Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Kombucha!

I had the chance to attend a Kombucha making class mid January. For those who don't know, Kombucha is fermented tea. The class was just as I was recovering from our sick week, and likely a little healthy bacteria was exactly what I needed.

The class was put on by the lovely Raina Lutz, RHN, www.LutzNutrition.caShe opened the class by putting to rest the claims that Kombucha can cure everything, winning over RD Kelly (the other Kelly just wanted the tea and all its benefits, real or hoped). The great thing about Kombucha is that it is fermented, which means healthy probiotics proven to aid in digestion and enhance the immune system, among other things. More info on some of the research on kombucha can be found here and here. There is very little actual research on the tea.
After an hour of talking us through the process of brewing our own kombucha, Raina sent us home with our own SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast- it's the crazy looking thing in the picture of the jar of tea at the bottom of this post). I needed to get geared up, so promptly ordered a glass jug on Amazon, which arrived about 5 days later. Now it was time to get brewing!

My first batch was made with organic green tea and organic sugar. I let it ferment in a quiet closet for 9 days. At that point, the flavour was great, so I bottled it and left on the counter for 24 hours. I didn’t add any flavourings. It never fizzed up, but Raina was quick to reply to my emails and let me know that everything was probably ok. I added apple juice to one of the bottles and left it on the kitchen counter for another 24 hours, and put the rest in the fridge.

We are loving the tea- even my four year old ! It makes a great alternative to other sweetened drinks, and to their breakfast juice. I love that we’re getting a dose of healthy probiotics. My second batch, with black tea, is brewing right now, and I'm going to experiment with flavouring it this time. I also hope I can get the fizz this round.



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