Initial Preparation

In preparation to make Kombucha tea, one must have ready a few simple items and to keep in mind to use only glass and plastic, not metal.

• White sugar
• Tea
• Glass container
• Cloth material
• Rubber bands
• Kombucha SCOBY
• Kombucha starter mixture

How to Make Kombucha tea, an Overview

Clean pure water will be heated to boiling on a stove, at which time a specific amount of sugar will be added. Heat is turned off and sugar mixture stirred to ensure it’s completely dissolved. Tea bags are added and allowed to steep until water has cooled naturally. Once at room temperature, the sugary tea mixture is transferred from heating pot to a glass container where it will remain undisturbed for an entire week. Kombucha starter mixture is added into the liquid and stirred gently. Kombucha culture (SCOBY) is placed in the mixture, cloth material is placed over the opening and fastened in place with a rubber band.

Place glass container in a spot that can remain undisturbed during its transformation time and leave sit for at least 7 days.

How to Make Kombucha tea, Detailed Instructions

1. Heat your desired amount of pure clean water to boiling – I personally use and recommend distilled water, but reverse osmosis (ro) water would be fine too. I use distilled water because it’s just H2O and nothing else. Once boiled, remove from heat. No picture of this, because it would be pretty boring. Imagine a pot of hot water.

2. Add Sugar – Use 1 to 1.5 cups of white sugar for every gallon of water. A gallon is 4 litres more or less (it’s not really, but it’s close enough). In metric, the numbers are thus: 2 to 3 ounces for each litre, or 8 to 12 ounces per gallon.

Stir the sugar until it’s completely dissolved. Then stir a little more.

Sugar is the food source for the Kombucha culture and is consumed during fermentation.

3. Add the tea bags – For best results, use only black tea. 2 tea bags per litre, or 8 per gallon. Tea adds nitrogen for the culture, allowing it a happy environment to produce the beverage. Steep the tea until the mixture cools, so basically put them in and walk away. Once cooled to room temperature, wring the bags out into the mixture and discard.

4. Pour sugar tea solution into clean glass container - Pour nearly to top, leaving room for a little Kombucha starter solution to be added.

5. Test the temperature - make sure that the sugary tea solution has cooled to room temperature.

6. Add the Kombucha starter – You should already have starter Kombucha from a previous batch or from a friend who’s provided it. It’s possible to begin Kombucha from scratch using some starter, but it takes a little longer and requires more care.

How much Kombucha starter to begin with depends on how much Kombucha you’re making. Ideally, you should use 10 to 25% of the final amount desired. 1 cup per litre for example.

Kombucha loves a sugary, nitrogen filled, low pH environment. The starter should be on the lower end of the pH scale (more like vinegar) when added to your new batch. See my article on Best Way to Make Kombucha for more info on pristine conditions.

7. Add the live Kombucha culture (SCOBY) to the mixture – take careful consideration of the temperature you’re putting the SCOBY into before making this move. The bacteria yeast culture is very temperature sensitive. Your mixture should be at room temperature, or slightly above. Best fermenting temperatures are between 21 and 29 degrees Celsius.

This was the first time I used this 2 gallon glass container so I added 3 scoby’s from my previous smaller batches.

In the background, you can see my starter Kombucha tea with a few scoby’s in it.

8. Cover the container – The container must be allowed to breathe, but not allow anything into it. Fruit flies love Kombucha tea, so cover it with a cloth material that allows air to move back and forth, but nothing in. I used cheese cloth originally, but was told that fruit flies could still get through it. Consider cutting up an old shirt, measuring before you cut so that the piece fits over the top. A wider mouth opening allows for better air exposure and a better fermentation.

9. Use a rubber band to seal the material on top.

10. Place in a warm area and allow to ferment – Avoid direct sunlight, but allow for room temperature to above room temperature conditions, and allow for an undisturbed setting for at least a week. Fermentation times vary according to conditions, but a week is typical.

Kombucha loves warmth, and goes dormant in the cold. Ideal conditions are 21 to 29 degrees Celsius. Direct sunlight can harm the culture and reduce its life span, but it does not need to be kept away from light, just direct sunlight.

Secondary preparation

Bottles….

