Fermentation Vacation in my PunkRawKitchen!

OOOOHH Kombucha!
i love kombucha. but i didn't always. i tried it four times before i came around. i thought i was supposed to drink all 16 oz of the bottle at once, and simply could not swallow the acrid tang. eeeew. but, as i said, i came around. and around and around. i sought out a scoby (http://www.kombu.de/suche2.htm#usa) and emailed a local kombucha lover- over and over again. "do you have a scoby now?" & "how about now?" & "now?" it took a few months of waiting in online-land and then... voila! the awaited email came.
we met a couple of days later before i had to go to work. cris showed me his current batch/brew and other rad fermented delights before i left on my walk across town. which, by the way, i dribbled kombucha from the mock-tupperware on the entire walk. new bedtime story for the kids: "violet takes a leaky, precious, slimy and stinky container for a walk, hansel and grettel style, through two miles of downtown new haven... and maybe even spills more kombucha at work too!"
insert co-workers strange looks, and exclamatory questioning: "WHAT IS THAT SMELL???"
longer story slightly shorter, i walked that container around and around town until almost one in the morning, never losing sight of it. i dropped it once, and half the mother-juice leaked out, leaving a smattering that i was concerned would not be enough to add to my starter batch.
but i was wrong! it was enough! and just in case, i added a couple of ounces of store-bought kombucha to the mix, as an extra measure. here's my recipe for delicious kombucha:
~ brew up some strong tea. [black, green, white, etc.] i used jasmine green- 2X the bags.
~ remove bags and add 1c. sweetening from nature. i used raw unbleached sugar. stir to assimilate until the crystal visions are incorporated. sing stevie nicks songs to yourself as you do this. a white winged dove will bless your kombucha. fact.
~ plop the scoby mama and mother juice/brew into the cooled off jar of sweetened tea . let her sink or swim as she feels necessary. do not pressure her. she's exhausted after her last workout!
~ cover the jar with a tea towel, and ignore for at least a week, checking back every two days for mother's floating behavior/changes, sweetness or sourness of the tea as it brews into kombucha, and bubbles forming over mama and the interior of the jar. *
~ you will know it's done when the tea flavor remains amidst a soured flavoring of strong yet not overpowering tea. and the aroma will tip you off as well. don't hesitate to taste it. that's the most reliable test. it may be mellower than you think it will taste, surprisingly enough...

mine was. yum yum yum. the jasmine is flowery and heady, yet soft on the pallette. the bubbles were champagne-y yet fizzed out after a day or so- i was hesitant to close the bottles too tightly since the natural carbonation effect can be pretty serious, and i have read about kombucha exploding and making a horrendous mess in other people's kitchens. i'll have none of that wastefulness! more for me! so- i bottled it up in saved glass juice bottles, and portioned it out so as to have 2/3 to experiment with flavors ans 1/3 "plain." the plain went directly into the fridge, and the flavors are out on my counter now, sealed in a bottle in a ziplock bag, waiting to "brew" a second time. you can also see the sun-tea jar i used for my fermentation process in the photo below. the spout was a delight because i didn't have to open the top or move the jar at all to taste and sample the progress. garage sales and thrift shops should have them soon enough as summer comes to a close. if you want to brew kombucha, it's a great investment. mine was 50 cents.
it's a kombucha party and you are all invited! all your friends will be there, traditional trusties as well as newbies added to the mix! the two bottles with lids n them are "plain" jasmine green kombucha. the very same as i sip now. tasty indeed! the large dark bottle is infused with a generous amount of spirulina. now, i love g.t.'s green algae and spirulina kombucha, and so i mixed this as an homage/inspired-by concoction, but in all honesty, it reeks like bad indigestion. gross. we'll see if it mellows out as it continues to ferment together. the yellow-looking chunks to the direct right of it are ginger. that blend smells heavenly. i adore ginger in all of it's forms. don't you?!? the red and blue bottles are the free-form fermented experiments.
the blueberries may sweeten the kombucha or not. the gogi berries may deepen the flavor of the jasmine, or not. time will tell. all i hope is that the flavor and delicate balance of fermentation and healing power of kombucha are not lost due to my experimenting. i think that next time i will make oolong tea. or black pekoe. i adore tea. tea tea tea. i read this book about tea, it is a re-print from an old-school art/cultural critic from japan. he compares tea and ceremoniousness surrounding tea with life, with art and spirituality as well. he suggests viewing art and nature as a method of understanding and further appreciating the complex world of tea. how beautiful of a sentiment! over a hundred years ago, this wise man decided to share his eastern history and knowledge of the world of tea with westerners, so as to bridge a spiritual and cultural gap between us in 1906. okakura kakuzo's "the book of tea" is still printed today. i love that.

* i sweet-talked my brew for a week, and it was not done. then i went on vacation for 5 days, and it was not done. it needed a full 16 days, this batch. each batch will vary if you live in a variable climate, or if your home temperature fluctuates. the important thing is to not disturb the kombucha regardless, as each time it is jostled, it re-starts the fermentation process.

here's a photo of the mother and child scoby reunion. baby is smaller [to the left,] and atop the mama. that's how it goes: as your brew ferments, and mother scoby eats all that sugary goodness, a new scoby forms just above the mother as a result. bonus round! then after you bottle the brew, you can start all over with either two batches, or just by using mother or child, seeing as how you gifted either, or you can also up the ante by adding mom and kid to your next batch. don't forget to use some of the fermented brew as well. i'd suggest about a cup, but in my experience, less works too! happy fermenting!

i cannot wait to make beni shoga and kim chi!
after i move that is...