While some made sourdough and others made banana bread, during our Shelter-In-Place I decided to try my hand at making kombucha. Kombucha is one of my favorite drinks, supports gut health, and if you purchase it at the store, it can be fairly expensive ($5 or more per bottle). So since I had nothing but time, I decided to give it a try. And wow, I am so happy I did.

If you’re not familiar with kombucha, it’s a fermented, effervescent black or green tea drink that is commonly consumed for its health benefits. Kombucha contains living probiotics and healthy acids - both of which support a healthy gut. The benefits of kombucha are many and include:

It’s a good source of probiotics. Probiotics provide your gut with healthy bacteria and aid digestion, inflammation, and sometimes weight loss.
If you use green tea to make it, your kombucha may include some of the same plant compounds and as a result, the same benefits, as drinking green tea. This includes increasing the number of calories burned, reducing belly fat, improving cholesterol, and helps with blood sugar control.
Kombucha is a good source of antioxidants. Studies on rats found that those that were regularly given kombucha had reduced liver toxicity - some up to 70%.
Kombucha may reduce heart disease risk. Again, rat studies show kombucha can improve two very important markers for heart disease - LDL and HDL. LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol) markers were improved in as little as 30 days.
May help manage type 2 diabetes. Rat studies (there haven’t been human studies) showed that kombucha slowed down the digestion of carbs, which reduce blood sugar levels.
Kombucha may help prevent cancer. In test-tube studies, kombucha prevented the growth and spread of cancerous cells due to its high concentration of polyphenols and antioxidants.

Kombucha is made by adding a culture, known as a '“SCOBY” to a sweetened, brewed tea. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast and is the mother of your kombucha. Fermentation then happens because bacteria, yeasts, and enzymes from the SCOBY then work together to convert the tea into kombucha. It’s not a quick process, which is why this is a perfect project for those who might still be working from home. But if you are patient, the result is nothing short of amazing.

Making kombucha falls into three stages - making your SCOBY, your first fermentation, and your second fermentation. If you don’t already have a SCOBY, the entire process will take you about a month. Once you do have a SCOBY, it takes ~10 days per batch from the first fermentation to enjoying a nice cold bottle.

Before we get to the instructions, I want to share some important reminders about cleanliness. Because the SCOBY is a live bacteria, there are some things to keep in mind:

Everything must be clean. Seriously. This is the most important thing to remember. You are creating an environment for good bacteria to grow. If bad bacteria get in, your SCOBY will be ruined and you WILL get sick.
Do not use plastic or metal containers. This is also important as the metal can react with the acid in your kombucha and hurt your SCOBY and plastic can harbor bacteria. A possible transfer of bad bacteria for your SCOBY is dangerous.
You do not want to see any mold. At all. If you see mold growing on either the tea or the SCOBY, you need to toss both.
Temperature plays a role in how quickly your kombucha will ferment. Fermentation goes quicker in warmer temperatures, slower in cooler.

With that in mind, let’s make your SCOBY!

Making Your SCOBY

This is the single most important element in making kombucha. Made properly, this is what makes your tea kombucha and gives it all of the amazing health benefits. It will be ugly. But it is magic! To make your SCOBY you will need:

7 cups (1.6 L) clean water
1/2 cup (100 grams) white sugar
4 bags of black tea
1 cup unflavored unpasteurized store-bought kombucha. I used GTS Unflavored and Raw Kombucha (they have it at Target and Safeway).
A large glass container that will hold 1 gallon (3.7 L) of liquid.
Tightly woven cloth (I use cheesecloth but you can also use coffee filters, paper towels, napkins)
A rubber band (I used a large ponytail holder).

A couple of things to note - do not use decaf tea as it takes much longer for the SCOBY to grow. Only use black tea for making your SCOBY - you can use green or white tea later in the process. And finally, no honey. Honey can contain botulism bacteria and when grown exponentially as yeast and bacteria do with kombucha, this can be dangerous.

To make your SCOBY you will:

Bring the water to a boil in a large saucepan. The water and pan must absolutely be clean. Super important! Once it is boiling, remove it from heat and add the sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.
Add the tea and allow it to steep. You cannot move to the next step until the tea has cooled, so I allow it to steep for a few hours. To test the temperature, you can draw some up into a paper straw. Once it is room temperature, remove your tea bags and move to the next step.
Pour your sweetened tea into your glass container. Every last drop!
Pour your unsweetened kombucha in. Make sure to include any strands or wiggly floating objects. These are the best part!
Cover with a few layers of cloth to keep bugs and debris out. And secure with a rubber band.
Set the container somewhere dark, still. Ideally, the room temperature will be between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. I placed mine in a cupboard.
Wait. This is the hardest part. You are going to let your tea sit for 1 - 4 weeks to let your SCOBY grow. It is ready when it is 1/4 inch thick.

I will be honest, I am not good at waiting. So every day I took a peek inside my cupboard to see what was happening. When the SCOBY started forming I was a bit nervous - is this what it’s supposed to look like? How do I know if there’s mold? The SCOBY will be creamy white in color. If you see green or black mold, bacteria got in and you need to throw it away.

