Kombucha, Finally

So by now I have teased you with two different Kombucha posts, but no actual tea. And just now I am finally brewing an actual batch!

I began rehydrating my starter culture about a month ago. Now the process gets to be ridiculously easy.

This week, to make my batch of Kombucha, I heated up a big pot of water on the stove. I then poured the water into a one gallon jar along with 8 tea bags and one cup of organic cane sugar. I have been told not to use whole sugar/ rapadura, brown sugar or honey. The thing that works the best is plain old white sugar. Once the tea has cooled completely (like 12 hours) I then poured my starter in, which includes my culture SCOBI and about two to three cups of kombucha.
Now, I wait. I will try my brew about once a week. As the tea brews longer it will become more sour, more fermented and less sweet. When I find a good ratio of sour to sweet I will stop. That is where things finally get interesting! Sadly, I thought I would be enjoying Kombucha on New Year's Eve. I am not sure if that is going to be possible now given the time. Sigh. Waiting makes the heart grow anxious.

How's My Kombucha Doing?

I wasn't completely blog-free when we were on vacation. I did have a teensy bit of internet access while I was abroad, so of course I viewed my web traffic. And I saw something ODD! My post about Kombucha went viral. Okay, not really viral. But over 30 people shared the story with their friends on Facebook and I got almost 200 new hits over the course of a few days. That is at least a little bit viral. I was startled and excited! And I welcome each and every new reader that found me as a result.

But now it has been a few weeks since I first wrote about my Kombucha. And....what is it doing now? My Kombucha has been sitting on my counter top ever since I published the article on it almost three weeks ago. When we first came back from Morocco it looked and smelled like tea still. But now I see that there are little bits floating around in the tea! Success! My little microbial friends are procreating! And the little bits are not just moving around the bottom where my SCOBI is, but not they are all throughout the mixture.

I admit. I tasted it today. With a VERY clean spoon. And there was alot of vinegar taste to it because, well, it has vinegar in it. But I will be using this current batch to brew another larger, and hopefully tastier batch, so I am not worried. I am just hoping that I didn't break some Kombucha Law by tasting it mid-brew. I admit, I was curious!

I started this bad boy up on November 18th. I figure I will begin the second brew on December 16th. I am already fighting the urge to flavor the first batch. I really need to make at least one unflavored batch. But...Oh!...The possibilities are endless and I am too excited. Pray that I find the strength to restrain myself. In the meantime though I now have a collection of 7 GT's Raw bottles, and counting. I will be able to make up a nice batch once I get this going!

Brewing Kombucha and Why I am Not At All Trendy

I don’t do well with trends. If something becomes wildly popular there is a good chance that I will want nothing to do with it as a result. I think perhaps it is a fear of being judged as just a faceless followers when I really want to be known for making my own decisions and being my own woman. I can’t bring myself to watch the new hottest show on TV Glee! for that very reason. That is not to say that if you are a Glee! devotee that you are just some faceless follower. But there is definitely something deep in me that drives me to be different than other people, for good or bad.

Kombucha is becoming a hot trend right now. Although, it is relatively unknown outside the greenie and foodies circles. But to those in the know, holding a bottle of Kombucha declares that you are in the know about the latest trend in nutritional science, probiotics. And at three to five dollars per bottle it also shows that you are either in the yuppie crowd who can blithely afford such a drink, or you value your health so much as to make yourself broke. But, I could only resist the siren’s call of Kombucha for so long. Because the truth is, it is really delicious. And no matter how hard I am trying to be a loner, good taste trumps all.

Kombucha is fermented tea. In much the same way that yogurt is fermented milk and wine is fermented grape juice, Kombucha is tea and sugar into which a culture has been introduced. I love beer and wine (like, really love), but lately booze just hasn’t been sitting right with me. Two glasses and I wake up the next morning with a headache (what a bummer). Not to mention the stress alcohol places on your liver. I am too old to be a hot mess these days. So the only answer is to drink less. I have said a few times that it would be great if I could drink a few beers without the effects of alcohol. Because I really like the flavor and it goes so well with food! But since I have been preggers a couple times, I know that non-alcoholic beer is not so good. Alcohol free beer makes me think that it has been processed in some way I wouldn’t like and plus, it doesn’t taste that great. And I have too much self respect to even attempt alcohol free wine. But Kombucha is a wonderfully healthy solution to my problem. It has the same tangy sweet flavor as wine but without all the alcohol. Now there are trace amounts of alcohol, but it amounts to less than .5%. So for those of you who don’t have an adverse reaction to the stuff, it should be fine. Plus it is filled with active live probiotics, amino acids and enzymes. All things that are super for supporting proper digestion. Plus it carbonates over time and end up with these lovely fizzy little bubbles. Delightful.

I ordered a dehydrated starter culture (or SCOBI) from a great website, Cultures For Life. They sell all manner of cheesemaking cultures, sourdough starters and kombuchas starters. They also have equipment for sprouting grains, etc. They are a great mail order site. It is so much easier for me to order from a website than to try and locate something here in the city. No doubt there is something around town, but there is no telling whether the one shop that has it is anywhere near me. Although Manhattan is dense, it is difficult to easily travel. So mail order is the way to go.

In a one quart container I placed 3 cups of almost boiling water and a ¼ cup of organic cane sugar. I let two tea bags steep for several hours until the water cooled down to room temperature. Then I added ½ cup of vinegar (I forgot to buy organic vinegar, boo, but I just couldn’t wait). And now that lovely mix is sitting on my kitchen counter with a towel covering it (no tight lids) and will for the next 20-30 days while my SCOBI works it’s little microbial magic. As it moves forward I will update you all on it’s progress. I will have to rebrew another batch once I get my culture up and running. So I figure I will be enjoying Kombucha during my annual New Year’s Party. You know I will document the whole experience for you!

In the mean time, do your self a favor and buy GT’s Raw Kombucha. I am doing so and saving all my bottles. Because GT’s comes packaged in a great heavy glass with a tight fitting lid. Even though it is $3 a pop, I figure getting the bottle out of the deal makes the value a little higher. Try some, you never know, you might really like it.