Pork Free Plain Kombucha
Brewing your own kombucha at home is one of those deeply satisfying kitchen projects that rewards patience with something genuinely delicious. The process starts with a strong, dark cup of sweetened black tea that gets cooled down before meeting the SCOBY — that living culture of bacteria and yeast that transforms plain sweet tea into a tangy, lightly fizzy probiotic drink over the course of a week or two. Watching a new SCOBY layer form on top of the jar while the liquid slowly shifts from sweet to pleasantly sour feels almost magical, even after you've done it a dozen times. The only real skill involved is temperature control and tasting as you go, so you can pull the batch at exactly the tartness level you love. Store-bought kombucha can be hit or miss in terms of ingredients and pasteurization, but when you make it yourself with filtered water, plain tea, and raw starter liquid, you know exactly what's in every bottle. The finished kombucha pours out crisp and effervescent, ready to drink straight or used as the base for a second ferment with fruit or ginger. Save that SCOBY and a half cup of liquid, and your next batch is already halfway started.
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Learn more →Ingredients
8 servings
- 3.5 quarts filtered water, divided
- 4 bags plain black tea (or 1 tbsp loose-leaf black tea)
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 scoby (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast)
- ½ cup starter liquid (unflavored, unpasteurized kombucha from a previous batch or store-bought raw kombucha)
Instructions
- 1
Bring 1 quart of the filtered water to a boil in a large pot. Remove from heat, add the tea bags (or loose-leaf tea in a strainer), and steep for 5–7 minutes, until the tea is deep amber and strongly brewed. Remove and discard the tea bags or strainer.
- 2
Add the sugar to the hot tea and stir with a long-handled spoon until fully dissolved, about 1 minute.
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