The Salted Cod has come across a "scooby" or a baby Kombucha culture. Kombucha is a tea which is fermented by a colony of healthy Bactria's and yeasts. The colony can be seen floating on top of the tea here. The colony feeds off of the caffeine and sugar in the tea. The end result is an acidic slightly carbonated tea, reminiscent of apple cider vinegar.
Once you acquire your kombucha colony you will want to brew 1 gallon of strong black tea. While the tea is boiling, I add 1 cup of sugar to dissolve. This will be you kombucha colony’s lunch. I add 5 tea bags; I’ve had good luck with tazo black tea. After brewing is complete I cover the pot and let it sit overnight to bring it down to room temperature. The tea is then transferred to the glass jar. The kombucha colony is plopped in shinny side up to live in harmony with the sweet room temperature tea. The fermentation process usually takes around two weeks depending on how acid it you’d like it. I’ve had one batch go for a month and it still tasted great.
We then bottled this brew after 2 weeks of fermentation with some slices of ginger. We have this bottle chilling in the fridge where the flavors mellow out a bit. During this time it will gain some natural carbonation as well.
We've compared our brew to the popular GT's Kombucha which retails for $4.00 a bottle. Our home brew was actually quite comparable just a bit sweeter (and a hell of a lot cheaper.)
If you're in the Boston area The Salted Cod will be more than happy to hook you up with you're own scooby and more detailed instructions on how to brew your own.
7 comments:
That's very exciting. I thought about making Kombucha once but wasn't sure how to find the culture (my friend who makes it lives in New Orleans). I wondered if culture from a store-bought one'd work,... and then I kinda gave up, heh.
looks like you've got a healthy culture!! How did it turn out with the ginger root?
The ginger root worked great. The pieces infused nicely into the tea. Great flavor!
I have been wanting to start up my own kombucha for a while now, and have been looking for some way to get a culture locally. I came across you guys, but im not really sure if the salted cod is a store? or how I would go about getting to you. I am living in the boston area and would love to grab a scooby from you. If someone could help me out with a little more information that would be great.
thanks
Tayra
Definatley not a store! We just write about all things food. If you want a culture we're out of Somerville email me at thesaltedcod@gmail.com.
thanks!
Do you still have scoobies available. I work in Waltham and I could pick up in Somerville.
Thanks,
Mark
you can brew your own without a fully developed scoby baby. Just use a bottle of gt's that has a little gunk forming at the top. It takes an additional 2-3 weeks, but it will form into a scoby. i did this sucessfully about 2 months ago.
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