This week, the superfood challenge secret ingredient is tea! I love drinking tea, hot and cold! It is a zero calorie drink, and is full of antioxidants!
This article on WebMD talks about the antioxidant properties in both green tea and black tea, and the cancer fighting properties of tea. Plus, it makes me feel good when I drink it!
I love tea – green and black tea. I have been trying to drink tea in the morning, instead of coffee. It sooths my stomach more in the morning when I get up, I think. I have been trying also to drink herbal teas, like peppermint tea, when I get cravings in the middle of the afternoon. It doesn’t work all the time, but it does sometimes!
I also have been experimenting with kombucha tea. I warned you of that in this post!
Kombucha is a naturally carbonated fermented tea. If you are trying to kick the soda habit, this would be great for you! It can be around $3 a bottle when you purchase it in the store, but it is so cheap to make at home!
First, you need a scoby (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast). I ordered mine from Cultures for Health. You can also order them off EBay, or ask a friend who currently makes kombucha! This is what it looks like:
This is a dehydrated scoby, so I am currently in the process of rehydrating it. This is what you will need:
Tea bags
Organic cane sugar
Organic vinegar
The scoby
Water (non chlorinated water)
A 2 gallon container
Combine 3 cups of hot water (doesn’t have to be boiling) and 1/4 cup sugar. Stir so the sugar dissolves. Add in 2 tea bags. I used black tea, but you can use any type of tea you would like (black, green, English Breakfast, Oolong …)
Let cool to room temperature. (Since my water was not boiling, this only took about 2 hours). Remove the tea bags, and add 1/2 cup vinegar. This helps maintain the proper ph level and avoid mold. Add to your 2 gallon container.
Now, you add the scoby.
I like this jar, because I can leave the latch open, and give the scoby room to breathe, but it still has a lid on it. Here is the scoby floating!
I have the jar with the scoby sitting in a closet. It will take about a month for a new culture to form. My “mother” scoby is going to have a baby! I am very excited for the new addition! 
It will take about a month (they say 10-28 days, but is not uncommon for it to take the full month). I try not to check on it everyday, but it has been about 2 weeks now, and no sign of the baby yet. I am fascinated on how this actually will happen!
Once my mommy scoby has her baby, I will need that culture to brew my first batch of tea, as well as some of this “starter” tea.
However, for right now, it is a waiting game!
Question: Have you ever made your own kombucha? Do you drink tea?
I was not compensated for this post in any way. I purchased the Kombucha Starter Kit from Cultures for Life on my own, and I thought you might enjoy this as well. Opinions stated are my own.
I have made kombucha—I did a continuous brew method–it was like kombucha on tap
It was great! But…after a few months, I forgot to add new tea for several days (too long), and the scoby looked like it was on the verge of getting moldy. So I chucked it. I plan on doing it again, but maybe not continuous brew…
ahh that’s too bad! I just had to google continuous brew .. lol .. kinda like my kefir, I had to stop making so much of it, cause I could never use it all!
Oh this is very interesting! I will have to try this (bottled) and see if I like it, and if I do, make some myself! I hope they sell it unsweetened.
Thanks, Lyn! Yes, that is what I did too — I bought it to try it first. When you make it yourself, you can let it “ferment” as long as you want. The longer it sits, the more the sugar is eaten up by the culture. I have a bottle here I got at the store, and it says it has 7g sugar, but I have one mixed with fruit puree, so not sure how much that accounts for it. What I really like is it helps with my over eating … I don’t know, something about the fizzy drink kinda helps me stop eating when I’m full. And although I try not to drink my calories, this is 40 calories for 8 ounces, so I don’t think that is too bad. Especially if it helps me not to eat 100′s more calories!
I have never heard of such a thing! Although I have made stuff that you had to wait, like the friendship bread starter (10 days) and I tried to make sauerkraut, in a container, in my basement – it said to keep it there for 3 weeks, it sucked ass and was a waste of time.
I am only 5.2 (barely) and that’s why my doctor wants me to get down to 125 – the last time I was 125 was when I was playing field hockey in college. Um, turns out you can’t eat whatever you want if you don’t exercise 3-4 hours a day!
Ok haha. Yeah, if I ever got to 125, it would 1 – be a miracle, and 2 – I would probably be skin and bones. I love sauerkraut! Too bad yours didn’t make it … when I made mine, I put onions in it, and supposedly that helped it not to mold or something like that
Kombucha is good .. its hard to explain what it tastes like, but it makes me feel good to drink it!
It looks very pretty with it’s golden color. I think back in the 80s we had something like this. I can’t remember all the details but it was supposed to be very healthy. I read that green tea is the best for hydrating. An old family friend that knew a lot of Native American medicine said to drink red clover tea everyday. But I read that it is a blood thinner so maybe that’s why it was healthy back then before they had medications for high blood pressure. Thank goodness for the internet! It really makes it easy to do research.
Interesting! I will have to let my husband know, because he is on a blood thinner. But then again, that might mess his medicine up. I do love the internet! Makes it easy to find just about anything! And a little dangerous
I love tea! I think most days I drink more tea than water, and I absolutely love kombucha and spend a fair amount of my food budget on it. I should make it on my own, but I am absolutely terrified of making it for some reason … I am interested to see how this turns out.
lol, yeah buying kombucha can get expensive. I’ve been trying to save the glass bottles so I can bottle it once I make it. I will definitely keep posting on my progress!