Thursday, April 8, 2010

Kombucha

I periodically make kombucha for our refreshment in hot weather; it's been close to 90 here for a few days, so I put on a jar to ferment. Kombucha is fermented black tea and I like it because it's fizzy; my husband likes it because it's a balanced blend of sour and sweet; my kids like it because it's sweet - Ben calls it "soda."

It looks like a bad science experiment sitting on the counter as it ferments, but my husband took a beautiful picture of it because he wanted me to put it on my blog. Here 'tis.



The thing floating in the tea is the starter culture, usually called a "mushroom." Kombucha is apparently an ancient beverage of Russia and Asia and also purportedly full of healthy bacteria like yogurt. Maybe, maybe not, but my family loves something refreshing when the heat gets going. The way my mint is coming up, it won't be long before we have mint tea too.

4 comments:

Rebecca said...

That is a beautiful picture! I do believe that in a couple days we're going to have our first sweet mint tea of the year. Happy Spring!

Beth said...

You may have to tell us more. I've heard some about the health benefits of this stuff, but have never heard the flavor described...sounds yummy...and fizz?! Fun!

And hey, we haven't had 90's here yet at all!

Simple in France said...

So, ok, back in college a friend of mine had this huge scare because her dad's Kombucha tea became infected with bacteria. . .do you know anything about that or how to keep something like that form happening? I love sun tea and have been advised against brewing it because of similar concerns. Just curious.

Looks good to me--and I like the fact that it fizzes!

Margo said...

SIF, I haven't heard of kombucha becoming infected, but it's new to me.
Isn't sun tea just a big jar of water with tea bags set in the sun, so the heat brews the tea? I can't imagine that it would grow something gross in less than 12 hours.