Last night was a fun development in my real food journey!

While I was participating in the Real Food Challenge last month, Annette of Sustainable Eats (hello, lacto-fermentation blog carnival, how strange and cool is that!) hooked me up with the Seattle area chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation so that I could try to find someone near me who had kefir grains and a kombucha SCOBY to share. No related posts.]]>

Last night was a fun development in my real food journey!

While I was participating in the Real Food Challenge last month, Annette of Sustainable Eats (hello, lacto-fermentation blog carnival, how strange and cool is that!) hooked me up with the Seattle area chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation so that I could try to find someone near me who had kefir grains and a kombucha SCOBY to share.  Sure enough, two days later my new little buddies were on their way home with me, all snug like little bacteria colonies in jars.  Exactly like little bacteria colonies in jars.  In my cupholders.

Once home, I transferred them to the fridge where they waited patiently for me to get my move on.  One of the first things to move into my new house was my kombucha SCOBY, newly housed in a one gallon jar, munching on its sweet tea nutrient mix.

Huh? Kombucha?

Some of you may have had kombucha before.  They sell it in health food stores, co-ops, nice “real foodie” places like that.  I’m most familiar with GT’s Kombucha, but there may be others as well.

For those of you who haven’t ever heard of kombucha, let me first say that kombucha is a drink.  A very weird, carbonated, fermented tea drink.  I can’t decide if it’s delicious or completely gross.  Maybe it’s an acquired taste.  I’m really not sure.  But I recommend you try it once or twice, in several different flavors.  Just understand that mileage may vary.  At the least, kombucha is an awesome food adventure.

In spite of not being able to figure out how I really feel about kombucha, I can’t seem to get enough of it.  A few years ago I went on a kombucha kick and ended up stopping because store-bought kombucha is just plain expensive.  But brewing your own at home is pretty close to free!  So last night I was thrilled to pull my first batch out of the cupboard and transfer it to bottles for its second fermentation and flavoring.  I took a shot at blueberry, apple, orange, and black cherry.

The great thing about kombucha SCOBYs is that they multiply each time.  So now my one SCOBY has become two SCOBYs, which are back in the cupboard working away at a whole new (bigger!) batch of kombucha.  And I can’t wait for my second fermentation to finish so I see how it turned out!

Do any of you have any experience brewing your own kombucha or drinking someone else’s?  Any tips, hints, or flavor suggestions?

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