Kombucha!!!

As of today, I have been Diet Coke free for 8 months, 20 days, and oh, 16 or so hours. :)  I love water, but a gal wants something with flavor occasionally, right?  I don't like coffee, and rarely drink tea, and I can't stand seltzer water. What's a girl to do?

Well, this girl finally tried GT's Synergy Kombucha. It took a little getting used to, but once I did, I started buying 6-7 bottles a week. GT's is not cheap. Like, $3.69 for each 16 oz. bottle. (Except for that one week that my friend Deb told me it was on sale for $3/bottle, and THAT was like Christmas.)

Our grocery bill has already gone way up, now that we're eating lots of lean meats and tons of fresh produce. Not to mention the specialty baking stuff for Paleo treats.  So maybe spending  $20 a week on Kombucha wasn't the best use of the money. It was obviously time to learn how to MAKE Kombucha. (WHO AM I? I don't even recognize myself anymore! Someone hand me a cookie!)

My friend, Pam, brought me a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) and instructions.

I purchased the rest of the ingredients and supplies I needed, and it was go time.

Here's my giant gallon Mason jar. 

I boiled water (I didn't bother using filtered water--mistake? I don't know.), and made the tea. 

Once the mixture had cooled to room temperature, I poured it into the jar. 

Then, in went the SCOBY and some pre-made Kombucha, and covered it with cheesecloth.

When I said "go time," I really meant "wait time." Because once it was in the jar, I had to wait a week to let it ferment.

This being the first time I had done this, I'm not honestly sure if I fermented it long enough. I took a sip, it was still somewhat sweet, but definitely vinegary, so decided to go for it.

I had saved the previous week's Kombucha containers. My favorite GT's flavor is Gingerberry, so I thought I'd try to replicate that. I bought organic blueberry juice and fresh ginger.  (Ignore the neti pot in the background--allergies have been awful here lately!)

I used my Pampered Chef Ginger Grater--worked like a charm.

Then I put 2 oz. of blueberry juice and probably 1/2 tsp of ginger in each jar.

I had to stick my hand in the jar to take out the SCOBY. Seriously in my top-10 grossest things I've done. I don't *think* it made a baby this time. I really didn't want to check too closely.

Each bottle held about 12-14 oz of the Kombucha, except for the last bottle, which I only filled about half-way.  I put the bottles into the pantry for the secondary fermentation, and let them sit for 3 days.

Today I took out the 1/2 bottle, and opened it.  WHOOSH!  We had some serious carbonation going on!! :)  I did strain it before drinking it (but I do that with the GT's bottles, too.).

Verdict?

Not bad at all!  The fruit flavor was more concentrated in this bottle, since I wasn't able to fill it up all the way (so, less tea), but it was totally drinkable!  I'm looking forward to playing with more flavors--my next batch is already brewing!