How to Make Kombucha

Kombucha is a sweet, strong-flavoured fermented tea, made with a bacteria-yeast culture, that is currently one of the trendiest beverages in the health world.

Photo by: Sarah Goertz

Health claims are vast and mostly unproven, but studies have shown that it contains compounds that are supportive to liver detoxification as well as cancer cell prevention.

I recently became a "kombu-mommy" when a friend offered me a jar of his "baby". The whole set up looks like a flat mushroom suspended in iced tea with another smaller mushroom pancake on top at the surface. If you're lucky enough to get your hands on a baby, here's how to make kombucha:
1. Brew 2 L of black, white, oolong or green tea using 2 tea bags for 15 minutes.
2. Discard the bags, add 1 cup white sugar and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. If you've been given a mother and baby, compost the mother and get rid of (drink, after filtering) all the liquid in your jar except 1 cup.
4. To the jar with the baby and liquid, add the cold sweet tea to the top. Place cheesecloth, but no lid, over the opening.
5. Allow to brew for 5 - 14 days. If after 5 you like the taste, drink up making sure to filter through cheesecloth. A new baby should be forming. After 14 days the liquid may taste stronger and more like vinegar, this is okay! Once the liquid has brewed this long it is more of a kombucha vinegar and is slightly alcoholic but if you like the taste, and I do, then drink up.

If your braveness is still rising toward make-kombucha levels and hasn't gotten there yet, you can purchase bottled kombucha in an array of flavours from Quarter Master Natural Foods at 176 Wortley Road in London.