How to make Kombucha
October 5, 2008
Kombucha drink has various beneficial effects on the human body, so it’s good to know how to make it. Some label it as the elixir of life. This sparkling tea should be consumed cold. It has a quite serious history, as there are evidence showing that it was first used two thousand years ago. Kambucha has a taste unmatched by no other tea, because it’s sweetened and then fermented. The fermentation process takes away much of the sugar and caffeine normally contained in kambucha. Due to its slightly sweet, slightly tart flavor, people either love it or leave it.
Here are the ingredients required to make the kombucha drink:
- 1 kombucha culture
- 2 litres of water
- 4 tea bags, or 4 teaspoons of tea (green, white, or black tea). Traditionally kombucha was made with black tea, but many people prefer green tea because of the higher levels of antioxidants; and green tea tends to stimulate the fermentation process and yield a finished batch of kombucha quicker than black tea.
- 150 grams of white sugar, or the equivalen amount of agave nectar
- 200 ml of kombucha from a previous batch, or if that’s your first time, start with 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar.
First of all, make sure all the ingredients are clean. Wash your hands thoroughly. Clean the jars and clean all the non-metallic implements. Everything must be extremely clean, because kombucha is indeed a living culture, a mixture of yeasts and bacteria, and it could be contaminated.
Start by preparing a pot of tea with the tea bags and leave it to brew for about 20 minutes. Add the sugar and mix it until it dissolves. At that point, you should add cold so that the level of the whole liquid can increase to 2 litres. The reason for adding cold water is in the fact that hot tea can kill the culture, since it contains living bacteria.
Most likely, this is the first time you will be making kombucha, so you probably don’t have a batch from previous times. If that’s the case, use the 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar as your starter. This is done, because the cider vinegar adds the acid environment the culture likes.
Take your scoby and slide it into the bowl, it doesn’t matter if it sinks or floats. If the scoby has a side with darker color, then put that side facing down into the tea. The brown bits are yeasts. Now cover properly the bowl with a tea towel.
The process of fermentation take between 5 to 14 days, depending on the temperature. When the kombucha is ready it should it should have a balanced taste, not too sweet or too sour.
It may seem easy easy but we recommend being guided by our video series and resources we created at the Kombucha Diet Program. A lot can go wrong so let us guide you!
All About Kombucha
October 4, 2008
Books written on the topic of Kombucha state that the first recorded use of Kombucha tea was during the times of the Chinese Empire of the Tsing Dynasty in 220BC. During that period, Kombucha was named “The remedy for immortality”, or “The Elexir Of Life.” There are actually 84 different names for the tea that can be made from it. Kombucha is the Germanized form of the Japanese name for the mushroom, and its now being used internationally. But rather than being a mushroom, it is a colony of yeast and bacteria.
You can make your own Kombucha tea. It’s really simple. If you can boil water, add sugar, and make some tea with it, you can definitely make Kombucha. On the Internet, you will be able to find complete Kombucha making kits with detailed guidelines of what to and what not to do. Depending on the tea used and the temperature it was brewed at, it tastes a bit like fizzy, something between an apple cider vinegar and champagne, although it is non-alcoholic.
It should be pointed out that none of the benefits of Kombucha have been evaluated by the Food And Drug administration, although thousands of people around the world have reported direct benefits from consuming Kombucha. Kombucha provides an effective way to detoxify the body, restoring the normal liver and kidney functions. A lot of people have reported a serious improve of energy levels and a feeling of well-being after drinking Kombucha. There are also folks who use it as a cure for hangovers. After regular use, some people notice an improvement in the quality of their skin or hair. The reasons for all those benefits are different and remain unexplained yet, but most will agree upon the fact that Kombucha does indeed make a difference in the lives of those that drink it regularly. Therefore, my advice to you would be to simply try it for yourself.
When undergoing a therapy with Kombucha, it’s important that you drink the first glass for the day in the morning, on an empty stomach, so that the variety of substances contained in Kombucha can be fully effective. Here is the comment made by German dr. Gunther: “One should drink Kombucha three times a day. Morning before breakfast, noon after food, and evening. It is known in pharmacology that absorption of certain active substances (e.g., certain fungicides) into the bloodstream or lymphstream is reduced if taken before meals. The small amounts of antibiotic substances contained in Kombucha are rendered especially effective when the beverage is taken in the morning on an empty stomach whereas, for example, the organic acids stimulate a better functioning of the digestive processes when the beverage is taken after the more ample midday and evening meals.”
