Volume CCLXIX: A Bad Ass Buddha Product-Sean; How to Make Kombucha!!!

Hello every One and welcome to the Thoroughly Thrilling Thing King Edition of the Good News Journal and an introduction to the wonderful world of kombucha!!! Thank King or Queen You for joining Me, it is always an Honour to have You in My House.

Well, if You haven’t heard of kombucha, don’t worry too much about it – I hadn’t either! I was fermenting some apples for apple cider vinegar to use in a pre-biotic ACV tonic (pictured below).

It might not look like much, but one ounce of this powerful tonic daily can supercharge One’s immune system and improve overall gut health and alkalinity. I’m still war King on trying to better understand the relay Sean ship between alkalinity and body health, but from what I understand so far, the more alkaline One’s body is, the more prone it is to dis-ease and infection. Don’t Trust My Word on that, do Your own research because I am still trying to understand why this would be True.

However, there are a number of other benefits to ingesting pre-biotics and beneficial yeasts. Again, another somewhat complex area of study because not all yeast is Good for One, either. But the symbiotic culture of beneficial yeast (SCOBY) found in kombucha is ALL Good and well researched and documented. Here’s One example, though I encourage One to check out a few different perspectives. It IS what I would call a type of supplement, and as with anything new One is introducing to their routine, moderation is the Key. Anything in excess can be harmful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LKgvyDl_Eg

Relative to the video above, I have personally noticed an immediate increase in sustained energy! Honestly, that’s One of the greatest and most noticeable benefits I’ve experienced, and it is almost immediate – in fact, so much so that I was wondering if the effect might be psychological (because I do not underestimate the placebo effect), but the effects are too consistent to be psychological or coincidence. The other amazing benefit I noticed, was vastly improved sleep! I sleep pretty well anyway, so that is not something I was expecting to notice at all and not even something I would have noticed to be lacking – until I slept the first night after drinking kombucha! Seriously – I go to bed, close My eyes, and I am OUT until I’m done and well rested. When I wake, I don’t feel groggy and stupid for the first half hour or so like I normally would, I feel energized and well rested. Serious game changer! So much so, that I decided I need to start brewing this stuff My Self so that I can get a daily fix.

Now, before I get into My methods for brewing and philosophies for best practices, I Wish to let You know that I carefully measure My doses. The recommended dose is four to twelve ounces a day, or half a cup to one and a half cups (approximately). A typical kombucha on the store shelf is two cups (480ml), so I recommend breaking it into two doses if One is trying it for the first time. Apparently ingesting too much can cause serious stomach cramps or even diarrhea (gross, and not something I’ve experienced, so keep it moderate).

Before I share My own kombucha brewing practices and recipe, I Wish to share My favourite content Creator concerning kombucha, despite having some (very minor) criticisms.

The above video is awesome, Truly! This YouTuber has got her method down to a science and her guidance is very Good for any One getting started. I used this exact recipe to Create My first batch, which is as follows:

For 1 Gallon of kombucha:

• 12 teabags or 16 grams of loose leaf green or black tea
• 2 Litres/quarts hot water to steep tea (or roughly half a gallon)
• 1 Cup of table sugar (the regular kind One puts in coffee or tea)
• 2 cups of starter tea from store bought RAW, unpasteurized (very important) kombucha OR a SCOBY OR both (if possible)
• Cold water to fill the gallon

For 1 Liter/quart of kombucha:

• 3 teabags or 4 grams of loose leaf black or green tea
• 2 Cups or 480 ml hot water to steep tea
• 1/4 cup of table sugar
• 1/2 cup of starter tea OR a SCOBY OR both (if possible)
• cold water to fill one liter/quart (spring water or filtered water)

Directions/Method:

• Brew tea with hot but not quite boiling (I stop the kettle when it’s rumbling violently but not quite boiled yet) water. If the water is too hot it can make the tea bitter and potentially kill some of the beneficial properties infused in the tea leaves. 90-95 degrees Celsius is apparently ideal if One has a kettle with a temperature setting. If You don’t have a temperature setting, boil the kettle and let sit for five minutes before steeping tea.
• Steep for fifteen to twenty minutes – this is important because You Wish to extract as much Goodness from the tea as possible without squeezing the teabags or tea leaves (which also releases bitter tannins that may leave an undesirable taste). There are natural (Good) tannins in the tea already, no need to compromise taste to get more.
• Strain without squeezing and add sugar. Dissolve sugar completely.
• At this point One should have roughly half the volume of liquid One is making in brewed tea.
• In the desired brewing vessel, add the starter kombucha and or SCOBY.
• Add cold, filtered water or spring water and fill to half full (allowing sufficient room to add the sweetened tea)
• Finally, add the sweetened tea to fill the vessel and cover with a cloth and elastic band to allow the mixture to breathe.
• Ferment for five to thirty days…

Okay, so that’s it!!! Piece of cake, right? Well, now I can share some of My troubleshooting tips with You, as well as some of My observations and theories on how to improve One’s kombucha quality.

The biggest MYTH regarding kombucha brewing at home, is that One must have at least some raw, unpasteurized, store bought kombucha OR a SCOBY to get the process started. Seriously, this belief is so prevalent in the kombucha community, People actually sell SCOBY’s on Etsy and Ebay for up to $30 a piece!!! That is INSANE (unless One is just really lazy and doesn’t Wish to buy a bottle of raw kombucha).

The belief is that One cannot start the process at all without at least SOME starter tea with the organic Matter already in it. No One seems to know how to CREATE a SCOBY from scratch – but I do!!!

Now, to be clear, I used the recipe as suggested above and in the YouTube video shared – it is not My recipe by any means, it is the ‘standard’ recipe for brewing kombucha. I also believe it can be vastly improved upon.

I’ll discuss this more as I gain more experience brewing, but I HAVE now tested My philosophy and successfully Created My own SCOBY starter culture without starter tea or a SCOBY, so it can be done and it is super simple! This means I also have ‘My own’ SCOBY, so the symbiotic culture of bacterial yeast is specifically engineered for My brewing process. There is no chance of any foreign bacteria from additional products floating around in My tea (like the yeasts Created from the second fermentation process from fruits which are not native to the tea leaves, for example, but could end up being part of One’s SCOBY culture if using a foreign SCOBY purchased online or derived from a purchased bottle of kombucha).

This is an excellent Way to get started and just to Give You an Idea how quickly this can be of tremendous benefit. I started with one bottle of GT’s Kombucha (couldn’t even find plain so I had to ‘suffer’ with flavoured), drank half the 480ml bottle and used the other half (one cup) to start two liters of kombucha as directed above. A week later I had two liters of kombucha, flavoured one liter for consumption and used the other liter to make two more gallons. All the while this was going on, I was also philosophizing on how to Create a SCOBY without starter mix or a SCOBY and had success yesterday!

I Will break the internet and the kombucha community’s belief in the coveted SCOBY in My next kombucha Post where I Will be tall King all about how to Create One’s own SCOBY starter for anything (yes, even for wine and beer making). Yeast is a species of Life kind of like a (Good) virus. There is a specific yeast for every type of organic matter because it is part of the decomposition process. This is why brewers sell various types of yeast for wine or beer, and the type of yeast makes a difference in the quality of product. Why would it be any different for brewing kombucha?

So stay tuned if You Wish to learn how to Create Your own wild yeast for ferment a Sean of any organic Matter whatsoever, as well as some of My second fermentation techniques and some of My favourite kombucha flavours so far (beetroot is still at the top for now, surprisingly Good!).

Love and Blessings,