How do you cultivate kombucha at home? A detailed guide to home cultivation techniques

Kombucha is a symbiotic culture of yeast, acetic acid bacteria and lactic acid bacteria, a fermented beverage made by culturing the starter in sweetened tea. It tastes sweet and sour, like lemon juice or sour plum drink. Regular consumption can help prevent and treat gastrointestinal disorders, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis and coronary heart disease, making it a purely natural health beverage. Its home cultivation technique is as follows.

1. Material preparation. A wide-mouth glass jar (capacity depending on how much you drink), tweezers, cotton gauze, tea leaves (not moldy or spoiled), sugar (white sugar, glucose, rock sugar or honey all work), and clean drinking water.

2. Cultivation method. Boil the wide-mouth glass jar, tweezers and cotton gauze in water for 5 minutes, then take them out and cover with cotton gauze; set aside. Using a tea : sugar : water ratio of 0.01-0.04 : 0.5 : 10, add the tea leaves and sugar to boiling water and boil for another 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and inoculate once the water temperature drops to 30°C. The starter comes in two parts: the liquid culture and the culture film. At a ratio of starter to culture liquid (tea and sugar water) of 1:5, place them into the wide-mouth glass jar and mix well, cover the jar mouth with 3-5 layers of cotton gauze and tie it tightly, then leave it to culture in a well-lit place. At 25-30°C, kombucha forms a culture film in 5-6 days and is ready to drink after another 9 days of culturing; at 15-25°C it forms a culture film in 7-8 days and is ready to drink after 10 days; below 15°C it forms a culture film in 15 days and is ready to drink only after another half month. A sign that kombucha has been successfully cultured is a translucent, snow-white gelatinous film growing on the surface of the liquid.

3. Precautions

1. For the first culturing, use a small jar (such as a 500-1000 ml honey jar), and after a few days when the culture film has formed, pour it into the wide-mouth jar.

2. Each time you add culture liquid, leave 1/4-1/3 of the jar empty to provide oxygen for the kombucha to grow.

3. After the first successful culturing, since there is relatively little liquid culture, do not drink it yet; wait until after several rounds of culturing before drinking. But also keep enough of the original liquid culture as starter, pour in culture liquid and continue culturing. Through this repeated brewing, you can cultivate a large amount of kombucha.

4. When drinking kombucha, you can adjust the flavor to your own taste, but it must not be frozen or heated.