My Kombucha Journey

When I first heard the word “kombucha” I was quite puzzled. Sounds a little funky, right? I decided to find out for myself what kombucha was, exactly. Originating in Northeast China, kombucha is a fermented tea, which comes from a Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast known as a SCOBY. Sounds a little more odd, but stay with me! Consuming fermented foods can have a multitude of benefits on your gut, including balancing your gut flora. Kombucha is known to be helpful to the gut because it contains 40 different strains of good bacteria and yeast.

Now, it may sound a bit weird to be drinking bacteria, but kombucha is a natural probiotic drink. Our gut is made up of trillions of good and bad bacteria. Probiotics are known as good bacteria, which work to coat the lining of your intestines and stop harmful bacteria from entering the body. Probiotics are considered to help maintain our immune system and help digest food. It’s important to ingest probiotics regularly as once their job is finished they are excreted through your bowel. A daily dose of probiotics will help to ensure you support the beneficial bacteria in your gut!

During the process of brewing kombucha, the SCOBY will feed on the caffeinated tea and sugar thereby creating a delicious nutritional drink loaded with beneficial bacteria (aka probiotics), B vitamins and antioxidants. After hearing the benefits and noticing all my friends drinking it, I decided to take the plunge and give it a taste. It wasn't too bad after all! Its unique taste comes from the combination of fizz and sweet flavoring from fruits. Store bought kombucha can be quite expensive, so making it at home can save you some money! The great thing about making your own kombucha is that you can experiment with the taste by adding various fruits and it’s a healthy and cost effective beverage you can enjoy on the regular. 

My friend Aglaée Jacob got me started on this healthy kombucha journey, whom I am very thankful for! Check out her website at http://radicatamedicine.com. 



Materials:
1) SCOBY and 1/2 cup of Kombucha from a previous batch
2) Organic Cane Sugar
3) Organic Green Tea
4) 1 Litre Jar
5) Wooden spoon
6) Elastic band
7) Measuring cups
8) 1/2 cup of fresh fruit
9) Strainer

 Step 1: Add 1/4 cup of Organic Cane Sugar to your 1 litre Mason Jar.




Step 2: Boil hot water and add some to the jar. Shake the jar until the cane sugar has dissolved completely. Then add more hot water until the jar is 3/4 full.


Step 3. Include two tea bags of Organic Green Tea in your jar and let the tea steep for 20-30 minutes and then remove tea bags.

Step 4: Allow the tea to cool to room temperature. This is important, as you do not want to add the SCOBY to hot tea.

Step 5: Once it has cooled down to room temperature. Add 1/2 cup of a previous batch of kombucha plus the SCOBY. Make sure to always handle the SCOBY with a clean wooden spoon or your hands.

Step 6: Secure the top of the jar with paper towel and an elastic band. The SCOBY needs some oxygen to live and the paper towel will help prevent anything from entering.


Step 7: After placing the SCOBY into the tea, let it live quietly on a counter top at room temperature for between 9-20 days. After a couple of days it will smell a little tangy. At day 9, taste the tea. If it isn't sweet anymore you know it is ready. The longer you leave it to ferment the more sour it will become, eventually turning into a vinegar-like taste.

Step 8: You should now see two SCOBY's near the top of your jar. Once you feel like it is ready to drink. Remove both SCOBY's and place them into another jar and submerge them in some kombucha so that they can live.

Flavouring your Kombucha
Step 1: Flavour your new kombucha batch with 1/2 cup of fresh or frozen fruit (i.e. berries, pineapple, mangoes, peaches, etc.). Secure the top of your jar with your jar lid (instead of the paper towel). Let the new batch sit at room temperature for about 1-2 days.
Below is a picture of my mango and crystallized ginger kombucha!


Step 2: Strain the kombucha to remove the fruit and any yeast particles. Store your newly made kombucha in the fridge and enjoy regularly!

Step 3: Use new SCOBY and previous SCOBY to start two new batches of kombucha!

Resources: 
http://paleomagonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Low-Sugar-Kombucha-Recipe-From-DHRF_TCBlr.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lH-xXDIEtk&list=FLLoNNlqCaiECF7wFTGiMVew&index=4

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2014 and is filed under ,. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response.