Making your own Kombucha at home is easy and worth giving a try!
Kombucha is a sparkling, fermented drink, which is full of probiotics that builds up good gut health and support your immune system as well as preventing many diseases in your body. It is a great alternative to sugar-filled carbonated drinks and can be enjoyed by the whole family (kids included).
It is made by a process of making a watered down tea with sugar used to feed a Kombucha mushroom (known as a ‘Scoby’ or ‘symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast), which through fermentation becomes carbonated and full of vitamins, enzymes, probiotics and acid.
It really is simple to make and one batch lasts our family of five about a week. If you find you’re going through it faster, you can always have more batches on the go!
To make your own Kombucha follow these steps:
You need:
- 4x Litres filtered water
- 1 cup of Sugar (Raw sugar- not honey or rapadura)
- 4x Organic black (or green) tea bags
- ½ cup of Kombucha (from previous mix)
- 1 Kombucha mushroom
- Large glass storage container (with tap)
To make:
- Bring 4 litres of filtered water to the boil.
- Add 1 cup of sugar and boil until dissolved
- Take water off the heat and add 4x organic black tea bags
- Allow the water to cool and then remove the tea bags and pour liquid into glass storage container with kombucha mushroom & previous kombuch batch
- Allow Kombucha to ferment for 7-10 days (time can vary to temperature- quicker in warm temperature).
When ready:
- Kombucha is ready when it tastes fizzy, not too sweet and not too acidy, with no taste of tea remaining
- Suit your personal preference when you want to start drinking!
- You can transfer to glass containers and store in fridge when ready to stop fermenting process (so it doesn’t get too acidy)
- You can flavour the Kombucha once ready- add things like ginger, turmeric and other desired ingredients.
Other bits:
- Over time, the Kombucha mushroom continues to grow and you can use this to make other batches or give away to others. Store these in glass or stainless steel containers- never plastic.
- Kombucha mushrooms can be reused dozens of times and only if it goes black or the batch doesn’t ferment properly would it be a sign that it should be thrown out (I haven’t had this happen in 2 years that Ive been making it at home!)
- Non-organic tea is high in fluoride so always use organic tea
- Always check to see if you have any allergies first
