KombuchaCHIC

Now THAT is a nice kombucha culture. This was taken from my last brew that I posted about previously. It is probably the most perfect culture I have grown so far. The color is so even and opaque, and the size is unbelievable! It is probably around 1/2 inch in depth! I can't wait to see what it's baby will look like!

My latest brew has just the right combination of sweetness and acidity. It has smooth undertones to it, and its fizziness is perfect...not too overwhelming but light, mellow and slightly bubbly. This batch does actually taste a lot like sparkling apple cider, like a lot of distributors say. I'm really very impressed with these two latest batches. The cultures are looking very healthy; much more healthy than the batch before.

I had a lovely cocktail at a party I went to tonight. It was a combination of fruit and vegetable juices, but the thing in it that stood out the most was the distinct flavor of ginger. I absolutely love it. One of my favorite commercial beverages I've tasted is Kombucha Wonderdrink's Asian Pear Ginger. It has a wonderful flavor and it makes you feel fabulous! It is the beverage that actually turned me on to kombucha.

I think I might try to make up my own recipe with my own batch and ginger juice. There is something I really like about ginger...I think it combines very well with the kombucha flavor and it is also very healthful. It's wonderful for digestion and about any sort of stomach ailment. It is also said to be good for the circulatory and respiratory tracts, mood enhancement and even menstrual cramps.

I will try out some different flavor combinations and report back on it.

My latest fermentation is doing pretty good so far. It has been fermenting for about a week or so, and I can clearly see the new baby forming on top. It looks really opaque and healthy. I have two jars fermenting this time so I don't run out again. One jar I started a day or two earlier and the baby is bigger than the other one. I have them both in a cupboard right now with the door open just a crack. When I open the door to check on them, I can smell that vinegary, pungent smell of kombucha, so that is a good thing. I will probably start taste testing my older batch tommorow.

I finally tasted the kombucha I had stored in the plastic container. It actually wasn't that bad. I might have had a slightly less pungent taste to it, meaning it might not have been as potent. Perhaps the glass keeps the kombucha fresher? But the taste itself wasn't bad at all. I think I washed away all the nasty residue that was in the container when I bought it.

I could definitely tell a difference between the two containers, and I prefer the glass. I'm putting that glass pitcher on high priority. Now, if I could only find an affordable one that holds a large amount with some kind of lid. Maybe I can find an online store that sells what I'm looking for. I will look around and report my findings.

I drank 16 oz. of my latest brew today. I usually don't drink that much of my own brew in one day, although I'm not really sure why. I drink that much of commercial brands all the time. But today, I drank down the whole bottle. I had it stored in an old commercial brand glass bottle. They work really well to hold the kombucha and they are easy to transport. I think 16 oz is a good amount for me to drink, so these bottles are really turning out to be a great thing to recycle.

After my bottle was finished and I had left work, I started to go about my daily business. I began to notice after a well that I was feeling that lovely, exhilerating rush of energy creep into my system. And for a long time after that I felt healthy and revitalized. It was a very nice feeling that I have been missing ever since I have lasped on my raw food diet. I plan to get back on my diet once it starts to warm up a bit. Hopefully pretty soon. In the meantime, I will have to watch myself more and try to incorporate raw foods into at least 80 % of my meals.

I still haven't tried the kombucha that I stored in the plastic bottle yet. I wanted to finish off the brew I stored in the smaller glass bottles first. I will try it tommorow and make a report of it.

This is possibly my favorite commercial kombucha flavor. It doesn't even look like normal kombucha. Mango puree is added, so the drink has a nice yellow-orange color to it. It seems to have a thicker consistency as well. Almost like a fresh juice, it is smoother and more creamy. It still has that fizzines that we all associate with kombucha, and it still has that tart, pungent flavor. But it also has the sensuous, musky flavor of mango, which I absolutely love.

After drinking one of these 16 oz. treats, I feel very energized and revitalized. I like having my kombucha with juice, and mangoes are one of my favorites, so that makes this flavor combination a perfect match in my book!

I started up a new batch today. I am a bit worried because I am putting my last batch in a plastic container to store it in. It is a nice container…it has measurements on it so I know how much in is my batch, but plastic is bad for kombucha. It is also a problem because the container is brand new. It has that “funny plastic” smell to it and all I can think of when I inhale is a million different chemicals rushing out to kill my kombucha.

So what to do? The only thing I could think of what to repeatedly wash the container in hot, soapy, scalding water in hopes of burning and cleaning away the excess chemical residue. After a few washings and rinsings, I smelled the container again. The smell was not nearly as pungent, but I couldn’t really tell if it was actually there or not. Hmm…maybe a few more washings and it will be ready.

I’ve heard from almost every source I have researched that plastic is not good for the kombucha and a glass container is best to store and ferment in. Now I think I finally understand why: Plastic has chemical residues that can seep into the culture and cause damage or possibly kill it.

Soon I will buy a really good container to store it in: a large, glass pitcher with a lid. I will store it in the plastic one for now so I can try to monitor the reactions, if any. I have already transferred a portion of my last batch to some 16 oz. glass containers that had commercial kombucha in them previously. That way I have a back up in case the plastic container kills my brew. I wonder what all the other brewers think about plastic vs. glass for fermenting and storing?