I have my own kombucha scoby! It looks creepy but it’s so interesting.
It takes about 2-4 weeks to do it from scratch but I was lucky that one of my friends grows it at home so she just gave me a layer of this cellulose mat that already hosts the right bacteria and yeast cultures to produce kombucha tea.
I’ve heard of many health benefits this fermented drink has and I noticed it was really popular in Canada among the “healthy eaters”, and it wasn’t cheap at all - a single 0.33 can cost around CAD3.00. In its origin, it’s not a posh beverage - it’s actually an ancient drink from China, produced by fermenting sugared tea. From there, it spread to Russia and was then adopted over the Europe and the rest of the globe.
Scoby, as this floating thing is called, is actually an abbreviation for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast”, and is formed after the completion of a fermentation process of lactic acid bacteria, acetic acid bacteria, and yeast during the production of fermented foods and beverages like kombucha and kimchi.
That’s how it looks outside the liquid.
The living bacteria is a natural probiotic, and this year’s research from the Stanford School of Medicine showed that out of all food groups, a diet rich in fermented foods enhances the diversity of gut microbes and decreases inflammation the most. That’s very important because microbiome diversity plays a huge role in our risk of disease, allergies and even mental health. If you’re interested in this topic, you should listen this mindblowing podcast by Andrew Huberman: How Foods and Nutrients Control Our Moods. He’s great at presenting science to an average Joe that doesn’t have a strong background in biochemistry or neurology.
So how do you actually make the beverage?
If you’re about to grow a new scoby from scratch, you use some pre-made kombucha from a friend or store-bought, but make sure it’s a raw and unflavored. Alternatively you can also get a home-grown scoby if you know someone that has it.
In both cases simply add sweetened black or green tea (about 8 grams of sugar and 13 grams of tea per 1.5l of liquid).
Wait for a week so the yeasts and the bacteria feast on all the sugar, then drain almost all the fermented liquid and voilà! You can fill up the jar again with fresh sweetened tea and repeat the process while you’re enjoying this refreshing home-brewed drink.
