What is Kombucha? It’s basically fermented tea that is brimming with probiotics. You can typically find these fermented beverages at the grocery store, but you will quickly find they are expensive and can add up very fast. That’s why you bought your starter and SCOBY, right?

There are a few things that you will need to activate yours:

• Glass jar with a breathable lid (unbleached coffee filters and a rubber band work great)

• Kombucha SCOBY (Click HERE for an awesome selection of SCOBYs with starter!)

• Strong starter tea (or finished, unflavored, unpasteurized, store bought kombucha)

• Water

• Loose tea leaves or tea bags (the type of SCOBY you have will determine which variety of tea you will need.)

• PURE cane sugar

Now, lets get the measurements down. For every 4 cups of water you will need:

• 2-3 Tea bags or 2-3 TBS of dried tea leaves/flowers

• 1/4 cup starter tea

• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions for your activation batch (4 cups):

Heat 1 cup to nearly a boil. Turn off heat and let sit one minute.

Add tea bags and steep for 15 minutes. You are essentially making a tea concentrate at this point.

Remove tea bags and add sugar. Stir to dissolve.

Cover and let cool to room temp. Shoot for between 65-90 degrees Fahrenheit: you’ve got some wiggle room if you’re in a hurry, but don’t go over 90.

Add 3 cups water.

Stir in 1/4 cup strong starter and scoby from packet. You want the good bacteria in there. Pasteurized kombucha has been heated and the beneficial bacteria killed off; adding strong starter tea drops the pH to a low enough level to deter mold growth.

Cover with a breathable lid and let sit ABSOLUTELY undisturbed, out of direct sunlight for 7-9 days. At 7 days you can take a whiff and taste your brew. If it is too sweet, let it ferment a day or two longer. If too sour, brew for a shorter period the next batch. Fine tune the brew time to your personal preference. There is no hard and fast rule to when it’s done. It’s done when you say it’s done, whether that’s 7 days or 30!

If you’d like to see the first part of this process happen in real time, check out this wonderful video posted by Gina B!