The Friendship Bread of Teas

The Friendship Bread of Teas

I found this online. My boss at work is on a cleanse. He has been drinking Kombacha Tea. I wanted to investigate it a bit more. I guess its a live culture like yeast or yogurts. You can make any tea that you want with it.
Things You'll Need:
3 quarts filtered water
1 cup sugar. Regular refined white sugar or organic cane sugar works fine. You can experiment with other fermentable sugars, like corn sugar. Many brewers prefer organic, if available. It is possible to use honey instead, but SCOBYs originally matured on sugar will not work well with honey, and the fermenting process may take much longer.
4 or 5 tea bags of organic Tea. Tea bags or loose leaf teas will work. Experiment! Many teas will work: green, black, echinacea, and lemon balm.
A kombucha "mushroom" mother, also called a SCOBY, for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. If you can't find or don't want to buy a SCOBY, you can make one by buying commercial kombucha and leaving it out (covered, in a warm dark place as described below) for a couple weeks.
1/2 cup of already made Kombucha as a starter, or vinegar if you don't have that. This is to add acidity to the brew, so it's possible that something like pure cranberry juice might also work.
4 quart pyrex bowl, wide-mouth glass jar, or other container. A heavy, food-grade glass jar or large glass Pyrex container is your best bet. NOTE: If you use plastic, metal, ceramic or non-food grade glass containers to make Kombucha - they may (and will most likely) leach toxins, such as lead. If you use a glass container that is too thin, it may fracture when pressure builds inside as the kombucha effervesces.
Instructions:
Wash your hands very well (hot water and soap, for at least 30 seconds under running water). Use of non-latex gloves is also recommended, especially if touching the culture directly.

Fill up your pot with 3 liters (3.1 quarts) of water and put the stove to high. Boil water for at least 5 minutes to purify water, especially if your water supply is chlorinated.

Add 4 or 5 tea bags. According to taste, you may remove tea immediately after brewing, or leave them in for the next two steps.

Turn off heat and add 1 cup sugar (for about three liters of water). Sugar will start to caramelize if water continues to boil, and you don't want that to happen.

Cover and let tea sit until it is room temperature, around 75ºF/24ºC will do. It will seem to take a long time to cool, but adding the cultures when it is too hot will kill them.

Alternatively, you can boil 3 quarters of filtered water. Add the sugar and simmer until all the sugar is dissolved. Then, remove the pot from the heat and add the tea bags. Let them steep for as long as it takes for the water to cool - approximately two hours. Remove the tea bags.

While it is cooling, pull out your pyrex bowl, wide-mouthed glass jar, or other container and wash it well in the sink with very hot water, rinsing thoroughly. If you don't have much extra water for cleaning and rinsing, put 2 drops of iodine into the bowl, add a bunch of water, and swirl it all around to sanitize. Rinse out bowl, cover, and keep waiting.

When the tea is cool, pour it into the bowl (or whatever container you are using) and add the starter tea, which should constitute about 10% of the liquid. Using about a 1/4 cup of vinegar per gallon of tea also works, it tastes just a bit different, though.

Gently put the SCOBY into the tea, cover the top of the container with the cloth, and secure it tightly with rubber band. If you are using a bowl, you can place a piece of plastic wrap with holes punched in the top over the bowl.

Now place the bowl, covered, in a warm dark place where it won't be disturbed. Be sure that insects and dirt cannot fall into the mixture or it will contaminate it. Temperature should be consistently at least 21ºC or 70ºF. 30ºC or about 86ºF is best if you can manage. Lower temperatures will make it grow slowly, but below 70ºF makes it more likely that unwanted organisms will start growing too.

Wait about a week. During this time, you can check on the tea periodically if you like.




Here's what to look for:

The culture will sink or float or do something in between, it doesn't matter. You should see, at some point, a new layer of culture growing on the top. Eventually, it will likely form a film covering the whole top of the tea. It may look strange and discolored, but don't worry, it's probably not moldy. Mold that grows on kombucha looks like the mold that grows on bread - fuzz and all. If it's turning black, discard the tea and get a new cake.

