Ferment at home - recipe for your own tea fungus

Grow Your Own Kombucha Scoby with Simple Equipment

We'll explain how you can easily grow your own SCOBY with a little patience and the right ingredients. For your own symbiosis of yeasts, bacteria, and enzymes to develop, the most important ingredient you need is unpasteurized "raw" kombucha. Without the many living microorganisms, it will be difficult to grow your own SCOBY. In addition, your SCOBY needs certain conditions: an environment that is not too bright or sunny, and a room temperature between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. Factors such as humidity or air pressure in the room also affect the development of the SCOBY. However, we will initially disregard these under simple home conditions. And off you go, let your SCOBY come alive!

You will need:

• 1 large glass container with a wide opening – well rinsed without dish soap! (Vinegar is a practical cleaner)
• Tea – e.g., Green Tea, Black Tea (without flavorings / artificial additives)
• Organic Cane Sugar
• Water – ideally filtered
• Unpasteurized Kombucha (e.g., Kombucha Original)
• 1 breathable clean cloth cover

• Environment for the SCOBY: 1 room with a temperature between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius

Ready to Scoby:

1. Boil tea with cane sugar for 8 to 10 minutes (8g tea per liter / 60g organic cane sugar per liter).
2. Pour the tea-sugar mixture into the glass container and let it cool, preferably overnight.
3. Important: Cover the glass with the breathable clean cloth and secure it with a rubber band or string!
4. The sugar should now be completely dissolved.
5. Now, finally, the unpasteurized kombucha can be added in a 1 to 10 ratio.
6. Then secure the cloth cover well on the container again and place the glass in a safe spot.

Now it's time to wait, wait, wait!

Depending on the conditions, it can take 7 to 21 days for the kombucha mushroom to form on its own. Initially, it will look as if small foam bubbles are forming on the surface of the liquid. These will become denser over time until the SCOBY slowly becomes visible. I have also been making a SCOBY come alive on a small scale myself these past few days.