Ingredients

4 tea bags (everyday black tea rather than a speciality tea)

100g/3½oz granulated or caster sugar

1.75 litres/3 pints just-boiled filtered water

1 medium kombucha scoby culture

Recipe tips

Method

First wash your jar, jug or bowl and funnel thoroughly in hot soapy water. Rinse well under very hot water and leave to air dry.

Put the tea bags and sugar in a very large measuring jug or heatproof bowl and pour over the just-boiled filtered water. Give the tea a good stir and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Lift out the tea bags and discard, then leave the tea to cool for a further 30-45 minutes or until lukewarm.

Pour the cooled tea into the prepared jar (you may need to use a funnel if you haven’t steeped the tea in a jug). Place the kombucha scoby into the tea along with the starter liquid it has been stored with.

Place a piece of clean muslin over the top of the kombucha and secure with string or a rubber band. Leave at room temperature, out of direct sunlight. The kombucha will take from a few days to 2 weeks to brew. You will notice it changing colour and becoming a little cloudier as the days pass. After 5 days, spoon a little out and taste. If it tastes more like apple juice than tea, with a pleasant, slight tartness and a little fizz, it should be ready. If not, leave for another day or so and taste again. Some people like a stronger taste, so will leave longer (about 7–10 days), but to start with, you may want to drink when it is a little milder.

Transfer the scoby and approximately 150ml/5fl oz of the tea to a clean bowl, ready to make the next batch. Use as a starter liquid to make the next brew or cover and store in a cool, dark place for up to 5 days if you plan to use it again. Strain the rest of the brew through a fine sieve into clean, lidded bottles. Secure the lids and place in the fridge to chill. Drink within a week.

The kombucha will begin to become slightly fizzy at this point, and will get more fizzy the longer it is stored. This is caused by the bacteria within the liquid naturally producing carbon dioxide. Make sure you ’burp’ the bottle(s) every day or so to release the build-up of gas. If you leave your bottled kombucha at room temperature for a day or two before putting in the fridge, it will become fizzier more quickly.

You can begin drinking the kombucha straight away, but it's best to start with small amounts (to avoid any digestive upset as your system gets used to the bacteria).

Recipe Tips

If your scoby is new, you will need to reduce the amount of kombucha you make for the first few times in order to have the best chance of success. Try using 1 to 1.5 litres to 3 pints of just-boiled water with 3–4 teabags and 75g/2½oz sugar.

The scoby will produce its own gelatinous ‘baby’ as it ferments and later the mother and baby can be separated and the baby used to start a new fermentation. If there is a batch that smells rotten or becomes mouldy it should be discarded.

Filtered water is necessary for this recipe because tap water often contains a small amount of chlorine, which will inhibit the fermentation process. Either use a filter jug or even better, well or filtered rainwater.

ngredients

Initial Fermentation

4 cups water

¼ cup unrefined cane sugar

2 tablespoons water kefir grains

1 dried fig ( optional )

1/2 lime ( optional )

Secondary Fermentation

1 cup fruit juice or other flavoring

Special Equipment

flip-top bottles

Instructions

Initial Fermentation

Bring the 1 cup water to a boil over medium-high heat, and then stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Pour the sugar water into a 1 ltr sized mason jar, and then pour in 3 cups of cold water. Allow the sugar water to cool to room temperature.

Spoon the water kefir grains into the room temperature sugar water. Drop in the fig and lime. Let it culture at least 24 hours and up to 72 hours.

Strain the kefir through a nonreactive strainer into a jug. Discard the spent lime and fig, but reserve the water kefir grains.

Store the reserved kefir grains in sugar water in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

Serve the kefir right away, or continue with the secondary fermentation below.

Secondary Fermentation

For the secondary fermentation, pour 1 cup fruit juice into the kefir. And then pour the flavored kefir into flip-top bottles, filling them within 1/2 inch to 1 inch of their openings.

Seal the bottles, and set them on your countertop to ferment a further 18 to 24 hours, keeping in mind that warm temperatures will speed up the fermentation process while cool temperatures will slow it down. Transfer the bottles of water kefir to the fridge for 3 days to allow the bubbles to set.

Open carefully over a sink, as the liquid in the bottle is under pressure, and when you release the bottle's seal, the water kefir may fizz and foam.