You’re going to need bottles to store the finished product, so begin collecting them over the week while the Kombucha is fermenting. Glass bottles are preferred and should be able to be capped with a strong fitting. Wine bottles with screw tops work well as are specialty beer bottles with the resealable corking system. Canadian Pellegrino sparkling water bottles come with a screw top, but US versions have single use caps. Rubber corked wine bottles can be re-used but be aware that Kombucha under pressure can push through the cork or even pop them out. This happened one time in our RV and scared the crap out of my cat!

Also, a funnel is considered a good tool to assist in bottling Kombucha, so find and purchase a funnel if you don’t already have one.

When to Bottle the Kombucha tea

Starting with a very sugary tea mixture, the Kombucha culture consumes the sugar over time into the beverage we drink. Over the course of 4 to 14 days (or more), the beverage becomes lower and lower pH (more acidic) and moves from sweet to sour. Knowing when to bottle Kombucha is based both on taste and on desired health benefits. Gunther Frank and I both agree that drinking Kombucha should be based on health benefits first and taste second.

Good Kombucha tea should taste like a cross between apple cider and apple cider vinegar.

Somewhere around the 7 day mark, pour off a few ounces of tea and taste it. See if it’s to your liking. When you do this test with your first batch, it would be hard to discern between sweetness levels, not having experienced how sour it can become. Simply make a judgement call and go with it. If it’s too sweet yet, leave it another day and test again.

It’s that simple.

Bottling Kombucha

Bottling for the purpose of this article is very straight forward.

I like bottles that have the resealable corking systems like this beer bottle but any glass bottle will suffice. I’ve found beer bottles like this one in two different sizes. This is the smaller of the two.

Pour the tea into your bottles but save 10 to 25% for your next batch.

Keep the SCOBY culture with this starter tea. If you aren’t able to make more for a few days or longer, cover and put in the fridge. It will become lower pH and more vinegary, perfect for your next batch of tea.

Notes:
The Kombucha SCOBY may float on the surface of your jar, or it may sink to the bottom. Either way is fine and a new baby SCOBY will form on the top of your working mixture. They may join together producing a thicker and thicker culture. This is normal.

Treat your SCOBY with care. It’s heat sensitive. If you aren’t using it for an extended period of time, keep it with a little starter and put it in the fridge in it’s own container. Preferably glass.

It’s best to start with smaller quantities of Kombucha, no larger than 2 litres (half a gallon) until your SCOBY becomes more robust and able to handle larger amounts.

Water is the basis of all life, including your muscles, your brain, your lungs, your bones and your lungs. A fully hydrated body has more energy, increases it’s fat burning capabilities, has reduced hunger levels, better digestion and ages at a slower pace so you look younger while you’re feeling younger.

Most people reach for a coffee when they’re feeling low energy, when water would benefit so many other aspects of our health.

As I see it, the problem is twofold – firstly, that we must understand the need for drinking more water on a daily basis and then secondly, find ways to incorporate more water into our lifestyle. It’s often as simple as creating a new habit and sticking to it.

Here are 50 ways to create a new habit and drink more water.

1. Drink water first thing in the morning. Start every day by drinking a litre of water. If you have to sit down and finish the whole thing before you move on – do it.

2. Drink a big glass of water right before bed.

3. Every time you go to the bathroom, drink a glass of water. Replace the fluids you just lost.
Pre-fill enough bottles of water for your daily requirement in ounces. Keep them in various places around your house, office or workspace. Make sure they’re each empty before you go to bed.

4. Drink a glass of water each hour, on the hour while at work.

5. Set a countdown timer on your watch for a regular interval (such as an hour) and drink water every time it goes off.

6. Set a reminder in your electronic calendar to remind you to drink. Set your calendar or electronic organizer to remind you at noon and 3 o’clock. You should have consumed at least 1 litre of water by noon and at least two by 3 o’clock. If not, drink up right then and there.

7. Set “drink water reminders” around your house. If you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, turn over your salt shaker or other often used container. Have it remind you to drink a glass of water. Whenever you see a turned over salt shaker, drink a glass of water. Make it fun and mix it up – use something different every day so it catches you off guard. Set the reminder earlier on in the day before you even go to work.

