IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE KOMBUCHA IS SO EASY TO MAKE AT HOME – AND CHEAP!

What is Kombucha?

 Kombucha is the Western name for sweetened tea or tisane that has been fermented by a macroscopic solid mass of micro-organisms called a "Kombucha colony," usually consisting principally of Acetobacter-species and yeast cultures. It has gained much popular support within many communities, mentioned by talk show hosts and celebrities. The increase in popularity can be seen by the many commercial brands coming onto the retail market and thousands of web pages about this fermented beverage.

You can make your very own Kombucha tea at home with very little money, time or effort. It is simple to make and very rewarding.  Without modern equipment or facilities people have been able to make this enriching brew for generations, so you should have no problem. You can do it by following this simple method, easy, easy, easy… You will need:

• A suitable brewing container
• A piece of muslin
• A large elastic band
• A thermometer - Heat pad for controlled temperature (both optional)
• 4 litres (plus a glass) of water (boiled and cooled or filtered)
• Tea bags
• 320g ordinary household sugar
• A healthy Kombucha culture from a friend or through the post
• 400ml of ready brewed Kombucha
• Suitable bottles (4 litres worth)
• Screw top glass bottles – not plastic and not corked.
• A kitchen measuring jug, a funnel for bottling, a little tea sieve.

Note: As in wine and beer making cleanliness is very important - hands, equipment etc. And the first thing you should do is to clean everything that you are going to use, with hot soapy water. Don’t forget the towels for hands and utensils must also be clean.

Make your nutrient (sweet tea) solution - Add the culture - Time to brew: Just cover the top of the container with your muslin or kitchen towel and use the elastic band to hold it in place. The brew needs air but definitely not insects, plant or mould spores.   Move the container to a suitable location. Somewhere that it can be left undisturbed for about a week. It should be at a constant-ish temperature 20°C - 30°C, away from tobacco smoke, strong smells and not in the kitchen if there is a lot of grease in the air from frying food.

5 days later…  After 5 days, it is time to taste!
Taste it…   What you are looking for is a slightly sharp (acidic), not sweet taste.
Bottling:   Get yourself some suitable clean bottles.  With clean hands, take the two cultures out (the new 'baby' and the original 'mother') and place them on a clean plate. Pour some of your Kombucha tea into a kitchen jug and then, using the jug, pour it into the waiting bottles.

CONTINUING TO BREW…   The best way to look after your culture and maintain a constant supply of Kombucha Tea is to make your new batch immediately you have bottled the previous one. I normally get my new nutrient solution ready, so that as soon as the previous batch is bottled, I can put the culture straight into a new solution of sweet tea. There are many different teas you can try – as long as they have no oils in them [Earl Grey for example is not good.]

REMEMBER that a bowl sold as ‘4 litres ’ will be full to the top AND YOU MUST LEAVE AN INCH OR SO FOR THE CULTURE TO BREATHE!!!

THAT'S IT! NOW YOU NOW KNOW HOW TO BREW YOUR OWN KOMBUCHA TEA.

The Kombucha Circle

I started drinking this wonderful Kombucha because I had health issues, yes, being a healer doesn’t mean I don’t get poorly at times, luckily I had a good friend who told me about this and gave me my first culture, and I do owe her a lot for her kindness and continuing friendship, so thank you to Clara. She explained to me that we give the cultures not sell them, and if you see on a website that you can buy one, the costs will usually be just for the postage.

So why not start your own Kombucha ‘Circle’?  I have found that all my family and friends want this pleasant health drink, and I have since started them off one by one with their own ‘baby’ culture.  The circle of life goes round and round, and as we all help each other we pass on useful information as friends, I hope do you have found this short article interesting and it will help you in some way.

More detailed instructions for brewing I will pass onto any one who inquires, or you can look them up on the internet….

Happy ‘brewing’!

From Stella Rodgers

About Stella Rodgers:

Stella is a practicing Acupuncturist and Hypnotherapist in Reepham, who has over 10 years experience as a holistic healer. She came to Norfolk to be near her family and has recently become a grandma for the first time, you can contact her through the email on the MAIN MENU.

STELLA RODGERS DCHAc CMIR: HPD MNCH

Acupuncture & Hypnotherapy

Licensed Practitioner of NLP

Reepham ~ Norfolk

This from WIKIPEDIA the free encyclopedia.

