SCOBY Growing
Ingredients To Grow:
1 bottle of store bought kombucha
2 tea bags oolong or black tea
1/3 cup sugar
decent diameter jar(this will determine the size of your SCOBY disc)
about 32 oz. of water but this will depend on the jar you use
Get some store bought original flavored Kombucha and try to make sure its organic and raw. GTs is the easiest to get but I have other brands I prefer.
Boil some water for a few minutes, then turn off the heat and add your tea bags, after a few minutes of steeping, take out your tea bags and add the sugar and stir until dissolved. The tea has to cool to room temperature before you add the store bought kombucha. Since this is a small amount of liquid you can pour it into a jar and set it in the fridge to cool, or just wait awhile maybe a couple hours (the wider the bottom on your pot the faster it will cool).
After you add the store bought kombucha you are all set, just cover the jar opening with a towel or cheesecloth and set in a cupboard. Make sure its away from light and can go undisturbed for maybe 3 weeks.
Check on the jar every so often and by about 5 days there should be a film forming on the surface. When this film gets to be about a half inch thick, its done. Its ok if it doesn’t get quite that thick, 3/8 of an inch is fine.
There you have it, your very own kombucha SCOBY! I store mine in the fridge if I am not using it right away, although I have read that could be too cold (research needed) I have never had any trouble using scobys that have been refrigerated for any lengths of time.