Kombucha and Vinegar Making
October 4, 2008
There are different preparation techniques of the amazing Kombucha beverage. Vinegar is one of the easiest culture-products for home production. It can be prepared from fresh, non-alcoholic juices like a fresh fruit juice or even using cereal grains or honey. Of course, as you probably know, traditional vinegar is made out of fruit juice, most likely apple juice with the addition of a small-amount of non-pasteurized vinegar, because it contains some active substances. What you should definitely keep in mind is that the acetic acid contained in the juice requires a certain amount of oxygen, so that it can covert alcohol into vinegar.
The Kombucha mother culture is known as Scoby and you need it to produce the beverage. Here is one of the most popular Kombucha recipes. First you need a Scoby with 1 cup fresh Kombucha tea, that you should have from a previous batch. Then you will also need 8 cups of Green tea and 1/2 cup sugar, or you can use 2 table spoons of honey instead. A clean glass container is required to mix everything up in it. You start by pouring 8 cups of tea in the glass container. Then add the sweetener of your choice to the tea and let it cool down to room temperature. Now it’s time to add the Kombucha Scoby plus Kombucha tea from the previous batch. Mix things up and place a clean cloth over the mouth of the container and secure things up using a string. This whole mixture has to fermend at room temperature between 7 to 10 days
There is another interesting method of making Kombucha tea and it involves the addition of kefiran. Kefiran is a health-beneficial soluble of milk kefir grains and when it’s added to Kombucha, the resulting brew has a smooth taste. As a matter of fact, you will be amazed by how refershing the beverage will get, when the unique properties of kefiran are added into the mix. The Scoby that forms on the surface of the brew can get really thick in just a couple of days with a somehow different texture compared to the one you will get in the recipe above.
To make good Kombucha, you have to keep some things in mind. If you find any signs of contamination on the surface, get rid of the vinegar of Kombucha and obtain a new culture. You should never culture Kombucha or vinegar with a contaminated Scoby. Never culture vinegar or Kombucha near a rubbish bin to avoid contamination. Put a clean cloth over the mouth of the brewing vessel you use.
Kombucha - Elexir of Life?
October 3, 2008
The Kombucha has been widely regard for thousands of years now as the Elexir of Life. Although there aren’t that many scientific proofs to back up such claims, considering the large amount of people benefiting it from it, there has got to be something about Kombucha which makes it such a popular beverage. Although the use of Kombucha tea dates back two thousand years ago, it became a popular product for the masses just recently. It has a taste similar to no other, because it’s first sweetened and then fermented. The fermentation process neutralizes most of the sugar along with the caffeine, leaving just a hint of delightfully, vinegar-like taste. Brands producing Kombucha tea just keep popping up as this product is becoming the latest hot drink on the American beverage market. You should definitely try it, and most likely, you will get to enjoy it for its delightful and unusual taste along with its health benefits.
Kombucha is the word used to describe not only the drink itself, but also the fungus used to brew it. Kombucha contains less caffeine than a regular tea, since as it was already pointed out, it looses a certain amount of its caffeine during the fermentation process, as well as portion of the sugar. The true believers drink Kombucha every day based on the idea that they will be healthier and live longer. But, those claims are yet to be proven by scientists.
Kombucha is a substance similar to fungus, or better yet, a symbiotic colony of lactobacillus bacteria and yeast. According to the history facts concerning Kombucha, it was first used by the Qin (Tsin) Dynasty of China (221 B.C.E.). The name Kom-bu-cha comes from a Korean physician called Kom-bu, who was the first to introduce the beverage to the Japanese Emperor Ingyo in the year 414 C.E. as a drink with healing properties. After that, it became known as tea of Kom-bu.
The Kombucha culture is usually imported from China, Nepal and Siberia. The Kombucha tea is made by fermenting a given type of sweetened tea (it could be black tea, white tea, Oolong tea) with the special cultures of yeasts and the bacteria known as Kombucha mushroom. It’s not really a mushroom, but that’s how people call it because of its shape and color when it starts forming on top of the tea after the fermentation process. But the thing is that there are lot of different preparation methods and different cultures that can be used, that’s why there are so many different Kombucha teas, although the main ingredients in the final product is still pretty much the same. Once the beverage is finally made, it contains a certain amount of alcohol, acetic acid and ethyl acetate.
