You know, self-assigned chores often require that extra push to get done. But guess what? I nailed it yesterday, completing my entire to-do list! And one of those tasks was bottling our weekly stash of kombucha for my wife and me. You can dive into our kombucha journey on my wife’s blog. Still, lately, I’ve been the one piloting the bottling operation now that we’ve got our system down to a T (pun intended).
Let me walk you through my Thursday-to-Saturday kombucha ritual. Thursday starts with a sterilization spree of the 8 bottles we’ll use. I fill them with water and add a teaspoon of detergent. These bottle buddies then hang out on the kitchen counter overnight. Come Friday evening, it’s tea time! I bring a half-gallon of water to a rolling boil and plop in 8 tea bags for steeping. Once it’s nice and flavorful, I stir in a cup of sugar. After it hits boiling point again, off goes the heat, and it’s left to cool down overnight.
Now, while the tea is brewing, I return to my sterilized bottles, rinse them, and line them up on the counter. They’re all set for their starring role on Saturday. Come the weekend, I fill each bottle with 6 ounces of our favorite juice blend from the store. Next, 10 ounces of fermented kombucha tea is poured in. I then do a quick SCOBY check (that’s Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast for the uninitiated), set aside a cup of the fermented tea, and clean the fermentation jar. Once it’s spic and span, in goes the cooled tea from the previous night. I add back the SCOBY and the saved cup of fermented tea, and voila! The jar returns to our storage room, where it’ll ferment in peace until next week.
Oh, the bottles? They also head to the storage room for a week of conditioning. Post that, it’s straight into the fridge they go, awaiting their moment of glory.
Getting the timing right for each of these steps took some doing, but I’ve got it down. A little pro tip I swear by is optimizing wait times. Identify those stages where you’re simply waiting around—like waiting for the water to boil. Use that time to knock off other tasks—like rinsing the bottles in my case. It’s multitasking without affecting the quality of any single task. You’ll find this especially useful in cooking, too. Ever notice how most recipes kick off with “Preheat the oven”? Yep, that’s optimization in action.
My parents had a habit of introducing healthy foods to our household, and they used to drink Kombucha. When I was a child, I tried a spoon full of Kombucha. I remember that it was sour like vinegar. I do not remember why they stopped drinking Kombucha. I met Kombucha in the United States after years after my first introduction to Kombucha.
In 2018, Mr. Sandor Ellix Katz facilitated a fermentation workshop at Short Mountain culture, located in a lovely town approximately 1 hour from Nashville. We joined the workshop to learn how to make Sauerkraut. Mr. Katz introduced to us a variety of types of fermented products in the class. Kombucha was one of them. Because it was something I drank long ago, I was instantly curious about making my Kombucha. I bought my first SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast at Short Mountain Culture, and my journey of making Kombucha started.
Kombucha
General Idea of Kombucha
Kombucha is a fermented drink made from black tea and sugar. Kombucha’s fermentation process is similar to vinegar’s. That is why I thought it was sour the first time I tasted it. According to the Kombucha Brewing & bottling guideline published by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (May 2017), Kombucha contains approximately 1 % alcohol. During the fermentation process, a white film appears on the liquid’s surface, and it will turn into a blob. The white blob in the picture is called a SCOBY (p. 1). It feels like touching the surface of the hard jelly.
It is the SCOBY from my last batch. I remove any wanted parts from SCOBY to keep it healthy.
History of Kombucha
People have consumed Kombucha for a long time. My parents told me that it was from Manchuria, North East of China. The use of Kombucha has a long history. According to Jayabalan et al. (2014), it first appeared around Tsin Dynasty. People have used Kombucha to detoxifying and energizing in 220 B.C. Japanese people started consuming Kombucha around 414 A.D. A physician named Kombu brought Kombucha to Japan to treat the Japanese Tenno, Inkyo Tenno to treat his digestive problems in 414 A.D. (p. 538).
The benefit of Kombucha
As a physician, Kombu used Kombucha for treating digestive systems or detoxifying. My husband and I used it for treating our digestive system. My husband had some problem with his digestive system, which was in control after taking Kombucha. There are more benefits of drinking Kombucha. WebMD (n.d.) listed that Kombucha’s use boosts your immune system, losing weight, reducing blood pressure, and preventing heart diseases and cancer (para. 5 – para. 8).
