SCOBY

I recently learned that my partner has been enjoying the kombucha on tap at a local holistic health clinic. She’d previously not liked my home brewed version, but has now asked that I make some for her in our kitchen. Gladly!

My kombucha is a bit neglected, as I drink it only every once in a while. I generally just let it sit on the kitchen counter, where it becomes more and more acidic. It lives in a 2 litre glass jar, with a cotton cloth cover held on by an elastic band. I was playing with cutting shapes from the SCOBY a while back, and threw all the scraps back in to the jar, so it looks a bit funny: No clear SCOBY mother and baby to be seen here!

My kombucha recipe is simple: 2 cups of boiling water, 3 bags of plain black tea, and 3 tablespoons of sugar.

I let that steep for 20 minutes or so, remove the tea bags, then stir in 3 cups of cold tap water. This goes into my 2 litre glass jar, along with at least a small layer or piece of SCOBY and 1 cup of kombucha from the previous batch. Usually I just leave the entire existing SCOBY in the jar, unless it’s grown to an inconvenient size. I once had one fill an entire 1 litre jar! 

Here is some strong sweet tea, before diluting with cold water. I’ve used this same method with green tea, honey, organic sugar, etc. All are nice variations. 

This batch, I’ll let ferment on the kitchen counter for a week, then bottle it with a little dried fruit so that it has extra flavour and carbonation. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.