How to make kombucha without a scoby 

What!!!! That's awesome!!!!

@@blossomsandbundles I know right!! I was so scared for the outcome but hey is just fun to see what happens.

@@angelous7774 experimenting with this stuff is so much fun! My cousin makes the best tasting kombucha and every batch is a new thing she's trying. Cultured vegetables are so much fun too!

Blossoms and Bundles you don't have to use plain kombucha. I've made it with ginger kombucha as a starter as well.

I'm trying that right now, used ginger ale also, honey 🍯 & green tea 🍵... We will see

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it!

Awesome!!! I'm so glad your kombucha worked out! It's such a fun thing to make!

Awesome mom homeschooling You're a world builder ❤❤❤

Yeah,I saw that, & was a little worried that you poured the hot tea in without letting it cool down first. Glad you clarified!

I'm sure you can as long as you make a smaller batch of sweet tea to go along with it. Good luck!

I'm so glad it was helpful for you!

You could always share this video with your friends and family! I'm sure someone would make it for you!

@@blossomsandbundles I tried but they didn't take the hint. Perhaps cash would work.

@@SheddStudios perhaps... 🤔

Yep it sure would.

I've addressed this in previous comments.

Veronique428 same here been wondering how where when what to make scoby at home not to buy kombucha in Amazon or store bought...how does it make out of yeast and bacteria ...

I was wondering the same. What if we can't find the store bought kambuco? 😄

Angeles Gepulle Unfortunately only people who still make it traditionally can tell us how they do it without any scoby, but since it became a profitable product for the supermarkets and the scoby sellers, they will do everything to not spreading the secrets😭

Veronique428 Im going to try to ferment tea and sugar son let you know what will happen then.

Angeles Gepulle Well thank you 😊 I’ll be glad to see the results that you have😻

The video is "how to make kombucha without a scoby." Not how to make kombucha without a starter. You can't make it without a starter of some kind.

@@blossomsandbundles so where did the very first scoby come from? Somebody somewhere at some time, made the first scoby. How did they do it?

@@pharmhound68 I have already answered this in the comments. Somewhere at some point over a thousand years ago there was the right conditions for a scoby to form. Same thing with kefir. Although it's more likely to be able to grow a scoby from yeast and bacteria in the air than kefir.

@@blossomsandbundles I figured it out. You make a batch of tea, add yeast and whey. You need active culture of yogurt whey to start it.

@@pharmhound68 if you try it let me know if it works.

Yes. That's exactly what they did.

@@blossomsandbundles no way 😁

Did you not read the pinned comment? 🙄

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

You can absolutely use kombucha made with green tea. And you can use green, white, black or red tea to make your kombucha with. Have fun on your kombucha adventures!

@@blossomsandbundles Thanks for quick reply. Grettings from Norway :-)

@@Lortafant_of_Norway of course, I'm happy to help! my great grandparents were from Norway, way cool!

@@blossomsandbundles Nice. Where are you from? Also, have you tryed to make kombucha with honey? I am beekeeper, so I wanted to maybe use some raw honey on that. But it seems like a need a starter, a Jun mom.

@@Lortafant_of_Norway you would definitely need a jun starter to use honey as far as I know. Typically with the regular kombucha, honey will slowly degrade the scoby so I'm not sure if it will allow the kombucha to grow a new scoby but it just might! My great-grandparents imagrated to Colorado so we mostly just have a bunch of Norwegian sweaters and a krumkake 😄

Nope. It's not the same as sour dough starter.

Ok. Do you know how the fermentation process got started? I cant find anything about it. Everyone starts with kombucha or scoby but what if you didnt have either of those?

@@mr.aao2129 it's a symbiotic relationship between yeast and bacterias that make up the mother. Certain parts of the world have different kinds of bacteria and yeast and it just got started somewhere, somehow. You can make apple cider vinegar by just setting out fresh apple juice according to some people, but the tea just grows mold. Having the right bacteria and yeast in there to start with makes it so that they can out compete the local yeast, bacteria and mold. Kefir is another one of those mysterious cultures that no one knows how it originated. Some of these are just passed down from generation to generation which is crazy cool!

@@blossomsandbundles Interesting. Probably why i can't find anything on the internet about making it from scratch.

