I have a "thing" for kombucha. I just like it. It's fizzy, like soda, but without all of the sugar. It's fruity, or gingery, depending on what flavor I'm in the mood for. It's fermented, and fermented food is good for you. I've been drinking the stuff for years, long before cool kids made it chic and Lindsay Lohan made it notorious.
Kombucha is often referred to as a tea, but it's actually a cultured drink made by fermenting sweetened tea. It's not just bacteria that are responsible for the process, but a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast--a SCOBY--most commonly referred to as the mother. When momma meets sweet tea under optimal conditions, kombucha is born. Is it a miracle drink, a panacea for all health ailments, as its most rabid fans would like to think? Probably not, but there's good evidence that cultured and fermented foods are teeming with all sorts of fun stuff that's good for you, beneficial bacteria especially.
It's also, so they say, fairly easy to brew your own. At $4+ a bottle that seems the obvious path to take here. But brewing my own kombucha is something that even my die-hard, inner do-it-yourself-er hesitates and stutters over. This SCOBY business...that's like an entire mini-ecosystem or something! Brewing? Fermenting? Culturing? Daunting. Aside from a few mediocre attempts at making yogurt, fermented foods are something I've otherwise left up to others. A simple Google search for "brewing kombucha" has done nothing to encourage me. There's thousands of hits, all touting how easy it is to brew. But everyone seems to do it a little bit differently, so exactly where do I start? Over the past couple of years, I've made up my mind to try brewing my own dozens of times only to quit before I even start.
Except this time, I actually did start the process of brewing my own, and I'm going to share my experience with those of you who are interested. I'll write my experience as it occurs as a series of diaries. Below the fold you'll find the first part of my adventure--the steps I have taken to start my very own SCOBY/mother from which to brew my own kombucha. If all goes well, I'll share the next steps in the process as I use (hopefully) my own home-grown kombucha mother to brew my own.
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