Categories: Drinks - Healthy
Ingredients
- In addition to the mother culture you will need 2-3 black or green tea bags, a quart size glass jar, organic unbleached cane sugar (white), and a towel or paper coffee filter to cover the jar. Using other teas or sweeteners can throw off the pH level of y
- MOTHER CULTURE:
- The first thing you need is a Kombucha culture. They are often called a mushroom, mother culture, or SCOBY, which is an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. Just as you add kefir grains to milk to ferment it and make kefir drinks you need a
Directions
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Add a ¼ cup of the sugar to your jar and a cup of very hot or boiling water. Swirl the jar around for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar and then pour in more hot water until the jar is ¾ full. Put your tea bags in the jar and let it steep for 10 to 20 minutes. Let it cool completely. For your very first batch add ½ cup of vinegar. On subsequent batches forgo the vinegar and instead add a ½ cup of tea from a previous batch of Kombucha. Now add your mother culture to the jar and cover with your coffee filter. A rubber band around the rim to seal it closed is helpful because a sugar tea on the counter can attract bugs.
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Let it sit in a warm spot (at least 70 degrees) for at least six days and on up to thirty. As long as you have a new culture that has formed at the top it is ready to drink. The culture will form over time via a white/gray haze that forms on the top of the jar. If you spot any green, black or orange, coloring then that is most likely mold and you will need to toss it and start over.
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How long you let it sit depends on the flavor you like. At around six days of fermentation it will be fairly sweet. Thirty days will result in a sour tea with more health benefits. Choose the fermentation time that best suits you