Komboocha
I was walking through goodwill browsing the glassware section, dreaming of all the different things I could decorate my house with. Vases, platters, jugs, jars. My eyes stopped at a large jar and that’s when it hit me like a cartoon light bulb over my head. Kombucha. I snatched the jar and some other glass bottles and went on my merry way. I was stoked, already imagining the amazing kombucha I would make. Only problem? I have no clue how to make it. But that’s what youtube is for, right?
When making kombucha there are four very important ingredients.
- 9 Black Tea bags
- .5 cups of Sugar
- 13 cups of Water
- and a Scoby (with 1 cup of start kombucha)
The scoby… the one thing I didn’t have but needed desperately. What’s a scoby you might ask? Well, according to google —
“The scoby is commonly used acronym for “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast,” and is formed after the completion of a unique fermentation process of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), acetic acid bacteria (AAB), and yeast to form several sour foods and beverages such as kombucha and kimchi.”
The scoby sounds and looks gross to most. A flat disc of bacteria that when you touch it, it feels like you’re touching some weird slimy leather creature. But it’s the key to making the delicious drink all the millennials are obsessed with.
I ordered a scoby off of Amazon, a risky choice because you’re banking on the fact that the scoby culture doesn’t die in the process of shipping. Normally, you would go to a kombucha shop or get a piece of one from a friend. Unfortunately the closest kombucha shop was an hour away and I knew no one with a scoby to spare. One week later, I got an email from George Fox mail services saying my scoby arrived. So it began and I would see if all the youtube videos I binged were going to pay off or not.
Instructions for the pre-booch tea:
Put 13 cups of water in a pot and wait for it to boil. Once it starts boiling, remove it from the heat, and put the 9 bags of black tea for steeping. Then mix in the .5 cups of sugar until dissolved. 20 minutes later, remove the tea bags and let the mixture cool to room temperature. Pour it into the jar you just bought from goodwill (glass because kombucha will not react well to plastic or metal) and grab the preferably not dead scoby. Put a cheesecloth over the top and secure with a rubberband to let it breathe. Put the jar in an empty cupboard or other dry, room temperature location, where it will ferment. Now, wait for 7 days and hope you did right.
Although kombucha might seem easy to make, but there are many things you could do that could easily ruin the drink. One, the ratios. If there’s too much or too little of each ingredient, your kombucha can be bitter, acidic, not carbonated enough, and not tasty. People also make hardware mistakes, such as using plastic or containers with metal. The bacteria from the scoby will deteriorate and react to such materials, so being educated on what you should use is important. With all the potential mistakes you could make, a lot of people become scared to try making kombucha. But don’t be afraid of failure! There’s room from creativity and you won’t know unless you try it. Let yourself have a margin for error and go from there.
Orrrr maybe just wait a week and see if my attempt at kombucha was a success or not. Because I’m currently all talk and no walk.