The process of making Kombucha
I use sweetened Jasmine green tea as the fermentation medium for Kombucha to shorten the fermentation process. Jayabalan et al. (2014) claim that green tea and lemon balm tea shorten the fermentation process as it has more stimulating effects on Kombucha tea (p. 542). I accidentally found this alternative medium by purchasing Jasmine green tea instead of Jasmine black tea.
Ingredients to brew Tea used for fermenting
3 quarts of water
Eight bags of teabags (caffeinated black tea) – you can use green tea.
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cups of Kombucha (Use the Kombucha broth that came with the Kombucha SCOBY for the first batch)
First, clean the surroundings and wash your hands with soap to avoid growing unwanted microbes or molds.
Add 3 quarts of water to a pot and bring to a boil. Then, you steep the tea for approximately 10 minutes. Add sugar, then allow it to cool to about 68F – 75F. Be careful with the temperature of the tea. It is a host to living microbes, and you can kill them off if the Kombucha broth is too hot. Once it has cooled to 68F, add the Sweetened tea and the 1/2 cup of Kombucha to a clean Jar. Then, add the Kombucha SCOBY. We keep ours in the dark area for approximately one week at room temperature.
We like our Kombucha carbonated like a cider, so we do 2nd fermentation to carbonate it.
Bottling
Remove the SCOBY and set it aside on a clean plate. Keep 1/2 cup of Kombucha aside for the next batch.
I use 16 oz dark bottles for bottling Kombucha since yeast dislikes U.V. light. We use OxiClean to clean the bottles before filling them. Fill the bottle with 6 oz of fruit juice and add strained 10 oz of the fermented sweetened tea. It took me almost one year to figure out the balance of juice and Kombucha that best suit our tastes. I strain the fermented sweeten tea because I’m not too fond of pieces of SCOBY floating in my Kombucha. Seal the bottles and store them at room temperature at a dark location for about a week. Then refrigerate until ready to consume.
With little to no air, yeast will use sugar and excrete carbon dioxide. This process turns Kombucha into a fizzy drink.
The risk of Kombucha
Despite the health benefit gained from drinking Kombucha, there are some risks of drinking it. Like taking herbal medicine or any medicine, you will need to consult your doctor, especially if you have any preexisting conditions or take medications. For example, my husband consulted his doctor before taking any medications for his hypertension and kidney condition.
It would be best if you cleaned all equipment used for making Kombucha and your hands. According to Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (1995), two patients from rural Iowa reported getting severe illness after consuming Kombucha. The arterial blood samples from both patients show severe metabolic acidosis, which indicates an elevated level of lactic acid in the body. Both suffered cardiac arrest. Although the FDA could not link direct causation to Kombucha, they suspected that the Kombucha might have become contaminated by unwanted mold or microbes (pp. 892- 893).
I inspect my SCOBY for health every time I make Kombucha. I remove any unhealthy layers or excess layers so that Kombucha will remain healthy. I sometimes wash the SCOBY with extra fermented sweetened tea.
There are a variety of ways to consume Kombucha. Some add herbs or Puree in Kombucha. Some add sugar to keep their Kombucha unflavored. We like our Kombucha fizzy and enjoy the flavor of the juice we use. But feel free to experiment to find flavors that match your preferences.
References
Jayabalan, R., Malbaša, R. V., Lončar, E. S., Vitas, J. S., &Sathishkumar, M. (2014). A Review on Kombucha Tea—Microbiology, Composition, Fermentation, Beneficial Effects, Toxicity, and Tea Fungus. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 13(4), 538–550. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.12073
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services. (May 2017). Kombucha Brewing & Bottling Guidelines. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/consumer_protection/FoodSafety/manufacturing-packing-holding-distribution/Documents/Guidelines%20for%20brewing-bottling%20Kombucha.pdf
Unexplained Severe Illness Possibly Associated with Consumption of Kombucha Tea — Iowa, 1995. (1995). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,44(48), 892-900. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23305248
Kombucha—Health benefits and risks. (n.d.). WebMD. Retrieved March 27, 2021, from https://www.webmd.com/diet/the-truth-about-kombucha
