Homemade Kombucha - First Fermentation
Making kombucha, or sweet fermented tea, is easily done at home! It’s a fabulous drink to have handy for you and your family, full of gut healthy probiotics and anti-oxidents. And did you know that kombucha originally came from China?
- Prep time
- 2 min
- Cook time
- 1 min
- Yield
- 5 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1 wide mouth 1.5 liter glass jar
- 6 black tea bags, or 6 tbsp loose black tea leaves
- 6 cups boiling water
- 3/4 cup sugar, 150g
- 1 scoby (use our homemade scoby recipe)
- 1 1/2 cup kombucha starter tea, 355g
Instructions
- 1
Note: Kombucha starter tea can be bought at the store. If you have already made kombucha just reserve 1 1/2 cup of kombucha to use as a 'starter tea' for the next batch.
- 2
Add sugar, tea and boiling water into one large mixing bowl. Stir until sugar dissolved. Cover and let the tea brew until it's cooled to room temperature.
- 3
Remove the tea bags or tea leaves, using sterilized equipment.
- 4
In a sterilized wide mouth jar, add in scoby and kombucha starter tea. If you've already been making kombucha just keep the scoby and 1 1/2 cups kombucha tea (for use as 'starter tea') in the fermentation jar. Pour in the completely cooled down sugared tea.
- 5
Cover jar with paper or cloth towel and secure covering with rubber band. Let ferment in dark area for 12 days or so until the tartness of the fermentation is to your liking. Taste test by scooping out a bit of tea with a sterilized utensil. If not tart enough, continue ferment for another two days and test again.
- 6
When satisfied with the taste, scoop out the fermented kombucha tea into another jar, leaving the scoby and 1 1/2 cup kombucha in the fermentation jar to start the next batch of kombucha. Repeat the above steps to make the next batch.
- 7
Enjoy your kombucha tea, first fermentation, as is or go on to the second fermentation where you can add extra flavors and fizziness. We'll be posting on kombucha, second fermentation next, so stay tuned.