Fun with fungi, part two:
Kitchen kombucha
To begin, allow me to mention two things that I just learned.
First, kombucha (Japanese: 昆布茶) refers to an infusion made with brown kelp, not mushrooms. The Japanese name for mushroom tea is kocha-kinoko (紅茶キノコ).
Second, mushrooms aren't even used to make the beverage that most of us call kombucha. Rather, the drink is prepared with a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY).
Now that that's clear, we can proceed.
When I was in Qatar, my principal offered me a bit of the kombucha that she'd brought from home. Something had gone awry with some tea that her husband had in a bottle, and a bacterial colony emerged. My friend the principal implored her husband not to pour it away. Soon afterward, she used those organisms to make the fermented tea that we had that morning in Doha.
I visited this friend during our trip out West this summer. I spotted a sun tea bottle in their fridge and asked what was inside. More of the same fermented blend, I was told. My friend asked me to leave my address so that she could send us our own kombucha starter.
A few weeks later, the package arrived along with these instructions:
1. Rule #1 is that cleanliness really is next to godliness. Everything that comes into contact with Kombucha must be clean. Don't use metal. Kombucha fungi/shrooms do not like metal.
2. Keep bag sealed until you are ready to dump all of the contents into a jar of sweet tea. [By the way, do not refrigerate the starter colony --Ed.]
3. Make a quart of tea -- black, oolong or orange pekoe -- anything like that [I used decaf chai] . I really think Lipton's yellow-label tea works best. Sweeten tea with sugar or honey -- it really doesn't matter which -- but do make it sweet. Since the sugars will be converted, I can't see any point in using your best honey [I used organic sucanat, as well as filtered water].
4. If the tea is hot, let it cool. I usually make sun tea.
5. Pour your Kombucha fluid/spores/slime into the sweet, cooled tea.
6. Put something over the top -- a very, very clean cheesecloth or washcloth or paper towel -- and secure it with a rubber band.
7. Put the bottle in a shaded, warm area and forget about it for a week. Test at day five [which I forgot to do]. If all looks well, then maybe you should leave it alone for another few days -- even up to two weeks [I started the tea on July 17th or 18th, and I let it sit until the Full Moon on the 29th].
8. More fungi will begin to form in addition to your original colony with successive batches of Kombucha. This first batch of Kombucha probably won't be as bubbly and yummy as successive batches [though I can't say this was the case; that first drink was high-powered].
When the Kombucha is ready:
9. Wash your hands.
10. Make another half-gallon of sweet tea [this time, I used raw honey].
11. Let the tea cool.
12. Fish the fungus from your already-made Kombucha tea. Bathe it in warm water under the tap [or slosh it around in room-temperature filtered/spring water].
13. Plop it in the half-gallon of sweet tea.
14. Add 1/2 cup or so of the Kombucha tea from the first batch.
15. Put a clean cloth and rubber band over the top of the new mixture.
16. Put the new batch in that shaded, warm space for a week or so.
17. Pour your Kombucha tea [what remains of the first batch, and then the later products] into a clean container. You can strain this through a metal mesh now. Don't pour the dregs into the bottles.
18. Refrigerate and enjoy.
Or, drink the remainder of that quart before going to bed, then wake up all tingly and energized the next day.
First, kombucha (Japanese: 昆布茶) refers to an infusion made with brown kelp, not mushrooms. The Japanese name for mushroom tea is kocha-kinoko (紅茶キノコ).
Second, mushrooms aren't even used to make the beverage that most of us call kombucha. Rather, the drink is prepared with a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY).
Now that that's clear, we can proceed.
When I was in Qatar, my principal offered me a bit of the kombucha that she'd brought from home. Something had gone awry with some tea that her husband had in a bottle, and a bacterial colony emerged. My friend the principal implored her husband not to pour it away. Soon afterward, she used those organisms to make the fermented tea that we had that morning in Doha.
I visited this friend during our trip out West this summer. I spotted a sun tea bottle in their fridge and asked what was inside. More of the same fermented blend, I was told. My friend asked me to leave my address so that she could send us our own kombucha starter.
A few weeks later, the package arrived along with these instructions:
1. Rule #1 is that cleanliness really is next to godliness. Everything that comes into contact with Kombucha must be clean. Don't use metal. Kombucha fungi/shrooms do not like metal.
2. Keep bag sealed until you are ready to dump all of the contents into a jar of sweet tea. [By the way, do not refrigerate the starter colony --Ed.]
3. Make a quart of tea -- black, oolong or orange pekoe -- anything like that [I used decaf chai] . I really think Lipton's yellow-label tea works best. Sweeten tea with sugar or honey -- it really doesn't matter which -- but do make it sweet. Since the sugars will be converted, I can't see any point in using your best honey [I used organic sucanat, as well as filtered water].
4. If the tea is hot, let it cool. I usually make sun tea.
5. Pour your Kombucha fluid/spores/slime into the sweet, cooled tea.
6. Put something over the top -- a very, very clean cheesecloth or washcloth or paper towel -- and secure it with a rubber band.
7. Put the bottle in a shaded, warm area and forget about it for a week. Test at day five [which I forgot to do]. If all looks well, then maybe you should leave it alone for another few days -- even up to two weeks [I started the tea on July 17th or 18th, and I let it sit until the Full Moon on the 29th].
8. More fungi will begin to form in addition to your original colony with successive batches of Kombucha. This first batch of Kombucha probably won't be as bubbly and yummy as successive batches [though I can't say this was the case; that first drink was high-powered].
When the Kombucha is ready:
9. Wash your hands.
10. Make another half-gallon of sweet tea [this time, I used raw honey].
11. Let the tea cool.
12. Fish the fungus from your already-made Kombucha tea. Bathe it in warm water under the tap [or slosh it around in room-temperature filtered/spring water].
13. Plop it in the half-gallon of sweet tea.
14. Add 1/2 cup or so of the Kombucha tea from the first batch.
15. Put a clean cloth and rubber band over the top of the new mixture.
16. Put the new batch in that shaded, warm space for a week or so.
17. Pour your Kombucha tea [what remains of the first batch, and then the later products] into a clean container. You can strain this through a metal mesh now. Don't pour the dregs into the bottles.
18. Refrigerate and enjoy.
Or, drink the remainder of that quart before going to bed, then wake up all tingly and energized the next day.
Fun with fungi, part two:
Kitchen kombucha
mr damon, 10:43
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