How to Make Your Own Kombucha At Home

My sister Faye introduced me to her friend Shalene Bain about a year ago & raved about her & how she created NoSH BoDY. Shalene grew up in a very spiritual household & with a Native American mother who was all about holistic wellness. She is very into Eastern medicine, but her husband is a plastic surgeon & very much into Western medicine. This is so interesting to me!

Anyway, I started using her products a lot when I became pregnant because they’re all natural. She’s the founder of NoSH BoDY is natural, organic, earth friendly, sustainable, kid safe & doctor approved.

Out of all her products my favorite is the apricot oat calm balm, but I’m also loving the baby suds.

Anyway, Shalene has been on the blog before, but today she is back to tell us all about DIY kombucha. Shalene is going to explain it all step by step & break it down to make it all easy for us. I mean, it is easy- I’ve done it!

Let’s welcome Shalene Bain of NoSH BoDY back to The Skinny Confidential…

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I recently had dinner with my best friend Faye’s family & brought along some SCOBYs for her & her sister Lauryn. These strange looking things brought up a lot of laughter & great jokes because they’re extremely alien to most people. But what most people don’t know is that you NEED to have this in your life.

WTF IS A SCOBY?

For those who are scratching their heads saying what the heck is a SCOBY, it is a live symbiotic culture of bacteria & yeast that can make some delicious beverages that help with cleansing the body & gut, also promotes wellness & overall health, and aids in weight loss & keeping your body in check.

Fermentation is a chemical process in which carbohydrates ( like sugar or starch ) turn into alcohol or acid, but when done properly, it won’t be getting you drunk or drinking vinegar.

There are a million different ways to make kombucha & jun ( which is like kombucha but with green tea & honey ) but I use a simple method & it makes an amazing beverage that even my 7 year old loves!

Rich in antioxidants, Vitamin B & folic acids, kombucha has been around since 220 BC in China. This is not a ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ fad. It’s a long lasting & generation making process.

I love sharing this with my children & passing along great ways they can care for themselves & others especially when it comes to the gut. This is where so much is going on in the body. If you have poor gut health it will be very hard to have your body be balanced & harmonious.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN KOMBUCHA

How I start the process of making my kombucha & jun is I have a clean, empty 1 gallon jar & make 8 cups of fresh tea. If you’re using tea bags use about 8 bags.

Steep them in boiling water for 10 minutes until you have a nice color of tea & then add 1 cup of your sweetener while it is still hot. I do this all in the jar I’m make it in, unless I’m using a French press to make my tea. In this case I would just add about 6-8 cups of fresh French Pressed tea into the gallon glass container & add 1 cup of my sweetener, ( whichever coordinates with the type of tea you are making- *sugar for kombucha, raw honey for jun*).

Add fresh distilled or purified water to the jar leaving enough room to add your SCOBY ( I’ll get to the SCOBY details below ) & 2 cups of tea from an older batch of already made or housed tea,  this is your “starter tea” that helps get your kombucha or jun going with the fermentation process. This gives your tea a jump-start on the process.

To make my kombucha & jun, it’s almost the same process. Kombucha is black tea & sugar and jun is green tea & honey. There are different SCOBYies for each but I have changed the gender of a SCOBY before & it’s not a very hard process.

NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR FIRST SCOBY

Last resort is you can make some by pouring a bottle of kombucha from the store into your starter tea & it should make a SCOBY. Eventually you’ll produce a good strong SCOBY of your own. If it doesn’t make one, then it wasn’t real kombucha.

People always tell me they don’t like kombucha or jun because they got it from a bottle that was just something at the store & they always love my fresh made kombucha & jun. Yes, there is a huge difference in homemade & store bought!

So after your kombucha makes a new baby ( SCOBY ) take that one & use it for your jun ( the green tea & honey drink ). After a few batches the gender change will be complete & you can use it for jun. While it’s changing gender it’s still very good & can be used. Unless you’re a kombucha expert, you would never know the taste difference.

Once you have made a SCOBY with a new gender you will need to house them seperately- one for kombucha & one for jun.

