How To Make Your Own Kombucha at Home

Ever wonder how to make your own kombucha? With only a few steps, the process isn't as hard as you think. With only a few tools and ingredients, about seven steps in total, and some waiting time, you can have your own homemade kombucha in no time.

Impress all of your health nut friends, and "forget" tell your other friends what makes it taste so good. Your beverage will be a hit, and you'll make this kombucha brew time and time again, once you get the process down. You'll definitely want to save this recipe!

What is kombucha tea? And what is SCOBY?

To begin, let's get into the details of what makes up kombucha tea. Though the tea begins as a completely sugary beverage, the tea is transformed into a fizzy, nutritional, fermented drink.

With the help of SCOBY, the drink is loaded with vitamins and probiotics. The most important step in how to make your own kombucha is the SCOBY, which stands for Symbiotic Cultures of Bacteria and Yeast.

Now, this can be a bit intimidating, and definitely not appetizing, and frankly, neither is the appearance. However, without this crucial ingredient, along with the fermentation process, kombucha would not be what its so well-known for in the health community.

The first step of how to make your own kombucha requires getting the correct tools and ingredients. You'll need:

• SCOBY
• Medium-sized saucepot
• 1-gallon unleaded glass jar
• Four tea bags of your choice
• Three-five cups of filtered water
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of kombucha starter
• Measuring cup
• Wooden spoon
• Paper towels
• Cotton tea towel
• Glass bottles

First, boil the water and prepare the tea and sugar.

Pour about three to five cups of filtered water into a medium-sized saucepot. This process is important to kill any lingering bacteria or toxins that might be in the water, or in the pan.

While you're waiting for your water to boil, you can take this time to prepare your tea bags and sugar.

Then, add the tea bags and sugar, and wait.

Once your water is boiled, you are going to add the tea bags. Thekitchn suggests using green tea bags, black tea, or a mix of the two. The choice is yours!

As one of the most important steps of how to make your own kombucha, you will now add the 1/2 cup of sugar, and wait until it has dissolved into the water.

Let it sit. Remove the tea bags and strain the mixture when it's ready.

This next step requires a bit of patience. You are going to let the mixture sit until it reaches room temperate. Once that is complete, you will remove the tea bags and strain the remaining tea, to ensure any of the loose tea is removed.

Then, stir and transfer the tea into a jar.

The next step before we transfer this tea into our glass jar is to stir our concoction. Be sure not to skip this step. Then, we are going to transfer the water, carefully, to a glass jar.

As our next step of how to make your own kombucha, grab a friend to make this process easier for you. You're half way there!

Add the kombucha starter and SCOBY. This is the most important step.

The most important part of the entire process lies in this step. First, make sure your hands are thoroughly washed.

Then, take the star of the show, your SCOBY, and carefully place it into your tea. This is followed by adding the kombucha starter liquid.

Add the tea towel and seal the jar.

Immediately after the starter liquid and SCOBY is added, take your tea towel and cover the mouth of the jar tightly. This tea towel should be breathable, and can be secured with a simple rubber band to seal the jar.

As your second to last step of how to make your own kombucha, make sure the towel is wrapped neatly around the jar, and is completely secure. Thick rubber bands work best.

Finally, it's time to allow the kombucha to ferment.

The last, but most crucial step toward making your own kombucha, is allowing the mixture to ferment. This is done in a dark and warm environment, but not too hot.

The ideal temperature is 72 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The mixture is meant to ferment for seven to 14 days, the longer the better. While you wait, the SCOBY will work its magic.

It will feed on the caffeine of the tea as well as the sugar. This will lead to the production of lactic, acetic, glucaric acid, and many other beneficial antioxidants and probiotics.

Once the fermentation process is complete, you are ready to serve your kombucha. We suggest using glass bottles to store the finished product.

Why is kombucha beneficial?

As a fermented tea that has been created for thousands of years, kombucha is filled with beneficial ingredients. Created with green or black tea, there are health benefits from this ingredient as it is. But the main star of the tea is the SCOBY. The SCOBY creates the well-known health benefits from its production of antioxidants and probiotics.

Learning how to make your own kombucha will result in benefiting your body in many ways. It has been known to kill bacteria, increase energy, improve digestion, detoxify your liver, aid weight loss, reduce heart disease risk, manage type 2 diabetes, and even protect against cancer.