What is Kombucha?
A fermented tea with probiotic benefits. A refreshing, mildly acidic drink with endless potential of flavors for your delight.
And why?
It’s not only about keeping up with the latest fermented foods trends, more and more studies have showed probiotics — which are usually beneficial bacteria — provide all sorts of powerful benefits for your body and brain.
Easy start:
What you need:
1. Scoby, with starter liquid that comes with the scoby ( After your first batch, save some kombucha as backslop for the next start)
2. A glass or plastic jar, 1L or larger
3. Tea. Black, green, woolong, puer or robust tea is a good start, especially the first two. Avoid flavored tea which likely with oil in it that the scoby may not like.
4. Optional: A flip-top bottle or a bottle that closed tight
Recipe: makes 2 litres
240g sugar ( 12%)
6 tea bags or 3 tsb of loose leaves
1.76 kilograms water
Scoby
200g of back slop kombucha or the liquid comes with scoby
Instructions:
Step 1: Boil a small amount of water in sause pan to dissolve the sugar and infuse the tea.
You only need sugar / water ration 1:1.5 to fully dissolve sugar, so no need to heat up all the water and wait for it to cool down -Scoby can’t survive temperature above 60C/140F.
Step 2:
Leave for 6-10 mins to infuse. Remove and discard the teabags without squeezing them.
Step 3:
Add the remaining water. The temperature of the mixture should be lower than 30C/85F.
Step 4:
Add the scoby and its starter liquid, leaving a minimum of 5cm space at the top of the jar.
Step 5:
Cover the jar with a cloth or kitchen paper so the scoby can ‘breathe’. Secure with an band and label the jar with the date and its contents.
Patiently waiting 🙂
Allow the mixture to sit undisturbed at 18-30C/ 65F-85F out of direct sunlight, for 7-10 days. Scoby floating to the top and bubbling is a good sign as in picture. The higher the temperature the faster the process. It also has an impact on the taste.
Taste:
You can start tasting it daily from D5 or D6. That’s when beneficial bacterial at a good amount so it’s READY to drink or move on to the flavor adding stage if desired. The longer the kombucha ferments, the less sweet and more vinegary it will taste.
2nd fermentation:
Adding flavors and bottled
The fun part starts! You can add any kind of fruit, herbs and spices to the kombucha. As fermentation is still going, by filling it in a sealed bottle, you can trap the carbon and turn it into a fuzzy flavorsome drink. Takes 2-3 days in room temperature.
Here below, four of my favorite recipes: for 0.5L bottle
-Ginger and/or kurkuma 10g
-Hibiscus Ginger (no need to chop the Hibiscus)
-Rosemary, 10 stems (optional : apple juice or beet juice and ginger)
-Blueberry, a handful (optional : pitch of chilly or ginger)
-Mango and mint
-blood orange, rose, and hibiscus
The finer you cut the fruit the faster and more intense of it tastes. If use chunks of fresh fruit, try add about a quarter of the bottle. If use juice or pruee, reduce to 1/5. But it’s all up to your taste and experimental!
Feel free to comment if you have question or anything. Enjoy! x