Chinese · Free recipe
Homebrewed Kombucha
Sweet black tea and a live culture ferment slowly into a tart, lightly effervescent tonic, then a second sealed ferment with ginger and fruit builds natural fizz. It takes patience, but the process is forgiving and every batch can be tuned to taste.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 288 hr
- Total
- 288 hr 30 min
- Serves
- 12
- Level
- Hard
Method
-
Bring 4 cups of the water to a boil, stir in the sugar until dissolved, add the tea bags, and steep for 10 minutes before removing them.
-
Add the remaining 10 cups cold water to the sweet tea and let it cool completely to room temperature, below 85F, since hot tea will kill the culture.
-
Pour the cooled tea into a clean 1-gallon glass jar, add the starter kombucha, and slide the SCOBY in with clean hands.
-
Cover the jar with a tightly woven cloth secured with a rubber band and leave it somewhere dark and warm, around 72F to 78F, for 7 to 10 days.
-
Start tasting with a clean straw on day 7; when it is pleasantly tart with only a hint of sweetness, lift out the SCOBY along with 2 cups of the kombucha to start the next batch.
-
Divide the ginger and fruit among swing-top bottles, fill them with the fresh kombucha leaving 1 inch of headspace, and seal tightly.
-
Let the bottles sit at room temperature for 2 to 3 days to carbonate, opening one carefully over the sink to check the fizz, then refrigerate to slow fermentation.
Zest note from the test kitchen
Burp the bottles once a day during the second ferment, especially with sugary fruit; pressure builds quickly and a quick release prevents a sticky explosion.