When the tea starts to get smelly like vinegar, you can taste it. The best way to pull a sample is with a straw. Don't drink directly from the straw, as backwash may contaminate the tea. Dip the straw about halfway into the tea, cover the end with your finger, pull the straw out and drink the liquid inside.

Brewed kombucha looks fizzy and tastes sour. If you can still taste the tea, it's not done yet. If it tastes right, then you're ready for the next step.

If not, just keep waiting and sampling every couple of days until it is ready. Don't be impatient. If you move on too soon, it will taste funny, or perhaps too sweet.

The tea is ready when the mushroom has grown a second spongy pancake. Use that to make more tea, or give it away to friends.
When the tea is ready:


Make a new batch of regular tea the same way you did before (steps 1 thru 7, above). Allow to cool.

Bring the container of newly fermented tea into the kitchen, take plastic wrap or cloth off top.

With clean hands (and non-latex gloves if you have them), gently remove mama and baby cultures and set them on a clean plate. Note that they may be stuck together. Pour a little of the kombucha on them to keep them protected.

Using a funnel, pour your finished, newly fermented tea into storage container(s). Fill it all the way to the top. If you don't it will take forever to get fizzy. If there isn't enough, you can either get smaller containers or fill the rest with regular tea. Only do this if there is only a slight gap, though, or else you risk watering down the tea. Another option is to fill it with juice to give it flavor. Fresh pressed is best, of course, but regular works too. Only do this after it's in the container, though. You don't want to contaminate your next batch, since you will...

Leave about 10% of old tea in the glass jar as starter tea. This keeps the pH low to prevent mold and things from growing while the tea is getting started. This insures that the fresh tea solution is acidic enough to combat any foreign molds or yeast.

Pour the new tea in, and put the culture back in, cover, etc. You may use each layer of culture to make a new batch of tea; some recommend using the new layer of culture and discarding the old one. It is not necessary to put both layers of culture back into a single new batch; one will suffice.

Cap your jug or bottles of finished kombucha tightly and let sit for about 2 - 5 days at room temperature to get fizzy.

Refrigerate. Kombucha is best enjoyed cold.

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Kombucha watching

Sun, Feb 24, 2013 · Filed under Cooking & Eating, Local food, Winter

Not much to look at, right? Wrong! I spent a good FIVE MINUTES staring at the kombucha tea mother, gently swirling and undulating right after being placed in its tea-and-sugar bath, the watching-chickens effect. I like the look of the mother, although some people find the whole thing kinda…icky. If you’re not familiar, this is a sparkling drink, tartly acidic and slightly sweet, made by floating the mother—it’s also called a SCOBY, symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast—in a solution of tea (black or green or both) and sugar. Let it ferment for around a week and a fizzy beverage is the result. It’s quite impressive. Not surprising, there are all sorts of magical health benefits ascribed to kombucha tea, and from the bit of reading I’ve done, none of it is really “evidence-based,” to use the popular medical description for stuff that’s scientifically proven, whatever exactly that means. In any case, nobody really says it’s BAD for you, maybe it is magical, and I find it…refreshing.
Making it is easy: 4-5 tea bags in some water for a few minutes, top up the hot tea with cold water to about 3/4 gallon (around 3 liters) so it’s all cooled down, then plunk in your SCOBY—any size will do, it grows!—along with a cup or two of kombucha tea (you store the mother in the tea), and you’re done. Cover with a clean cloth to let in air but not dust, stash in a warm, dark place, and taste test in five days or so: if it’s too sweet, leave longer, if it’s too tart (the main bacterium makes acetic acid, which is basically vinegar), well, test earlier next time. It’s all pretty loose and easy, and each batch you get a new, extra mother that you can pass on. Do a search and you’ll find lots of details.
My first mother I was given in a jam jar at a raw food talk, and I made kombucha steadily for a couple of years, for no reason other than that I like it (many people refuse to even taste it?!)—after a couple years off, I’m back in production. Yet another thing to grow!

