Kombucha Recipe

Materials Needed:

1 gallon jar

1 cloth towel

1 dark towel

1 elastic band

3-4 (1 L) glass bottles with caps

Ingredients:

12 cups filtered water

8-10 tea bags (organic black, green or orange pekoe, do not use flavoured tea)

3/4 cups organic raw cane sugar

1 1/2 cups starter liquid

1 scoby

Directions:

1. Dissolve the sugar in 4 cups of boiling water. Add the tea bags. Let it seep until cool.
2. Remove the tea bags.
3. Pour the cooled tea into a 1 gallon jar.
4. Add the starter.
5. Add the remaining 8 cups of water.
6. Add the scoby (opaque side down).
7. Cover the jar with a cloth and tie it with an elastic band.
8. Cover again with a dark towel.
9. Place the jar in an area that’s room temperature to ferment (not too cool/hot).

Taste test after 5-10 days.*

When it’s ready, pour the kombucha into glass bottles and bottle the kombucha. Do not fill to the top. Leave some room for carbonation. Remember to save at least 1 1/2 cups of kombucha as the starter fluid for your next batch. You can store the bottled kombucha for several days to a week in the fridge. This will slow down the fermentation process but the longer you wait before drinking it, the more “vinegary” it will taste.

NOTES:

*How long you ferment for depends on personal preference. I like mine to taste a little sweet and sour, which is about Day 6. The longer you let it ferment, the more “vinegary” it will taste. If that’s not what you were going for, you can start again or just add some organic fruit juice to sweeten it up. Always add flavour to the bottled kombucha. Never add flavour directly to the fermenting batch (with the scoby inside).

The kombucha for this recipe is not very fizzy. To make a more carbonated batch requires a secondary fermentation process.