Category: Drink it Up

All those fantastic refreshments for you party (or daily) needs.

Drink it Up, Home Cookin'

Booch

gooseberrycreekfarms

Fermented tea, also known as kombucha or “Booch” as I like to call it, has been around for hundreds of years but has only started to gain popularity in Western culture in the past several years. Full of probiotics and antioxidants Booch is great for digestive health as well and the immune system.

Many people have a strong aversion to the taste of kombucha, and I’ll have to agree with them… but only IF we are talking about store bought Booch. Home-brewed fermented tea is SO much better than the commercially bottled version. It has a slightly apple-like taste and is slightly acidic and tart with natural carbonation. It’s wonderful.

Just trust me. Either find a friend to bum it from or find a local store that brews and sells their own. Or even just take a leap of faith and brew your own! It took me a while to perfect my own brewing technique but here it is. I hope you enjoy it!

Gooseberry Creek’s First Booch Brew

  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Supplies:

Ingredients:

  • 28 c. Filtered Water-divided use
  • 4 c. Raw Sugar
  • 2 SCOBY-at least 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches in diameter
  • 4 c. Starter Liquid
  • 32 Black Tea Bags

Instructions for First Time Brewing:

  1. Clean all supplies and your hands with the white vinegar.
  2. Replace plastic dispenser spigot with your metal one.
  3. Place 1 flour sack cloth over the top of the drink dispenser to keep clean and keep out fruit flies.
  4. Stick Thermometer Strip to the outside of your 2 gallon dispenser.
  5. Place pot over medium heat, pour 14 c. of filtered water into your pot and place in the tea bags.
  6. Remove flour sack cloth, pour 14 c. refrigerated AND filtered water into the drink dispenser, replace flour sack cloth.
  7. When water comes to a boil, turn off burner and set a timer for 10 minutes of steeping time
  8. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved.
  9. After 10 minutes, remove all tea bags.
  10. Remove flour sack cloth from dispenser and pour in sweet tea mixture, replace the flour sack cloth.
  11. When the thermometer strip reads less than 100 degrees Farenheit, clean your hands with white vinegar again, remove the flour sack cloth and place your SCOBYs into your tea mixture.
  12. Pour starter fluid in over the top and replace flour sack cloth, fastening it with a rubber-band
  13. Place Dispenser in an area out of sunlight with good air flow
  14. In 5 days begin tasting your brew daily until it reaches your desired flavor.
  15. Wash bottles with white vinegar.
  16. Bottle brew for 2nd fermentation or fridge storage.

A Piece of Work, Drink it Up, Kitchen Projects

Fermented Tea

gooseberrycreekfarms

I had never heard of fermenting tea until my sister-in-law came to visit us 2 years ago in Colorado. I remember walking into the quaint homeopathic store in Manitou Springs, Anna’s Apothecary, and immediately hearing my sister-in-law’s voice raise with excitement as she noticed they had kombucha. Of course, she insisted that we all have some.

It was delicious.

With a faint tart flavor, a little bit of sweetness and the perfect balance of ginger, I quickly became intrigued. My sister-in-law had been drinking it, and making it, for years and I listened carefully as she talked about it so that I might learn more. After she left, Eliott and I briefly discussed making our own, but he admitted that he hadn’t loved it.

Fast-forward to me living in Missouri with a deployed husband and needing a hobby. I’d seen more and more on Pinterest about Kombucha, and tried some from Whole foods on a visit out to a friends’ home in the city. So I decided to give it a go. Fermenting tea, that is.

My first step, was to order The Big Book of Kombucha to learn what supplies I needed and how to get started. Ya’ll, I finished that book in 2 days I found it so interesting. I was also so excited to start that I’d contacted a friend I knew brewed to obtain a SCOBY and starter fluid before I’d even finished reading.

The supplies I quickly gathered in my eagerness to begin were:

After that, all I needed was the SCOBY and starter fluid I’d gotten from a friend!

It took me a while to get the hang of brewing kombucha and fermenting it, but I’ve found my perfect balance. Stay posted to learn how I brew my Kombucha!