@@mr.aao2129 exactly! Thank you for not getting angry with me for it, I really appreciate it. 🙏

Janel Hathaway yes you do. My tea was cooled to body temperature. I always test my tea with my knuckle. Between my house being cooler and the light you could just see that the temperature of the tea is cooler than the air. I like to have my tea still warm so that the kombucha gets a bit of a head start. But yes if the tea was to hot (over 110°) then that would not be good.

Nope, it's pretty much impossible.

@@blossomsandbundles it takes a year,under special conditions but its possible

Looks like it.

You can try it but it could turn moldy, have more alcohol, taste terrible or just not work. Other people in the comments have tried it and it has worked but that isn't always the case for everyone.

Thanks

Karen James I always test mine with a clean knuckle to make sure it's not to hot. My house was probably pretty cool at the time with the lighting making it look hotter than it was. I've addressed this in the comments below.

BlossomsAndBundles Great of you to clarify that, thank you for your honesty. 👍

That development of a scoby is the result of the process of making kombucha. Almost every batch of kumbucha will make a new scoby. I say almost since if the liquid is disturbed enough a scoby probably would not be formed. By the way, that big batch of liquid is kombucha that has been allowed to over ferment.

The process of growing a scoby IS the process of making kombucha. The process of making kombucha IS the process of growing a scoby- same thing. And, technically, the scoby is actually already present in the bottle of raw kombucha from the store. The gelatinous mass isn't actually the culture, it's a byproduct of the culture. Apparently some people never even include it when beginning a new batch

Sooooo....whadaya mean that I will never produce kombucha even though I have a scoby 🙄

Steve Haahn I'm starting it with a bottle of kombucha, you can use homemade kombucha. That is making it without a scoby. What am I supposed to do, pull it out of a hat? Ha!

Steve Haahn I agree with you 100%.

How can you call yourself a professional! What kind of scam are you trying to pull here? I am with both steve and davida and we are going to find you and revoke your store bought scoby! Only real scobys are permitted in a real video about making things! I mean a store bought scoby? Really? I think those may be harmful as they are corporate scobys that are not regulated, or they may be but I just want to bitch about things because I have no life. We will find you and we will do absolutely nothing so carry on and just know that I am superior because I can bitch on a youtube video!

Shedd Studios like I said, I'm not using a scoby from a bottle. I'm using pre made kombucha. A good kombucha will have a nice amount of culture that you can see at the bottom and that will turn your tea into kombucha. Isn't that so cool?! Anyway, I'm glad that you are at least interacting with people on some level. Even if it's just RU-vid. But maybe join an art class, or walking group. It's always nice to meet new people and to make friends. That like kombucha is excellent for your health!

But how did it all start? There must be a way of making it without bying an already made scoby or kombucha juice? There must be a very first mother? If not, no kombucha would ever have existed to make more?

You'll want to keep it in a glass jar with a cup of kombucha in the fridge. If you don't use it within a month or so then you can add a couple tablespoons of sugar water after it's been in there for a few weeks to keep it happy. Hope this helps!

My Small Space Indoor Garden I cut it up and give it to chickens when it gets to that. They love it! It's pretty good in salsas too

My Small Space Indoor Garden but if it's thick you need to give someone a piece just sapare it

chinwe okoye that's what the video is about, buying a bottle of plain kombucha from the store and using it to make a scoby/kombucha. You could look on craigslist or ebay or a health food store for just a scoby though.

Yep, it works really good!

He was not the first one to make kombucha. It's been made for thousands of years. Many people make kombucha and have scobies available to share/sell.

​@@blossomsandbundlesWe dont want to get things from other people, we want to make them ourselves. Thats the point so many people just cant seem to grasp: _we_ want to make, not we want to produce from shared products. We understand others have scobys, but we want to create our own and understand how to do so

@@Your-Least-Favorite-Stranger that's exactly what I show you to do 😂

Some people have commented that they used flavored kombucha to start off with and that it worked! I cant teach you how to make it because I don't have the right bacteria and yeast in my environment to be able to make it. It requires specific organisms that don't live everywhere. It's physically impossible to make it without some kind of starter. Kefir is the same way.

You can't. It's basically impossible unless you live in the right place with the right conditions. The only way to make it without buying a scoby is to use a bottle of kombucha which is way easier to get.

Where did you think the kombucha would come from then?

It comes from a combination of yeast and bacteria in west asial/eastern europe. In most places all that you would get is mold if you just left sweet tea out.

