Please pray for my husband. Today when he returns home after a long day of work, he's going to discover glass jars sitting on our counter, containing creamy brain-like substances floating in a brown liquid. Sounds gross, huh? Well, thanks to a lovely and generous young friend, I am now in possession of two rather large kombucha scobys (a.k.a. mushroom or mother). A "scoby" is the acronym for a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast. These fermenting friends create another probiotic drink with benefits similar to those I mentioned before in my post about kefir.
I am really excited to "brew" some of my own kombucha. Just last month I tried some berry flavored kombucha from Celestial Seasoning and after a first sip that nearly took my breath away, I decided I liked it! It was fizzy, not too sweet, had a great tarty kick, and after a brief "hot flash" of detox, I appreciated that it had healthful benefits, too! ;)
According to my favorite culturing website (Cultures for Health), Kombucha scobys are grown in green or black sweetened tea and should be left to culture for 7 to 30 days. The longer the culture is left to do it's work, the drink becomes less sweet, but boasts stronger probiotic qualities. Once the scoby has done it's work, you can drink it plain, or mix it with a bit of juice. I've got two jars going, so after next week will determine how to serve it up. I've heard that store-bought kombucha tastes quite a bit different from home-grown, so I'm anxious to compare the two.
I'm also excited to see how the scobys reproduce. Yes, did I neglect to mention that scoby mothers grow babies?! Yup. The mother culture will develop babies that can be used to make more kombucha. This is totally fulfilling the desires of my inner food chemist! Bwahaha.
So, do you kombucha? I'd love to hear thoughts from any of you kombucha pros out there. :)
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