Kombucha Malaysia

The importance of a thick and healthy Scoby At the end of the first week of my kombucha workshops I always see the glow of pride and satisfaction when a participant successfully brews their first kombucha brew and officially becomes a Kombucha mummy and daddy with the “birth” of a new “Scoby”. Is it important to obtain a thick “baby” Scoby at the end of each brew? You bet it does! A thick baby Scoby after a 10 day ferment measures around 1cm – 2cm in thickness. It is a clear visual indication that the bacteria in the ferment are healthy, active and in sync with the yeast and will continue to produce a healthy batch of kombucha in the future.  a very thick Scoby A Scoby is a network of bacterial cellulose that houses the active bacteria and yeast. Naturally the highest concentration of active bacteria and yeast is located in a new Scoby. That is why when you use a fresh virgin Scoby ( Read article on virgin scoby ) to ferment, it has the highest chance of...

Jun Scoby looks like Kombucha Scoby and even brews like Kombucha but its not Kombucha Scoby!! There is one marked difference though. Jun Scoby feeds exclusively on Honey! I managed to get a Jun Scoby shipped all the way from US via the Happy Herbalist. Did the brewing with green tea but the final brew turned out to be quite disappointing; no bubbles, no new layer of Scoby and the drink was flat. In short, I failed. It turned out that the honey that I was using was not pure enough (bought from Giant hypermart). By the time I used real organic Acasia honey it was too late, the Scoby had failed to function.  Disappointed, an idea cropped into my head.  Why don’t I try to train my kombucha Scoby to “feed” on honey? Off I went to brew with the same procedure, replacing sugar with honey with kombucha Scoby.  Fast forward two weeks into the future all I got was another failed brew, proving once and for all that kombucha Scoby and honey does not mix. After t...

I had a chat with a fellow brewer Erin who regularly brews in Canada and currently relocated to Malaysia. Based on that conversation there were certainly several differences in the brewing process. Shorter Brewing Duration   Malaysia being a tropical country is always hot and humid 24-7. Thus the brewing duration to complete a kombucha brew is only 10-14 days compared to 18-24 days in a temperate country. Thinner baby Kombucha Scoby As the time needed to brew is way shorter compared to temperate countries, the baby Scoby that are formed are also notable thinner. To make the baby Scoby thicker you might need to lengthen the brewing process but you might end up with a more vinegarish brew. Thicker baby Scoby Thinner baby Scoby Higher risk for mold growth The risk of mold infestation on kombucha Scoby is very high here in Malaysia. The high humidity and temperature is a potent mix to encourage growth of mold if proper steps are not taken during the brew...

No 1: Is SCOBY and Kombucha the same thing? Scoby and Kombucha are not the same thing. Scoby is an acronym for a symibiotic culture of yeast and bacteria.It is the interaction of the bacteria and yeast  with sugar tea via the fermentation process that creates the end product which is kombucha. A simplified relationship for kombucha and Scoby is as follows;  Kombucha Scoby + Sugar Tea = Kombucha No 2: How much kombucha should I drink daily? For starters it is best to start at around 50ml.  This is to get your body to get used to the introduction of good bacteria into the body. From there on you can gradually increase the intake. No 3: How long can I keep a brewed kombucha? In room temperature I usually keep my brew for around 2 weeks.  If kept in the fridge I will stretch the duration up to 4 weeks. Kombucha has lots of good bacteria. If you keep it way too long the number of bacteria will start to reduce thus reducing the health i...

When I started to venture into kombucha brewing; it took me a while to find an ultimate guide book.  There was none in the bookshelf of major bookstores and when I surfed online I could not find a concise one-stop guide on kombucha. I finally found what I was looking for in a library. The book is titled, “Kombucha the Miracle Fungus, the essential handbook ”. Harald  who is a medical herbalist by profession , wrote this book back in 1994. It has everything you will ever need to know about kombucha from the origins, brewing methods and explanations on the health claims on kombucha. I highly recommend serious brewers to read this book.

I get this question a lot when I meet people who are embarking on their first experience to brew kombucha. Does kombucha cure diabetes ? Kombucha is fermented tea. Through the process of fermentation, most of the sugar in the tea will be converted into organic acid. However, there is still some amount of sugar in kombucha. There is a line of thought suggesting that  over-brewed kombucha with very low sugar level might assist in diabetes due to the fact that the good bacterias in kombucha will help diabetes patient digest excessive sugar. In my humble opinion this is rather a weak argument and it is definitely best to consult a physician if a diabetes patient wants to consume kombucha. What about eczema? A mother approached me about the topic of eczema and kombucha and how she plans to brew kombucha to cure eczema for his child. It got me all interested on that topic. My first finding was a published article by the University of Maryland; the findings are rather o...

Yes world war G is happening now and is affecting everyone alive in this planet! In case you were wondering; G stands for Gut. Inside each of us, billions of microorganisms survive in our gut. And most of them help us to break down leftover food, protects us from their bad relatives and some even has the ability to create vitamins for our bodies. This environment is fragile though; modern living is like a black plague to the good bacteria. Overdose of antibiotics, stress of living, consumption of processed foods wipe out a good number of good bacteria in our bodies allowing All is not lost though. We can replenish their numbers by consuming good bacteria on a daily basis. This is where probiotic food such as kombucha, kefir, yogurt comes to into play. By consuming food full of good bacteria, balance is restored into our system.

I came across kombucha more than 3 years ago, A gooey mixture floating in a jar, very much like a scientific experiment gone awfully wrong. "Do you want to try a cup?". I can still recall my cousin offering me this drink for the first time. Without thinking twice, I just said, hell ya!. The first gulp of the cider-like drink has this burning sensation on the throat. So that was how I got involved with kombucha brewing. Kombucha being a fermented drink has a lot of health benefits and equally as many outrageous claims. I am pretty surprised that this ancient drink is almost unknown to most young Malaysians. Thus this blog is dedicated to share my experience in kombucha brewing and hopefully it catches on :) .