Yield: 1 liter of finished Kombucha.
Ingredients:
7 grams good quality tea leaves
70 grams organic raw sugar
A SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast)
100 ml Kombucha brew or 100 ml apple cider or 25 ml apple vinegar and 75 ml water.
Equipment:
A wide-mouth glass jar with a capacity of 1.5 liters. If you plan to make larger quantities, it is recommended to buy a glass container with a tap.
A ceramic or glass teapot for brewing the tea.
Important! Do not brew the tea in a pot, as this will give the tea an undesirable aftertaste.
A sterile cloth
A fine-mesh strainer
An elastic band
A plastic funnel
Patent bottles with lids
A ceramic or glass bowl.
Instructions:
- Brew 7 grams of tea with 500 ml of water in a 1-liter teapot and let it steep for 10-15 minutes.
- Dissolve the sugar in the tea.
- Add 400 ml of cold water to the tea to cool it down.
- When the tea is at a maximum of 30 degrees Celsius, strain the tea through a fine-mesh strainer into the sterile glass container.
- Add 100 ml of Kombucha brew or 100 ml of apple cider or 25 ml of apple vinegar and 75 ml of water.
- With clean hands, gently place the SCOBY on the surface of the liquid.
SCOBY
(symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast)
- Cover the jar with a thin cloth and secure it with an elastic band.
- Let the Kombucha ferment for 10-15 days at 20-25°C on the kitchen counter. If the temperature is lower, it may take longer.
- Taste the Kombucha after a week. Disturb the SCOBY as little as possible. If the jar does not have a tap, you can use a straw.
- When the tea is slightly effervescent and has a tartness similar to apple cider or white wine, it is ready to be bottled.
- Remove the SCOBY with clean hands and place it in a glass or ceramic container. If fermentation is successful, a new SCOBY will form. Repeat the entire process with the newly formed SCOBY and store the “MOTHER SCOBY” in a container with 100 ml of Kombucha liquid in the refrigerator until you need it again.
- Pour into bottles using a plastic funnel. Cap the bottles and let them sit on the kitchen counter for up to 3 days to develop carbon dioxide, then refrigerate until ready to drink.
Kombucha Brewing