Post by handmaid on Jul 18, 2020 22:14:06 GMT -6
So I was asked to do a post on Kombucha. I am still new at it and have a lot to learn. For those unfamiliar with Kombucha, it is an active culture which converts black tea and sugar into a fermented probiotic drink. It is MUCH cheap to make your own than to buy it already bottled in the stores.
I like to do a lot of soaked/lactofermented foods, including soaking my wheat flour before making bread. Most of what I have learned in this area comes from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. At one time in my life I was doing both milk kefir and water kefir. When I moved from my home at the time, I dehydrated the grains; but when life settled down, they had been in cold storage too long and were no longer viable. So since my water and kefir grains had been purchased from the Cultures for Health website, I felt comfortable buying a kombucha starter kit. The main reason I had for choosing kombucha rather than water kefir was because I would be able to use the extra scoby starts for making kombucha gummy candy or kombucha popcicles. And I wanted an alternative to soda for the teenage boys in the house. Come to find out they can also be put in your compost pile. Some people even feed it to chickens.
Anyway the starter scoby (baby kombucha) never really took off. I believe it was more an issue of something in my kitchen interferring with the scoby than it was with their starter kit. Last year a friend gave me a few healthy scobies, and that has been much more successful. Since they were already active and healthy, I think they were able to adjust more quickly to the new environment. I currently have 3 one gallon jars fermenting in the pantry.
Optimally, my goal is to do a new batch of kombucha every three weeks. Anything longer than that, and the kombucha is too vinegary to pass the teenager taste bud test. I have some flip top bottles someone was giving away on Craigslist. So when I am doing a new batch, I take the prior batch of kombucha and pour it into those flip top bottles. Then I put some pureed fruit or juice in the bottles, and put them in the fridge for a secondary fermenting process. This makes them fizzy. Then the kombucha scobies are given a new mix of black tea and sugar to convert to probiotics.
As I said, my personal magic number for optimal processing is roughly every three weeks. Your family might prefer it processed sooner than that. A vinegary kombucha makes a good base for salad dressings.
I am linking to the cultures for health website. I use their ratios when I make batches, and it has worked out well. Their customer service is amazing too.
www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/category/how-to-videos/?tag=24#browse_articles&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3v-O-rfY6gIVBNvACh0zpAB3EAAYASACEgJ0qvD_BwE
I like to do a lot of soaked/lactofermented foods, including soaking my wheat flour before making bread. Most of what I have learned in this area comes from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook. At one time in my life I was doing both milk kefir and water kefir. When I moved from my home at the time, I dehydrated the grains; but when life settled down, they had been in cold storage too long and were no longer viable. So since my water and kefir grains had been purchased from the Cultures for Health website, I felt comfortable buying a kombucha starter kit. The main reason I had for choosing kombucha rather than water kefir was because I would be able to use the extra scoby starts for making kombucha gummy candy or kombucha popcicles. And I wanted an alternative to soda for the teenage boys in the house. Come to find out they can also be put in your compost pile. Some people even feed it to chickens.
Anyway the starter scoby (baby kombucha) never really took off. I believe it was more an issue of something in my kitchen interferring with the scoby than it was with their starter kit. Last year a friend gave me a few healthy scobies, and that has been much more successful. Since they were already active and healthy, I think they were able to adjust more quickly to the new environment. I currently have 3 one gallon jars fermenting in the pantry.
Optimally, my goal is to do a new batch of kombucha every three weeks. Anything longer than that, and the kombucha is too vinegary to pass the teenager taste bud test. I have some flip top bottles someone was giving away on Craigslist. So when I am doing a new batch, I take the prior batch of kombucha and pour it into those flip top bottles. Then I put some pureed fruit or juice in the bottles, and put them in the fridge for a secondary fermenting process. This makes them fizzy. Then the kombucha scobies are given a new mix of black tea and sugar to convert to probiotics.
As I said, my personal magic number for optimal processing is roughly every three weeks. Your family might prefer it processed sooner than that. A vinegary kombucha makes a good base for salad dressings.
I am linking to the cultures for health website. I use their ratios when I make batches, and it has worked out well. Their customer service is amazing too.
www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/category/how-to-videos/?tag=24#browse_articles&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3v-O-rfY6gIVBNvACh0zpAB3EAAYASACEgJ0qvD_BwE