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Kombucha in bottles

Black Tea Kombucha

A healthy naturally fermented tonic, this basic kombucha can be used plain or can be flavoured with any number of tasty additions. This recipe is the basic black tea variety and makes 1 Gallon
Prep Time 30 minutes
Author Mia Staysko

Ingredients

For a 1 Gallon container

  • 1 Kombucha scoby fresh or dehydrated. Ideally get a SCOBY from someone who already brews and can offer you some starter tea along with it.
  • 2 C starter brew
  • 2 C boiling water
  • 5 bags good quality plain black tea like english breakfast. Organic is best but not necessary
  • 1 C white sugar. Again organic cane sugar is perhaps best but plain white sugar will work
  • Cold filtered or distilled water to fill container

Instructions

Note: If using a dehydrated SCOBY, rehydrate using suppliers directions

  1. Boil 2 Cups of water
  2. Stir in 1 Cup sugar to disolve
  3. Add tea bags and steep until tea is strong
  4. Remove tea bags from sugary water and allow to cool
  5. Add sugared tea to your 1 Gallon container
  6. Add 4 cups filtered or distilled water to be sure mixture is warm but not hot. You want your tea mixture to be room temperature
  7. Add your starter tea and live or rehydrated SCOBY to the tea and top with water, leaving headspace in the container

Recipe Notes

Try to get a 1 Gallon container that is fairly wide. Your SCOBY will grow to fill the top of the container, and a wider SCOBY ferments more quickly.