Mango Ginger Green Tea Kombucha

I've been drinking a TON of iced tea lately. I'm talking a pitcher every two days. So a few weeks back I put a request out on freecycle and got so much tea an entire shelf in my kitchen is dedicated to holding it all. This got me thinking about Kombucha. I've tired it a few times. It was one of those things I wasn't too fond of at first taste, but each sip after that tasted better and better till I had a full on craving for it. I've never made it though, and I finally feel ready to try. So, I answered a post on freecycle offering up a mother culture scoby. Last night I picked that culture up (thanks Sam) and started my first batch of Kombucha this afternoon.

This is what the culture looks like. It's several layers that were peeled off the top of another mother culture.

I chose some delicious Mango Ginger Green Tea (one of my freecycle scores). First I boiled the water at a rolling boil for 5 minuets to make sure anything that could interfere with the mother culture was boiled out. Then I added about 1/2 to 3/4 cups of sugar and stirred till it dissolved. I turned off the heat then put the tea bags in letting it steep and cool down for about 2 hours.

Once cool, I poured the liquid over the scoby , covered it with a cloth so no dust would get in and possibly introduce contaminants. Now I wait. I marked the date on the glass container so I know when my 7-10 days are up and I can sip away.

Hopefully I did everything right so I'll have some yummy kombucha and a healthy culture to share with others once mine establishes itself.