Updated 8/2018
By now you know about kombucha, seen it at the health food store or enjoyed this delicious beverage.
Maybe you’re wondering why you should drink kombucha, what a scoby is or maybe you are excited about making kombucha for yourself! Either way, I hope my love for kombucha is catching. It’s fun and therapeutic for the soul. Come on, and I will show you all the basics and tips I know!
Our oldest married son and his wife make it in theri new home now, too, so the tradition is carrying on.
Origins
Kombucha is a fermented tea that has value both as a prebiotic, probiotic drink and a refreshing one. According to Wikipedia, “Kombucha originated in Northeast China or Manchuria and later spread to Russia and the rest of the world.”
Some believe that Kombucha has been around for centuries, probably a few millenia. Here are a couple of different stories about how Kombucha came into being. It has been extensively studied and applied for several medical uses in Russia, Germany, and China. Here are some health benefits.
What Is Kombucha?
It is typically made with black tea that is sweetened with sugar and has a SCOBY ( an acronym for Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast) placed in the tea. The SCOBY is the culture that makes the tea ferment and give it its good bacteria content.
Kombucha usually ferments in anywhere from 2-4 weeks (we like 19-20 days best), but there definitely is a ‘sweet spot’ during the process of fermentation that produces the best tasting drink.
And wonderful it is!
The Fundamentals
When I made kombucha with my new SCOBY (a.k.a. “mother” or “mushroom” because of its ability to reproduce) from a friend, I was very careful to have everything practically sterile. Now I forego the ultra clean and just use my normal clean. Still always have clean hands, jars, bowls, and instruments when handling kombucha. When washing your hands, rinse them well, especially if you use anti-bacterial soap.
A funny thing is that I just LOVE the living SCOBY. It isn’t gross or icky at all; I am rather awed by the unusual-ness of it and marvel at the wonderful things God placed in our creation for our benefit and enjoyment.
The mushroom or SCOBY is a powerful ‘good’ bacterial culture, and once it’s established it doesn’t let bad bacteria grow, but it’s always possible for it to be weakened or infected with something toxic or foreign.
The smell should be clean and a bit vinegary, not rotten or foul in any way. SCOBYs can look very different from one another and still be healthy. If there is ever something growing on it, throw it away and start over.
I like to brew kombucha in a one-gallon re-purposed glass pickle jar. It’s best to keep the kombucha away from plastic or metal for storage, though it’s fine to use stainless steel to make the tea in or a plastic funnel for bottling. The strong acid of the kombucha will oxidize metal with prolonged contact and leech nasty stuff out of plastic containers. A nice ceramic crock would also be great if you have one.
Easy Directions To Make 1 Gallon of Kombucha
1.) In 2-3 cups of boiling water, steep 5 bags of organic black tea. I use Numi since I learned that many of our favorite teas are contaminated with chemicals and pesticides. Check out what I wrote: The Lowdown on Chemicals and Pesticides in Some Popular Brands.
Use roughly 2 TBSP. if using loose black tea. Steep for only 10-12 minutes. The tea will be very strong.
2.) Add 1 cup of sugar while it’s still hot, so it dissolves fully.
3.) Pour the hot tea and dissolved sugar into your gallon container. Top up the container to 3/4-full with filtered water to dilute the tea.
While the tea is cooling, keep the SCOBY from the previous batch covered in a glass or ceramic dish (as in picture below).
4.) Let the sweet tea cool down until it’s just warm to the touch. Now you can add back your your starter SCOBY.
5.) Add 1-2 cups of mature store-bought kombucha OR 1-2 cups mature kombucha from a previous brewing.
A good rule of thumb is to retain about 10 percent of your mature kombucha liquid to help inoculate the next batch.
6.) Top off the jar with water leaving 1 1/2 – 2″ or so head space.
The SCOBY will eventually float to the top of the jar, and over the course of the next week it may double in thickness. You can see the new SCOBY baby forming under the top layer (below).
You can let your SCOBY get pretty thick; I take mine (firmly pull) apart about once a month, either sharing the extra SCOBY with friends or chop it up for your chickens or compost. It is pretty tough but separates easily.
Keep your jar covered using a plastic wrap and a large rubber band to keep dust out and to prevent it from evaporating. Store the jar out of direct light; I keep mine in a dark cabinet. The warmer the room is kept, the faster it will culture or mature.
How Long?
You might try your kombucha after 10 days to see if it is getting ready. Too early, and it will be too sweet, but if you let it go too long (30 days) it may begin to get strong and slightly vinegary. One reason I’m not concerned about the sugar is that it is mostly used up to feed the process of fermentation. We think it tastes a bit like an effervescent ginger-ale.
We take it chilled with a meal and limit our daily amount to 4-5 ounces daily so we don’t go through it so fast. Being fermented (like sauerkraut, sourdough, or real fermented pickles), it is a good probiotic and a little goes a long way.
