kombucha! (and some sparkling concoctions)

Kombucha is a probiotic, fermented tea that is imbibed of medicinal purposes. Kombucha is widely available in health food stores at quite a high price but its easy and inexpensive to make at home and to enhance it with ginger, cinnamon or just about anything you like. As a vegan you might like to substitute Kombucha instead of yogurt as a probiotic.

Kombucha tea also contains the amino acid L-theanine, an acid that occurs in green tea and black tea. L-theanine crosses into the brain and stimulates positive, relaxed feelings. Along with the recent news of the Fukushima nuclear disaster following the earthquake and tsnunami, is being touted that this kombucha has properties that protect its imbibers agains radiation damage. There is growing research in favor of eating many fermented and macrobiotic foods such as kimchee, natto soy beans and saurkraut and drinking Kombucha to help protect against radiation.



I have been brewing Kombucha now for 4 years starting with a mother culture from our Swiss friend while in India. To date we have brewed it in 4 countries and are taking it anywhere we go bottled to travel on shorter trips. I have yet to have had a refrigerator and have brewed it even off-grid camping and made the tea as sun-tea, i find it is not neccessary to refrigerate and the fizzy drink feels like a cold one on a hot day even at room temp. It's basically done by fermenting tea using a visible solid mass of microorganisms called a Kombucha culture or "mushroom". Kombucha Tea provides relief from the symptoms of many ailments (particulary balances the digestive system) and in some cases even bring healing. It strengthens the immune system of the body. The tea is prepared by incubating the "mushroom" in sweet black or green tea. Fermentation does not produce much alcohol in this short process. Normally kombucha contains less than 0.5% alcohol, which classifies kombucha as a non-alcoholic beverage.

Kombucha is not really a mushroom tea as its commonly called, its a brewed from a Symbiotic Colony Of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY). like us, it prefers a warm, sweet environment in order to survive and thrive. if we take the time to care for this colony, it thanks us by creating a probiotic drink.

There are quite a few vids out there on making Kombucha. i recommend you surf and experiment. Kombucha brewing is an art so feel free to improvise from here.

ingredients:

1 cup white sugar (yes white, the cultures need this to brew and its already digested when it gets to the drinking stage)

5-8 teabags or spoons of loose tea to taste. this tea needs to contain tannins for the same reason as above. it feeds the Kombucha culture. black and green teas are what i have used as a base adding herbal teas and ginger or cinnamon etc, to enhance it in addition. herbal teas in general do not contain tannins and cant brew on their own. decaf black or green is ok to use too.

1/8 cup white vinegar OR Kombucha "mushroom" /culture from another batch.

ginger, cinnamon, etc whatever you want to flavor it as an option.

a little encouragement from the truther girls:



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now for my version-
step by step:

its not as difficult as this seems here, im just trying to be complete with details. i will try to take some photos step by step when i get to a more settled place again.

1. Wash all utensils with hot sudsy water and rinse well.
2. Add 1 cup white sugar to water. when a rolling boil is reached. Boil water and
sugar for five minutes.
3. Make stong tea with this water-
Turn off heat and add tea bags of black or green
tea. use less water than usual, you can then add more cold purified water later when
you pour into the glass container to ferment.
Steep 10-15 minutes and remove tea leaves or bags and let tea cool (it doesn't
hurt to steep the tea longer and i have been letting the teabags cool in the pot.
Pour cooled tea into a clean gallon size glass container. (pickle jar, vase, etc)
4. Add your Kombucha "mushroom" culture only after the liquid is cool to room temp.
placing it so that the smooth shiny surface lies up. Add 1 cup of fermented
Kombucha Tea from a previous batch (or substitute 1/8 c. distilled vinegar).
5. Place a breathable cotton cloth over the opening of the jar and secure with a rubber
band. This keeps dust, mold, spores and vinegar flies out of the fermenting tea.
(cheesecloth does not give this necessary protection unless you use 2-3 layers).

Allow to sit undisturbed in a well ventilated place away from direct sunlight
for 6 -10 days for the first batch. after the mushroom has grown like a pancake
to cover the liquid, it will take considerably less time, typically 3-4 days. it
should have a vinegary smell by now.

When the tea is brewed to your taste, remove the "mushroom" culture and place it
in a clean temporary container like a bowl reserving a cup of the tea liquid
for the next batch.

* If your culture has grown to a thick "pancake" mass, gently separate into 2 or
more thin layers and place the extra cultures in purified water in glass jars
covered with lid and kept cool and dark. They will lay dormant for approximately
six months, possibly longer. share these with friends or make each flavor with
a separate mushroom as it tends to absorb the flavors.





