Kombucha!

I've been interested in trying to brew my own Kombucha for awhile now - but I finally got around to starting because my good friend, Joanna, gave me her baby scoby to start my batch!
Joanna got her original scoby and supplies from Lionheart Kombucha, which is a Portland based business.

Here's the basic recipe I used:

3.5ish quarts water
6 green or black teabags (or 3 tsp loose tea. Must be caffeinated)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 scoby! (+scoby juice - scoby will come in about 8 oz. of liquid)
juice/fruit for extra flavor (optional)

1. Boil the water - add your sugar and tea bags and stir until sugar is dissolved. Let mixture stand until it is at room temperature (this can take hours - don't cheat though! It's really important that the mixture has cooled completely before moving on).
2. Once the mixture has completely cooled remove the teabags and transfer your mixture to a clean 1-gallon glass jar (check to make sure you're using food grade glass so you don't leach something yucky into your drink!).
3. Add your scoby+scoby juice! It will most likely float on top a bit. Cover the mouth of your jar with a dish cloth and rubber band it on. NO LIDS! Your kombucha must be able to breath or it will grow a nasty mold and you won't be able to drink it!
4. Keep in a warm place (70-90 degrees) for 7-14 days and let your mixture ferment. You can periodically test your kombucha to see if it's strong enough - and easy way to do this is to stick a straw under the scoby to draw out some liquid to taste.(My house is about 60 degrees, my culture grew very slowly - i left it in for the full 14 days).
5. Once you're finished brewing carefully remove your scoby + about a cup or so of juice - you will use this for your next batch. Store in a glass container in the fridge until you're ready to brew again.
6. Bottle up your remaining liquid - growlers work great for this! Now is the time to flavor - you can use juice, sliced fruit, ginger, etc. -- Just place these items in the storage container with your kombucha and let the flavors marry!
7. The kombucha will continue to ferment a bit - so remember to release the pressure in your container every so often so you don't have an explosion in your fridge!

For my first batch I used Typhoo tea compliments of my Dad and Summit Tea & Spice!

Cooled tea mixture with bags still in.

My scoby + scoby juice in the glass jar waiting to be poured into my second batch.

Home 'bottling' setup.

Each time you brew a batch of kombucha the scoby 'doubles' - you can pull these 'babies' off and give them to friends to brew their own kombucha - or you can just keep letting the 'mother' scoby get thicker. For my first batch I flavored the kombucha with mango/passionfruit tea - it was a great flavor, but I added to much juice so our kombucha was really sweet. Thor loved it though - he has been drinking it all week at work for lunch!