I was super skeptical about drinking and making Kombucha. The thought of the gooey SCOBY really turned my stomach. We decided to try a store bought bottle of Kombucha to see if it was something we would like to try fermenting at home. Surprisingly we really enjoyed it! My Husband posted on a local produce Facebook page seeking a baby SCOBY and a lovely generous lady dropped one in to us. After seeing the baby SCOBY first hand I couldn’t imagine I would enjoy drinking what it produced, even though I had tasted it before. Honestly they look like a hard snot formation. You don’t know unless you try though.
(For those new to Kombucha SCOBY means a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast).
We made up a batch of sweet tea as per instructions found online and brewed up our first batch of Kombucha on the 12th of September. We ended up steeping 8 teabags in boiled water before adding 1 cup of sugar. It then cooled a little before we added it to our 5L jar. We then added some filtered water, a cup of starter liquid and our SCOBY. Then it was time to wait for the SCOBY to work it’s magic.
On the 24th we checked out our Kombucha and the SCOBY had began to develop on the top just like it was suppose to. Hooray! We both had a taste of the Kombucha and it was surprisingly still sweet with an after tang. Maybe we hadn’t taken it quite far enough…
My husband had been looking into second fermentation using fruit so we decided to give it a go. The second fermentation flavours the Kombucha and gives it a fizz like soft drink. We opted for tinned passion fruit pulp, diced orange, pureed strawberry and a plain second ferment using sugar.
We let a little pressure out of each jars once a day as we watched the lids bulge more and more. The second ferment was ready on the 27th and the jars were put in the fridge to cool.
I couldn’t be happier with the results, especially with the passion fruit. It was hands down the winner for both of us. The orange and plain Kombucha was pleasant to drink but the passion fruit was really enjoyable. The strawberry wasn’t far behind. This is going to be trial and error for a while until we can get the recipe right for our taste.