October 24, 2019

How to Make Kombucha

Kombucha making is a simple process but it does require time.

When we make kombucha we start out with 3 simple ingredients:

Organic Cane Sugar + Specialty Tea + Mineral Water

Then we add a SCOBY (pronounced /SKOH-bee/ ) which is known as a Symoiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast

This SCOBY floats in the kombucha. We cover the entire container with a cloth and a rubber band and we let it do its magic.

As the kombucha ferments, the probiotics from the SCOBY start to consumer the sugar and the tea which are in the liquid that it is floating in and the SCOBY. Carbon Dioxide is released and the SCOBY gets pushed to the surface of the liquid. Little bubbles form and rise through the container. During this time the PH Levels also decrease and the kombucha starts to get that slightly tart flavour that its known for.

During Fermentation

Sugar Levels Decrease + Probiotic Levels Increase

The sugar that goes into the initial kombucha liquid is for the SCOBY to eat - not for you!

After about 5-8 days, depending on the temperature, we start to taste the kombucha to see if it is done. When the kombucha is sweeter, this means that not enough of the sugar has been consumed and so it needs to ferment a bit longer, if the kombucha starts to taste like vinegar this means that we've left it to ferment for too long.

Once the kombucha is just right, not too sweet, not too tart, we remove it from the SCOBY and put it into bottles to flavour. We will do a whole other post on flavouring kombucha but there's really no right or wrong here. You can flavour kombucha with juice, fruit, herbs, even different teas or coffees. You can add things, infuse things - the sky is the limit here.

Once we've flavoured our kombucha successfully, and again we do everything based on taste here so we decide when something is ready or flavoured right based on how it tastes, we pour it into little bottles and the kombucha is ready!