Flavoring With Fruit
Try experimenting with different ways you can flavor your kombucha. Just throw in a handful of your favorite fruit, slightly crushed, to let out the juices.
This summer we tried raspberries, cherries, blueberries and peaches!
Outside of York, England, we had an amazing ‘fruit compote’ of slightly fermented fruits served with fresh homemade granola and yogurt for breakfast. Next summer, I am going to try to duplicate the fruit compote using fresh peaches, red tart cherries, pears, and apricots soaking them in kombucha for a week. Maybe it will be a success, and I will share it with you.
Update: I did it! What a taste treat over granola or vanilla ice cream! I’ll post what I did one day.
I encourage you to try making your own kombucha. You will end up with a drink that is not only good for you, but light and bubbly and a pleasure to drink!
Rebekah
At what point do you add your flavors? So far we haven’t been very satisfied with our kombucha, but maybe we’ve tried too hard.
Jacqueline
Rebekah,
I added red raspberries the third time we made it…just washed them and dropped them in. Have you tried testing it after just 6-7-8 days?
jem
Why do you only drink 2-3 oz. a day? I’m curious.
Amazing how you were not grossed out by the scoby, I make kefir and I think the grains are so neat looking, it just amazes me that they are so full of probiotics and they are multiplying so fast!
Jacqueline
Hi, Jem! Good to see you here 🙂
First, we want to make it last until the next batch is finished.
Also, we have heard that its main benefit is as a probiotic and digestive aid. When we make sauerkraut, we just take a big TBSp with our meal once or twice a day as that’s all we need to keep a good bacteria level in the gut. (In our thinking anyway,) we’d rather do it every day a little bit than feast and have gaps with nothing :-]
Yes, I just love my scobys, and I also love the milk kefir grains. I had one that was like a beautiful cape, all frilled and lacey, about 6″ long!
sheree
You can suffer from die-off symptoms if you start off with too much, as well. Die off feels like the flu and is no fun at all 😀
Jacqueline
Yes, we were warned about that, so maybe we forgot we could increase our intake :0 Thanks, Sheree!
Erika @ Slowly Natural
I am not a tea drinker, but my family is! Where did you get your scoby to begin with? Do you have any you are willing to share? I would be willing to pay shipping.
Jacqueline
Hi, Erika,
I was given a SCOBY by a friend at our church. Now I sell mine at a local farm store and have an agreement with the owner. I would think you might pit out an email to all your church family and someone would have one locally. Or you could put a notice on the bulletin board at your local health store board asking if anyone has one to share. Oh, and another thought to ask on FB to those who are local to you. http://www.ehow.com/how_5342604_kombucha-scoby.html Where do you live?
Rebecca
Hi Erika (and Jacqueline)!
I’m new here…what a happy find!! Kombucha is brewing as we speak, just added flavors today. Erika, my Scoby is getting quite large, and I end up throwing them away or composting them, as I don’t have animals who would enjoy it. Where do you live? I’d be happy to share!! Also, just for reference, I ordered my starter Scoby from Ebay. It cost under $10 total, which was the least expensive I could find online. Let me know!!
Jacqueline
Rebecca,
How kind of you to offer a SCOBY to Erika. I just put a post on her page. I’m pretty sure she did not see you comment here since she is taking a blogging break right now. God bless your day and week!
Erika @ Slowly Natural
Hi Rebecca,
Thank you SO much, but I had another lady offer me one. If she hadn’t, I would definitely be taking you up on your offer!
Erika
Rebecca
🙂 Enjoy!
Pamela
I can hang it up for the day since I’ve already learned something! I was amazed by this, even though I can’t have sweet tea. My daughter will find it intriguing, too.
The Teaist
Dear Jacqueline,
Wow, this recipe looks amazing, if not a bit… creepy? To be honest, I’m a bit grossed out by it but I know that’s a silly, knee-jerk reaction. What a fascinating approach to tea – I never knew such a thing existed! Maybe if I can get over my squeamishness, I ought to try this sometime. Thank you for a beautifully documented blog post!
Blessings 🙂
Amy @ Homestead Revival™
Best tutorial I’ve seen on this yet! Thank you, Jacqueline!
Jenifer
I have never heard of this and I am fascinated! Thanks!
Fairlight
Thank you for sharing the link to this on FB. I have a question for an experienced komucha maker to give their advice on. 🙂
I started my kombucha last Tues. My friend told me she would give me enough Ktea for a half gallon with the scoby. So I made half a gallon of tea to feed it with, picked up the jar of scoby and tea, brought it home and poured it into my big brewing jar with the prepared tea. But, to my surprise, not one or 2 scobies slipped out of that jar, but 4!!! My brew is a week old today and has just been getting a slight skin over it in the past 48 hours and some bubbles, but it’s been a week. Should I go ahead and take out some of the scobies, put them in separate jars and add new tea to everything anyways? The Ktea smells super vinegar-y and I’m worried that that many scobies ate up all the sugar in the tea super fast?? Or should I wait a couple of more days? I don’t know since I’ve never done this before. Any thoughts of suggestions?
