I’d like to introduce my friend kombucha (and my homemade kombucha recipe).

Me and kombucha, we didn’t exactly like each other at first. Well, maybe it was just me… But kombucha was patient, and over time we formed a bond so strong that I wanted to brew my own at home. Yep, I went from scoffing and making faces at this trendy drink to being one of those people with a collection of fermenting jars all over the place.

What Is Kombucha?

Kombucha is a fermented tea high in probiotics. So good for your gut is this drink, you will have to make peace with the soury taste. And like many, you may even grow to love it.

You can try it by grabbing a bottle at any health food store, but when you’re ready come back here and try make some yourself. This homemade kombucha recipe saves a TON of money: it goes for about $3-5/bottle out in the world, but make it at home you’ll have about 10 bottles for that price (since the only thing you’re spending money on are tea bags).

You can flavor it with different types of tea, fresh fruit, fruit juice, ginger, chia seeds… the list goes on.

The most important part is having a scoby!

What Is A Scoby?

A scoby is the gooey bacteria part that keeps the fermentation safe. You can grow it yourself from store-bought kombucha or buy it online. Growing my own before I made this kombucha recipe took me a couple of months, but it was kind of a fun process.

(I got to feel like a mad scientist watching my little bacteria baby grow.)

I grew mine with simply a bottle of store-bought kombucha following these instructions.

Once you have said scoby, you’re ready for the kombucha recipe.

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Kombucha Recipe Ingredients

For this kombucha recipe, you will need:

14 cups filtered water

14 cups filtered water
8 black tea bags (or at least 6 if you want to play around with other flavors, like hibiscus or ginger)
1 cup cane sugar

You’ll also need a couple of big glass jars (and scoby split between them), or preferably one gallon jar with spigot (easy tasting).

And of, you’ll need your ready-made scoby.

Kombucha Recipe Instructions

Start by boiling 4 cups of water. Once hot and boiling, remove from heat. Add sugar until it melts and seems to be mostly one with the water (stir and it’ll take only a second). Then add the tea bags and steep for 5-10 minutes or so until it’s good and dark.

Remove tea bags and add the remainder of the water. If you don’t have enough room in the pot don’t worry, just add the water separately to whatever (GLASS!) container/jar you’re making the kombucha in then pour in the tea. It doesn’t matter what order you do it, the goal is just to have the water cool the hot tea water down so it’s not hot on your scoby.

Cover your container with cheesecloth or paper towel and secure with a rubber band so flies etc. don’t get it there (trust me, they’ll try). Ferment for about a week and then get tasting. Once you like where the bitterness is (or isn’t), pour into jars, add a little juice or chia seeds or whatever (optional), fasten lids tight and store in fridge for a few weeks.

NOTE: The longer you ferment for (you can go for a couple weeks), the more sour and less sugary the kombucha will become. You obviously want it to ferment a little bit at least so you can get the probiotic goodness, and you want to give the scoby time to eat all that sugar and caffeine.

Peace, love and probiotics. Yum.

We love a healthy beverage around here! If you’re looking for more drink ideas, try these:

Blueberry Smoothie (for scientifically proven joy!)
Decadent Chocolate Smoothie
Mint Chocolate Chip Smoothie (yes, it tastes like ice cream)
Strawberry Peanut Butter Smoothie
Spiced Banana Date Smoothie