Food and Nutrition, Healthy RecipesNutrition Tips from Wellness Pros
Kombucha, anyone? This satisfying cultured drink from ancient times is getting quite a lot of good press! Boasted as being anti-aging, pH balancing, an excellent energiser, as well as being absolutely chock full of good bacteria (literally millions of organisms per serving) – no wonder it’s quite the rage amongst celebrities! It is truly a living food, bursting with enzymes!
The Kombucha ‘SCOBY’ is actually a fungus (like a mushroom) which thrives in black tea and a room temperature environment. I have used organic Ceylon, green, white and even Chai teas with success, but the SCOBY is quite a creature of habit and generally tends to prefer the standard black tea. It also devours sugar, as it’s what the living SCOBY eats. When you see the amount of sugar in the recipe below, remember that most of the sugar will be eaten up by the time the Kombucha is ready to drink.
Next time you’re at the organic/farmers’ markets, see if you can find stalls with bottles of fresh Kombucha for sale. You should be able to pick up a ‘SCOBY’ from the grower – you will need this living creature to make your very own fresh Kombucha at home. Here’s everything you need to know:
Baby kombucha ‘SCOBY’ in 100ml mother culture 2 litres sweetened organic black tea (read below)
Directions:
Put the baby kombucha ‘SCOBY’ & the ‘mother liquid’ into a 2 litre glass jar.
Prepare 2 litres of black tea with 3 organic tea bags and 185g raw organic sugar and allow to cool.
Combine kombucha mixture with cooled black tea.
Cover with a paper towel and rubber band. Leave for 8-10 days, strain and store in the fridge until desired.Fresh ginger juice may be added before storing or serving over ice. You can also try the following flavour variations: lemon, lime, pomegranate, mint, cinnamon.
From our friends
Comments
And if you don’t have a local kombucha-seller? Is there another way to obtain the culture? I have been longing to try this…
Hi I’ve just had a quick look online. Good news! You can buy Kombucha fungus & have it shipped to you, which sounds pretty cool 😉 Depending on where you live you may want to have a look at different sites to compare quality/prices, but if you can get your hands on a bottle of pure, ‘raw’ Kombucha (good health food stores) you can simply ‘feed up’ the ‘mother culture’ within! It will grow & you’ll soon see a waxy scaby growing on top. T Abigail xx
abigail | 02.05.2012 | Reply
One quick thing – Kombucha’s not a fungus. It’s a culture of yeast and bacteria.
Joe Mac | 07.29.2012 | Reply
I’m new to the organic process; though i am longing to see if its for me. Can you write an article about the transition, persay?
Sydney Aston | 12.15.2012 | Reply
You said “Put the baby Kombucha ‘SCOBY’ & the ‘mother liquid’ into a 2 litre glass jar” what is the Mother liquid? The black tea?
Rachael | 08.17.2013 | Reply
The scoby will likely come in a plastic bag and have liquid with it so it doesn’t dry out. This liquid is the mother liquid.
tazan | 09.26.2013 | Reply
This may be old news, but I wanted to share that you can grow your own SCOBY (or “mushroom”) in about 10 days with a bottle of GT’s or Synergy original or raw.
Dump the entire bottle into a larger glass container, and cover with paper towels, seal with rubber bands. Happy brewing 🙂
Jeanna | 03.06.2014 | Reply
Lol now I see what my eyes must’ve skipped 😉
Jeanna | 03.06.2014 | Reply
Jeanna-I did exactly that! It took a few weeks to get it large enough, but it definitely worked. I made the tea/sugar brew, allowed it to cool and added a bottle of GT’s Kombucha. I changed the brew weekly until the scoby was large enough where I felt comfortable to use it to bottle my kombucha. It actually was more fulfilling knowing that I grew my own scoby!
Lea | 07.28.2014 | Reply
Gosh! Why do you write Ginger Kombucha and this is no ginger kombucha recipe:(
maya | 02.13.2018 | Reply
Leave A Comment
Food Combining: 6 Common Raw Food Combos that Wreak Havoc on Your Health
Ginger is anti-viral and anti-inflammatory as well as being a powerful antiseptic and antihistamine. I love ginger kombucha and have it more than any other flavored kombucha. It's one of my favorite ways to consume ginger and I think you will love it too!
What is the recommended ratio of tea, sugar, water, and starter tea for making kombucha? For a 1-gallon batch of kombucha, you'll need 1 cup of sugar, 6-8 bags of tea, and 12 fl oz of starter tea. The rest should be filled up with clean, filtered water.
Cane sugar is the most common type of sugar that is used for brewing Kombucha. Most people use “plain white sugar” – you want to make sure the package says “cane sugar” on it or you are most likely using GMO Beet Sugar. Cane sugar has been used by humans for over 5000 years.
Starter tea = unflavored kombucha tea that's successfully gone through a 1st fermentation cycle. If you buy a SCOBY, it'll usually come with some starter tea.
If you don't have enough starter tea to make 2 cups: You can cut this recipe in half (or even quarters!) ...
Pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, and individuals with liver or kidney disease, HIV, impaired immune systems, and alcohol dependency should avoid kombucha. For others, kombucha is a wonderfully refreshing beverage that has many benefits, when made safely and consumed moderately.
It has also been suggested that consuming kombucha on an empty stomach may also help to balance your gut bacteria to aid digestion throughout the day. N.B. If you have a more sensitive stomach, you may find that your body reacts better once you have eaten.
The yeast and bacteria in your kombucha depend on cane sugar to survive and thrive. It's their food source. So using alternate sugars or not using enough sugar basically deprives your culture of its food source. In other words, you're starving your SCOBY.
Batch Size: To increase or decrease the amount of kombucha you make, maintain the basic ratio of 1 cup of sugar, 8 bags of tea, and 2 cups starter tea per gallon batch. One scoby will ferment any size batch, though larger batches may take longer.
You can use your ginger bug to flavour fermentations such as kombucha and water kefir. Just remember that you are adding a good quantity of yeast to your fermentation, so you are potentially increasing the production of alcohol and especially CO2 (it will become fizzier, faster!)
In the presence of oxygen, acetic acid bacteria present in the environment convert the alcohol into acetic acid, creating a film, known as the mother of vinegar, or vinegar scoby.
Start with drinking a smaller portion of kombucha (12 ounces a day, or less) It is important to start with drinking small quantities to see how your body reacts to the beverage.
How Much Alcohol Is in Homemade Kombucha? Homemade kombucha contains a low level of alcohol. In general, the alcohol content of homemade kombucha is between 1% and 2.5%. Commercial kombucha, on the other hand, has an alcohol percentage of less than 0.5%.
Can I make kombucha without a starter tea? A. Yes, you can use an equal portion of distilled white vinegar in place of starter tea. Alternatively you may use bottled raw, unflavored kombucha tea, which can be purchased at many health food and grocery stores.
Introduction: My name is Domingo Moore, I am a attractive, gorgeous, funny, jolly, spotless, nice, fantastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.