Kombucha Malaysia

For the uninitiated, taking pure kombucha can be a daunting task.  The strong taste coupled with the burning sensation on the throat can be a deterrent to enjoy this wonderful drink. This is where secondary fermentation comes into the picture. Secondary fermentation allows flavors to be added into kombucha whilst maintaining the full benefits of the brew. To carry out secondary fermentation, first you will need to get a glass bottle with a strong cap. The most readily available bottle I can think of is the one found in Ikea. If I am not mistaken it is called Korken. Upon the c ompletion of the initial brew, remove the SCOBY and fill up 60% the first batch of kombucha into the glass bottle. Now it gets more interesting. Depending on the type of flavor you desire, fill up the remaining 30% of the bottle with fruit juices. You can infuse herbs into the brew at this point of time. My favourite recipe is a mix of pure apple juice with a few leaf of mint...

There are 2 well-known common enemies of SCOBY;  1. Mold 2. Fruit flies Both are equally harmful to any brew. Once a SCOBY had been infested with either one, it is best to dispose of the affected batch. On a macro level, fruit flies are the most harmful to any kombucha brew.  Fruit flies usually enter when the cover to your brewing case is not secured properly. Attracted by the fermented brew, fruit flies will usually lay their eggs on the culture itself and within a day or two you can see its larvae crawling on the SCOBY. It is not a pretty sight. To prevent this it is vital that the cloth covering the top of your brewing container has no holes/gaps and the sides are secured with strong bands allowing no gaps whatsoever for the adult fruit flies to enter the brew. On a micro level another equally harmful enemy to any SCOBY is the development of mold. There are many reasons why mold can develop. a. The Mother SCOBY is already old . b...

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.

There are Mother Scobys and there are virgin Scobys. What is the difference you ask? Mother Scobys are scobys that had been used at least once to brew kombucha while virgin Scobys are well, virgin in terms of kombucha brewing. Virgin Scoby will form when u brew kombucha using a Mother Scoby. It is the thin layer that slowly thickens until it forms a perfectly fresh layer of Scoby on top of the brew. The importance of virgin Scoby cannot be understated. Like every other living things, Scoby do age. After the sixth or seventh brew of with a Mother Scoby, the batch of kombucha made will start to taste flat. That means it is time to retire the Mother Scoby and start to brew using virgin scobies instead.  What does one do with a retired scoby? I usually return it to the soil in my garden. Some even feed their pets with retired Scobies.  So do remember to store your virgin Scobies as back up for each and every brew.

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 :) .