Kombucha tea feels to me like an ‘alive beverage’ – and therefore might be famous among health-conscious people. I definitely fell in love with Kombucha making! Kombucha is a quite sour, delicious, refreshing fermented drink. Its sourness actually largely depends on the duration of the fermentation process during which the yeast in the SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) breaks down the sugar in the tea and releases friendly probiotic bacteria. Kombucha becomes carbonated after fermentation, which is why the drink is fizzy. It consists of a multitude of different yeast cultures and bacteria living in a natural symbiosis/ community in which everyone benefits the other. Loving this very sustainable feature, I felt blessed when I recently was gifted two SCOBYs to be able to brew my own Kombucha. With every brewing process I gained more experience and due to the active life in the jars I already have grown a little SCOBY colony (please connect with me if you are interested to adopt one).
equipment needed & how to make it
- SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast)
- 100ml of Kombucha drink as culture medium
- 1 liter of water
- about 8g of organic green or black tea
- 90 to 100g of cane sugar
- cover sheet, breathable (made of cotton or cellulose)
- plastic strainer
- rubber ring for closing
- fermentation container (made of glass or ceramics) for the desired amount of Kombucha
- bottle for storing the finished drink in the fridge
Take a big pot and boil the water. Once the water is boiled, add tea and leave it for 5 minutes. Remove the tea and add sugar while stirring the mixture well. Let it cool down.
Pour the tea and the culture medium into fermentation container and add the SCOBY that will transform the tea into Kombucha through the sugar fermentation process. Cover the container with the sheet and secure the cloth in place with the help of the rubber band
Put the container in a slightly warm and dark environment so that the fermentation process can take place. The longer you brew the drink, the stronger will be its taste (also more sour; at one point you can perfectly use it as vinegar). The SCOBY will continuously grow in size and a new little SCOBY will develop.
After 10 to 16 days, you can fill the finished beverage into bottles and store it cool.
Together with the SCOBY put at least 100ml of your finished drink aside serving as the culture medium for your next fermentation.
If you want to flavor up the beverage, then add anything according to your taste, like ginger slices, fresh fruit or vegetable juice, etc. to the finished beverage and place it in a dark environment for several more days (call it 2nd fermentation).
Finally, indulge in your homemade Kombucha!
reasons why I enjoy Kombucha consumption so much
It is amazing to observe the process of these living organisms reproducing over time. A pretty active culture! I love processing my own food and beverages which gives greater transparency of what is ingested and where does the energy come from! Following an Ayurvedic lifestyle I am very much interested in the kind of energy that is entering the body-mind complex. Proper energy intake is significantly linked to good health.
According to Ayurveda overall health depends on the strength of the digestive system and is especially influenced by the collection of microorganisms that live in the gut microbiome, which participates in vital processes including digestion, energy homeostasis and metabolism, the synthesis of vitamins and other nutrients, and the development and regulation of immune function. Kombucha is a rich source of probiotics, live microorganisms that are similar to the friendly bacteria present in the gut. Therefore, consuming homemade Kombucha can improve overall gut health as the live microorganisms may work by helping the body to maintain a balanced and diverse microbiome. Also, there is a clear link between gut health and immune system function, so it’s suggested that having a healthy balance of gut bacteria can promote immune health.
Kombucha has apparently a wide range of health benefits, including benefits for mental health, infection risk, and liver health, etc. I cannot elaborate on that as I actually don’t know if this is so but I do know that it surely makes sense to choose using Kombucha as a healthful alternative to conventional sugar-loaded fizzy drinks and sodas. I just LOVE to inspire you to take care & responsibilof your own Self!
Btw: Don’t be scared by the amount of sugar. There is much less sugar left in the ready fermented Kombucha because most of it nourishes SCOBY and therefore gets transformed into other substances. The scoby would starve by too less sugar but also produce a too intense taste when adding too much. Around 100g of sugar per liter should be fine.
There are many articles available online. Be inspired & read on…