Kombucha tea

While reading the posts about vitamins and minarals from the Chapter "Hair nutrition", you could notice that yeast were mentioned there a lot . Kombucha tea is one of the way, you can get yeast.
So now I'll try you to tell what is it, how does it work and how to prepare this tea.

What is Kombucha ?

In Ukraine we call it "chayniy gryb" ("tea mushroom"). The same "kombucha" means, when to translate from Japanese. As I have revealed from Wikipedia Kombucha tea was widely used in China (during Qin Dynasty, that's approximately 250 BC. The Chinese called it the "Immortal Health Elixir," because they believed Kombucha balanced the Middle Qi (Spleen and Stomach) and aided in digestion, allowing the body to focus on healing. The process of brewing kombucha was introduced in Russia and Ukraine at the end of the 1800s, and became popular in the early 1900s.

It is an macroscopic solid mass of microorganisms called a "kombucha colony," usually consisting principally of Acetobacter-species and yeast cultures. The culture itself looks somewhat like a large pancake, and though often called a mushroom, or by the acronym SCOBY (for "Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast"). The surface of this "mushroom" is shiny and compact. the under part of it consists of great amount of "threads". All processes of tea and sugar fermentation take place here. In this "mushroom" yeast develop, which in nature conditions are on the surface of mushy fruit or in fruit-berry fermenting juices. This is essentially the old world process to make vinegar. During each fermentation cycle a new layer(baby) of the kombucha culture grows on the top of old one. So you can separate "mother" and "baby mushroom" and put "baby" into new container or give it to your friend:)

How does it work?

Kombucha contains many different cultures along with several organic acids (vinegar, citric, oxalic, pyroracemic), amino acids, anti-oxidants, polyphenols, active enzymes, vitamins B1,B2, C, P, PP, caffeine, tannin, antibiotics.

In folk medicine It is used to lower arterial blood pressure (by reducing cholesterin lever), as relief of arthritis, treatment of insomnia, coronary heart disease (it normalizes hear rates), gastritis (But ONLY with LOW acidity!), constipation. It is believed to help with excema and other skin problems, to stimulate of hair regrowth, the immune system. Folk healers suggest to put some "mushroom" on the skin burns. Kombucha tea is good to allay thirst.

BUT CAUTION:
If you have high intragastric acidity,diabetes you should not drink kombucha tea!

You also have to observe all preperation and drinking instructions!

How to prepare it:
At first you'll have to:

• find a kombucha starter/mother/SCOBY. You can try to find it in health food stores, the organic section of some regular grocery stores, the Worldwide Kombucha Exchange or a Google search for "organic kombucha starter". I took it from my friend.
• prepare a fermentation container. It have to be made of food grade glass only. Use of other materials (i.e. ceramic, metal and/or plastic) may leach chemicals (including lead if using ceramic) into the ferment due to the natural acidic generation within the kombucha fermentation process. The volume of the container should be based on the rate at which you will be consuming the beverage. I usually prepare it in 1.5 litre glass jar. Wash it carefully! ( keep everything sterile and clean while you are prepearing tea to avoid "mushroom"contamination of the mold. If mold does grow on top of the kombucha culture discard the whole contents and culture due to contamination. Do not try and attempt the 'salvage' or 'rescue' the mushroom. And do not drink such tea. It can be dangerous for your health!) and container for tea brewing
• cut gauze bandage to cover the jar.(this one is better, because it is fine mesh, so allow our "mushroom" to breathe and protest it from insects of other stuff to penetrate inside and contaminate our tea). You can fix this bandage with rubber strip.
  

Then

• brew tea in one litre glass jar (Not to strong, because it'll take a long time for ''mushroom'' to fermant it). You can use green or black one. I read also that you can add some amount of juice to change the tea flavour;
• add in hot tea 1.5 tsp of sugar and stir to dissolve. (without sugar it wouldn't ferment! But if you forgott to put it earlier, don't try to put it into fermentation jar when "mushroom" is inside! Sugar will burn it! And some dark spots will appear on the "mushroom");
• wait for some time to let your tea cool down to room temperature. (Hot tea can kill your "mushroom"!);
• pour tea into the fermentation jar where SCOBY "mother" is. And put this jar in a warm place, with no direct sunlight. (Do not move the jar while it is fermenting! Because in this way you change the conditions of fermentation and this can influence it!);
• and wait for 6-8 days while fermentation is in process;
• take some tea from the fermantation jar with glass pipette, puor it in a glass or something like this and test the ferment for its Ph level with pH Test Strips. It have to be close to 3 pH. Here you can experiment to get your best tast e of tea.(But don't dring kombucha tea with pH level lower 2.5 pH! Remember? It is an old way to prepare a vinegar. So don't drink vinegar! It is dangerous for your health!);
• pour ready tea into glass bottles (But 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)


• and enjoy it! (You can put tea into the frige. There it can be conserved for a month.)

What to do with a 10% of old tea and SCOBY there?

Start a new fermentation!

Here you can watch video of Kombucha tea prepearing. But remember about instructions above! don't use plastic! don't put your arm into the tea!;)