Blossoms and Bundles thank you Can i make at home scoby not a store bought for starter? Just a black tea sugar and distilled white vinegar?

@@angelesgepulle9708 no, definitely do not recommend you do that. That will not make kombucha, just tea with vinegar and it will still spoil plus it wouldn't be very good for you, and it would probably taste really bad. I'm sorry, it's just not possible to make kombucha without kobucha or a culture.

Blossoms and Bundles thank you

At a local health food store or even a regular grocery store like Walmart or City market.

Walmart, Kroger's/Fred Meyer, Grocery Outlet, Target, Safeway, etc.

Yep! That's exactly what you can use.

Just use plain or "original" and the more sediment u see on the bottom of that bottle the better. Also unpasteurized. GTS makes an "original" flavor that most kombucha Brewers do this with

Yep I sure am! But not a scoby. Just like the tile says.

Kristian Øvergård I haven't read or heard anywhere about mold forming from the temperature, I would think that the reason why it would form at a colder temperature would be because it sat longer so the mold became more visible. Now if you let it sit for way to long and didn't feed it to where the yeast and bacteria died then you would certainly get mold. But as long as you take care of it when it is done you should be fine. Now if you have a lot of mold in your home then you probably have a much higher chance of getting mold but if it grows on your kombucha while it's still fermenting then chances are it would be present but not visible if the Brew finished earlier. I've actually never had mold grow on my kombucha no matter how long it took me to get to it even if I forgot it in the back of my pantry for months but I live in a dry climate so that could be why. I don't recommend drinking kombucha that is even a month old though. But it should not take more than ten days in a cooler home for it to finish and 3-4 days in a very very warm home. That's part of the reason why I use this brand of kombucha to start a new batch every year is because they test their kombucha to make sure it is healthy and doesn't have mold which could be why I've never had a problem.

Thank you, I only have access to a local brand that has ginger added to the 2nd ferment. Started some test cultures , its 2 weeks in, but no scoby forming , have yeast sediments at the bottom tho. I have to wait and c . Used a standard google searchwords: kombucha brew recipe.

Kristian Øvergård the ginger is probably keeping the bacteria from forming. You might be able to get it to work if you take that original kombucha and mix it with maybe about a quart of water with 1/4 - 1/2 cup of sugar, see if you can give the bacteria an advantage over the ginger and keep doing that weekly or untill it starts to smell like kombucha but since it is antibacterial anti fungal etc the ginger is definitely going to be a challenge. A good option for you might actually be to make a ginger bug to make fermented drinks with.

I have access to one more flavour, Raspberry. Maybe that one will work . Thx for the quick replies ::)

Kristian Øvergård ya no problem. I think you will have better luck with the raspberry especially if it's just flavoring or the juice and not puree in it. That has actually fed the bacteria and yeast so it should start off much easier. If it is a puree then I'd just be extra watchful of it to make sure it dosent go funky or mold because you introduced that fiber. Good luck and let me know if it works, I've been interested to know!

As long as it is body temperature it is fine. It just needs to be below 110 but I keep it safe and knuckle test it. Kinda like a baby bottle. But the tea can be room temperature too, it's not to picky.

swabby usn it's in the description but it depends. Usually 5 bags of tea to a gallon of water.

Seeing as how I don't know where you live that would be a bit difficult. However if you are unable to change the volume on your own device, perhaps you could ask a friend or neighbor. 🌞

Without a scoby starter. Thx.

Sounds like you made kombucha!

@@blossomsandbundles realy ? awesome ,im so happy, so i waited for now a week , how long need to wait to check the taste?

@@TheEigylyte you can go ahead and check it now. It can be fermented for as long as you want, as long as it has ent sugar in it. I typically wait 5-10 days depending on the time of year. Longer in winter, shorter in summer. But I like mine to have a little sweetness to it still. And when your done you can bottle it up and let it sit on the counter for another day with or without juice added to it. Having it closed for that last day will let it get more bubbly.

@@blossomsandbundles ok ,thank you :)

@@TheEigylyte of course! No problem!

If you can't buy kombucha at the store your best bet is going onto eBay or Etsy and ordering a scoby.

Kombucha.

Thank you

I've never had ants get into it.

