Kombucha is a fermented tea that has been consumed for many hundreds, if not thousands, of years. It is through that it originated in either China or Japan, but these days, people all around the world enjoy this healthy sugar-free alternative to soft drinks.
It has the same health benefits as tea as well as being full of beneficial probiotics which can help support a healthy immune system and good gut health.
Most kombucha recipes or instructions you read will recommend a two-week ferment period initially and then the addition of fruit or similar to add more flavour. This is followed by a second fermentation period (how long this needs to be depends on your climate and where the kombucha is left during that fermentation process).
The fermentation processes gives Kombucha plenty of antioxidants and can enable it to kill harmful bacteria.
Because I’m busy and impatient I’ve developed a method which only requires one two-week fermentation process. You’ll love how easy it is to have healthy, fresh organic kombucha. This simple method means you can have kombucha in your pantry all year round if you maintain a regular fermentation regime.
I source tea from a local café who use locally foraged ingredients and dried rosella flowers combined with other aromatics as the base of the tea.
Please note – I just said I don’t use Green Tea! Most kombucha afficionados will recommend either green tea or rooibos tea. I don’t use either – and I still get amazing fermentation and loads of health benefits and flavour!
The secret is really in the SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) – if you have a healthy SCOBY you will get a healthy kombucha.
A SCOBY is the “mother” that you use for each batch of kombucha you make, and it looks like a round, flat, piece of rubbery agar agar (like you used to find in those Petri dishes in high school).
It won’t always be this colour. Mine is like this because I tend to use teas that include either berries or rosella flowers which are all red in colour, so it makes my scoby look like that too.
You can purchase a SCOBY on line like this one here or you can find a friend who has one and ask them to donate a piece to you when theirs grows too big. Maybe ask in your local community group – anyone who has a SCOBY will sooner or later have grown it too big and be happy to share.
Here’s my secret method for single ferment kombucha:
What you need:
- Approximately 75 grams of a floral or herbal tea of your choosing – loose or in bags – both work, although loose tea produces less waste and is a more earth-friendly option
- 1 cup sugar (white, brown, raw it doesn’t matter – just use what you have)
- A healthy SCOBY
- Heat proof containers which hold up to around 4 litres for fermenting (no lid required)
- Small muslin square or paper towel
- Rubber bands big enough to fit around the mouth of your heat proof containers
- A kettle for boiling water
What to do:
Fill the kettle with 1 litre of rainwater or filtered water. If you don’t have access to either of these, pour out the water from the tap and let it sit for 24 hours before you boil it – this will allow the additives in the water to evaporate.
While the kettle is boiling, tip the loose tea and the sugar in to your fermentation container – I use two old spaghetti jars. I don’t use them for storing spaghetti since I don’t eat spaghetti any more so I have repurposed them to making kombucha! I make the tea mixture in one then divide it later between the two containers.
Once the kettle has boiled, pour in the full 1 litre over the tea and leave the tea to steep until the water has cooled.
When the water has cooled, strain off the loose tea or remove the tea bags and dispose of them in the compost. Divide the strained tea between your fermentation containers so there are equal parts in each. Add an additional 2.5 litres of rainwater or filtered water to the mix to top up the containers you will be using.
Divide your SCOBY and add it into each of the fermentation containers and then top them up to around 4 litres or as full as you can get them without diluting the tea too much.
Cover the containers with muslin or paper towel and secure with a rubber band. Pop them in a dark, cool place (like the back of your pantry) and leave them alone for two weeks.
After two weeks:
After 2 weeks, the sugar will have been consumed by the SCOBY. You can either drain off the SCOBY now, bottle it and drink it. If you would like it a little bit fizzy, once you have drained off the SCOBY, divide the mixture between 3 or 4 flip top bottles and add between 1-2 tspns sugar to each bottle.
Put it back into the cool, dark pantry for between 3 – 5 days (depending on the temperature – warmer weather will get the fizz going more quickly).
You can test it by releasing the flip top – if you get a fizzing sound – it’s ready! Be careful though – they have been known to explode if you leave them too long!
Once it is ready to drink, place it in the refrigerator and drink it in small doses to start with, say around 100ml. If you are not used to it, it can be surprising what it might do to your gut health!
Start gradually and work your way up to around 300ml per day for optimal gut health support.
Enjoy!
