How to Use Kombucha That Has Gone Bad

Kombucha tea is said to promote health.

Kombucha is a type of fermented tea thought to have health-boosting properties. Kombucha is brewed in a manner not unlike the production of beer, and can be made at home using a basic fermentation process. To make Kombucha, you just need to add a bacteria--acetobacteri--to a water and yeast solution and wait for it to ferment. Kombucha has a slight alcohol content, and the drink can be revived if neglected by re-igniting the fermentation process.

Things You'll Need

• Water
• Kombucha culture
• Glass jar
• Black tea
• Muslin cloth
• Rubber bands

Instructions

1. Separate the culture from the water by taking Kombucha container and removing the Scoby--the hard, mushroom-like culture on the surface of the tea. The Kombucha culture can be left for several weeks without feeding and survive, so you do not need to purchase a new culture and start from scratch.

2. Add a liter of brewed black tea to a glass jar. Wait for the tea to cool down (adding the Kombucha culture to boiling water will kill it), then add your Kombucha culture. The culture is sometimes referred to as "the mother" because it will produce more cultures, and from those cultures you will be able to produce more tea, and so on. One Kombucha culture should provide you with an endless supply of Kombucha tea.

3. Add 150 grams of sugar to the black tea and mix with a wooden spoon. Place your Scoby culture on top of the cooled tea and sugar solution, cover the glass jar with the muslin cloth and tie down with a rubber band.

4. Leave the solution in a warm place to ferment for several days to a week. Then drain the tea from the glass jar and drink. You can divide up the Scoby into as many pieces as you like and begin brewing new cultures from each "child" of the original Scoby mother. You can leave the Scoby in the fridge for one week if necessary; it lie dormant for this time (i.e. it will not grow), but do not leave it for any longer than this or it will die. You need to keep feeding your Scoby with the sugar water solution to keep it alive.

References

• Gawker.com: The Non-Kombucha Drinker's Guide to Kombucha Tea
• Kombucha Home.com: What is Kombucha?