Biology of kombucha

The culture contains a symbiosis of Acetobacter (acetic acid bacteria) and yeast, mostly Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Candida stellata, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Torulaspora delbrueckii and Zygosaccharomyces bailii. The culture itself looks somewhat like a large pancake, and though often called a mushroom, or by the acronym SCOBY (for "Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast"), it is clinically known as a zoogleal mat.

History and etymology

The recorded history of this drink dates back to the Qin Dynasty in China (around 250 BC). The Chinese called it the "Immortal Health Elixir," because they believed Kombucha balanced the Middle Qi (Spleen and Stomach) and aided in digestion, allowing the body to focus on healing.^{[citation needed]} Knowledge of kombucha eventually reached Russia and then Eastern Europe around the Early Modern Age, when tea first became affordable by the populace.

The word kombucha, while sounding Japanese to foreign ears, is a misnomer when applied to this beverage. In fact, Kombucha (昆布茶) in Japanese refers to a tea-like infusion (cha) (actually, more of a thin soup) made from kelp (kombu), usually served to patients in convalescence. The Japanese refer to live 'kombucha' as kÅ?cha-kinoko (紅茶キノコ), which literally means black tea mushroom.^{[citation needed]}

Russian "tea mushroom"

The process of brewing kombucha was introduced in Russia and the Ukraine at the end of the 1800s, and became popular in the early 1900s. The kombucha culture is known locally as chayniy grib, (чайный гриб - 'tea mushroom'), and the drink itself is referred to as grib (гриб - 'mushroom'), "tea kvass" or simply "kvass", although it differs from regular "kvass" which is not made from tea and is generally fermented only with yeast and not the other bacteria which ferment tea to form kombucha.

Claims

Advocates believe kombucha works by assisting in the phase II liver detoxification pathway, leading to efficient elimination of endogenous and exogenous bodily wastes. This hypothesis is due to the observation of increased glucuronic acid conjugates in the urine after kombucha consumption.

Early chemical analysis of kombucha brew suggested that glucuronic acid was a key component of it, perhaps assisting the liver by supplying more of the substance during detoxification. But more recent analysis of kombucha offer a different explanation, as outlined in the book in Analysis of Kombucha Ferments by Michael Roussin.[4] Roussin reports on an extensive chemical analysis of a variety of commercial and homebrew versions of kombucha, and finds no evidence of glucuronic acid at any concentration.

But Roussin suggests that another component may have health benefits

D - glucaro -1,4 lactone, also known as glucaric acid. It serves as an inhibitor of the beta- glucuronidase enzyme, a bacterial product from the gut microbiota that can cleave the glucuronic acid conjugates and send bodily wastes back into circulation, thus increasing the exposure time before the waste is ultimately excreted. Therefore, the active component of kombucha likely exerts its effect by preventing bacterial disruption of glucuronic acid conjugates and increasing the detoxification efficiency

During each fermentation cycle, the original culture settles, and a new layer of the kombucha culture grows just below the surface of the tea mixture.

There are many ways to prepare kombucha. Though kombucha is almost always prepared with sugar and tea, almost any beverage containing sugar and caffeine (such as cola or sweetened coffee) will allow the culture to grow, though the resultant beverage may be quite unpalatable. Many brewers also recommend using organic ingredients wherever possible to prevent the addition of unwanted chemicals and preservatives.^{[citation needed]}

In one method, the beverage is made by placing some existing kombucha culture in a jar, usually a 3 liter glass container, then pouring in cold black tea with sugar. In about 8-12 days, the first portion of the beverage is ready; part of it is removed for consumption, and more tea with sugar is added to fill the jar. A mature kombucha is several centimeters thick and produces a portion of beverage every day. As the kombucha slowly grows, from time to time slices are taken off it, which can be used to start new cultures in separate containers.

Another method allows for the bottling and saving of kombucha for later consumption. As in the previous method, the culture is placed into a large glass jar and the tea is added. The jar is covered with a coffee filter or paper towel secured with string or rubber bands, and left for seven or eight days. Part of the kombucha is poured off into glass jars and refrigerated for a few days, while part is kept back to start a new batch. The refrigeration allows the flavor to deepen, and the natural carbonation to build up.

Each time the kombucha culture goes through the fermentation process, it creates one new "mushroom" layer, or zoogleal mat, which will form atop of the original. After three or four layers have built up, the tea will become sour and taste somewhat like sour cider. When the new batch is ready, one may either use the second layer to start another batch, along with the original one for its own batch or it may be thrown away. Each culture can be used over and over again but most people discard an older one and use the newer to make their next batch of tea.