Day 26: Kombucha

 

When I ordered my sourdough starter last month, I also ordered a kombucha kit.  This one HERE.  At £35 it felt like an extravagant purchase but I knew long term it would pay off as I would be making kombucha for a fraction of the cost of shop bought stuff.  Example HERE of 12 delicious ready to drink bottles for £35.  All you need is ordinary black tea, sugar and a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) plus a 3 litre brewing jar.

I successfully brewed my first batch (in the glass) and loved it!  So I then whizzed up some raspberries from the plot with some sugar (the yeast needs sugar and the end product is not sweet) and made some raspberry kombucha.  Basically put puree into the bottle and fill with the fermented tea.  I left it to do it's second ferment for 4 days.  Oh my goodness, it is the best kombucha I've ever had!!! 😋

You can strain out the seeds/pulp of the fruit puree to make an aesthetically good looking drink but I left them in.  It naturally settles on the bottom but I just gave it a gentle shake before pouring.  It's slightly fizzy but not too much and it's not at all sweet.  It has a slightly tangy acidic flavour that I love.

I now have 2 SCOBYs!  I have 1 in my second batch and 1 in a SCOBY 'hotel' 😂 I'm going to invest in a few more jars so I can have a wee production line going.

Although I followed the instructions that came with the kit I mostly used the advice in this video from You Brew Kombucha on YouTube  HERE  She gives a good description of what it is around 1min 8secs.  Some ridiculous claims have been made about the benefits of drinking kombucha but I like the taste and it's good for my digestive system.  You wouldn't drink loads of it as it does contain sugar and the probiotics in it help erm, 'speed up' the digestive process IFKWIM!! 😂