Continuous Brewing Method
October 3, 2008
Continuous Brewing is the easiest method for making Kombucha tea. All you need is a container that can hold up two gallons, 2 cups of starter tea (from your previous batch of kombucha, or if that’s your first time, use 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar, because cider vinegar adds the acid environment the culture likes), Kombucha Mushroom, 3-5 grams of loose leaf tea, 300 grams of sugar, 3 Quarts of fresh pure water.
Through the use of the continuous brewing method, you will get all the health benefits from all the nutrients contained in Kombucha. What’s more, you won’t have to do cleaning every week, you won’t have to remove or worry about the Kombucha mushroom and most likely, mold will not even form. And because you will be simply maintaining an already established ferment, the brew that you will produce is less likely to be influenced by wild bacteria or yeasts. What you should remember about the continuous brewing method for making Kombucha tea is that the initial phase is the most critical one, so it’s the phase in which it’s most likely for a batch to go in a bad direction, hence you should be really careful.
Only through continuous brewing of kombucha, you can get the complete variation of the whole range of nutrients and acids which are being produced constantly, but at the same time have a tendency to break down during the active ferment time. A popular Kombucha researcher named Mike Roussin suggests that the greatest variety of health benefits is achieved when fermenting at 80 degrees F for 7 days, and that the longer the ferment is allowed to proceed, the more beneficial acids can form. It’s interesting to note that some of these highly beneficial acids don’t even form until the 20th day of the fermentation process. These are the very same acids which are responsible for the detoxifying properties of Kombucha. The glucose content is at its highest level around the 9th day.
You should keep in mind that a longer brewing cycle (more than 23 days) doesn’t necessarily mean better end product, because it might actually reduce the total caffeine content or deplete the fermentable sugar, and at the end, you will probably get something that’s almost undrinkable. So lower temperatures and longer brewing times do not result in greater benefits.
Temperatures lower than 65 degrees F foster the wrong bacteria and yeasts and hence the good probiotics will become ineffective. It’s all about hitting the right balance in terms of temperature and length of brewing. The most important thing about Continuous Brewing is to keep the level of Kombucha tea that in taste and character is ideal for you.
Kombucha and Weight Loss
September 16, 2008
Kombucha has a number of benefits and one of them is directly related to weight loss. Kombucha is a healthy drink made out of fermenting tea and sugar with the kombucha culture. As a result of mixing up those ingredients, you get a drink with a taste that’s something in the middle of sparkling apple cider and champagne. Kombucha drinks are rich in antioxidants and kombucha protects your body by detoxifying it. Kombucha has been used for bringing back in balance and giving one a sense of well-being. It is even believed that kombucha can extend life. There is not enough scientific research being done to confirm these claims, but true believers drink daily. Kombucha drinks are all natural and tasteful.
The relationship between kombucha and weight loss lies in the fact that the miracle tea increases metabolism. The definition of metabolism in wikipedia is the following: “Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that occur in living organisms in order to maintain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments.” In other words, metabolism is the process of absorbing the food. Having a ‘faster’ metabolism means that you burn into energy and protein for the muscles everything you eat, hence just a small portion of the food (if any) is converted into body fat. That’s why you probably wonder why some of your friends who drink beer and eat all the time are as thin and thick as a stick. So by drinking kombucha tea daily, your metabolism will actually speed up, hence it will absorb more efficiently everything that’s consumed.
When kombucha is used mainly for weight loss, it is recommended that you have a 4 ounce glass before every meal. Kombucha helps the digestion process, which is another advantage if you want to loose weight, since a higher percentage of the food you eat will be processed, so you can eat less and still feel satisfied. It’s important to drink it on an empty stomach so that the ingredients contained in it can have maximum effect. German Dr. Gunther explains it best: “It is known in pharmacology that absorption of certain active substances (e.g., certain fungicides) into the bloodstream or lymphstream is reduced if taken before meals. The small amounts of antibiotic substances contained in Kombucha are rendered especially effective when the beverage is taken in the morning on an empty stomach whereas, for example, the organic acids stimulate a better functioning of the digestive processes when the beverage is taken after the more ample midday and evening meals.”
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