How to Make Kombucha: A Healthy Sparkling Beverage

Kombucha is a delicious fermented sparkling drink that has many health benefits and tastes similar to fizzy apple juice. It’s not difficult to make, but you do need a scoby and it does take a bit of time to brew. Here’s an easy guide on how to make kombucha from tea.

When I first met CT, I was intrigued by the bowls of bubbling brown liquid lying around his flat. They had a pleasant fruity tangy aroma emanating from them and were covered with what looked to be some kind of large flat mushroom. This was my introduction to kombucha.

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a nutrient rich fermented drink which probably originated in China. It has certainly been consumed there for thousands of years and is well established in Japan, Eastern Europe and Russia too. It turns tea and sugar into something that tastes like a good vintage of sparkling apple juice.

This seeming miracle is enabled by a scoby, a sort of thick skinned fungal-bacterial symbiosis. SCOBY actually stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. As the scoby digests the sugar, it forms various beneficial acids, B & C vitamins, enzymes and probiotics. Kombucha is said to boost the immune system, be good for gut health and have a whole host of other benefits. Those in the know swear by it.

We used to make kombucha regularly and it became an embedded activity in our lives. We’d have a glass every day and felt better for it. It also meant we had a refreshing and delicious drink on hand to offer visitors. Sadly, following a number of house moves, we lost the scoby and the habit. Until Mortier Pilon came to my rescue, I hadn’t made or drunk any kombucha for over a decade.

Mortier Pilon

Mortier Pilon makes the most beautiful glass vessels for brewing kombucha. If you’ve got a large container sitting somewhere in your home, it sort of matters that it looks good. The Mortier Pilon kombucha crock is not only stylish, it’s also very practical.

We used a variety of bowls and jars when we were making kombucha all those years ago and trying to remove the scoby and get the liquid out was really quite a messy process. This wonder crock has a tap at the bottom so you can easily extract the liquid and you don’t have to remove the scoby at all.

Kombucha needs to breathe whilst it’s fermenting, so you can’t use screw top lids or cover your bowls with plates. You need a lid to keep out dust, but it must be a porous one. Mortier Pilon have you covered. There is a large screw top, so it’s easy to fill the crock and remove the scoby if needed, but it has a clever aperture in it, on which sits a porous lid which allows free flow of air. And it’s an attractive lid too.

Mortier Pilon sell a range of high-end fermentation glassware designed to make fermenting more accessible to the home user. The company is based in Montreal, Canada, but has recently launched in the UK. Their products are very reasonably priced.

We bought a sauerkraut earthenware pot a few years ago which I remember being very expensive. A Mortier Pilon one costs £34. The kombucha fermentation jar costs £39. They are available via a range of outlets, including John Lewis and Amazon.

Bottled Kombucha

It’s really quite easy to start making kombucha. Full instructions come with the jar, though you will need to order the scoby separately. Kombucha typically takes from a week to a fortnight to ferment, depending on the ambient conditions and how sweet or sour you like your drink.

Once fermented, you can consume the kombucha immediately or bottle it. The drink has a slight fizz to it when consumed straight aways, but when bottled it gets much fizzier. The Mortier Pilon instructions say to add a little more sugar at the bottling stage to increase the fizz, but I’ve found this unnecessary. I’d rather not add more sugar than is needed.

Scoby

There are a few things to remember about scoby. It’s sensitive to some chemicals including chlorine and essential oils. It’s therefore best to use organic tea if you can and make sure your water is filtered. Use unscented black tea to begin with and never Earl Grey.

It’s not like me to promote white sugar, but it really is best to use pure white sugar for kombucha, not golden or brown or honey or anything else. There’s a handy little how to make kombucha video on the Mortier Pilon site.

Kombucha Plus

Once you’ve got your scoby growing well and you’re producing a drink you’re happy with, you can start experimenting with your kombucha. In the past we found that using half black and half green tea gave a nice result.

At the bottling stage, you can add fruit slices or juice, herbs or spices. Raspberries are a particularly nice addition. The fermentation jar can also be used to make tibi otherwise known as water kefir. This is something we often make as a refreshing summer drink and I can see how this crock would be so much better than the jar we currently use.

Kombucha Vinegar

If you forget about your kombucha and find it’s gone too sour, just leave it for an additional couple of weeks. You’ll find that you’ve made your own vinegar and a very nice vinegar it is too. In fact it’s very similar to raw apple cider vinegar. I use it almost exclusively now for salad dressings and for making my spiced apple chutney. Once you’ve syphoned the vinegar off, just carry on as normal.

Other Recipes for Fermented Foods You Might Like

• Beet kvass via Tin and Thyme
• How to make kefir and what to do with it via Tin and Thyme
• Making sauerkraut via Real Food Lover
• Rye sourdough bread via Tin and Thyme
• Vegan kimchi via Thinly Spread

Keep in Touch

If you’d like more drink recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.

Choclette x

How to Make Kombucha. PIN IT.

How to Make Kombucha

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5 from 2 votes

How to Make Kombucha

A delicious fermented sparkling drink that has many health benefits and tastes similar to fizzy apple juice.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Fermenting Time7 days d

Total Time7 days d 10 minutes mins

Course: Breakfast, Drinks

Cuisine: Chinese, Eastern European, Russian

Keyword: fermented, gut health, kombucha

Servings: 10 bottles

Calories: 139kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Ingredients

Starting Up Ingredients

• 1 litre filtered water
• 3 organic black tea bags
• 110 g white sugar
• scoby & a little of the kombucha from where it came

Primary Fermentation Ingredients

• 3 litre water
• 5 organic black tea bags
• 450 g white sugar

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

Starting Up Directions

• Sterilise your Mortier Pilon fermentation jar by washing with hot soapy water, then rinsing or running it through a dishwasher.
• Place the teabags in a large teapot or jug.
  3 organic black tea bags
• Boil the water and pour over the teabags.
  1 litre filtered water
• Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
  110 g white sugar
• Leave to brew and cool to room temperature.
• Pour into the fermentation jar and add the scoby and kombucha liquid.
  scoby & a little of the kombucha from where it came
• Screw on the lid and add the porous cover.
• Leave at room temperature for 3-5 days.

Primary Fermentation Directions

• Make sweetened tea as above, but use the larger quantities stipulated.
  3 litre water, 5 organic black tea bags, 450 g white sugar
• Allow to cool to room temperature.
• Use a long handled spoon to push the scoby to one side and pour in the tea.
• Leave to ferment at room temperature for 7-14 days, depending on how sweet / sour you like the drink. Test after 7 days and then just keep trying until you have something you like.
• The kombucha should have a slight fizz to it.
• Using the tap at the bottom, pour 2/3 of the kombucha into flip top bottles. The longer you leave them, the fizzier the drink is likely to get.
• Repeat the primary fermentation process.

Notes

Makes approximately 10 x 250ml bottles.

The scoby needs to acclimatise to its new environment, hence needing a starting up stage.

The scoby can be stored in a glass jar with some of the kombucha in the fridge.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on serving size and exact ingredients used. Please refer to my nutrition disclaimer for further information.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 139kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 10mg | Potassium: 1mg | Sugar: 36g | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 0.02mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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Thanks to Mortier Pilon for commissioning this post. I was not expected to write a positive review and all opinions are, as always, my own. Thanks to my readers for supporting the brands that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.