Asian tea gains ground in West

Kombucha created by harvesting yeast and bacteria colony

Asian tea gains ground in West. Rob Blom of Grimsby displays a jar containing a kombucha "mother", a yeast and bacteria colony used in the creation of a traditional Chinese and Russian drink that is growing in popularity among the health conscious in North America. Pieter van Hiel/Staff Photo

The kombucha mother floats in a large glass jar, suspended in an amber fluid that renders it cloudy and indistinct. From various angles it resembles a mushroom, or perhaps a pickled science experiment floating in formaldehyde. It certain does not look like something one would drink, never mind drink for health reasons. And yet, this odd alchemy of oolong and bacteria produces a distinct effervescent tea, a beverage that generations of Russian grandmothers and Manchurian doctors swear is good for you. Kombucha's healthy reputation has spread to the west, and it is now possible to purchase bottled examples at many health stores. Purists, however, swear by the homemade variety. One such purist is Grimsby resident Rob Blom. Blom, 28, has been making and drinking his own kombucha for three years. He first learned of kombucha five years ago, after first embracing vegetarianism and later, veganism. Limited his intake of North America's primary source of protein meant he was searching for diet alternatives of all kinds.
"I found out about this simply buy going vegan. Once you go vegan you really have to struggle a little bit in finding things to eat and drink. But, a lot of doors opened to me. I started eat more foods than when I was a meat eater, simply because I no longer have meat as a primary dish. You have a huge door of potentiality," he said. "(Kombucha drinks) have been very popular in the health movement for the last five or six years…. especially for vegetarians and vegans looking for an alternative to yoghurt."
Kombucha is created through a fermentation process that utilizes a "kombucha mother," a dense mat of bacteria and yeast grows in a mixture of tea and water. This mat of bacteria is scientifically known as a zoogleal or SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). When fully grown the kombucha mother floats like a cap atop the solution of sweet tea. As it grows, it feeds on the sugar, changing the tea into kombucha through the natural alchemy of fermenationt. While all kombucha shares some qualities, such as the acidic flavour, the actual taste and colour can vary widely depending on the tea used and sugar used to start the growth of the kombucha mother.
"Once you have the mother, you take any traditional tea, generally with caffeine. I like to use oolong or green tea. Other people use black tea. This creates different flavours. Then you add a sugar, nothing artificial. The sugar I like is brown sugar, cane sugar or palm sugar, but some people use white sugar," said Blom. "The mother grows to various sizes, depending on the length of fermentation and the amount of sugar. Some people who don't like acidic drinks only ferment it for a week, so it has a half sweet, half acidic taste. Putting the mother in the fridge causes it to become dormant and cease growing."
Some health food enthusiasts make remarkable, if sometimes vague, claims for kombucha. They say it detoxifies the body while "energizing" the mind and spirit. While few of these health claims have been proven by scientific research, it is known that kombucha contains gluaric acid, which can help with liver functions. Blom himself is no stranger to science - he has one degree in physics and another in education - but his view of the world is leavened with ideas more commonly attributed to the mystic. He drinks kombucha as much from a desire to feel more connected to the process of food and drink as for the health benefits.
"It has a lot of good yeast, good acetic, polyphenols and B-vitamins and perhaps probiotics. Generally, anything fermented is quite good," he said. "But the health benefits, for me, are more to do with regaining your own connection to food. What it has the potential to do is create a foundation for you to be really be more connected with your food. It's a whole process of kombucha, you really get into the work. You spend time with the kombucha in the kitchen, it's a very meditative experience and the community is really sharing. It's those benefits that help you to be more mindful."
One of the attractions of kombucha is how easy it is to create and customize. In addition to selecting different varieties of tea, some also choose to double ferment their tea, or infuse it with fruit or spices, such as cinnamon. However, for Blom, the real attraction is the communal feeling it encourages. The kombucha mother grows and buds and produces "daughters," which may be use to start new batches, in a never-ending cycle.
"You can create your own mother through a drink, but the easiest way is to find a person with a mother. The mother produces a daughter, which becomes a new mother. That's what's really nice about the drink for me, because there is this sharing that goes on as well. The more you use it, the more you can produce, and the more you produce the more mothers you have, and the more mothers you have, the more you can give away," said Blom. "It's an inexhaustible supply."