8. Drink water while waiting in lines. If you know you’re going to be standing in line somewhere, take your water bottle with you and make it a point of drinking the entire bottle before you reach the front of the line.

9. Drink water in your car. Keep a bottle of water in your car and drink it while going TO work and coming home FROM work.

10. Drink more water while doing your skin care program. Drink, cleanse, moisturize, then drink again.

11. Take a glass of water to you when you shower. Drink half before you shower and half after you get out of the shower, but before leaving the bathroom.

12. Drink more water while you’re shaving. Drink half a glass before you shave and half a glass after you shave, but before leaving the shaving area.

Reduce or Remove Dehydrating Beverages

13. Replace coffee with water – coffee may act as a diuretic and place a larger need for water on your body. Eliminate and replace your coffee with water.

14. Replace soda pop with water – At the very least, have a big glass of water before you have the soda. If you’re going to drink something non nutritional as soda, first be pro-active and reach for the water.

15. Drink water before your meals.

16. Drink 2 or 3 ounces of water after your meals – but no more. Where water is required to digest food, too much water can dilute the digestive juices and hamper digestion. Limit your water intake after a meal to a few ounces only.

At the Gym

17. Drink a litre of water on your way TO the gym.

18. Drink a litre of water AT the gym.

19. Drink a litre of water on your way home (or to work) FROM the gym.

20. Drink enough water during your workout that you have to fill up your water bottle at least once.

Flavor Your Water

You can put some things into your water to flavor them while improving your quality of life at the same time. Where coffee and soda pop are acidic to the body, lemon and lime are alkaline forming in the body. By allowing your body to be in an alkaline state more often, you allow your body to absorb vitamins and minerals more effectively while eliminating wastes.

21. Add fresh squeezed lemon juice to your water.

22. Add a slice of lemon to your water.

23. Add cucumber slices to your water.

24. Add Apple Cider Vinegar to your water – Apple Cider Vinegar has been highly regarded throughout history. In 400 B.C. the great Hippocrates, Father of Medicine, used it for its amazing health qualities. Internally, Apple cider vinegar is rich in enzymes and potassium, supports a healthy immune system, helps control weight, promotes digestive and pH balance and can help remove toxins and lower toxicity. Dr Steven Gibb says “everyone in the world should be drinking Apple Cider Vinegar on a daily basis”

25. Add ginger to your water. Steep a little fresh ground ginger root in boiling water and then add it to your water bottles. You might also grate some fresh ginger and then simply put it into your cold water to cold steep.

26. Add salt to your water – however, use only sea salt. Dr Batmanghelidj of “The Water Cure” suggests:

It is very important you balance your sodium intake with your water consumption. Take 1/4 teaspoon of salt per quart of water – every 4-5 glasses of water. Be sure to get sea salt. The best is Celtic sea salt or Himalayan sea salt, both of which are readily available at any health food store.

Treat this flavoring with respect. Most people have too much sodium in their body as they’re getting salt from many many sources throughout the day. If you’re one of the rare individuals who does not add salt to their food, then this tip might be for you.

On the other hand, if you already add salt to any meal at all, then I would not advise adding more salt to your diet.

When heat goes up or your exercise output goes up, so must your water consumption.
If you’re more muscular, you need more water.

Track Your Water Consumption

Before you even begin the process of drinking more water, journal your water consumption for a few days or a week. Then set a goal number for ounces of water per day and continue to track it. Log how often you drink beverages that are NOT water and how much of them you drink.

It’s quite important to track that which you want to improve. Without knowing your starting point, or your progress, how will you know you’re getting results. Just as you track your body composition (body fat vs lean density) to understand your exercise and weight loss results, so should you track your water consumption.

One idea is to tape some plain paper to your favorite water bottle and track how many times you empty it each day. Put enough paper on it to last a week and then use little tick marks for each bottle you drink. Seems easy enough.

User Contributed Water Drinking Tips

Now you may have noticed that there aren’t quite 50 ways to drink more water here just yet. I’d like this to be a user contributed entry. Submit your tip of how you incorporate more water into your day and I’ll add it to the list. What have you found that works for you? What habits have you created around drinking more water?