This is a staple in my home. At $3.50 a bottle it would cost over $10 a day, so I make my own. Last night I made 36 bottles. They take up most of the top shelf in the refrigerator.
They are 1/4 fruit. Whole blended fruit. 1/2 are peach. I froze peaches last summer.
The others are 3 parts strawberry and 1 part blueberry
and
3 parts pineapple and 1 part cherries
I've also used raspberries, pomegranate juice and apricots.
This time I tried something new. I added 2 ounces of Essaic type tea to each bottle. Frontier Herbs makes a tea called Guardian Spirit. It's organic burdock root, organic sheep sorrel, organic slippery elm bark, rhubarb root.
http://www.iherb.com/frontier-natural-products-organic-guardian-spirit-tea-16-oz-453-g/31230?rcode=kat800
I'm drinking one now. I have a kombucha every morning and every evening with vitamin C ascorbic acid in it. If I feel well, I put 5 grams of C in each. If I feel a sore throat I double that.
"Stressful conditions of any kind greatly increase utilization of vitamin C. Ascorbate excreted in the urine drops markedly with stresses of any magnitude unless vitamin C is provided in large amounts. However, a more convenient and clinically useful measure of ascorbate need and presumably utilization is the BOWEL TOLERANCE. The amount of ascorbic acid which can be taken orally without causing diarrhea when a person is ill sometimes is over ten times the amount he would tolerate if well. This increased bowel tolerance phenomenon serves not only to indicate the amount which should be taken but indicates the unsuspected and astonishing magnitude of the potential use that the body has for ascorbate under stressful conditions.
"If this massive draw on the small ascorbate stores of the body is not fully satisfied, the condition of ANASCORBEMIA results. The deficit of ascorbate probably starts in the tissues directly involved in the disease and then spreads to other tissues of the body. A condition of localized and then systemic acute scurvy is produced. This ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY leads to poor healing and ultimately to complications involving other systems of the body."
http://vitamincfoundation.org/www.orthomed.com/titrate.htm
There is a chart in the article with recommended dosages. For hepatitis 30-100 grams a day. I took 40 grams a day for a couple of years, then suddenly my tolerance dropped, which meant I was getting better. I dropped to 20 grams a day. Now I generally take 10 grams a day, unless I'm feeling like I might be getting sick, which is generally first noticed as a bit of a sore throat. Then I double the dose. I had a sore throat for several mornings, but the C kept it from becoming a cold or worse.
They are 1/4 fruit. Whole blended fruit. 1/2 are peach. I froze peaches last summer.
The others are 3 parts strawberry and 1 part blueberry
and
3 parts pineapple and 1 part cherries
I've also used raspberries, pomegranate juice and apricots.
This time I tried something new. I added 2 ounces of Essaic type tea to each bottle. Frontier Herbs makes a tea called Guardian Spirit. It's organic burdock root, organic sheep sorrel, organic slippery elm bark, rhubarb root.
http://www.iherb.com/frontier-natural-products-organic-guardian-spirit-tea-16-oz-453-g/31230?rcode=kat800
I'm drinking one now. I have a kombucha every morning and every evening with vitamin C ascorbic acid in it. If I feel well, I put 5 grams of C in each. If I feel a sore throat I double that.
"Stressful conditions of any kind greatly increase utilization of vitamin C. Ascorbate excreted in the urine drops markedly with stresses of any magnitude unless vitamin C is provided in large amounts. However, a more convenient and clinically useful measure of ascorbate need and presumably utilization is the BOWEL TOLERANCE. The amount of ascorbic acid which can be taken orally without causing diarrhea when a person is ill sometimes is over ten times the amount he would tolerate if well. This increased bowel tolerance phenomenon serves not only to indicate the amount which should be taken but indicates the unsuspected and astonishing magnitude of the potential use that the body has for ascorbate under stressful conditions.
"If this massive draw on the small ascorbate stores of the body is not fully satisfied, the condition of ANASCORBEMIA results. The deficit of ascorbate probably starts in the tissues directly involved in the disease and then spreads to other tissues of the body. A condition of localized and then systemic acute scurvy is produced. This ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY leads to poor healing and ultimately to complications involving other systems of the body."
http://vitamincfoundation.org/www.orthomed.com/titrate.htm
There is a chart in the article with recommended dosages. For hepatitis 30-100 grams a day. I took 40 grams a day for a couple of years, then suddenly my tolerance dropped, which meant I was getting better. I dropped to 20 grams a day. Now I generally take 10 grams a day, unless I'm feeling like I might be getting sick, which is generally first noticed as a bit of a sore throat. Then I double the dose. I had a sore throat for several mornings, but the C kept it from becoming a cold or worse.
Buy 2 bottles of GT's ORIGINAL FLAVOR Kombucha.
Put each one into a 2 quart bottle. Add some sweetened green or black tea.
Boil 1 quart of water, add 1/2 cup white sugar, the "Bad stuff"" don't use organic sugar, the mushroom likes the white stuff. Don't use honey or other sweetener. Use white sugar.
Boil for 15 minutes covered, on low heat. Cool for 5 minutes and stir.
