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Dr Clare Bailey’s Kombucha Recipe
Kombucha is a fermented sweet tea that, like vinegar, requires a “mother” or “SCOBY” (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) for the fermentation process. It’s now a popular alternative to soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.
The fermentation process adds probiotics, which help feed and balance your gut microbiome. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of a healthy gut, click here.
The sugar used in this recipe is necessary to feed the SCOBY (vital for making kombucha) and allow it to grow. However, the majority of this sugar will be consumed during the fermentation process, and very little will be tasted in the final product.
“We have become hooked on Kombucha – fermented tea – a refreshing drink with an apple-y flavour combined with a slightly sweet and sour taste and a bit of fizz. It contains highly effective probiotics, delivering health-enhancing live bacteria. It is produced by fermenting black or green tea along with a rubbery mushroom-like ‘SCOBY’, AKA Symbiotic Combination of Bacteria and Yeast. A perfect subtle soft drink which can be taken neat, diluted, or with added flavours. And which just keeps on producing…”
Dr Clare Bailey
Ingredients
- A SCOBY (from a friend or online)
- 1 litre wide-mouth clean glass jar
- 1 litre of spring or filtered water
- 2-3 tea bags, ideally organic black or green tea.
- 60g unbleached sugar
- Small piece of cotton cloth
Method
- Make the sweetened tea; Boil about 300ml of the filtered water then pour into a 1 litre jug containing the tea bags. Stir in the sugar. Allow to steep for 30 minutes before removing the tea bags. Leave to cool then add the remaining water.
- Place your SCOBY, using clean hands, along with its fluid into the cooled tea.
- Cover with the cloth. Secure with an elastic band. Leave on the kitchen surface out of direct sunlight at room temperature to brew.
- After a few days, small bubbles form around the edge of the SCOBY. Your alien life form is springing into action.
- It will be ready to drink after around 5-14 days, gaining a richer, more tart taste with a slight fizz with time.
- When ready, decant into a clean glass bottle with a tight lid. Leave behind the same volume of fluid as the size of the SCOBY, so it can be restarted by repeating the cycle.
