Kombucha was known in ancient China as “tea of immortality”, and remains popular today as a healthy beverage. If your SCOBY or mushroom measures approximately 1/4″ thick, that indicates your health is being maintained.

Your aquarium should appear clean and have an appetizing vinegar aroma, without fuzzy or powdery growth.

Ingredients

Kombucha is a fermented drink similar to apple cider and champagne in taste and aroma, boasting fizzling, fizzy bubbles with acidity levels somewhere between lemonade and champagne. With antimicrobial and probiotic benefits that include detoxifying properties as well as anti-aging abilities. According to legend, Kombucha has been consumed since at least 2200 AD throughout East Asia with global adoption taking place during that period as well.

Tea’s unique and healthy properties come from its mushroom-like culture known as SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast). This organism, often described as leathery pancake-shaped disc or jelly that’s brown with tan spots, feeds off of sugar in tea to produce a probiotic, acidic fermented beverage with apple cider vinegar-like tastes that helps create the optimal fermentation conditions needed for probiotic products like tea.

Fermentation allows SCOBYs to produce probiotic acids and enzymes which may help restore balance to our gut bacteria that have been compromised due to stress or illness, improving gut health while strengthening immunity systems. Lactic acid also produced through fermentation is believed to boost immune functioning.

Making your own kombucha may seem intimidating at first, but the process is actually very straightforward. All you need is a symbiotic culture (SCOBY), available online or from health food stores, added to prepared tea and allowed to ferment anywhere between 10 days and several weeks.

Be sure to use glass jars, rather than metal ones, as the acid in tea can react with metal and destroy your SCOBY. Ensure all equipment used is thoroughly clean before every use and store the jars out of direct sunlight – using cloth or paper towel covered by rubber bands can help ward off pests during fermentation process.

Preparation

Kombucha mushroom tea is a fermented beverage containing various strains of bacteria and yeast, organic acids, enzymes, amino acids and vitamin C. It’s commonly referred to as mushroom tea due to the Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria And Yeast that forms at its center; this resembles a mushroom. Although technically part of the Fungi kingdom (instead of plant or animal kingdoms), which gives rise to such qualities in Kombucha mushroom tea.

As soon as you begin brewing kombucha, the SCOBY begins as a thin layer atop the solution, growing gradually until it reaches a leathery pancake-like disc that measures roughly 1/4-inch thick. While initial batches might feature bubbles or more flat shapes than round, over time this should become smoother and more uniform as brewing progresses; when this occurs it should have translucent surfaces with smooth edges without any rough spots that indicate bad bacteria have taken control and compromised your tea jar – in which case all should be discarded and started from scratch with fresh starter.

Constantly monitor the consistency of the scoby to make sure it doesn’t sink to the bottom or rise too high; at least half of its solution should cover it, if this doesn’t happen you can add more tea until your scoby floats again.

Fermentation involves breaking down sucrose in sugar into glucose and fructose for use by bacterial cultures to form their SCOBY biofilm on top of liquid, while acid producing cultures metabolize glucose into acetic and other acids that make the liquid taste sour.

As part of your kombucha experimentation, it’s essential that only non-toxic ingredients such as fruits, vegetables or herbal tea are added – such as raw meat, dairy products and eggs should be avoided as these foods could harm bacteria and yeast growth. Furthermore, metal containers will react badly with acids produced during fermentation which could alter its taste significantly.

Fermentation

Have you experienced the intense acidity and vinegary bite of kombucha before? This acidity comes from its fermentation process which creates a leathery pancake-like pellicle known as the mother, consisting of both bacteria and yeast that ferment sugar into acetic acid and gluconic acid – among other byproducts; acidity comes from bacteria eating ethanol (alcohol produced by yeast) produced during this process, creating the tart acidity that makes kombucha so unique!

Acetic acid bacteria (AAB) are responsible for giving kombucha its acidity; they do this by breaking down polyphenols present in tea. Furthermore, AAB create a thick cellulose biofilm called a “pellicle”, or mother. Depending on which tea is used in its production process, different AAB species take on these roles; Acetobacter aceti is one such AAB that transforms ethanol to acetic acid while Gluconobacter oxydans and Komagataeibacter xylinum produce gluconic acid which thickens pellicle thickness by producing gluconic acid which thickens it.

An ideal kombucha tea recipe should combine black, green, white or oolong tea along with fruit juices in equal parts for steeping and cooling to room temperature before adding a SCOBY and fermented tea mixture – similar to water kefir but instead using a reusable mother culture from your local shop – for fermentation. Once complete the liquid will be transferred into a jar to be fermented by adding an active culture such as the one found at local shops for water kefir production.

Making homemade kombucha takes patience, as its fermentation requires sitting undisturbed between 68-85degF and out of direct sunlight for 7-30 days without interference from insects or dirt, then some will be set aside for future batches (see Bottling Tips). A double layer of finely-woven cloth secured by rubber bands should cover the top to keep bugs and dirt at bay; but allow enough air circulation so the jar can breathe during this period; during which, its color will change to tan while turning more acidic with time while its sweetness diminishes over time – the taste will also lessen over time as its production progresses further along this process!

Storage

A SCOBY (singular Colony Of Bacteria And Yeast), is a leathery pancake-shaped blob filled with bacteria and yeast used to ferment sweet tea into kombucha. Though these scobys may appear hideous (Boomfeed ran an article on their ugly appearance), they play an important role in this process as filters protecting from outside contaminants while helping it ferment correctly.

As with any fermentation process, when making kombucha it’s crucial to monitor its progress to ensure its readiness for drinking. When ready, bubbles should rapidly rise to the top, providing a pleasant acidic flavor and fresh scents such as tart and vinegary notes.

Kombucha can be stored in the refrigerator for at least one month as long as all bottles are sealed tight and without leaks, provided there is no leaking. While a SCOBY may still grow and ferment within its container, the process will likely be slower; to maintain optimal results it’s best to brew new batches when either your SCOBY begins shrinking or it has gone bad.

If you need to take a break from making kombucha, preserving the SCOBY can still be done effectively using “SCOBY hotels” or by simply refilling its liquid source with plain black or green tea is recommended; avoid decaffeinated versions as caffeine is essential for its growth.

When you’re ready to restart brewing, clean the jars thoroughly, remove your SCOBY from its jar, and pour some of your previously-brewed kombucha into an empty jar as a starter culture for your new batch of kombucha – covering with a clean towel and secure with rubber bands if possible. For especially strong or acidic varieties of kombucha you should use a hydrometer to test for residual sugar; diabetics should keep an eye out for any residual sugar content before adding feeder solutions; for these types of kombucha it may require testing with an accurate Residual Sugar Test Kit which can determine its exact content in real time!