Kombucha is a fermented drink made from sugar-sweetened black tea. If you buy it commercially, it’s pricey! Fortunately, it’s super easy to make so let’s talk about homemade kombucha. How do you start? First, you need a SCOBY. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria & Yeasts. It’s this weird-rubbery-pancake-floating thing that consumes the sugar in the tea mixture and creates the fermented end-product of kombucha. The bigger your SCOBY, the more “fuel” (sugar) you need for the same fermentation time. Temperature also affects fermentation time. It happens faster in warmer temps and slower in cooler temps. I started with a tiny little SCOBY that formed in a batch of kombucha a friend gave me. It was just a small disc about the size of a half dollar. He had given me some and we really enjoyed the it, so I was saving the rest. I asked my friend how to make more and he said “just feed it sweet tea!”. I needed amounts and details so, off I went to the internet and here we are a couple of years later, still drinking it from the original batch!

You need a vessel in which to brew your kombucha. I have a 1.5 gallon glass container with a dispenser at the bottom and a lid. It came from our Adequate Wal-Mart. You can use almost any glass/clay/crock but nothing plastic or stainless. It provides us with about 1 gallon of kombucha every 4-5 days. I leave it on my kitchen counter or you can put it in a dark pantry. Just make sure it’s not in bright light or direct sunlight. On “harvesting” day, I take my SCOBY out of the vessel and slide it onto a large plate.

Then, I pour off the kombucha into a gallon bowl with a pour spout. There’s usually somewhere between 1-2 cups of left-over kombucha at the bottom that will be somewhat cloudy and has sediment that I pour into another glass jar and I save that as my “starter” for the next batch. I pour the kombucha into quart jars and lid tightly and these go into the fridge until we are ready to drink. You can drink it room temp but we prefer it cold. Then, I wash my vessel (the container NOT the SCOBY!) with soap and warm water and let it dry. To feed my kombucha, I use a strong black tea made of a 1 gallon tea bag and 1 cup of white sugar. I use warm-to-hot water, about 2 cups, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Then, I add cold water up to about 3.5 cups total to cool it somewhat before adding my big gallon tea bag. (Adding the tea bag when the water is hot can make your tea cloudy.) I will make this early in the day so it has plenty of time to steep and provide a richer tea flavor for my kombucha. So, into the clean, empty vessel goes the cooled, strong black tea, my starter liquid from the previous batch, and then about 12 more cups of filtered water. I take the SCOBY off the plate and slide it in on top and lid it.

Then, it goes back into its happy little spot until the next harvest. This is not an exact science. If I want more flavorful kombucha, I may use a bit less water – or if it looks pale, I’ll steep more tea for darker color. There is a varying level of fermentation (bubbles!) that occurs, especially in warmer temps. If you want lots of bubbles, you can do a second fermentation in tight-sealing bottles. That’s a whole different post!