Kombucha

Kombucha is an ancient drink made by using a tough, gelatinous, pancake-shaped symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) to chemically transform sweetened tea. Here's the Wikipedia page on Kombucha, and the Wikihow page on making Kombucha.

I made a lot of it back in the 90's, then quit when I started moving around a lot, and recently I started it again. There are all kinds of wild claims that it miraculously restores health -- or damages health. Here's a 1995 Paul Stamets article that has good info but is also heavily biased against Kombucha. I think he's misusing the precautionary principle by applying it to something that's been tested for thousands of years, and despite what he says at the end, all the literature that I've seen mentions the possibility of contamination and methods for re-isolation. I've never had a batch get contaminated, or noticed any bad effects. I think it's probably pretty good for you, like other raw fermented drinks such as kvass and kefir.

Tools and Ingredients
The main thing you need is the starter SCOBY, or "mushroom". Here's the Worldwide Kombucha Exchange where you might be able to find one in your area free for pickup. If you're going to order one by mail, I suggest going with a professional -- I got mine from Stitchingtime.

Next you need a one gallon (three or four liter) clear glass jar with a reasonably wide mouth. Clear glass is the only acceptable material for the fermentation. Back in the 90's I used a two gallon fish bowl! Then you need a big stainless steel pot to make the tea in, a source of pure water (filtered, distilled, well, spring) and some black or green tea. Some people use certain herbal teas, but many will not work, especially if they're oily. Earl Grey is unacceptable because it's flavored with orange peel oil (while oddly, Orange Pekoe is straight tea). It's also better to get organic tea, and much cheaper to buy it in bulk than in bags. I suggest going to the nearest natural food store and picking out one based on smell. I like English Breakfast with some Lapsang Souchong for smoky flavor. Also, for some reason, they say not to use decaf.

Then you need some kind of strainer to get the tea leaves out, and finally you need some kind of sugar. Most people use plain white sugar, which is dirt cheap because of subsidies. There is no health reason to use organic white sugar, since the refining process takes out all toxins except the sugar itself -- which supposedly is rendered non-toxic by the fermentation. I've read different things about using less refined sugar cane products, like turbinado or Rapadura, and everyone says not to use honey, probably because its anti-microbial properties will damage or kill the culture.

Procedure
Instead of using measuring cups, I measure the water with my jar, so that the level goes just up to where the jar is about to narrow. The new SCOBY will form on the surface, so you want the surface to still be in the wide part of the jar, so that you get a full-sized SCOBY with more interface and faster fermentation. Then I pour the water into the pot to make the tea, but since the pot I use isn't quite big enough, I don't pour all of it in, but keep some of it in the jar. You also need to know how much water you have, to know how much sugar and tea to use. Recipes vary a bit, but I follow one that says for 3-4 quarts of water, you need 15 grams loose tea (5-7 bags) and a cup of sugar. I got a good scale and found out that 15 grams is almost exactly a quarter of a cup.

When the tea leaves are ready, bring the water to a boil. Then some recipes say to put in the sugar first, and some say the tea first. I put in the sugar first to make sure it all gets dissolved. In any case, when you put the tea in, the temperature should be slightly below boiling, and it should steep for 15 minutes.

Then I pour the sweetened tea through a wire-mesh strainer into the big jar where the leftover water starts it cooling. It has to be cooled to body temperature or lower before you put the SCOBY in, or you'll cook it. Also, in addition to the SCOBY, you need to add some "starter" Kombucha liquid. One cup should be enough. If you don't have any, substitute distilled white vinegar.

Vinegar is important for cleaning, because its high acidity kills microorganisms that you don't want. Everyone says not to use apple cider vinegar, only distilled white. You can use vinegar for cleaning the SCOBY, and cleaning the jar and pot before you use them. Do not clean the SCOBY with chlorinated water, and also it should never touch metal.

When the tea has cooled and the critters are added, cover it with a clean piece of cloth, secure that with a rubber band, and put it in a dark place between 70 and 85 degrees F (20-30C). This may be difficult in the cooler seasons, because it's insane to heat your whole house to 75 just for Kombucha. It might work to put it by the furnace or on the hot water heater, or you could try putting it in a small cupboard with rocks periodically heated in the oven.

Depending on the temperature, the fermentation could take anywhere from five days to two weeks. A film will form on top, which will thicken and turn into a new SCOBY as the Kombucha culture eats the sugar and makes good stuff. Generally the new one will be stuck to the old one, and you can either pull them apart or keep them both in there for the next batch. Eventually the older ones will get ugly and you'll want to throw them out. They should be great for compost, but not good for human consumption!

The finished drink should be slightly fizzy and slightly sweet, kind of like apple cider. If it's vinegary it's gone too far, and if it still tastes like sugared tea it hasn't gone far enough. Color will vary. What I do when a batch is finished is pull out the SCOBY and a cup of the liquid, pour the rest into two or three glass jars or bottles, and then use the big jar to start a new batch. Another method is to brew it continuously -- just keep the SCOBY in the big jar, and every time you take some Kombucha out, replace it with the same quantity of sweetened tea. This saves work in pouring and cleaning, but takes more work in tea brewing. Also, you lose the opportunity to get more fizz, which builds up if you put the finished drink in sealed containers at room temperature.

If you want to be careful, you could start by drinking Kombucha made by someone with experience, so you know what it's supposed to taste like. Other than tasting like vinegar if it goes too far, it should not taste bad, and if you taste or see mold, you have to dump it all and start over, probably with a new SCOBY. You can store them frozen for a while, so when you start getting extra ones, it's good to freeze one as a backup, and periodically replace the frozen one with a fresher one.

I've read all kinds of things about how much you should drink -- or how much you can get away with -- from two ounces a day up to a gallon. Definitely you should start small, in case your body doesn't like it, and if it does, you can work up to a pint a day or more. If you've ever bought Kombucha at the store, the most shocking thing is how much they mark it up! I estimate the cost of making it at home, with high quality tea, to be about 30 cents a quart.

(public domain, anti-copyright, April 2008)