crazyrawlife
life, raw: unprepared or imperfectly prepared for use… not in a polished, finished, or processed form. global adventures.nourishing practices xx
‘bucha baby!
I have been so excited… three weeks after hiding my first batch of kombucha in a dark cupboard I can finally unveil it! In addition to excited, I was very. very nervous. What if I messed up the preparation? What if I didn’t steep the tea for long enough? What if it tasted awful? What if it got contaminated? What if it fell off the shelf… all by itself?!?
Turns out there was absolutely nothing to worry about. It was fairly straight forward (although some preparation is required) and it actually tastes amazingly amazing, without flavoring – probably thanks to the magical oolong tea I used, from the northeast tea provinces of Taiwan (Yilan County) courtesy of my sister-in-law.
I’m not going to rewrite the instructions but I really liked the Kombucha Mama site for step-by-step directions and a load of other useful information.
The first thing you need to do is to organize your first SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeasts). They’re fascinating things that produce many types of yeast, bacteria, organic acids, active enzymes, amino acids, and polyphenols and have many purported health benefits.
You can buy your first one online from heaps of places or get one from a friend – I owe a huge thanks to my wonderful friend and celebrity chef extraordinaire David Miller for my first SCOBY, and he recommended Kombucha Brooklyn for all things kombucha-related (I have a load of stuff en route form there), but you may find somewhere more local.
Here’s my first SCOBY – it ain’t pretty but it’s very cool. It was a lot thicker and harder than I expected and had to use my most serous knife to cut it in half for storage… I used one half in a new batch but need to buy some more tea before I can use the other half… yes, the ongoing process of kombucha brewing will require some planning!
I have flavored a few bottles so will share the recipes in a few weeks after the second fermenting if they turn out to be edible : )
Happy ‘buching! Would love to hear about your experience, hints & tricks or flavor combos.
xx
5 Comments on “‘bucha baby!”
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crazyrawlife 
That’s awesome and I can’t wait to hear about your next batch. I have been wanting to make kombucha for quite some time now and I have been searching for an at home reference. What kind of sugar did you use?
I’m Really enjoying your blog by the way!
Thank you for the kind words! Please you’re inspired to try kombucha… it’s fun! I used white vegan sugar from Whole Foods.
Ahhh no way! I have not come across that, I have been using coconut sugar for everything, I will have to try it. Wonderful! Thank you
I have been meaning to get me some coconut sugar – suspect it’s better for you than the vegan sugar I grabbed in a hurry! Not sure it really matters for kombucha though given that the culture consumes the sugar so there’s not much left by the time you get to drink it.
So exciting! I thought the very same thing about the scoby. It was so gelatinous. I’m giving half of mine away and then using the other half to start the next batch. Right now I’m in the wait 48 hours to open and drink it. (Luckily) I was able to find a small kit, scoby included, at our co-op. It’s local to the northwest, Oregon Kombucha. :)