🤣 I've had a lot of weird comments on this video but this tops them all! 🤣🤣🤣

Yes you should keep it in a warm dark place. There are a lot of people that are confused by the trick of the light making it look like the tea is hot when I put the kombucha in but really it is just warm. Perhaps that's where the confusion is coming from?

The flavor can get extra fermented and make the kombucha taste off. And I don't know what the fruits or other flavors added will ferment into wether it promotes mold, alcohol, weird bacteria etc. It's always best to do a second ferment with added flavors like fruit juice.

@@blossomsandbundles thanks for response. I guess i will find out since used a blackberry flavored product. Small store and was mainly making sure it was raw.

@@walmartinrx some people have said that they used ginger kombucha with success but I'm guessing that the culture could break down after a couple ferments. I love blackberry kombucha though!

I used a flavored one it turned out fine

It wouldn't make kombucha, but it would probably actually work. Not sure because the bacteria in the acv might only work with fructose from apple juice.

Blossoms and Bundles you will make nice vinegar. Which I’d also like to make. But it’s not Kombacha.

Awww 🥰

🤷‍♀️ ???????

@@blossomsandbundles hot tea does not kill the? Scoby

@@milennaabreu4924 as long as it isn't over 100° then it is fine. It's good if the tea is warm though because it helps the culture to wake up. It just looks like it's hot because my house was pretty cold that morning.

Boiled water/tea will not have any live bacteria/yeast/ etc. You need something that is alive to eat the sugar. You're not going to find anything better than that honey.

They are all just a bunch of false advertisers! I can't believe these people! All I wanted was to know how to make kombucha out of thin air but everyone keeps telling me that's impossible. 🤷

@@blossomsandbundles lol I was simply telling the truth . Figure out how they created the original scoby to begin with then you will be being honest in the post . Id guess there is a way to naturally ferment it . pulling bacteria and yeast out of the environment .

the original scoby came from somewhere after all .

@@bow2me26 it needs to be a specific place with the right conditions to make it. Kefir is even harder to make from nothing. It's actually impossible because the place where it originally was "formed" with the correct conditions for that specific be kind of bacteria has a totally different climate now. Kombucha is more like special cheeses or wine that can only be made properly in places like Gouda or Champagne. So for someone like me who lives in America, I can only make it with a starter bacteria but also with some added bacteria from my own air making it a little different than someone in the next City over. But it's more complex than sourdough, cheeses, or alcohol because those can be made anywhere without the special bacteria. It's all very interesting. But you absolutely have to start with a starter bacteria.

@@blossomsandbundles hmmm if that is the case then by making batch after batch then eventually that culture would learn to live in your environment and survive over time id believe . Since each new batch would be exposed to your environment as you transfer it . They do similar stuff to make things resistant in the lab

Haha, no, I've never bought a can of kombucha. Although I saw an add for that the other day.

@Dino Hauska ya a bottle. Not a can. They didn't start selling the cans of kombucha until after I made this video.

Read the pinned comment dude. Mine always takes 5 days in the summer. More like 10 in the winter. 🙄

Because it's not possible. How is boiled water/tea supposed to magically create kombucha without any sort of starter? Otherwise you will literally just get mold. You would need to be in a very specific place for the correct culture to grow. Things like cabbage are not cooked/sterilized before fermenting so they naturally have the correct bacteria on them to make the fermented product. Tea does not have that, it relies on what's in the air. What will grow in tea in 99% of the world is mold, not kombucha yeast/bacteria.

​@@blossomsandbundlesThe point is people dont want to be reliant on someone or something else to make their kombucha - they want to be able to make it truly from scratch without the need to go somewhere else/buy it from someone. This is an issue that has plagued me for years: Scoby is a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast that came from somewhere in nature, yet no one seems capable of making it themselves? That bothers me to no end - this is a drink thats survived for thousands of years yet only with its gaining mainstream appeal has it come to many in the public eye's attention, yet no one seems able to crack this weird mystery of where they come from? They just popped into existence and have been circulating around since, rather than people making new ones from scratch? It bothers me to no end.

@@Your-Least-Favorite-Stranger well you can't make kombucha without some sort of starter. It's impossible.

Ohmygosh I try to stay away from the comments on this video because people keep telling me I need to change the title and I'm lying to them or whatever, but I'm glad I checked my comments because this is great! I love the lemonade analogy, it's perfect!