Why I make my own Kombucha

#sustainability

I’ve been making my own kombucha for about 6 years.

It all started because in Lisbon, you have to touch your recyclables twice: once when you put it in the recycle bin in your house, and once when you take it out to the curbside container.

During that second touch, I noticed how many plastic kombucha bottles I used every month and I knew I could make it myself.

To make kombucha, you need a SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), tea, and sugar.

I got a scoby from someone in the Buy Nothing community and made my own in glass bottles and jars I had collected. No more plastic!

After the first batch, I thought “this is too much work. I can’t keep doing it.”

I dumped it all!

A few weeks later, I found a bottle of kombucha in the back of my cabinet with the most beautiful round, healthy scoby.

It wouldn’t die! So I committed to keep going.

6 years and more than 50 batches later, I’m so glad it’s still here.

I’ve got the process down to 30 minutes, every 10-14 days. Each time you make kombucha, a new scoby grows on top so you can spread the joy to more people.

It’s a cool hobby, a unique creative expression, and a tasty way to keep my body healthy.

Of course, I keep a spreadsheet to rate the flavors I’ve made. 😋

Top of my list: persimmon and cactus fruit in the summer. Ginger-beet in the fall. Strawberry always wins.

The moral of the story is when we become responsible for our trash, or even just aware of it, we might find ways to be more sustainable.

To me, sustainability opens up a world of connection (to the people who gave me the scoby, and to those I will pass it onto) and creativity (to experiment with different flavors based on seasonal fruit).

You’ll find a lot of recipes online. Here’s my process.

Kombucha

480ml starter tea 

1 SCOBY

14 cups (3.2 liters) water 

200g sugar 

8 bags (2tbsp loose) green or black tea 

A huge jar - enough to hold 16 cups of tea

First time

1. Boil the water

2. Add sugar to jar 

3. Add boiling water to jar

4. Stir to melt the sugar 

5. Add the tea bags/loose tea leaves

6. Let it sit until cool 

7. Remove the green/black tea leaves

8. Add the starter tea and scoby

9. Let it sit 10-14 days on the countertop or in a cupboard

You can buy a bottle of kombucha from the store to use as your first starter tea. 

After you make your first big batch, you can save 480ml of your tea to use as your starter tea next time you make it. Then you never have to buy it. 

After 10-14 days

1. Reserve 480ml as starter tea for your next batch. 

2. Save the scoby. 

3. Cut fruit, put in jars and add tea. (Some people blend their fruit. I leave it in chunks. It’s up to you!) Leave your flavored tea on the counter for 1-2 days and then refrigerate it. It’s ready to drink! 

4. Repeat the first process to make your next big batch. The ingredients are always the same: tea, water, sugar, scoby, and starter tea.