The Best Kombucha Kit to Make Your Own Fermented Tea

What is Kombucha? Kombucha is very trendy right now as an amazing healthy drink, but many aren’t really sure exactly what it is. By the end of this post, you’ll be a kombucha master with your own kombucha kit to make this amazing fermented probiotic drink!

Yes, kombucha is a type of probiotic drink, more closely resembling a tea. While you can add a lot of flavorings to make it taste different, it essentially consists of a starter with bacteria and yeast, tea, and sugar.

You can make it completely at home from scratch, or you can start with the kombucha tea starters, then flavor it on your own. You don’t have to be concerned about the sugar or caffeine since most of it is going to be used up during the fermentation process.

Why You Should Make Kombucha at Home

It is not uncommon for people to make kombucha at home. While you can purchase it in bottles from health food stores, some supermarkets and even on Amazon, it does tend to be a little pricey when you go in that direction.

To save some money, you can try making it at home in larger quantities so that you are able to drink this healthy drink without spending half your grocery budget.

This way, you can also be sure of exactly what is being put inside your fermented tea. You will be able to control the sugar content and the flavorings and be sure that everything is organic and best for your gut health.

The Health Benefits of Kombucha

One of the top reasons people like to drink kombucha tea is because of how healthy it is for you. Probiotics are an excellent way to get the nutrients you need to help form a healthy gut.

They help with digestive problems and irritable bowel syndrome, fight the cold and flu, and even lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. If you suffer from food allergies, having more natural probiotics can help with that as well.

While there are supplement probiotics, others prefer drinking something as natural as possible, which is where kombucha comes in.

Kombucha Helps With Digestion

If you are someone that constantly experiences heartburn after eating or general upset from things like dairy or strong flavors like garlic, drinking more kombucha can really help.

If you are drinking it for gut health, have it without flavor, or with just some mild flavors to begin with. Since kombucha is a probiotic, it is also really great in helping with leaky gut as well as if you get stomach ulcers or have GERD.

Kombucha As a Detox

Another health benefit is the fact that kombucha can be useful as a detox drink. It helps to cleanse the system, particularly cleaning out the kidney and liver.

This can help remove bad bacteria and toxins from your body, leaving you healthier and avoiding future illness and disease. There are a lot of harmful toxins in the environment, the foods and drinks you consume, and just being around certain damaging products. Detoxing your body with kombucha can help to combat their effects n your body.

In addition to being a regular detox drink, it can also become a good antioxidant for your body, helping to reduce inflammation and avoid cold and flu.

Kombucha Helps With Your Arthritis Pain

Since kombucha helps reduce inflammation, it is the perfect natural remedy for joint pain, such as from arthritis.

Joint pain is usually from the swelling and inflammation associated with arthritis, so by reducing that inflammation, drinking more kombucha can help you to reduce your pain.

Kombucha helps with this because it improves hyaluronic acid production in your body thanks to the glucosamines it contains. This is going to boost your collagen, which is another way to help with pain from arthritis and other joint problems.

How to Make Kombucha at Home

Kombucha is probably expensive in stores since it goes through a fermentation process, so it isn’t as simple as just combining ingredients in a manufacturing plant.

However, you can make it on your own to always have it on hand, control what it is flavored with, and save some money in the process. 

The following includes a list of ingredients and tools that are needed for making your own kombucha tea at home.

• Large glass jar or container
• Hot water
• Kombucha starter
• Loose tea leaves – green or black preferred
• Sugar 
• Metal tea ball
• Flavorings

Combine Your Ingredients

The first step to making your kombucha tea is to combine your ingredients. Get the glass jar and fill it with your hot water and sugar first, allowing the sugar to dissolve completely. You will then add in the loose tea leaves contained in a metal tea ball, or you can use tea bags if you have those.

Let the tea remain in the hot water and let it cool down in temperature. You can then remove your tea bags or tea leaves, or leave them in for a stronger flavor. Add in your kombucha starter, which is made from bacteria and yeast culture.

Let the Tea Ferment

Once the ingredients are combined, it is time to start the fermentation process. Cover your jar with a coffee filter or a towel that has a very tight weave. This allows it to fully ferment. It should not be messed with, but also not left in direct sunlight. It can take anywhere from a week to a month to ferment, though 10-14 days is about average.

