There is a belief out there that you can start brewing your Kombucha tea without a scoby (scoby stands for symbiotic colony of yeast and bacteria). Though some success can be achived you are really asking for disaster. The majority of people brewing without a culture and just using a bottle of previous bought kombucha tea from a store, will contaminate the tea and/or the tea will take several batches to ferment.

This also leads to contamination and even if you are successful, the amount of time spent (as much as two whole wasted months), costs way more than simply the purchase of a scoby.

So, once you have your scoby, sugar, tea, brewing pot, culture container, cloth and band, we are ready to begin:

1. Bring 3 qaurts or 96 ounces of water to a boil. Use water of known quality. Once the water is about to boil, you will see little air bubble floating up to the surface; you are ready to add your tea.

2. Add Tea. 5-7 tea bags or 2-3 tsp. loose tea, this is around usually 13 grams of loose tea. Your tea can be either a green or black variety. In future articles we will discuss the differences of the two but for now, just make sure that it is not flavored in any way and that it is in fact tea and not an herbal variety such as chamomile.

3. Let your tea steep for 15 minutes with the heat still on. You can steep more or less depending on taste for future brewing, but for now I would recommend following this guideline. Turn off heat and discard tea bags or loose tea.

4. Stir in 1 cup of Sugar or about 250 grams. For this recipe please use good ole fashioned white cane sugar. Please see my article on sugar types to learn more about the different affects sugar types play with kombucha brewing.

For now, just know, that the majority of this sugar will be converted into all the healthy organic acids and is the primary food source for your scoby. By not adding sugar to your tea you are essentially starving your scoby and a dying scoby will not only produce less beneficial kombucha tea, but will be very susceptible to contamination.

5. Allow tea to cool to room temperature. Please keep the pot covered and careful of contamination at this stage as the brew is a highly Sweet and Appetizing. So, wait until the tea cools down to room temperature, but once it is cooled, continue to the next step as soon as possible.

6. Pour the now cooled, room temperature liquid into your brewing container. This should be a glass or lead free porcelain material. Otherwise you could run the risk of the tea being so strong that it will actually begin to ?detox? the materials from the container and pull them into your tea.

Some plastics are ok, if they are food grade and rates safe, however when in doubt your best bet is glass and lead free porcelain.

7. Add your Kombucha scoby (which is also at room temperature) also into your brewing container.

8. Add 2 cups Previously Fermented Kombucha Brew as a Starter. Starter tea is the tea that is included with your culture when shipped. If you do not have any starter tea you can use a bottle of that you pick up from the local health food store. Yes, it is pricey after this batch it will be the last bottle you'll ever have to pay for!

9. Cover the container with a clean cloth, paper towel or coffee filter and secure it with a rubber band or sting.

10. Set the container aside in a quiet undisturbed spot. Every time the liquid is disturbed the mushroom will begin to start forming over again and not form properly.

11. Let the tea ferment for 6 - 8 days if the temp is warm, like in the high 70's or low 80's. Let the tea ferment for 8 ? 14 days is the temperature is cooler like low to mid 70's. After 6 days you can test the tea by tasting it through a straw.

12.When the tea is finished, save 1-2 cups or around 20%to begin another batch. Each batch will sometimes produce another mushroom (SCOBY). Save one mushroom and tea safely away in the event of some disaster. Use either mushroom to start another batch. You may also combine mushrooms or give away to friends.

13.Drink. Smile. Feel Accomplished.