Monday, November 10, 2008

How to make Kombucha

I first heard about Kombucha when my good friend Mama K had me try a sip of hers at a health food store. At first sip "I was like GROSS that stuff is like pure vinegar!!!", I quickly got over it and turned into a Kombucha drinker. At $3 or more at a grocery store I knew it was a luxury that I couldn't afford to keep on so I started researching methods to make my own. What seemed the easiest (and also turned out to be the easiest for me) was to take a clean mason jar and pour a bottle of Kombucha in, cover with a cloth, secure with a rubber band and let sit for a week. Sure enough a Kombucha Culture or mother formed in about a week. Some people get them off of the internet or from people they know, I felt best about growing my own. It is a live culture so you do have to be careful. I would definitely recommend researching it if you choose to make your own.
Once I had the culture I made some strong black tea probably about 2-4 quarts of it (I also added some ginger tea). To that I added about a cup of sugar, this is what the culture "eats". I waited till this cooled and put it in a glass jar with the "mother" on top of it. Once this is done and covered with a cloth and rubber band I put it in a dark place for about a week or two.  When you do this a "daughter" is born which is basically another culture that you can give away or throw away.  You will get a new culture growing for every batch you make.


Some things to be careful about:
-Always use glass, wood or stainless steel with your Kombucha stay away from plastic.
-Make sure everything you use is sterilized.
-I had a problem with this attracting fruit flys but I scared them away with this
-I would recommend researching more on this as with any type of fermentation it can be dangerous if done incorrectly.

4 comments:

mama k said...

mine went to vinegary and I think I need to start over. I'm kinda over it. LOL I've only had one really good batch so far. I think it doesn't like my house.

Dirkey said...

I threw mine out the other day.
:)
But I'm glad I learned to make it to begin with so if I ever want it again I know how to make it.

Anonymous said...

Hey, you're awesome! Thank you :)

Dirkey said...

ha ha no problem :)