Equipment: 5 L glass jar, linen towel with rubber band and 8x 500ml glass jars with lids and small funnel

Ingredients:

• 500ml chopped fresh strawberries from local farm Uncle Scott's Farm

Instructions:

1. Add chopped fruits into remaining kombucha in the jar. Make sure that you have reserved 500ml of Kombucha and removed SCOBY. You don’t want to contaminate any of these two essential ingredients that are crucial for continuation of kombucha fermentation.

2. Cover jar with fruits and kombucha with the thick linen towel and secure it with rubber band.

3. Infuse kombucha with strawberry for 24-48 hours.

4. Strain it and bottle it. Leave 1.3 cm space in each bottle. Cover jars with lids and refrigerate in order to stop fermentation. Drink kombucha within a month.

Cheers!