As I said last week, every year I find myself embracing a new aspect of healthy living that I’ve discounted in the past. This year, I’ve decided to start brewing Kombucha and so far it has been a breeze. Kombucha is a fermented tea drink that has been consumed for centuries and is surprisingly delicious. Kombucha is really good for keeping your gut flora healthy and providing you with b vitamins, which your body needs to convert food into energy.
More and more we are beginning to understand the important role gut bacteria plays in regulating our immune systems and how it contributes to our energy, autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergies, adhd and autism. In fact the gut is so influential it is often referred to as the ‘second brain’.
When our kids were young, we discovered for ourselves the importance of gut health. Having a healthy balance of gut flora was the key to resolving our daughter’s numerous food intolerances. So now we make sure to feed our gut flora with fermented foods every day.
So far I’ve had no luck getting the kids to eat sauerkraut, but around 12 months ago I tasted Kombucha. I’d heard about it, but hadn’t tried it before as it was expensive and I expected it to taste bad. I was surprised to discover it tasted like a yummy fizzy drink. It was truly delicious. Admittedly the one I tried was flavoured with berries, but it was yummy enough for me to test it on the kids. The kids loved it so we were all hooked. Trouble is Kombucha is expensive so I would buy one big bottle a week and ration it out, mostly between the kids.
This year we are trying to reign in our spending so I’ve decided to try making my own. I’ve just completed my first batch and I have to say it was pretty good. I’ll tweak a few things, but we have all been enjoying it so I’m pretty happy with the results. Here’s how I did it:
First I needed a ‘scoby’.
This is the good culture that ferments the tea. It’s a white, jelly looking substance, that can have bits of brown stringy stuff hanging off it. Can look a little gross but it does a great job. I didn’t know anyone who could give me a scoby, so I googled how to grow my own. It was super simple. I followed the instructions I found on www.culturesforhealth.com Basically I took 1C of a plain store bought Kombucha, added a cup of sweetened green tea that had been cooled to room temperature (1C tea and 1T sugar). I put all this in a sterilized jar, popped a couple of paper towels over the top and secured them with a rubber band. This allows your kombucha to breath but keeps the fruit flies out. Then I left it in a dark place in the kitchen for a few days, where it wouldn’t get knocked around. You are supposed to leave it alone, but I was so excited about growing one that I checked on it morning and night. I was very proud of myself, showing photos around the office. It did feel a bit like it was my little baby (mad I know).
Creating the first batch
Over a couple of days a clear film formed on the top of the liquid. This slowly got thicker and developed nice opaque spots over the course of about 5 days. There were also some brown stringy bits. This is fine. Brown and white are good, green or black are bad. After 5 days it was time to feed it some more sweet tea and transfer it to a larger drink dispenser. This time I made a larger pot of sweet tea. 7C water, 1T tea, 1/2C sugar, cooled that down, added it to 1C of my existing kombucha liquid and placed my baby scoby on top. Again covering it with paper towels and placing it in a dark part of the kitchen. Within a day the scoby had grown to completely cover the top of my kombucha and within 4 days it was a lovely white colour.
It’s summer here in NZ and it has been quite hot in the kitchen during the day so the Kombucha fermented quickly. Infact after 4 days it was a little more tart than I would have liked but still tasted good.
Flavour & Fizz
The next thing was to add some ‘child friendly’ flavour to it. I decanted most of the Kombucha into tall glass bottles, leaving 1C in the jar with the scoby ready to make the next batch of Kombucha. For flavour I added peaches to one bottle and berries to the other. The bottles sat on the bench for 3 days, with their lids on so the kombucha would become fizzy. I burped the bottles a few times so the pressure didn’t build up too much, the last thing you want is Kombucha on the ceiling. After 3 days I tasted it again, and once I was happy with the fizz and flavour I moved the bottles into the fridge to stop the fermentation.
And that’s it. It was super easy, and really satisfying to do this from scratch. Now that I’ve got my scoby it will cost very little for the whole family to drink Kombucha every day.
If you are keen to give it a try I recommend visiting www.culturesforhealth.com as they have all the instructions you need such as quantities and types of tea to use. Or if you want to buy some Kombucha, in NZ you can find it in health food shops and stores such as Faros. Try drinking a small glass every morning and notice any changes in your energy or mood.
