Kombucha Fun

For the uninitiated into what kombucha is, here’s a run down.

Last week when I was at my parent’s house for my grandmother’s funeral I mentioned to my brother and sister-in-law that I wanted to try their kombucha. Stephanie, my SIL, had received a ‘mother/SCOBY’ as a present for her birthday. They’ve been happily brewing kombucha ever since! Now the SCOBY has split enough that she could share so I was gifted a jar of fermenting tea and SCOBY. Last night was my night to pour it into Ball Jars and flavor it how I wanted and start a new ferment. I opted to keep the new ‘baby’ with the original mother that was started for this batch until I can get a second jar to have two batches going simultaneously.

Of course at 10pm when I was boiling water to get this whole thing started I realized that I was out of sugar! Sugar is what the SCOBY feeds on so I made a late night visit to Walgreens hoping they had sugar, which thankfully they did. Next time I will not do this process at 10pm, it took too long to wait for the tea to cool down, I had to throw it in the fridge and toss a bit of ice in it to get it down to room temperature so I could just go to bed!

Anyway, I poured off two quarts of the original fermented batch and flavored that with a peach in one and then hibiscus flowers in the other. I had about a pint left so I poured that off and stuck it in the fridge to sip on while I waited for the flavored ones to ferment for a few more days. Kombucha at the store is on the pricey end and I only get it as a treat now-and-then so I am excited to have my own brew going now! I’m glad my bro and SIL shared!