Let the fermentation commence!

Have you ever tasted Kombucha? Oh it's yummy! It's a kind of fermented tea that is thought to have originated in China. You can buy it pre-bottled in health food stores and cafe's of the healthier variety like this or like this.  From my very first sip I was totally hooked! It tasted fizzy and tart and delicious! My best description would be a slightly vinegary, effervescent apple cider. Sadly as frequently seems to be the case in those pesky health food stores, it's a bit pricey. Anyway the more I read about this magic elixir the more I wanted it. As with many other fermented foods, Kombucha is super good for you! It's full of probiotics, it helps alkalize the body by balancing internal pH, it detoxifies the liver, alleviates constipation, relieves headaches and migraines, it's high in polyphenols and antioxidants, it lowers glucose levels, helps clear up candida and yeast infections and is even reported to reduce grey hair! Wonder drink no joke!  Anyway, it turns out this wonder drink is dead easy and totally inexpensive to make yourself. I began to research! The key to brewing your own kombucha is getting yourself a mother. I already have a mother but what it turns out I needed was this weird blobby, lump of a thing otherwise known as a mushroom or scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast). I'm going to use the term scoby because it's not a mushroom in the real fungi sense and it's not my mother. Apparently you can grow your own scoby but it's easier to start with a fully grown one. Every batch of Kombucha you brew creates a baby scoby so theoretically I just needed to find someone willing to give me their baby. Thank you Kijiji! ( For those of you not from this neck of the woods, Kijiji is the most popular online classified ad source in Canada.) I have bought a camp stove, bar stools, a 100 year old sewing machine and now a simple form of life in a jar all from kijiji. What would I have done without it! 

So after a couple of emails and a call from "my kombucha man in Calgary" we arranged a pick up time.  Neil did the deal for me on his way home from work yesterday and arrived home with a beautiful blob in a jar and a faded photocopied recipe for Kombucha. I named the blob Cyril, had a sip of the juice surrounding him and did a little happy dance! I was ready to brew! Apparently Cyril descends from a long line of Kombuchas, the original culture used to make him is 25 years old! My kombucha man in Calgary has been brewing for a long time. He drinks his Kombucha every day and even takes his scoby on holiday with him in a little cool box! 

The recipe is simple, you brew a large pot of sweet tea, there are conflicting ideas about what kind of tea to use but most recommend caffeinated black tea. The recipe I used called for two black tea bags and two green tea bags, sugar and cranberry juice. I decided to follow these instructions from my kombucha man but might vary things up with later batches if all goes well. Once the tea is cooled you pour it into your large sterilized container along with your scoby, a cup of kombucha (there was some in the jar with Cyril) and top it up with water. Cover with cheese cloth and store in dark place with a constant cool temperature for two weeks. The scoby will feed off the sugars and as if by magic, fermentation will commence! Thats about where I've got to. 

Now.....we wait.