NOW THE CREATIVE FUN BEGINS:
This is the recommended stage to add enhancers such as ginger. A few hours
before the Kombucha is ready to harvest, boil some minced ginger in a pot of
clean water and cool completely. Add this liquid to the bottles after you strain and pour the
kombucha tea into the bottles. (we have also made ginger kombucha by brewing the ginger right
along with the sugar and tea and adding it cooled to the jar with the mushroom all
together. this seems to work fine as long as the mushroom is always used for
ginger Kombucha). For various flavors you could have several mushrooms one for each.
OR to make unflavored tea, simply pour the fermented tea through a strainer and bottle
it into glass and cap tight. Use food-grade plastic quart bottles to store your Kombucha
at this stage. cap tightly. store in a cool dark place.

Date and label the bottled tea and wait at least 2-4 days for the batch to
become fizzy and sparkling before drinking.

Go on to make a new batch of tea with the "mushroom" waiting in the bowl or keep it dormant
until the next batch as described above when dividing a culture.

Tips:
Sometimes the culture floats on the surface, sometimes it sinks to the bottom of
the liquid. Either way is okay. When the culture sinks to the bottom a new
culture (baby) will begin to grow on the surface of the tea.

Recommended to take a glass of kombucha in the morning on an empty stomach.
another later in the day with food and one at bedtime to maintain optimum health.


now take a fun break and watch what you can do with the excess SCOBY when all your friends have a batch going.



http://antenna.sciencemuseum.org.uk/trashfashion/home/wearwithoutwaste/material-desires/biocouture-jacket/ full article.

SOME USEFUL VARIATIONS OF TEAS TO ADD IN THE BOTTLING PROCESS TO A STRONG KOMBUCHA BREW.


Poison apple nectar of immortality

1. brew a strong gallon of ginger kombucha

2. on the day its ready to pour into jars:
Bring 1/2 gallon apple juice to a boil along with a 2 sticks of cinnamon , an inch of ginger minced and 1/2 teaspoonful whole cloves. adjust to how spicy you like things. Bring to boil then cool

3. add 1/2 cup goji juice

4. combine the concoction and strain the nectar thru a sieve before jarring or serving

not a poison of course, but a warming fall and winter treat while having your cool kombucha instead of a cup of piping hot cider to keep your probiotics going.



NETTLE KOMBUCHA ELIXIR

Maybe you’re surprised at the idea that nettles play an important role in Irish traditional cuisine and foraging fare.

You definitely need to be armed with rubber gloves though. Ordinary gardening mitts won’t do – as we learned to our cost at the weekend.

Your nettle crop needs to come from an area that hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals, or contaminated by animals or polluted by heavy traffic.

Pick the very tops of tender young nettles. Strip the leaves from the stems (you can discard the stems) and rinse them well, still wearing those gloves.

Make a batch of Stinging Nettle Juice just as you would brew any loose herbal tea - straining the nettles out after bringing to boil then steeping til cool. this is when you want to add it to a strong brew of kombucha tea.

Nettles are a superfood, rich in iron and magnesium. They are famous in Irish folklore for their healing effects – a great tonic during menstruation or the menopause, apparently, as well as rheumatism.


BLACKCURRANT OR ELDERBERRY KOMBUCHA SPARKLING WINE

The blackcurrant has extraordinarily high vitamin C content (302% of the Daily Value per 100 g, table), good levels of potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B5, and a plethora of other essential nutrients

The phytochemicals in currants have demonstrated potential to inhibit inflammation mechanisms suspected to be at the origin of heart disease, cancer, microbial infections or neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease.

Blackcurrant seed oil is also rich in vitamin E and several unsaturated fatty acids

Make and strain/ cool a tea from a strong brew of 2 - 4 Tbsp of fresh Blackcurrants or Elderberries in 3 - 4 cups of water and add to the strong kombucha brew before bottling.

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Elderberry tea helps in treating influenza and fever, cold and flu, asthma and bronchitis, clearing accumulated phlegm in the air passageways, laryngitis, tonsillitis and sinusitis and a number of allergies.

Elderberry tea is known to enhance functional effectiveness of the kidney by helping to get rid of toxins present in the system and is useful in the treatment of arthritic and rheumatic pain.

Elderberry is rich in Vitamin C as well as high amounts of anthocyanin and bioflavonoid content act as immuno-stimulants, thus preventing a number of immune system diseases. This is one of the important elderberry benefits.

It is also an antioxidant, which protects the body against aging free radicals. Elderberry tea is said to reduce the damaging effects of bad cholesterol, or LDL, and is thus helpful in preventing heart diseases. Sciatica and neuralgia can also be treated with elderberry tea.

bring 3 - 4 cups of water to a boil with to 2 – 4 Tbs of dried flowers and cool - this will make a good tea. add to the strong kombucha brew as you bottle it and you will have a sparkling healthful 'wine' that is non-alcoholic.