You may see bubbles forming in the first few days, and then you’ll start to see a transparent thin-film start to form. Once your SCOBY is 1/4 inch thick, you are ready for your first fermentation! You are going to keep your SCOBY in the tea it’s sitting until you make your first fermentation. After that, you’ll throw this tea out. It’s too vinegary to drink and your SCOBY will continue to live in your teas from here forward.

Your First Fermentation

Now that you have your SCOBY, you are ready to make your kombucha! Here is what you will need:

14 cups (3.5 quarters, 3.3 L) clean water
1 cup (200 g) white sugar
8 bags of either black or green tea
2 cups (470 mL) unflavored kombucha (you will only need this one time)
1 SCOBY
A large glass container that will hold at least 1 gallon (3.7 L) liquid.
Tightly woven cloth
Rubber bands

To make your first fermentation:

Bring your clean water to a boil in a clean pot. Remove from heat and dissolve the sugar into it.
Add the tea and allow it to steep while the water cools to room temperature. Again, this will take a couple of hours. So I usually brew in the morning or at lunch and bottle it with the SCOBY in the evening. As a note, if you add your SCOBY to hot water, it will kill the SCOBY and you’ll need to go back to “Make Your SCOBY”.
With hands the cleanest they’ve ever been (seriously - think as clean as a surgeon), lift your SCOBY from the tea and place it on a clean plate. If you are using the same glass container for your first fermentation, you can rinse out the jar (do not use soap), but it’s not required.
Pour the sweetened tea into your jar. Pour the unflavored kombucha into the jar.
Wash your hands again so that they are the cleanest they can be and gently place the SCOBY into the jar with the sweetened tea.
Cover the jar with a few layers of woven cloth and secure it with a rubber band.
Set the jar somewhere dark, still, and with consistent room temperature. I placed mine back in the same cupboard. It’s going to sit in there anywhere from 6 - 10 days.
On the sixth day gently draw some of the liquid out using a straw by placing your finger on one end and listing the straw out. Do NOT use your mouth on the straw. The kombucha should be mildly sweet and slightly vinegary. If the air temperature is warm, it will ferment quicker. The longer the tea ferments, the more sugar molecules will be eaten up. More sugar molecules are eaten = less sweet kombucha. I let mine sit 10 days as I don’t like super sweet kombucha.

Once your first fermentation tastes the way you like (either sweet or not as sweet), you are ready for your second fermentation and bottling. This is my favorite part!

Second Fermentation

The second fermentation is where all the good stuff happens. It is during this stage that you get to flavor your kombucha (or not - depends on what you like). It is during this phase that your kombucha becomes carbonated. Here is what you need for your second fermentation:

Homemade kombucha from the first fermentation
Sweetener (fruit, honey, etc)
Fermentation flip-top bottles. Bottles must have an airtight seal or else carbonation will escape.
One plastic water bottle.

To make your second fermentation:

Unless your glass container has a spigot, remove your SCOBY with incredibly clean hands and place on a clean plate.
Reserve 2 cups of liquid from your first fermentation.
Funnel the rest of your kombucha into bottles and the plastic water bottle, leaving about 2 inches space at the top.
Add your sweetener and seal tightly with lid.
Set the bottles somewhere dark (I used the same cupboard) with consistent room temperature for 3 to 10 days.
Set the plastic bottle next to your glass bottles.
Take the reserved 2 cups from your first fermentation and add them back to your glass container.
With super clean hands, place your SCOBY back into the tea. This is now your starter kombucha for your next batch. To start your next batch, go back up to the first fermentation instructions and replace the unflavored store-bought kombucha with the starter kombucha from the batch you just made.

The plastic bottle is your control so you know how carbonated your kombucha is becoming. If you don’t use a plastic water bottle, you will need to burp your bottles on a daily basis (otherwise they may explode). Everyday check your plastic water bottle and when it becomes hard, your kombucha bottles are carbonated and should move to the refrigerator (the fridge slows down the carbonation process). Your kombucha is now ready to be consumed!

I love pink lady kombucha so for my second fermentation, I used 3 cups chopped apples and 1/2 cup of apple cider (natural, no added anything) in step four above - adding some to each bottle. It was perfect! Even my non-kombucha loving kids love it. The only downside to using chopped fruit is that you have to strain it out (not ideal) and it is difficult to clean the bottles. But if that's the price to pay for this homemade goodness, it’s not a bad thing. I am now in the process of trying out different flavors and will add them to the blog as they are perfected.

The final thing to note - your SCOBY will continue to grow. As it gets thicker, you can separate it and use it to make another batch at the same time. I know have three SCOBYs going and as long as they are healthy, they will keep making kombucha for about a year.

I learned everything about making kombucha from Sarah at Live Eat Learn. Her blog is amazing and she has recipes, a guide, a FAQ and more about kombucha. The instructions above were based on her’s with notes specific to how I adapted them based on my experience.

Your first batch will take about six weeks total but it is completely worth it. Enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions. I will be adding a kombucha FAQ to my blog later this week.