Kombucha Tea: Fabulous or Just a Fad?

By Allie Firestone

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Don’t get me wrong—I’m into health food. I explore the depths of organic markets, I regularly read books about natural eating, and I’ve even converted my family members and friends to organic shopping. But recently, I’ve seen a new product crop up on my health-food radar—and, frankly, I’m sort of confused. It’s bubbly, it’s sort of bitter, and it’s being heralded as the latest magic bullet for our health. It’s Kombucha. (That’s a type of tea, by the way.)

After grimacing through a free sample, I got to wondering if braving the taste was really all it’s cracked up to be. According to the woman who handed me the sample, the tea has the power to make me better looking, help me live longer, and even make my armpits smell better. Clearly, I needed a little more information, with a little less spin.

What Is It?
Kombucha is a “living” health drink. The term refers to the drink’s main ingredients: fermented tea and Kombucha cultures. The tea is alive in the same way yogurt or live yeast is, with active cultures that make positive changes in our bodies by eliminating harmful bacteria. I was into this idea at the sample counter … until I tossed one back. The taste is what I would imagine a cross between soda water and apple cider to be—sort of sour, with a hint of sweetness. Of course, the taste also varies depending on whatever flavoring is added to the base ingredients—I later tried a ginger-tinged Kombucha and found it much more enjoyable.

Where Does It Come From?
Kombucha first caught my eye because of its old and fabled origins: the drink has been brewed for thousands of years in the Far East. I figure if something’s been around that long, it’s got to be doing something right. The earliest recorded use of Kombucha was in China around 250 BC—it was called “the tea of immortality.” Legend has it that the word Kombucha came from Japan around 400 AD, when a physician named Kombu served it to the emperor: the doctor’s name was then combined with “cha,” meaning tea. Since the turn of the millennium, and especially over the last few years, Kombucha has become almost mainstream—it’s even available at a handful of nonorganic grocery stores.

How Is It Made?
Although it looks like one, the Kombucha culture is not a mushroom—it’s a colony of bacteria and yeast that looks like a beige or white rubbery pancake. The culture is added to sweetened tea and then fermented for seven to ten days. The resulting liquid contains vinegar, B vitamins, and a number of other chemical compounds. The bacteria that crop up are the friendly kind that we hear about in yogurt commercials, and they help with digestion and internal cleansing. Wouldn’t fermenting the tea make alcohol? Yes, but the bacteria in the culture promptly turn it into organic acids—so driving is perfectly safe after you down a bottle of Kombucha.

Likely because of its similarity to vinegar (in terms of its taste and brewing process), Kombucha is often brewed with some infusion of tea, herbs, fruit, juice, and other flavorful ingredients after the fermenting ends, then packaged in pretty bottles and shipped off to various retail outlets.

What Flavors Does It Come In?
Kombucha’s come a long way in terms of its mass-market appeal over the last few years. All it takes is a gander down the cold-drinks aisle at Whole Foods to see that it’s suddenly become available in a variety of colors and flavors—from citrus and mango to red clover and juniper berry. Consumers can also choose from types of tea, like green, black, white, or oolong, and types of sweetener. Something to be aware of is that Kombucha, since it’s made with sugar, does have calories; the bottles I picked up packed around fifty.

