I was given my first SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) the other week and have today put my first batch of raspberry flavoured kombucha in to the fridge for a ready supply of chilled homemade goodness. I have, up until now, only fermented milk and water kefir. If I had appreciated how incredibly easy it was to make kombucha I would have done this ages ago!
Step 1: get a SCOBY – any one who makes their own kombucha will have baby SCOBY being produced all the time. This one cycle has started the growth of a new SCOBY
Step 2: I boiled about 2 litres of water and added this to a pan of 6 green tea bags and 170 g granulated sugar.
I left this in the pan to cool to room temperature.
Step 3: Add the sweet green tea to the kilner jar that has the SCOBY + liquid it came in
It is important that no metal utensils come in to contact with the SCOBY or liquid it is in. Because it is a living organism, it needs to ‘breathe’ so cover the top with muslin.
Step 4: Leave it to brew for 7 – 28 days. The longer you leave it the more acidic the ferment will become. I was advised to taste it every day and when it no longer tasted like tea but was fruity, it was ready. I could then choose to let it brew longer for a stronger flavour. By day 4 the tea taste had gone. I left it to brew for 8 days – I will probably leave it longer as I, and my gut, become accustomed to it.
Step 5: Using plastic utensils drain the majority of the liquid into a glass container that has a grolsh type top – i.e. creates a good seal. The SCOBY and its liquid is now ready for the process to start again i.e. Steps 2-4
Step 6: The decanted kombucha can now be put in the fridge and be drunk – the longer it is left…the fizzier it will get. This is the point at which I decided to flavour it. I popped a handful of fresh raspberries in to the bottle and sealed the lid. Every day I ‘burped’ the liquid i.e. opened the lid to let the pressure of the building gas be released.
I left this on a kitchen work top for 4 days. I have tasted it today and it has a mild fizz and is now in the fridge to drink.
Raspberry kombucha
My next step is to experiment with longer period of brewing the SCOBY in the liquid before I remove ii and experiment with flavours – the tea i use and the flavours I add.
What flavours have you tried? What would you recommend? What didn’t work so well?
Jo's food bites. 
I am in a Closed Facebook group called UK Fermenting Friends, and you wouldn’t believe some of the amazing water kefir, milk kefir and kombucha flavours people come up with (hopefully you will be doing a post on kimchi soon? Now I quite fancy that!) Basically if it grows, they ferment it in one form or another! Lots of talk about the bottles/lids used for the second ferment, as the pressure build up has caused many an explosion! Pictures of all sorts of ferments all over the kitchen ceiling and everywhere!
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Ooh that group sounds interesting. I have made kimchi a few times…like it and sauerkraut too. If you fancy having a go at making your own kombucha then you are welcome to a Scoby offspring 😊
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Oooh, now that sounds interesting, thank you. What is the score with taking kombucha, mk, wk with yeast overgrowth in the gut (candida). I suspect this might be the case with me, although the GP dismissed it, but I have read conflicting reports that one should avoid particularly wk and kombucha (not sure about mk) if candida overgrowth is present as they feed the yeast.
How much kombucha do you have per day, and is this on top of your mk or do you alternate it? Do you count the calories with it too?
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I would have to look in to all of that. I drink milk kefir most days and wk and kombucha on alternating basis. 😊
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Don’t count calories at all with any thing I eat or drink.😊
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Very impressive Jo!
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Thanks Laura…so pleased to have finally got around to brewing it😊
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