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Honey-coated banana slice on wooden spoon.

Food as Medicine: Homemade Kombucha

Prep Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 gallon of purified water
  • 6-8 teabags of your favorite tea
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • SCOBY This stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. You can make your own or choose a little assistance with a starter kit.
  • 2 cups of unflavored neutralized, store-bought kombucha
  • Option to include 1-2 cups of your favorite chopped fruit for additional flavoring berries are great! or 2-5 TBSP of fresh herbs or spices

Instructions

  1. Create a tea base:  Bring water to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar until it is dissolved. Drop in the tea and allow it to steep until the water has cooled. This may take a few hours (depends on pot size). If you’d like to speed up the cooling process, place the pot in an ice bath.
  2. Add starter tea: Once cool, remove the tea bags or strain out the loose tea. Stir in the starter tea. (The starter tea prevents “bad” bacteria from making a home in the first few days of fermentation.)
  3. Transfer to jars. Add SCOBY: Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon glass jar and (with clean hands!) carefully slide the scoby into the jar. Cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers and secure it with a rubber band. Even paper towels or coffee filters will work.
  4. Ferment for 7-10 days. Be sure to keep the jar out of direct sunlight, at room temp and in an area that won’t be continually disturbed. Periodically check the Kombucha and scoby.  It is not unusual for the scoby to float at the top, bottom, or sideways during this process. Don’t be freaked out if you see weird floaters and strings hanging from the scoby. These are normal signs of fermentation!
  5. Time to Taste Test. After 7 days, start to taste your kombucha. Wait until you reach a balance of sweet and sour that you prefer. It is now time to remove the scoby, but make sure you have another batch of hot tea in the wings in order to hand off the scoby! Side note, it is ok to keep your scoby on a plate for a little bit until you are ready to transfer to the new batch.
  6. Bottle Up!: Measure 2 cups from this batch to serve as your starter tea for the next batch. Pour the fermented kombucha (strain if desired) into bottles using the small funnel. Add any fruit or herbs you may want for additional flavor. Leave approximately a half inch of room at the top of each bottle.
  7. Carbonate then Refrigerate: Store the bottled kombucha at room temperature out of direct sunlight. Allow 1 to 3 days for the kombucha to carbonate. Refrigerate to stop fermentation and carbonation. Be sure to consume your delicious homemade food as medicine kombucha within a month!