For now, I’m hooked. It’s a super simple and cost effective way to provide the probiotics our family needs each day. My energy has definitely improved as a result of drinking it.
More and more we are beginning to understand the important role gut bacteria plays in regulating our immune systems and how it contributes to our energy, autoimmune diseases, asthma, allergies, adhd and autism. In fact the gut is so influential it is often referred to as the ‘second brain’.
When our kids were young, we discovered for ourselves the importance of gut health. Having a healthy balance of gut flora was the key to resolving our daughter’s numerous food intolerances. So now we make sure to feed our gut flora with fermented foods every day.
So far I’ve had no luck getting the kids to eat sauerkraut, but around 12 months ago I tasted Kombucha. I’d heard about it, but hadn’t tried it before as it was expensive and I expected it to taste bad. I was surprised to discover it tasted like a yummy fizzy drink. It was truly delicious. Admittedly the one I tried was flavoured with berries, but it was yummy enough for me to test it on the kids. The kids loved it so we were all hooked. Trouble is Kombucha is expensive so I would buy one big bottle a week and ration it out, mostly between the kids.
This year we are trying to reign in our spending so I’ve decided to try making my own. I’ve just completed my first batch and I have to say it was pretty good. I’ll tweak a few things, but we have all been enjoying it so I’m pretty happy with the results. Here’s how I did it:
First I needed a ‘scoby’.
This is the good culture that ferments the tea. It’s a white, jelly looking substance, that can have bits of brown stringy stuff hanging off it. Can look a little gross but it does a great job. I didn’t know anyone who could give me a scoby, so I googled how to grow my own. It was super simple. I followed the instructions I found on www.culturesforhealth.com Basically I took 1C of a plain store bought Kombucha, added a cup of sweetened green tea that had been cooled to room temperature (1C tea and 1T sugar). I put all this in a sterilized jar, popped a couple of paper towels over the top and secured them with a rubber band. This allows your kombucha to breath but keeps the fruit flies out. Then I left it in a dark place in the kitchen for a few days, where it wouldn’t get knocked around. You are supposed to leave it alone, but I was so excited about growing one that I checked on it morning and night. I was very proud of myself, showing photos around the office. It did feel a bit like it was my little baby (mad I know).
Creating the first batch
Over a couple of days a clear film formed on the top of the liquid. This slowly got thicker and developed nice opaque spots over the course of about 5 days. There were also some brown stringy bits. This is fine. Brown and white are good, green or black are bad. After 5 days it was time to feed it some more sweet tea and transfer it to a larger drink dispenser. This time I made a larger pot of sweet tea. 7C water, 1T tea, 1/2C sugar, cooled that down, added it to 1C of my existing kombucha liquid and placed my baby scoby on top. Again covering it with paper towels and placing it in a dark part of the kitchen. Within a day the scoby had grown to completely cover the top of my kombucha and within 4 days it was a lovely white colour.
It’s summer here in NZ and it has been quite hot in the kitchen during the day so the Kombucha fermented quickly. Infact after 4 days it was a little more tart than I would have liked but still tasted good.
Flavour & Fizz
The next thing was to add some ‘child friendly’ flavour to it. I decanted most of the Kombucha into tall glass bottles, leaving 1C in the jar with the scoby ready to make the next batch of Kombucha. For flavour I added peaches to one bottle and berries to the other. The bottles sat on the bench for 3 days, with their lids on so the kombucha would become fizzy. I burped the bottles a few times so the pressure didn’t build up too much, the last thing you want is Kombucha on the ceiling. After 3 days I tasted it again, and once I was happy with the fizz and flavour I moved the bottles into the fridge to stop the fermentation.
And that’s it. It was super easy, and really satisfying to do this from scratch. Now that I’ve got my scoby it will cost very little for the whole family to drink Kombucha every day.
If you are keen to give it a try I recommend visiting www.culturesforhealth.com as they have all the instructions you need such as quantities and types of tea to use. Or if you want to buy some Kombucha, in NZ you can find it in health food shops and stores such as Faros. Try drinking a small glass every morning and notice any changes in your energy or mood.
For now, I’m hooked. It’s a super simple and cost effective way to provide the probiotics our family needs each day. My energy has definitely improved as a result of drinking it.