Kombucha (fermented tea)

[SCEtoAUX]

I recently started drinking something called Kombucha, which is a fermented tea flavored with different fruits. It is really good. If you decide to try it look for the raw and unpasteurized kombucha in the refrigerated section.
I was so impressed with the flavor that I decided to try making some. Here are a couple of pictures of the beginning process. You need to grow something called a SCOBY which means Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. Mine is grown and is now in a fermentation jar for the first fermentation.
The pics show the SCOBY developing and then the finished SCOBY. A nice coherent mass of goodies.


Kombucha is naturally carbonated. The alcohol content from the fermentation is very, very low so no buzz factor.

[Tapcho]

Our favourite beverage for years now. Scoby look like 'a blob from outer space' so I call it my 'alien life form' friend. I like most kombucha when flavoured with ginger.

Tappi

[SCEtoAUX]

Tappi, yeah the SCOBY is sort of an alien life form. I grew mine by putting some sweetened black tea in a large glass jar and adding some of the stuff from the bottom of bottles of raw kombucha. It was neat watching it grow and become a solid mass floating on top.

Some info I read stated to use unflavored kombucha as a starter, but the flavored worked. Lots of active stuff in that sediment.

[Tapcho]

Funny thing with scoby is that researchers still don'tknow exactly what happens there. What are the exact roles of the bacteria and how they interact with each other and with yeast benefiting the fermentation. Here's a good starter read of the current state of things.

Tappi

[SCEtoAUX]

I have opened and drank some homebrewed raspberry flavored kombucha. There was a satifying fizz when the bottle was opened. The flavor is fantastic. You get the raspberry flavor, a hint of the tanginess from the fermentation process, and a hint of the black tea. The kombucha took on the color of the raspberry. When the raspberries used for flavoring were strained out they were a dull pinkish color instead of raspberry red because of the color transfer. I also tried some of the strawberry flavored I made. It is great tasting too.
Here are som pics showing the dark color of the black tea taking on the red color of the raspberries.

Dark brown of the black tea:


Color change in the bottle:

You can see the CO2 bubbles from the second fermentation process.

Poured glass showing the redness:

It did start out looking like black tea.

[Texman]

Love kombucha. That looks great. And making it yourself,
you control and know what goes in it.

[SCEtoAUX]

Originally Posted by Texman

Love kombucha. That looks great. And making it yourself,
you control and know what goes in it.

Yep, no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives. No CO2 gas pumped in, just the natural carbonation from the fermentation process. The SCOBY is working on the first fermentation for another batch. Have to keep that critter alive.

[SCEtoAUX]

Here is a pic of some pineapple-blackberry kombucha. The foam and bubbles are from the natural carbonation.

[Kevin WS]

Yum. Looks so nice! Never tried it!

[Mike1158]

I had a quick look and it's not all roses.


Kombucha - Wikipedia