Not too long ago, I stopped by the Homesteader’s Emporium at 649 East Hastings to take part in Kombucha 101, a class offered by the Emporium and taught by Vancouver chef and nutritionist Andrea Potter. After a hectic career in the fine dining industry, Andrea started Rooted Nutrition, a cooking and consulting business, in an effort to empower individuals to bring healthy cooking into their homes. In addition to offering workshops such as this one, Andrea teaches cooking classes, sells a line of probiotic foods, and consults with individuals on holistic nutrition.
Packed into the back room of Homesteader’s Emporium were 30 excited people united by one desire: to make tasty DIY Kombucha. Why? Kombucha is one incredibly delicious drink. Despite its current fashion and easy availability in health food stores, something of an air of mystery still surrounds Kombucha, and few purchasers take the leap to making it for themselves. As Andrea demonstrated to us, it’s ridiculously easy and cheap to make.
Prospective Kombucha-makers need four basic ingredients: brewed tea (green or black tea make good starts for first-timers), sugar, a glass jar and, most importantly, a SCOBY or “mother.” The mother is what transforms tea, sugar and time into Kombucha. To get one, you can either buy a rehydrated SCOBY from Homesteader’s Emporium, or make friends with someone who brews Kombucha already and ask them to give you a SCOBY. While asking someone for a SCOBY sounds gross, it’ll be worth it when you taste that Kombucha tea.
Like beer or wine, Kombucha is a fermented beverage. Fermentation occurs in the same manner as many such drinks with the addition of a yeast or bacterial culture. In this case, it’s a symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria (if you just figured out that SCOBY is an acronym for “symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria,” you win). The SCOBY sits atop any tea concoction you make and, by taking up sugar and other nutrients, ferments it into a slightly fizzy, slightly alcoholic (0.5%-3.0% max) beverage. Aside from its lovely cider-like taste, many are also taken with its health benefits. Andrea focused on the basic ones: B vitamins and probiotics, which are added to the drink by the fermentation process, and help in digestion and energy renewal. In addition to fermenting the tea, the mother also creates offspring (sometimes called “babies”) that can be used to make more Kombucha or composted.
In the end, you can bottle your drink, add fruit juices, or store it to create even more aged Kombucha for weirder flavours. Every batch is slightly different depending on the SCOBY and variables of time, temperature and nutrients, which is why Kombucha has resisted large-scale commercialization (apparently Coca-Cola tried and failed). Check out instructions online or look out for another Homesteader’s workshop to get the whole story on how to make it.
Now, I’ve got my covered jar with a little SCOBY floating in it on top of my kitchen cabinets. Resisting the urge to check on it every day is nearly impossible. It’s like having a weird, pancake-shaped pet that silently makes me tasty beverages. I’m waiting for the day my little SCOBY grows up and makes me some Kombucha tea!
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Want to learn more? Check out Sad Mag’s interview with Homesteader’s owner, Rick Havlak, and make sure to check out upcoming workshops at Homesteader’s Emporium!