The Kitchen of Kate, Kombucha and Kefir

Lately, a lot is being written about the health benefits of fermented foods and drinks. Kate woke me up this morning to announce that it was time for my first tutorial in making kombucha, a drink I've come to love from her kitchen.  Hers is sparkly like champagne and delicious!

The SCOBY is distinctly unattractive to look at.   Kate stores it in jars for starters and give-away; it looks like a cross between huge dumplings and body organs in formaldehyde.

Kombucha is produced by fermenting tea using
 a "symbiotic 'colony' of bacteria and yeast" (SCOBY).

Here's the tea after removing the skin of SCOBY
that had formed over the top of it. 

Bottles all lined up for filling

Voila!  

Stirring in a little more sugar

It's taken Kate a while to perfect her recipe, so I'm lucky to learn from the Mistress of Kombucha without starting at pre-K.

She's also starting to make kefir--which tastes a bit like a mix of buttermilk and liquid yogurt.