Once you have made your batch…

…Cover with cheesecloth or another breathable cloth & a rubber band to keep fruit flies & any debris out. This will allow the process to start. It has to breathe because once again, it’s a living organism & you have to keep the cultures alive to ferment.

Store in a dark place, kombucha likes a warmer climate of 72-80 degrees F. Jun is more around 65-70 F. I keep mine in the same room, I usually know that jun is going to be a week or so versus 2 weeks for kombucha. You can purchase temperate stickers that go on the side but once you’ve done it a few times you kind of just learn how to gauge the process.

Don’t be scared if you see your SCOBY sideways. She will make a baby every time too, which is so cool! It’s hard for it to grow mold & making your own kombucha is hard to mess up. You just have to be patient & let it do its thing.

It’s not always a pretty looking process. To be honest, it looks like a weird science experiment.

The great thing is it’s fat free! Kombucha tea also contains acetic acid, lactic acid, & good bacteria. The sugars & caffeine get eaten away by the SCOBY too.

HOW TO STORE YOUR SCOBY & ENJOY YOUR DIY KOMBUCHA

After the tea finishes the fermentation process, strain your SCOBY & other loose pieces of SCOBY & transfer it to an airtight container. I use glass bottles with a pop top lids.

You can add your flavor at this point. I love plain kombucha & jun the best but sometimes will add dried chamomile or lavender. Some people like fruit flavored kombucha & jun or vanilla bean can be good too.

You can make a detox tea with turmeric, cayenne, apple cider vinegar & ginger root. Whatever you add, let it sit for a few more days. This will add the bubbles & carbonation. You’ll need to burp the vessel daily. What that means is let the air out otherwise you’ll get too much gas buildup. I do this over several days. Then I either strain the pieces of flavor I added & then I place it in the fridge. Once it’s chilled it’s ready to drink.

Sometimes I add flavors after to make a delicious mocktail. I will pour a fresh glass & add fresh sliced jalapeño, mint or basil for a fun drink. The sky is the limit…

Kombucha & jun are made from a living organism & are great for helping cleanse the gut & detox the body.

As I mentioned earlier, add your strained SCOBY to a glass jar with a tight lid. Add 2 cups from the fermentation you make each time to get your ‘starter tea.’ This will help get every new match you make going quicker.

You will make a baby SCOBY when you are fermenting, every time. It’s so exciting that you created life! You can give SCOBYs to friends & family, you can blend it up & put in with your dog’s food or put it in plants to feed them as well.

Before handling the SCOBY, wash your hands well. I run apple cider vinegar on my hands so I don’t kill or damage the good bacteria.

So that’s how to make a delicious beverage!

One thing I don’t like is to waste, so with that I will leave you of course with a DIY skincare recipe.

DIY SCOBY FACE MASK:

SCOBY is SO SO SO good for the skin. It works as a natural astringent so it’s kind of like a mild kombucha peel, removing dead skins cells & leaving the skin feeling nice & soft. At the same time it’s really gentle on the skin.

So take your SCOBY that is no longer good for making kombucha ( when it’s very dark brown ). It can be hard to throw them away after you’ve nurtured, fed & raised them, but when it’s time, it’s time.

Blend your SCOBY with aloe, Vitamin E & some almond oil to help bind it. You can also use a small amount of rose water. I personally love adding kaolin clay to it or even a tiny bit of activated charcoal to give a deeper cleanse of the pores. The pH will create a mild acid peel which sloughs away dead skin & the cellulose structure creates nano-structures that help to fill in fine lines & wrinkles on the skin.

You could do the whole body but it’s like having chunky baby food on your skin but it’s soooooo good for your skin, making you look fresh as it regenerates skin cells. It’s a nice low PH balance.

Enjoy this little DIY from NoSH BoDY & enjoy your kombucha!

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Hope you all loved this post & are brewing your own kombucha now. What are your favorite flavors?

Be sure to follow Shalene @noshbodyco for a look at all her amazing, natural, delcious products.

Cheers,

x, lauryn

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