Choosing Ingredients For Making Kombucha - Cultures For Health (2024)

Making kombucha tearequiresfive simple ingredients: water, tea, sugar, starter tea, and a kombucha starter culture (SCOBY). You have lots of choices for each ingredient, but using theright ingredientsfor yourkombucha creates ahealthier environment for theSCOBY.

With hand-picked ingredients and fermentation supplies for reliable results, ourkombucha kitswere designed tomake home kombucha brewing as easy as possible. Just add waterto get started.

While it is possible to switchup the tea and sugar you use to change the flavor of yourfinished kombucha, we recommend youwait until you have a baby SCOBYor two to sparebeforeexperimentingwith different tea and sugar combinations.

Jump to a Section:

• The Best Water for a Healthy SCOBY
• Types ofTea for Making Kombucha
• Types of Sugar for Making Kombucha
• The SCOBY

CHOOSING WATER FOR MAKING KOMBUCHA

What To Use

Kombucha cultures best when you use water that isas free from contaminants as possible. High mineral content is not particularly important for kombucha, unlike other fermented beverages. In fact, it may beharmful to the SCOBYif the water has too high a mineral content.

Basic, inexpensivespring wateris fine to use, but water that claims to be "mineral water" or has a high mineral content should be avoided if possible.

How to Remove Contaminants

We recommendusing filtered water toremove as many additives, chemicals, and contaminants as possible.

If your water contains chloramines, itmust be filtered. Removing fluorides also requires special filters. Check your filter instructions to check what contaminants it removes.

If filtering is not possible, at the very least,aerating or boiling the water for 20 minutesmay remove the chlorine.Letting the water stand for 24 hours will also allow the chlorine to evaporate.

What to Avoid

Water that is structured, alkalized, or pH-adjusted isnot appropriate for making kombucha.

If you are still uncertain about the best source of water for making kombucha, you can learn more aboutchoosing the right water for culturinghere.

CHOOSING TEA FOR MAKING KOMBUCHA

Brewing kombucha requiresreal tea (camellia sinensis)for both minerals and nitrogen.

The type of tea used to brew kombucha can affect the health of the SCOBYas well as the taste of your finished brew.If you're just getting started, we find thatplain black teaworks best for making kombucha. We also recommend using organic tea whenever possible, to avoid chemical contaminants.

While it can be tempting to try to find ways not to use sugar in recipes,sugar is required for the fermentation processandcannot be bypassed or substituted.Using less sugar than required maystarve the SCOBY.

Keep in mind that the longer the kombucha is fermented, the less sugar remains. Brew from 7-30 days, tasting along the way, to find the best balance between sugar and flavor.

CHOOSING STARTER TEA AND VINEGAR FOR MAKING KOMBUCHA

The addition of anacidic liquid is critical to the health of the SCOBYand the safety of the batch of kombucha. The most desirable acidic liquid to use when brewing a batch of kombucha is properly brewed kombucha tea from a previous batch.

If starter tea is not available, there are two options:

1. Use a bottle of store-boughtraw, unflavored kombucha tea.
2. Usewhite distilled vinegar. Vinegar can make up all or part of the acidic liquid portion needed to brew a batch of kombucha.

OBTAINING A KOMBUCHA SCOBY

WHAT'S NEXT?

Now that you know more about the ingredients for making kombucha, it's time to start making your own! Lucky for you - Cultures for Health has everything you need to make kombucha.

We have thebest collection of kombucha productsincluding,kombucha starters,all-in-one kits,flavor kits, andall of the tools you'll need to start your SCOBY at home.

The easiest way to jump into the fermentation world is ourKombucha Starter Kitthat has our starter culture (SCOBY), plus hand-picked ingredients & supplies to get you started with making your own kombucha.

• Making Jun Tea: How to Brew Jun with a Kombucha SCOBY
• The Complete Kombucha Brewing Glossary: Baby SCOBYs to Second Fermentation
• Make Kombucha the Easy Way: Kombucha Tea Starter Kit
• Choosing Equipment for Brewing Kombucha