Jacqueline
Hi, Fairlight~
I wish I was really experienced…I’ve only been making it for a year. I have had only textbook (normal) brews, but I wonder this: have you stirred it? If the scobies are floating as they often do, it might look like a skin. Stir it. It shouldn’t be cloudy…and go by the smell and cleanness (or lack of it) and go by that. It shouldn’t smell musty or off in any way, but vinegary is fine. Yes, the extra scobies can use up the sugar, too fast. You might take out three and put them in your compost (not down your disposal~ they might grow in there :0) Also if it smells’good’, taste it. At one week with that many scobies, it might be ready! I’d love to know what happens!
Anyone else have any ideas??
Amy
I learned about making kombucha at a local herb shop. When I told my mom about it, she said that her mother made something similar to it. However, they let it ferment until it’s quite vinegar-y and ate the scoby in salad or as pickles.
Franchesca
Thank you for this! I am trying to find someone with a scoby/ mature kombucha in my area. Thank you for explaining everything so well. I’ve really enjoyed your blog since I found it a few days ago!!
Therese Bizabishaka
I just love Kombucha and have been brewing mine for about 8 months now. I brew about 3 gallons at a time since we drink more than a few ounces and have a large family. I use large glass drink dispensers that has a tap at the bottom. That way I can just draw off the tea from the bottom with out taking the scoby out unless I want to separate them or clean the jar. I brew mine for about 10 days then put them in bottles with either a few frozen berries or ginger/lemon juice/honey and brew about 3 days then store in fridge. It is best to add flavourings after the initial ferment to keep the scoby pure. Other flavourings I’ve used with success is pineapple juice. You only need a few tablespoons. Also I use a mix of half black tea and half green tea. Apparently green tea helps create more fizz.
Meredith N.
Hi Therese, would you be willing to give a newbie kombucha brewer some tips? I’m getting a scoby from a friend on Wednesday and I want to make sure that I’m doing everything correctly. You seem like you know a lot about the process 🙂 I’m especially interested in flavoring the kombucha correctly and keeping the scoby pure.
Jacqueline
Meredith, store your unused scoby in glass in the fridge covered slightly by full strength kombucha which feeds it. Also keep it covered so it doesn’t evaporate. The tips should all be in my post. As for second fermenting, just add some smooshed fruit (2 tsp? – not too much for a new sugar supply) and bottle it with a tightly fitting seal and leave out on the counter for 2-5 days…(never much over that or it could blow up!) and it will be fizzy and wonderful flavored bucha! Enjoy!
Donna hardin
I received my school y and the brew mixture from a friend last week. They thought it would be ready on This coming Friday. I took a taste…it tastes like vinegar! (Frown). Would you just start over and use some of the vinegar tea? Would the fruit tone it down?
Tx
Jacqueline
Hmmm….Donna, I’m not sure what you got, but it doesn’t sound right. I hate to tell you to start all over, but I’d not use the vinegary tasting stuff at all. So you got a SCOBY? It will be a bit sharp (fermentation has a clean, palate-cleansing bite), but it shouldn’t taste like vinegar. Wish I was there to check it out and taste it with you…
Hang in there 🙂
Kelli
Hi!
I make kefir all summer but during the winter our home is not warm enough to brew it. Does kombucha require warmer temperatures to brew?
Thank you,
Kelli B.
Jacqueline
I knoe our home is around 65 degrees in the winter but I can still make kombucha. It just takes longer than 10 days. you can taste it to see just when it is ‘ready’! I hope this helps!
Nootropic Noocube
Kombucha! I love it and I can`t believe that is so easy to make it. I can`t wait to get home tonight and try to make some.
Amber Harrop
I have heard of it but never knew how it was made it is fascinating to read about
Grandma's House DIY
Thanks so much for sharing with us at the To Grandma’s house we go link party! I’ll be featuring this tomorrow morning when the new party starts 🙂
Jacqueline
Thank you so much, Grandma’s House Friend! 😀
Lisa
I just love your blog posts they are super helpful! I made my first batch of kombucha, and to me is seems slightly stronger then storebought…like the alcohol content is a but higher… is that normal? Any ideas on how to make it less strong? Thanks, Lisa
Jacqueline
Hi, Lisa,
Yes, you need to be tasting it at about 2.5 – 3 weeks and watching for the strength of the ferment. To slow it down/stop it, bottle it up and refrigerate! I hope that helps!