- Keep everything (including hands) clean! The scoby (Symbiotic composition of Bacteria and Yiest), as the name suggests, consists of just the right bacteria and yiest that does the fermenting. They digest the sugar to create the nice taste and some carbonation (if you want strong carbonation, check out youtube videos about "2nd fermentation of Kombucha"). You can imagine, if you bring other dirt/bacteria into the mix, bad things happen!
- Keep the scoby at room temperature. There's a temperature range at which it works best. Too cold and it might stop working altogether, or the yiest might take over and be stronger than the bacteria and then again bad things might happen ... too hot and the scoby dies. If you want to take a Kombucha break, you can easily just let the batch sit there for 3 months or more (I haven't tried more, but after 3 months it still looked good). Then you have super strong vinegar that you can use for house cleaning or to flavor your salad, and just make a new batch as normal.
- Don't let your scoby come in contact with Metal! I've heard that stainless steel might be fine (there are different grades of stainless steel as well, there might be some better than others), but to be safe, just avoid metal!
Approach:
So first of all, you need a big jar.
Then you cook a lot of very sugary unscented green tea ("Gunpowder" tea was recommended). It apparently also works with black, but I've always used Gunpowder, and you should stick to one tea, after you decided for one (you can switch of course, but then stick to the new one. The scoby gets used to it).
For quantities:
I cook 2.3 liters of Water. When it boils, turn off the stove and add 20g of loose Gunpowder Tea and 250g of brown sugar. Stir to resolve the sugar. Let it soak for 15 minutes. Then filter the tea out. Put a lid on the pot and let it sit for a day in order to cool down to room temperature.
Next day, put the sugary tea into the clean jar(be very picky about hygiene when touching the scoby at all times!), add the Kombucha drink (at least 10% of the total volume of liquid, in our case roughly 300ml) and then put the Scoby in, let it swim wherever it wants. Add a penetrable lid (some textile with a rubber band, so it can breathe but no flies get in. Don't make it airtight) and let it rest in the cupboard without touching it for around 2-3 weeks (depends on taste, start with 2 weeks and then increase as you get used to the taste. It's really weird at first, but super delicious once you get used to it. And very healthy ;) ). Ideally, if you have a jar with a little tap in front (e.g. this one is mine: https://www.galeria.de/Butlers-REFRESH-Getraenkespender-3-5-l/50046223A5.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiA89zvBRDoARIsAOIePbC8YeyphESpXun2RyYlLKNYtZX8g-G55gu7tzE1k2XWa1pGju7s9jsaAhmVEALw_wcB&src=82L000000&utm_medium=nonbrand_pla&utm_source=google), you can taste from time to time to see whether you already like it or not. If it's still too sweet, wait longer. If it's already too sour, just leave it even longer and make vinegar
The scoby eats the sugar over time, that's why you put super sugary tea in the beginning, because if the scoby doesn't get its sugar, it will die. My previous batch I've left for 3 months, just because I don't drink it currently due to the pregnancy (because it may contain a little alcohol. No one knows how much, possibly around 2%, so not much, but who knows. I just don't try). It's vinegar already after around 4-5 weeks.When you leave the jar standing somewhere without touching it (not direct sunlight, but otherwise doesn't matter, doesn't need any light but it also doesn't do harm. Room temperature, no fridge), then it grows a new scoby layer on the top surface of the liquid, which grows thicker the longer you let it stand there. Within those three months, when I had the feeling the layer was getting too thick, I shook it a little so new liquid would get on the surface, so it would grow a new layer on top which I can better separate later. Also, if the surface dries out completely, bad things might happen, that's why I shake it every few weeks. But if you only grow it for consumption (2-3 weeks), you don't need to shake it, just let it sit there until it tastes good.
This is a really nice page with all the information you need, but it's only in German: https://wellness-drinks.de/de/kombucha_wirkung_inhaltsstoffe.html
with the recipe here: https://wellness-drinks.de/de/kombucha_herstellung.html
A super nice (English) YouTube channel covering everything you need to know about Kombucha and more can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9sJNYAq1U00apBoMFXSYlA
Otherwise, Google is your friend :D
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