So here we are, 4 days into brewing my fist batch of Kombucha Tea and the fungus has not been as prolific as I thought, I blame my cold house. But there is some growth I now have a jar of tea topped with a layer of brown goo and cream colored bubbles. All of which, I am assured, is completely normal as my little Scoby grows. And there is a distinct aroma of vinegar in the air as I waft my had above the jar. Also a very good sign.Normal? Yes. Pretty to watch? Not even remotely. And who really likes the smell of vinegar? But, this growth is an excellent sign that my Kombucha is happy and working hard to break down all those sugars in there. It's just very boring watching fungus grow... who would have thought. :)
So to entertain myself, and you, here are some things about Kombucha I have stumbled upon:
Kombucha is believed to have been made by Chinese people for more than 2 millennia, but the first evidence came from Early Modern Russia, when Siberian Russian explorers brought it to Eastern Europe (today it's widely popular amongst Russians).
Paradoxically, the name kombucha comes from Japanese ("kelp tea"), and in Japan the name is applied to a totally different beverage (an infusion of brown kelp algae, which is rather salted). The Japanese call the "Western" kombucha "k-cha-kinoko" (black tea mushroom).
The name SCOBY is actually an acronym for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.
Kombuchas can get very big!! This is actually how they brew a lot of the commercially sold teas. In food grade plastic as big as they can. White coat man here looks like he's holding some mutant freak Kombocha on steroids. I might have a spotless white lab coat, or the only fungus that actually scares me a litte, but I do have little Scoby and eventually a drinkable and very healthy tea. Besides I would much rather drink my brew than pay someone else to watch a fungus pancake grow some more fungus pancakes and then bottle the mass of mircobs they create.
