Jun 17
1. Clean and sterilize the 1 gallon wide mouth glass jar (I use iodine and hot water)
2. Place 2 quarts of filtered water in a stock pot and bring to a boil
3. When water comes to a boil, add 1 ounce of loose leaf tea and 1 cup of sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved
4. Turn burner off and let tea steep for 15 minutes
5. Pour tea mixture through a fine mesh strainer into 1 gallon wide mouth glass jar and let cool for a few hours
6. Fill remainder of jar with filtered water leaving about 2 inches of room available
7. Make sure tea mixture is at room temperature and then place SCOBY and at least 1 cup of kombucha starter (the liquid the SCOBY is residing in)
8. Cover with cheese cloth, tightening with a rubber band
9. Place covered jar in a warm spot (60-70 degrees F) and out of the sunlight for 7-10 days and potentially longer to reach desired taste, but taste after 7 days. A lot of people like to just keep it in the kitchen or put it in a closet.
10. After it reaches desired taste, remove SCOBY (it should have doubled and will look like 2 pancakes on top of each other) with some tongs and place in a quart jar. Fill quart jar with the kombucha you just made, cover with cheese cloth and put in refrigerator until you want to start the next batch. You want the SCOBY to be fully covered with kombucha liquid.
11. Fill sanitized bottles almost to the top, leaving about 1/2 inch of head space
12. Screw the cap on and place at room temperature for a few more days to become more carbonated
13. Drink and enjoy! Remember to start off slowly only drinking 3 oz a day, gradually increasing your consumption. Most kombucha drinkers consume 8-24oz per day
A few tips and ideas: I like to make some interesting combinations to switch things up a bit. Get creative, it probably always won't be the best thing you have ever tasted, but you never know.
* I have made some pu-erh kombucha, but during the steeping period I will crush up some cardamom pods and add them to the tea to create a more savory kombucha
* Silver needle white tea with fresh thyme. I then mixed this with some vodka and champagne for a nice kombucha cocktail.
*TIP- this is a very helpful tip that I just discovered a few weeks ago. If the temperature in your house isn't warm enough, place the gallon jar of kombucha on a seed starter warming mat. It kicked my kombucha action into gear big time. I had a nice sized scoby in just a few days.
