Kombucha Recipe
You will need:
- 3 quarts of purified water
- 1 ½ C. White Sugar, organic is best
- 5-6 teabags or 2 Tablespoons loose tea, organic is best. You can use all black tea or 1/2 black and 1/2 green. My family prefers half black and half green tea. Make sure your black tea is not decaf! Kombucha needs caffeine.
- Container that will hold close to 3 ½ quarts of water (glass is best, but plastic will work as well. No metal. Kombucha does not like metal)
- Thin piece of clean cloth to cover your container & something to secure it with (i.e. rubber band)
- Kombucha scoby with a little tea (check on craigslist, and local facebook groups or see my instructions on how to grow your own scoby from a bottle of store bought kombucha
Bring water to a boil. Add in 1.5 cups white sugar and boil for 5 minutes or until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and add in tea. Let the tea steep in the water for 10 minutes. Remove bags or filter out the loose tea. Pour your tea into your container and let it cool to room temperature (this will take a while) and cover with thin cloth to keep dust, bugs, etc... out. Once your tea has cooled gently pour in your kombucha scoby and tea and stir with a clean, non-metal spoon. Cover your container with one layer of a freshly cleaned thin cloth and secure with a rubber band/tape around the opening to keep out dirt and bugs and such. Leave it on your kitchen counter for 7-14 days. You will notice a thin (or thick if you got a good one) scoby has formed on the surface of your tea. After 7 days start sampling your kombucha (carefully, so as not to contaminate the remaining tea) until you find it has the flavor you like. The longer it sits the more 'vinegary' it will be. In our climate and this particular home, we like it at 10 days. Our last home we liked it at 12 days.
Now you have two options:
- Bottle it and add flavor (if desired) and refrigerate/drink your kombucha,
- Do a 2nd ferment to increase the carbonation. (This is what we do!) To do this, pour your Kombucha into several bottles (we re-use Grolsh beer bottles). Add flavoring (we like 4 frozen raspberries per bottle), cap and let stand on your counter for 2 days. Then refrigerate and drink. Your kombucha will now be more bubbly! Other flavor options to try are fresh grated ginger, lemon juice, cut up peaches or apples, dried cherries
Make sure you save 2 Cups of tea along with your scoby for your next brew. It’s best to start your new batch soon, so the scoby doesn’t run out of sugar from sitting. You will also have a new baby along with your original mother (who will be much bigger). Gently separate the mother and baby, and keep your favorite and toss or give away the other (be sure to include 2 C. of tea with your give away) or make 2 batches of tea this time!
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