So, I got this jar from a neighbor, and when she handed it to me it was all I could do not to recoil. Does it not totally look like something you would see in some back alley curiosity shop where they have pickled two-headed goats and unicorn horns for sale?
The really crazy thing is that this is something I'm going to consume...
Since I'm not a black tea drinker, I decided to use yerba mate. It has a little caffeine, which apparently the bacteria need. They also like sugar, not honey. I guess the bacteria that's sometimes present in honey can interfere with the kombucha bacteria, so you're supposed to use white sugar, something I also don't eat. The neighbor said she had heard of people using sucanat, which I might try, but in favor of not changing too many things at once, I got some organic evaporated cane juice and figure that should work just fine.
So, in a nutshell, what I did was brew four scoops of loose yerba mate and made a concentrated tea. I added a cup of the cane sugar and let it cool a bit, then mixed it with room temperature, filtered water and filled up my gallon jar about 3/4 of the way.
I also bought some plain kombucha and added that to the mix to get it off on the right foot. Then I tossed in my jar of weird scoby bits and have been letting it do its thing!
I'll probably let it go for awhile to eat up a good amount of the sugar. Back when I was making water kefir I liked to let most of the sweetness (honey then) get eaten up and then drink it half and half with fresh fruit juice. So yummy! My favorite store-bought kombucha is mango, so I'm thinking about blending up some fresh juicy mango and mixing that in with my first glass...
I'm curious, have any of you experienced kombucha makers tried yerba mate? Or rooibos? What about alternative sweeteners? I'd love to hear your collective wisdom on the matter!
