Brewing Kombucha

As usual, December is a lull period. With not much people (around) to hunt me down for answers to miscellaneous questions, leaving me with time to work on my own tasks (at work) and a little spare personal time to explore non-work-related stuffs. This time round, I explored brewing my own Kombucha. Yes, brewing Kombucha.

So what is Kombucha? 

Kombucha is a fermented drink made of black/ green tea with sugar. It is fermented by bacteria and yeast commonly known as a SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast). The fermenting process breaks down the nutrients in the tea and sugar into b-vitamins, amino acids and other organic acids. As a result, the Kombucha tea contains enzymes, probiotics, vitamins and organic acids.

Why am I taking Kombucha?

I take probiotics drinks (i.e. yakult, yogurt) from time to time and why not make my own probiotics drink? I was reading up about kefir (milk kefir, water kefir) and my friend brought my attention to Kombucha. Kombucha is often sold in retail stores overseas and was hyped for their probiotics and health benefits.

So yeah, that is why the journey started.

How do I make Kombucha?

To start off with the Kombucha brewing journey, I will first need a SCOBY. SCOBY can be acquired from online sellers or from local donors. SCOBY actually multiplies after each brew so brewers often have SCOBY to spare. I got mine from a local Kombucha community.

The brewing requires a few items:

1. SCOBY
2. Tea-bags (both green tea and black tea works fine)
3. White sugar or honey (don’t use Manuka honey)
4. Glass container for brewing Kombucha
5. Non-metallic utensils
6. Glass bottles to bottle your Kombucha

Ingredients

1. 3 tea bags
2. 90g sugar
3. 1 litre of filtered water
4. 100ml of started tea or raw apple cider vinegar
5. SCOBY

Steps

1. Boil water, add 3 tea bags and sugar
2. Cool the tea to room temperature
3. Add the starter tea or raw apple cider vinegar
4. Add SCOBY to the tea
5. Cover the opening with a paper towel or fine mesh cloth and leave it aside for 6 to 7 days
6. Taste the fermented tea and it should taste tardy
7. Bottle the tea into smaller bottle and seal it tight
8. Leave in room temperature for 48 hours before chilling it in the fridge before consumption