Ingredients
Scale
- 8 tea bags of black or green tea (*Avoid decaffeinated as well as herbal ones, they just don’t go well together and will spoil the taste of the beverage.)
- 1 cup of sugar
- 4 quarts of water
- 2 cups of starter tea (*You can use a previous batch of kombucha or buy a new one from the store, the important thing is that it is non-flavored.)
- 1 Symbiotic Culture Of Yeast (henceforth: SCOBY)
- About 2 cups of ice
Equipment
- Large glass jar
- Coffee filter
- Rubber band
- Ladle and funnel
Instructions
- Heat one quart of water on the stove, the water should reach the maximum temperature, but it should not boil. After turning it off, add the tea bags and let it brew for a while in the water. 15 minutes turned out to be perfect for us.
- Remove the tea bags and add sugar to the drink. It is very important to stir for a while, i.e. until the sugar is completely dissolved.
- Add ice, about 2 cups, and then 2 1/2 quarts of cold water. This will help bring the beverage back to room temperature in a much shorter period of time than letting it cool on its own.
- Pour the starter (from the previous batch of kombucha or the purchased one) and SCOBY into the jar. Add the previously prepared beverage to it as well.
- Cover the jar with a coffee filter and secure it firmly with a rubber band. In case you don’t have a filter, a woven cotton kitchen towel will also serve the purpose.
- The tea should stand at room temperature, out of direct sunlight for about 7-10 days. You may notice that some ingredients have stuck to the bottom, and some may advise you to shake your kombucha, but you want to skip that step.
- After the expiration of the period, it is necessary to give it a taste. If you don’t like the taste because the drink is too sweet, let it sit for a few more days. After that, your kombucha tea should be perfectly fine.
- If you did everything as you wanted from the first attempt and you like the taste, feel free to bottle it, chill it and enjoy.
Notes
Second Fermentation
- If you want your drink to take on a fizzy taste, then you have to do the second fermentation process. It’s very simple, don’t be discouraged.
- All you have to do is, once it reaches the desired sweetness, pour the kombucha tea into bottles and let it sit at room temperature for another 3-7 days. To make the pouring process easier, don’t hesitate to use a funnel and a ladle, they work really great.
- The longer you keep the tea sealed, the fuzzier it will get. Also, be careful as it can fizz up and bubble over once opened.