I’ve been making it in 2-quart jars. Doing little experiments, I’ve figured out that
1. 4 tea bags is better than 6. I’ve been using Tetley’s low-cost black tea. Each teabag supposedly has 33% more tea than usual. In Wild Fermentation, Sandor Katz suggests 4 teabags for 2 quarts.
2. 3/4 cup of sugar is better than 1/2 cup of sugar. The Wild Fermentation recipe says 1/2 cup of sugar for 2 quarts.
I started my first batch on Sunday. We’ll see how it goes. I used green tea using a starter culture from Kombucha America. They recommend starting with green tea for the first batch. I’m brewing in a gallon glass jar. I’ve got the jar in an ice chest with a heat pad just barely over one side of it on the inside. With the top on, a digital thermometer that says it’s 80 degrees inside, plus or minus a degree all day long.
As for the commercial versions, GTS is lowest in sugar and sweetness which is what I want mine to be. The one from Rejuvenation Company is extremely sweet and twice the sugar as GTS. Another one that’s good but also sweeter than GTS is High Country. They make one that tastes like root beer and it’s very good.
Thank you for your posts Seth. Is “stronger” Kombucha better for you? That is to say is more sour or longer fermented better?
Dan, thanks for the details.
Dave, I’m sure that stronger kombucha is better. Tea with sugar has no wonderful properties.
I’ve looked around a bit on the net and reread some of Seth’s past entries, but one thing I’m not clear on is whether there are live cultures in the finished product, like yogurt, or do they all die due to waste products, as in wine or vinegar?
Dennis, there are live cultures in kombucha unless it is pasteurized (as one manufacturer does). You could probably use commercial kombucha to start making homemade kombucha — something I didn’t quite realize.
Seth: Let me immodestly suggest a modification to your hypothesis that fermented food is healthy because it stimulates the immune system.
The immune system outside the gut does not want to see lipopolysaccharides (LPS), which are breakdown products of bacterial cell walls, nor does it like to see the bacteria themselves. When it does, bad things happen, basically a chain reaction of autoimmune activation, inflammation, and free radical generation. Normally the gut is highly selective in what it allows into the body, but in cases of leaky gut, LPS as well as gluten and casein enter the circulation, causing fatigue, lupus, autism, and maybe lots more. Leaky gut in turn is caused by dysbiosis in the intestines, whether by candida or gram negative bacterial overgrowth. Therefore fermented foods work by restoring proper microbial balance in the intestines, sealing the leaky gut and killing candida and gram negative overgrowth. It might be almost the opposite of stimulating the immune system (outside the gut); it actually *prevents* stimulation and activation. Secretory IgA is the type of immunoglobulin most important inside the gut, and dysbiosis, e.g. from candida, causes a radical decrease in its production by the immune cells lining the gut. The right fermented foods ought to restore IgA production.
By the way, I also think that this could be such a problem in the modern world because of the emphasis of low fat, high carb diets, which probably foster dysbiosis.
The psychiatrist and scientist Michael Maes believes that dysbiosis and leaky gut, along with subsequent immune stimulation, is a major mechanism behind depression and chronic fatigue. See here for starters with links: https://mangans.blogspot.com/2009/06/unified-theory-of-disease.html
Those are good points, Dennis.
Does anyone add anything to flavor their homemade Kombucha like fruit juice? Anything work well, or anything to avoid?
I like to add raspberries, huckleberries, or ginger to my finished kombucha. With the berries, it turns a lovely pink, and with the grated fresh ginger the taste is a bit ‘snappier’. Those are the berries I’ve used, although others would be just as tasty, I’m sure.
do you add them whole, or juice them? How long do you leave them in there before you consume?