I've been a little unwell of late, suffering from an eye condition that has been exasperated by my being allergic to most of the antibiotics I have been prescribed for the problem. Anyway, as well as developing quite drastic allergic reactions to the antibiotics (swollen, burning eyelids and lips), they have also had a rather devastating effect on my stomach :( Whilst I am now on my fourth different course of antibiotics, courtesy this time of the local hospital eye specialist) and await to see if these can know wy health troubles on the head, I am combatting my belly woes with the consumption of kombucha.
To help combat that, I am currently drinking kombucha. And I really have to say that this product really has helped me a heap. Unfortunately, this drink can be on the rather expensive side if purchased commercially from local health food shops, and as my wife and I intend to continue drinking this beverage for at least the next couple of months to test out the claims of its much-lauded health benefits, we have decided to give brewing it at home a try.
The required scoby (an acronym for 'symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast') can be found easily online via dedicated forums, commercial producers or ebay. I purchased our starter scoby from ebay:
Our kombucha scoby from ebay |
A close-up of the kombucha scoby |
To kick start the fresh kombucha brew, we added a bottle of live starter tea, which can be purchased from Holland and Barretts and a growing number of supermarkets as a stand-alone drink.
A tasty bottle of live kombucha tea, which I used to kickstart a fresh batch of kombucha drink |
This was added to a bowl sugar-sweetened black tea, which was then decanted into a kombucha jar, along with the scoby.
Sugar-sweetened black tea - a base for the kombucha drink |
A fresh jar of pre-fermented kombucha - complete with scoby |
It is now just a waiting game as we wait for the fermentation process to commence and take hold on the kombucha drink. I will add an update on proceedings in the near future...