How Does It Help?
Kombucha is being praised for doing everything from spurring weight loss to improving circulation to curing cancer. Unfortunately, these claims lack the support of medical research. But just because this tea may not save lives doesn’t mean its many drinkers aren’t getting a boost from it in other ways. “I switched from drinking coffee to a Kombucha every morning,” says Amber James, a fan of the tea. “Once I got over the withdrawals, I started feeling way more alert and energized.” Other reported benefits include digestive regulation, increased alertness, and regulated appetite.

The drink also contains probiotics, or live bacteria, that positively alter the balance in our intestines. Scientific research shows that high concentrations thereof can aid digestion and eliminate harmful bacteria, according to research published in the Journal of Molecular Systems Biology, the Mayo Clinic, and many other scientific studies.

But what about studies on Kombucha? As I would with any supplement I was thinking of taking, I tried to find studies backing up the tea’s health claims. (You were already planning on doing that, right?) Kombucha’s selling points are based on a combination of personal reports and animal studies—as yet, no major medical journal has reported an actual human trial that substantiates the slew of purported health claims. Also, some medical professionals (including the FDA) have expressed concerns that home-brewed Kombucha commonly poses health risks due to contamination and improper brewing.

Still, there’s something to be said for the volume of personal testaments to the ways in which Kombucha has improved people’s health, so sipping it in conjunction with making other wise choices to promote your physical well-being can be a positive lifestyle addition. If you like the taste, try it out—while it’s not some magic potion that will allow you to live for a hundred years, it can’t hurt, either (as long as it’s not home-brewed).

Of the many healing qualities of Kombucha Tea

Can kombucha tea help prevent cold or flu infection?

Do the probiotic and antimicrobial properties of cultured kombucha tea help the body fight viruses or bacterial infections?

By

Sara McGrath

on Jan 7, 2013

 

 

Kombucha tea contains probiotic ingredients and has antimicrobial properties. That means it has the power to fight viruses and bacteria. Does that mean kombucha can help the body fight the common cold or flu (influenza) virus? Research and anecdotal evidence suggest that it does, especially when made with green tea.
Kombucha has disease-fighting power

• In Kombucha: The Miracle Fungus, Harald Tietze states that "Kombucha has the effect of being a natural antibiotic."
• From Kombucha.org: "The resulting beverage [kombucha tea] contains dozens of elements, many of which are known to promote healing for a variety of conditions."
• ChristianMommyBlogger.com includes green tea kombucha in her "Five Flu-Fighting Foods," due to the catechins in green tea, "more powerful than vitamins C and E..."
• In "Does kombucha provide immunity?" Dr. Arianna Estelle-Symons states: "Green Tea, which has the most readily available polyphenols has been known for centuries to have some anti-microbial properties. People who drink a lot of Green Tea don’t suffer from the 100 or more rhinoviruses as much as people who do not drink Green Tea."
• In 1996 and again 1998, Harmonic Harvest sent out a "Kombucha Questionnaire." Among the health benefits reported by Kombucha drinkers around the world, over 80% reported an increased immunity to colds and flu.

Green tea enhances kombucha's healing and protective effects

• Polyphenols. Green tea polyphenols achieve antiviral effects by interfering with the ability of viruses, including influenza, to adhere to cells.
• Catechins. "Green tea is the best food source of a group called catechins. In test tubes, catechins are more powerful than vitamins C and E in halting oxidative damage to cells and appear to have other disease-fighting properties." - "Benefits of Drinking Green Tea," harvard.edu.

More ways to fight cold and flu naturally

• Heat up the body with warm beverages (chicken soup, hot tea).
• Protect the nose and mouth to prevent flu viruses from entering and proliferating within the body.
• Salt water gargle.
• Keep hands away from face (wash them often anyway.)
• Eat immune boosting foods.

Reportedly, drinking kombucha tea can aid in healing from bacterial (colds) or viral (flu) infection, as well as preventing infection by promoting balance in the body. Green tea, with its polyphenols and catechins, provides an extra boost of healing power to kombucha.

Copyright Sara McGrath