Add 6 bags of tea, green, black, or half and half, but no flavors! Just tea, not peppermint or Red Zinger or anything else. Just plain tea. Let it steep 5 minutes, then squeeze the bags into the tea and discard the bags. Let the tea cool. I generally put it in the sink and fill the sink with cold water up to the level of the tea. Keep the pan covered to keep germs out.
Pour 1/2 the tea into each jar with the GT kombucha. COVER the jars with a hanky type cloth and a rubber band to keep out fruit flies. Set on a counter or shelf out of the sunlight, regular room light is fine or in a cupboard is fine too. Let it sit until it makes a whitish tannish slickery disk, which should float on top of the tea/kombucha. This generally takes 2 - 3 weeks, depending on room temperature, the warmer it is, the faster it works.
Now you have what we call a SCOBY. A Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast. Kind of like your body, which balances bacteria and yeast. Which is why antibiotics are harsh, they kill the bad and the good bacteria, allowing yeast overgrowth. Kombucha helps keep things balanced.
To make the tea for kombucha you'll need a large stock pot, preferably stainless steel, not aluminum.
Freeze 4 trays of icecubes and have them ready to cool the tea down.
Boil 4 quarts of water with 2 cups WHITE sugar. Leave the lid on, turn heat down, and simmer for 15 minutes to sterilize. Turn off heat and let cool, covered, for 5-10 minutes. Stir to make sure it's cool, it tends to keep heat on the bottom and will boil up if it's still hot.
Add 12 tea bags. I use Prince of Peace Organic Green tea or Black tea, or both.
http://www.iherb.com/prince-of-peace/teas-herbal?rcode=kat800
Let it steep covered for 5 minutes, then take the bags out and into a bowl and use a spoon to squeeze the rest of the tea out of the bags. Add it back to the pan. Toss the bags. Add the ice cubes to cool the tea down.
Now you will need 2 one gallon jars. These can be bought at Walmart or gotten from a restaurant for free if you ask nicely. That's where I got mine. Also damaged freight outlets sometimes have them. You can find them with a spigot too, for making Sun Tea.
Make sure the jars are really clean. A dishwasher is handy for this step, or a bottle brush and really hot water. Put one cup of the kombucha from making the scoby's into each bottle. You can use up to 12 oz.
Then add 1/2 the tea to each bottle. The rest of the kombucha from making the scoby's you can add some tea to, if it's too tart, and drink it. I like to save back a pint in case I have a boo boo and lose my brew. That has not happened since 1996. GRIN! I still save some back just in case.
Using cool water, finish filling the jars to the top of the straight edge. They should have about 3 quarts each, which would entail adding about a pint to each one. Now with clean hands, but do not use antibiotic soap, it could kill the scoby. Just wash them and dry them with a clean towel. Then add the scoby to each jar, cover with a hanky like cloth and rubber band to keep bugs out. and dust. These will ferment for 7-14 days, depending on the weather. In the winter we keep the house at 67 day and 58 night, so they can take 2 weeks. If you've done well, you will have 6 quarts of kombucha and 4 scoby's as every time it ferments, it makes a new scoby.
Now for the harvest. I use a nice pouring pitcher and I had a friend save me up a bunch of GT bottles at the health food store, so I'm well stocked. Fill each clean jar right to the rim, and cap off. You should be able to fill 5 jars from each gallon, depending on how much you made. I get 24 jars from 5 gallon jars, so that's just under 5 each. And of course save back 2 cups to make the new batches. See how much you drink and you might want to start a 3rd and 4th gallon as you have the scobys to do so.
You can keep a few scobys in a covered jar in the fridge, with some tea for them to drink, just in case something goes wrong. They will eventually peter out, so replacing them with new ones is a good idea.
Go ahead and make a new stock pot full of sweetened tea and let it cool, add ice cubes if you wish to hurry it. Put the Pint jars aside for 3 days to bubble. They will get a natural fizz going, like soda pop. Or if you don't like soda pop, you can just get on with the next step. You can drink them like they are, or add flavor.
I add 1 pint of frozen fruit -defrosted- to 3 pints of kombucha. So it's 1/4 fruit. I blend the fruit to a juicy puree, and then add the kombucha, it will overflow the blender if you add kombucha and then blend. Some bottles and batches will foam like beer and others won't. It's quirky like that. Just be ready for foam. Putting the lid on quickly helps.
This is also when you can add ginger, fresh is best. Just slice up some fresh ginger and put it in the blender with the fruit. Don't strain it, just add it. I've also added aloe vera juice, but there seems to be some controversy as to whether it's safe to ingest, so it's up to you. I had no problems with the fresh juice from my own aloe vera plants. I drained out the yellow sap and filleted the leaves, juicing only the clear insides.
It's ok to make the tea in stainless steel but keep the kombucha in glass. You can use plastic pitcher to get it into the bottles. I keep the scobys in a large salad bowl while I harvest the kombucha. I use a plastic strainer. The yeast makes brown threads and also sits on the bottom, just like it does with Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, which is like kombucha only made with apples and fermented longer.
I have made grape juice into vinegar with kombucha and a scoby, I let it ferment about 3 months, it was really good.
I was wondering if it is okay to add the vitamin C powder ahead of time. For example after it ferments, when I am ready to bottle it.
Thanks!