• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

A Little Luxury For Me

Making Kombucha With Freshly Fermented #Ad

November 19, 2020 by Erica Hughes 21 Comments

kombucha kit

My first experience of kombucha was at a vegan restaurant event for food bloggers in Birmingham.  I quite liked the taste, although my plus one on that occasion was less keen on it. I’d taken the odd glass since then, but I’ve never drunk kombucha on a regular basis until very recently.

Freshly Fermented got in touch and asked me to try out making my own kombucha with one of their kits.  Whilst I was waiting for my own to brew, I could drink some of their ready made kombucha.  Freshly Fermented offer the largest selection of organic & vegan fermented food cultures in the UK.  I was sent one of their organic kombucha starter kits to try.

The kit

In the organic kombucha starter kits there is  everything you need to start fermenting.  To be honest you don’t need anything else at all really: the ingredients are all there, as are all the utensils.  There’s no danger of you not having the right tools for the job. The kit comes with a high quality Kilner jar for fermenting in, plus some glass bottles for your produce.  The remainder of the utensils are plastic (a stirrer, funnel, measuring jug and strainer), but of good quality and they were the right size for the job too.  As well as your ‘hardware’ you’ll get sugar, tea and the magic ingredient: your scoby with starter tea.  The instructions are on the website and you can either read them online or print them off (they print off nicely: no odd words on a separate sheet or any margin problems).

kilner jar

Making kombucha

Getting your kombucha started takes a couple of hours in total.  Just to be clear this isn’t because there’s a lot of work, but you do have to wait for the mixture to cool down and I found that was the most time consuming part of it.  The actual work is only a few minutes in total.  First you heat up your sugar and water mixture – this only took a few minutes on the hob in a saucepan.  I did use a meat thermometer to check the temperatures, but it’s not essential.   Next you add tea leaves and let your tea brew.  I did this for 15 minutes, but you can go for a stronger brew if you prefer.  It’s a good idea to set a reminder on your phone or use a kitchen timer, so as not to overdo it.

Then strain off the tea leaves and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature – this is where the waiting comes in, but obviously there’s no need to sit there watching it, you can just get on with whatever you want. I was surprised how long it took to get the temperature back down. Then you transfer your mixture to the kilner jar and add the scoby with starter tea.  You close the lid and leave for five days (or a bit longer if you prefer).

fermenting kombuchaObviously, I knew I would have to wait to try my kombucha, but you can buy kombucha drinks to tide you over till your brew is ready.  Alternatively, some will prefer just to buy the drink and not bother with making their own.  I was sent some bottles of the Organic Black Orange Kombucha to try out whilst I was waiting.  As it’s a real, unpasteurised kombucha, it continues to ferment when bottled meaning it has a short shelf life and murky appearance (the stuff you can buy in the supermarket really isn’t the same thing at all).  You’ll also need to take some care when opening the bottles as the kombucha is quite fizzy.  Kombucha may also contain low levels of alcohol (less than 1%).

Drinking kombucha

So whilst my kombucha was brewing, I started drinking the organic black orange kombucha every day.  I liked the taste: quite sweet and fruity.  I liked the fizz.  Drinking it became part of my daily ritual.  The first two days I tried it, my stomach made some very loud gurgling noises (apparently this is quite common) for half an hour to an hour.  I have never heard my stomach make so much noise for that length of time before.  So probably best to start drinking when you are at home for a couple of days or drink it after work, just in case it happens to you.

After two days my system seemed to get used to it and my stomach was silent from then on.  I did notice a difference though.  It felt like my whole digestive tract had eased and I felt lighter.  I wasn’t suffering from any particular problems before started drinking kombucha, but there was a definite feeling of ease.  Everything seemed to slip along much more smoothly.  I was surprised at the difference it made.  It made me want to continue drinking kombucha.

Organic Black Orange Kombucha

The results

How was my kombucha getting on? It sat there for 5 days without much obvious difference occurring.  Maybe the scoby had grown a little and the mixture was slightly murkier.  After five days I took out the scoby and the top 10% of the mixture to use for setting up my next batch.  The remainder I transferred into my glass bottles ( I filled about one and a half bottles).  The mixture is ready to drink. I liked my home brewed kombucha.  If anything it was a little sweeter than the organic black orange kombucha and it was less fizzy, probably because it hadn’t been bottled for as long.  I’ve already set up my next batch to ferment and I think kombucha will be a regular habit for me.  I like the idea of experimenting with different types of tea and a variety of flavourings too.