At this point, you can remove the makeshift lid you created, scoop up the layer of culture on the top and save it as a starter for your next batch.

Remove any tea left in the jar, then add in your flavorings. 

3 Ways to Flavor Kombucha

Add Fruit to Your Kombucha

This is a really great option because not only are you getting more flavor from the fruit, but you can benefit from the fruit’s nutrients as well. There are some different ways to add fruit to your kombucha.

The first way is just to add the juice of your fruit to the tea. You can use a juicer for your fruit, like strawberries or other hard fruit, or simply juice lemon, grapefruit, or orange right into the tea. 

Another way that fruit helps you to flavor the kombucha is by using the actual fruit. You can add little chopped pieces or even smash it, then stir it in. Instead of adding to individual cups of the kombucha, this works better when adding the fruit to the bigger batch of homemade kombucha.

It helps it to get the flavor through a second fermentation process. You can then take the fruit out and be left with the flavored kombucha.

Try Some Herbs and Spices

Another way to get a new blend of flavors with your kombucha tea is to try adding some herbs and spices. These can be added along with your fruit or fruit juice to the batch, or you can go with these herbs on their own.

Choose any type of blend you like, such as going with crushed pineapple inside the kombucha, with some basil and mint. Some other herbs and spices that work really well with kombucha include vanilla bean, orange and lemon zest, basil, mint, rosemary, fennel seed, crushed cinnamon sticks, and fresh ginger.

Use a Different Type of Tea

You can also adjust the flavor of your kombucha by starting with a different tea. You might use green tea for the majority of the kombucha, but then add some flavored tea in there as well.

It just kicks it up a bit, so that the final flavorings you add don’t need to be quite as much. Keep trying new blends of flavors until you find one that you love.

The Best Kombucha Kit for Brewing Fermented Tea at Home

The Kombucha Kombucha Start Kit is one of the best ones on the market to begin brewing kombucha at home. It has 5 stars on Amazon from over 1300 reviewers, many saying that the SCOBY is the largest around.

SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. It’s what will ferment your tea, adding in the live cultures you’re looking for. 

Here’s what the top reviewer says about the kit:

the Kit contains a generous supply of loose tea for brewing multiple batches. organic cane sugar, one SCOBY suspended in about a cup of fermented Kombucha that serves as a kick starter, several fabric covers along with very large green rubber bands to secure the covers to the top of your fermentation jar. There’s also, of course the simple instruction and the nice addition of a sticker you can put on your fermentation jar. The process is incredibly simple. Heat a quantity of hot water in a clean stainless steel pot. I’ve been making about one and a half gallon batches. After the water comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and put in your tea; about 2 tablespoons for my quantity of water. The Kit does supply small burlap type pouches to contain the loose tea, but I quickly opted for a large steel ball container I bought separately on Amazon as well. Brew for 10-12 minutes and remove the tea. Slowly stir in one cup of the supplied Cane Sugar. The sugar isn’t to make sweet tea but will be the food the bacteria will consume as they multiply and produce the fermentation. Allow the mixture to fall to room temperature. Transfer the tea into your glass fermentation jar and add the supplied SCOBY along with the starter Kombucha. SCOBY or the “kombucha mushroom” is a strange looking and feeling solid that’s actually a living community. It will probably float to the top, but if it sinks, not to worry. Cover the jar with your supplied cloths and secure them with the rubber bands. That’s it for now. Over a 10 day period, an amazing transformation happens. The tea becomes a lighter shade color, and a white skim forms and thickens on the surface. This is another SCOBY that’s formed. The Kit contains acid test paper strips to determine the desired acidity, but a simpler method is just to taste the tea to determine the desired taste. Left to ferment too long, perhaps 30 days and you’ll have a jar of vinegar. You may notice that carbonation may or may not have already occurred. Transfer the Kombucha into individual bottles now for a secondary fermentation and storage. Since these smaller bottles will be sealed and gas cannot escape, you should obtain additional carbonation to equal what you buy commercially. Of course, you first remove the original SCOBY and also its new daughter. Put them aside in a container to be used again for your next brew. Allow the individual containers to ferment for a few days, or drink them immediately, as you desire. Save a cup or so of Kombucha to serve as your next starter. That’s all there is to it.

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Kombucha complements a clean eating lifestyle well. Get more information on living a healthy life from our bookstore.