Kombucha Tea

Kombucha tea isn't something you can buy in a bottle or a bag. You need to brew up a batch of kombucha starter culture and grow your own.

The health benefits of kombucha tea are many, and the taste is distinctively tart. The final product is lightly carbonated too. If you're interested in trying some, be prepared to do a little work and to wait for the finished product.

• Brew 2 quarts of tea (either black or green), using 2 tbs of tea per quart. Let it steep for at least 15 minutes. I know it will be strong, but it's necessary for the culture to grow. Strain the tea or tea bags out of the tea.
• Add 3 oz of sugar while the tea is still warm, and stir to dissolve.
• Let your tea cool down to room temperature, no warmer than 70F. A hot liquid will kill your starter culture. Pour into a large china or glass container.
• Add the culture, and the liquid that it came in.
• Cover the jar with a fine-mesh cloth or paper towel, to keep out fruit flies but to still allow air in. Secure it with a rubber band.
• Keep your culture in a warm place, with no direct sunlight. A relatively dark place is best. Do not move the jar while it is fermenting. The temperature should stay between 68-86F, but it's better to keep it between 74-80F.
• Let the fermentation process go on for 8-12 days. You'll likely have to experiment a bit to get the timing right for your own tastes. Warmer temperatures will speed up the process.
• While your kombucha tea is fermenting, the sugar will be broken down by the yeast in the starter, and CO₂ will be formed. Your tea will start to bubble and develop a sharper, tart flavour.
• When the acid level is around 2.7-3.2 pH, your tea is ready to go. Most kits that you buy will have acid test strips included. You will eventually learn to tell just by the taste.
• At this point, you'll need to create a new, fresh batch of tea for your culture (see the first steps). Remove the culture from your completed tea, rinse it off lightly with lukewarm water, and place it in the new container of tea. Also add about a tenth of the fermented tea into the new batch
• Pour your completed kombucha tea into bottles. You can strain it if you like, as there will be a little bit of yeast sediment at the bottom. Stopper up the bottles securely.
• Let it sit for 4-5 days, to finish maturing. Store in a cool place.
• Your kombucha tea will keep for several months. Enjoy.

Kombucha tea is reputed to help with many health problems such as: excema and other skin problems, hair loss, hypertension, digestive and intestinal disorders, arthritis, high cholesterol and more. I'm not sure how much of this has been scientifically proven, as it seems to cure almost everything. All I can say is, give it a try.

All you need to do is buy a kombucha kit (compare prices) and you'll get everything you need. And though its not as good as home-brewed, you can buy bottled kombucha tea (compare prices).

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