Share
Tweet
Pin

Filed Under: Drink, Health

Previous Post: « Katch Me
Next Post: Little Luxury Splurges to Cheer You Up »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Galina V says

    November 23, 2020 at 2:09 pm

    I realised that I actually know exactly what kombucha is. Your description of the process brought back memories from my childhood, when my Mum and I made this drink. Though at that time we didn’t call it kombucha, it was known as “tea fungi”. We had it growing in a big 3litre jar, and it looked like an alien. 🙂
    I might get one of those kits for myself, though I doubt I would be able to convince anyone from my family to drink it.

    Reply
    • Erica Hughes says

      November 23, 2020 at 4:01 pm

      I think you are probably right. I think there are different versions in different countries. I like the sounds of tea fungi. Mine is starting to look like an alien now it’s been through a few brews.

      Reply
  2. Pippa Ainsworth says

    November 23, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    This looks fab, I really like Kombucha but hadn’t really thought about how it was made.

    Reply
  3. James Travis says

    November 24, 2020 at 12:51 am

    This looks amazing, definitely going to have a go and making this

    Reply
  4. Michael Fisher says

    November 24, 2020 at 8:03 am

    Very interesting, I have never heard of kombucha before.

    Reply
  5. Laura Corrall says

    November 24, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    I’ve never had kombucha but it sounds so fun to make and certainly something a bit different. It’s great that everything comes in the kit so you aren’t going to mess it up somehow.

    Reply
  6. Katie B says

    November 24, 2020 at 9:08 pm

    I’ve never tried kombucha, sounds interesting will have to give it a go

    Reply
  7. Fiona jk42 says

    November 24, 2020 at 11:24 pm

    I’ve only tried kombucha once and I didn’t like it at all, but then I’m not a tea drinker so maybe that explains it.

    Reply
  8. Rebecca Walker says

    November 26, 2020 at 10:40 pm

    looks very interesting, worth the try

    Reply
  9. lynn neal says

    November 27, 2020 at 1:59 pm

    Looks interesting might give this a try when time allows!

    Reply
  10. Eileen Sumner says

    November 27, 2020 at 7:51 pm

    Sounds interesting

    Reply
  11. Susan B says

    November 28, 2020 at 4:36 am

    Fascinating. I have tried tea kombucha and pineapple juice kombucha and loved them both. Have not tried making my own. This kit looks really good.

    Reply
  12. Helen Best says

    November 28, 2020 at 8:58 am

    This sounds lovely definitely going to try this

    Reply
  13. natalie s says

    November 28, 2020 at 12:12 pm

    Wow this is a super cool idea and looks really fun!

    Reply
  14. Carly Belsey says

    November 29, 2020 at 4:44 am

    I have tried it before but never tried making it. I guess it would be much cheaper to make it and it is so good for you so would be a great idea to have a go.

    Reply
  15. Gaynor Vincent says

    November 29, 2020 at 9:59 am

    Ohh I have some of these hars = Im going to give this ago!

    Reply
  16. Jeanette Leighton says

    November 29, 2020 at 12:33 pm

    My dad would love this he makes his own wine and used to make beer also

    Reply
  17. kim white says

    November 29, 2020 at 3:38 pm

    I had never heard of Kombucha but this seems something interesting to try, I like the idea of making it myself from a kit (what could go wrong with that?)

    Reply
  18. Linda Jones says

    November 29, 2020 at 8:40 pm

    I would definitely try it

    Reply
  19. Darren Bourne says

    November 29, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    I’ve heard a lot about this lately. Sounds interesting.

    Reply
  20. Rachelle Barrett says

    November 29, 2020 at 11:28 pm

    Would love to try this, it looks amazing

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Bloglovin
  • E-mail
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About Me

I'm Erica Hughes: a keen foodie and amateur cook. I write here about my passions in life including good food, fine wine, plus the little luxuries that make life worthwhile. Read More…

About/Contact

PR/Advertising

Privacy Policy

Foodies100 Index of UK Food Blogs

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress