Seeds Free Plain Kombucha
Brewing your own kombucha at home is one of those deeply satisfying kitchen projects that rewards patience with something genuinely delicious ā tangy, lightly fizzy, and alive in the best possible way. The ingredient list is refreshingly short: filtered water, black tea, sugar, a SCOBY, and a splash of starter liquid to kick off fermentation. For anyone navigating a seeds-free lifestyle, store-bought kombucha can be a minefield of added botanicals, fruit blends, and flavoring agents that sometimes sneak in seed-derived ingredients. This plain version keeps things beautifully simple, so you know exactly what's going in the jar and exactly what's coming out. The process is mostly hands-off ā steep, cool, pour, wait ā and the daily tasting ritual toward the end of the ferment is genuinely fun as you track the flavor shifting from sweet to bracingly tart. A longer ferment pushes it toward a more vinegary depth, while pulling it around day seven keeps things mellow and approachable. Once you have a finished batch, you also have your starter liquid ready to go, making this a self-sustaining cycle that just keeps giving.
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Learn more āIngredients
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)
- Ā½ 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 5ā7 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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