Kombucha. Typically, when people talk about Kombucha, they fall into 1 of 3 categories: Love it! Hate it! Or, my favorite... what the heck is it?!
Kombucha is a sweetened tea that's been fermented using a scoby ("Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast"). It takes between 7-14 days to make a batch of kombucha, and the result is an effervescent slightly tart, slightly sweet brew that apparently contains a whole slew of amino acids and vitamins. You can find bottled Kombucha from makers like GT Dave's at Whole Foods and the like, but they average anywhere from $3.50 to $5 for a single bottle. So I decided to try and brew my own at home. But where to start? It wasn't like I could just pick up a starting scoby at my neighborhood grocery store. But friends, success lay in store. I brewed the booch, and I'll tell you how I did it...
The Class
The thing that spurred my intimidated little self to give this a real try was a class I saw advertised at the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg: an "All About Kombucha" class taught by Brooklyn's own Kombuchaman, Eric Childs, who's starting his own kombucha company (called, not unexpectedly, Kombucha Brooklyn). The 1.5 hour class promised to teach me the history of the beverage, its health benefits, and — most importantly — give me everything I'd need to start brewing at home. Sounded perfect. And it was exactly what I'd hoped. Eric Childs was exuberant about drinking and making kombucha, and he freely shared his tips, tricks, and recipes. I left that evening with my little starter jar (containing my 3-inch-in-diameter scoby disc), my Kombucha 101 packet, and a large 5-liter jar. (Maybe a bit ambitious, but I was determined.)
A picture of one of Eric's healthy scobys
>>Jump over to Re-nest to read the full post and see a lot more pics!
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not exactly my cup of tea.
(get it?)
but I do think the process of making it is really interesting!
http://www.margincomments.blogspot.com
I just started brewing my first batch of kombucha this week-- with the help of Eric Childs of Brooklyn Kombucha. I looove this tea, and my kombucha drinking habit started getting expensive, so I thought I'd try making it myself and it's actually a very simple process.
Looking forward to the tasty results!
Important note - do not drink the tea if you are immune suppressed. This was a big trend among people with HIV about 15 years ago and people became very ill.
Hey, I just started my own "mother" last week...what timing!
I started my own mother 3 weeks ago and it is still clear. It looks pretty gross, too. :) Clear and bubbly. www.picasaweb.google.com/andrenna/KombuchaStarterAttempt1
I know it is supposed to be healthy, but I cannot get over how gross Kombucha looks. My dippy cousin learned about the stuff at a hippy commune in the Gulf Islands. I always thought only weirdos drank the stuff, but guess I was wrong.