Raw Kombucha

Total Time: 168 hrs 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 168 hrs

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 quarts water
• 1 cup sugar
• 8 (2 g) bags black tea
• 2 cups starter tea, from last batch kombucha

Recipe

• 1 make the tea base: bring the water to a boil. remove from heat and stir in the sugar to dissolve. drop in the tea and allow it to steep until the water has cooled. depending on the size of your pot, this will take a few hours. you can speed up the cooling process by placing the pot in an ice bath.
• 2 add the starter tea: once the tea is cool, remove the tea bags or strain out the loose tea. stir in the starter tea. (the starter tea makes the liquid acidic, which prevents unfriendly bacteria from taking up residence in the first few days of fermentation.).
• 3 transfer to jars and add the scoby: pour the mixture into a 1-gallon glass jar (or divide between two 2-quart jars, in which case you'll need 2 scobys) and gently slide the scoby into the jar with clean hands. cover the mouth of the jar with a few layers of cheesecloth or paper towels secured with a rubber band.
• 4 ferment for 7 to 10 days: keep the jar at room temperature, out of direct sunlight, and where it won't get jostled. ferment for 7 to 10 days, checking the kombucha and the scoby periodically.
• 5 remove the scoby: before proceeding, prepare and cool another pot of strong tea for your next batch of kombucha, as outlined above. with clean hands, gently lift the scoby out of the kombucha and set it on a clean plate. as you do, check it over and remove the bottom layer if the scoby is getting very thick.
• 6 bottle the finished kombucha: measure out your starter tea from this batch of kombucha and set it aside for the next batch. pour the fermented kombucha (straining, if desired) into bottles, along with any juice, herbs, or fruit you may want to use as flavoring. leave about a half inch of head room in each bottle. (alternatively, infuse the kombucha with flavorings for a day or two in another jar covered with cheesecloth, strain, and then bottle. this makes a cleaner kombucha without "stuff" in it.).
• 7 carbonate and refrigerate the finished kombucha: store the bottled kombucha at room-temperature out of direct sunlight and allow 1 to 3 days for the kombucha to carbonate. until you get a feel for how quickly your kombucha carbonates, it's helpful to keep it in plastic bottles; the kombucha is carbonated when the bottles feel rock solid. refrigerate to stop fermentation and carbonation, and then consume your kombucha within a month.
• 8 make a fresh batch of kombucha: clean the jar being used for kombucha fermentation. combine the starter tea from your last batch of kombucha with the fresh batch of sugary tea, and pour it into the fermentation jar. slide the scoby on top, cover, and ferment for 7 to 10 days.