In simple words, its fermented tea! Just like how fermenting grapes gives you wine, and fermenting milk gives you yogurt. Kombucha taste good, its healthy, and great fun to brew and share with your loved ones.

The sugar from the sweet tea provides the conditions for fermentation to occur. It is transformed by bacteria into healthy acids and the enzymes further break down the sugar. In other words, sugar acts as food for your scoby! The longer you ferment, the lesser sugar will remain.

Tap water might have high mineral content which might harm your scoby over the long term. This also includes natural or bottled spring water. Its recommended to use filtered water, but we've tried and tested that boiled water works just fine. You just need to give it some time to cool to room temperature before adding your scoby & starter liquid.

The most commen brewing locations are kitchen counters, kitchen/room shelves, or the dining area. Few important factors to consider are: 1. Room temperature - When working with microorganisms, the culture would suffer if its too hot or too cold. Given Singapore's climate, room temperature (24C-30C) is the optimal temperature for good fermentation. 2. Away from direct sun - The UV rays of sunlight might be great for your laundry, but it could be damaging to your kombucha culture. 3. Contaminants - Avoid placing it near harsh chemicals (air freshner, cleaning products) or the garbage, as your scoby could be affected by these contaminants. Its also a good idea to keep it away from house plants or fruit baskets as these are insect prone locations. 4. Good airflow - Kombucha needs exposure to oxygen in order for fermentation to occur. Thus, its not a a good idea to cap your jar or keep it in a tightly sealed location. A cupboard could still work if its proped open or ventilated a few times a day. 5. Convenient - It should be easy to access for you to taste and keep an eye for fruit flies

It stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria & Yeast. Its appearance can vary, but its typically rubbery, opaque with a mild, vinegar-like smell. It grows on the surface of your kombucha and takes the shape of your brewing jar. As you brew your kombucha, new layers of scobies will form below. Once its too thick, you can share it to your friends to start their kombucha journey too.

It depends on your taste buds! As fermentation occurs, your brew will become less sweet as sugar is consumed. First fermentation usually takes 6-10 days, depending on its environment. We'd recommend to do a daily taste check after day 5 or 6, before proceeding to your second fermentation. Read more about it in the first fermentation tab above.

In our starter kit, we got you off with: - 1.2L of filtered water - 100g of organic fine cane sugar - 3 organic black tea bags - 100ml of starter liquid - 1 scoby Feel free to use this proportion guide for your future batches of kombucha, or when you're confident of brewing larger amounts. Ultimately, it all depends on your preference, so feel free to adjust!

If its used for extended periods, it will affect the health of your kombucha, and you might even get a metal taste in your brew. Although iits recommended to avoid metal equipment altogether, using a metal spoon to stir or pull out your scoby is fine.

Black tea is the most common, and best recommended for starters. Feel free to experiment with green tea, oolong or white tea. Avoid herbal tea like peppermint or chamomile as they lack necessary nutients to feed your kombucha culture in your first brew. They might also contain natural oils which might interfere with your scoby's ability to absorb oxygen.

Its most common to use circular glass jars. Just be sure to avoid plastic or metal components as it can damage the kombucha scoby.

We'd highly recommend using organic refined cane sugar. Its much easier to break down and high quality ingredients results in high quality kombucha! If you're feeling adventurous, our brewers have also tried with honey! But try to avoid raw honey as they might contain bacteria that could affect your kombucha. In fact, there's a trend of "jun kombucha" where brewers substitute sugar for honey.

With our all-in-one brew kit, all you need for future brews is just tea & sugar! Costing just a few dollars that would last you a long time. The market rates of ready-made kombucha is SGD $25-$30 for 1.5L, so you would have recouped your cost after 2 brews, and have an endless supply for you and your friends :)

Its perfectly fine, all scobies will have different appearances and densities. Some may float to the top, hover in the middle, or sink to the bottom. As long as there's no sign of mould in your brew, that's a good sign. Regardless of the position of your scoby, a new layer of scoby will likely form at the surface of your brew.

As kombucha's taste is quite diversed, some prefer it sweet while others prefer a more vigenary taste. There are however, tell tale signs that fementation has gone bad. The key is to look out for mould. It comes in the form of blue/black/green circles, or furry white spots, usually limited to the surface of your culture. However, don't mistaken yeast strands or air bubbles as mould. Due to kombucha's acidic nature, its actually quite difficult for bad bacteria to grow. Check out ourpage on Scoby Health Check for more info! If ever you're unsure, just send us a picture on instagram!

This is totally normal, you can drink it or strain upon serving! These are natural byproducts of the fermentation process

For the science geeks out there, you can use a refractometer to measure sugar level. Not to worry, most of the sugar (~80%) is actually consumed by your scoby during fermentation, by the time you consume your kombucha, most of the sugar would have been converted.

Yes you should. Take for example you are brewing 1 L of kombucha, you could utilise 80% of its content for flavoring, and keep the remaining 20% for yourself to continue brewing kombucha. Just repeat from the earlier steps.

The PH level of kombucha creates a natural anti-microbial barrier which prevents the growth of any foreign micro-organisms. As long as your equipment is clean and you added your starter liquid, it protects your brew against the growth of mould. The other sources of mould could be from insects, house plants, or contaminats in the air (greese or cigerette smoke). Check out ourpage on Scoby Health Check for more info!

Its advisable to discard your brew and start over again. This time, pay more attention to keeping the jar and storage envroment clean and free of contaminants. If you repeatedly encounter mould, its most possibly external contaminants in your storge envrioment. Check out ourpage on Scoby Health Check for more info!

Adding starter liquid helps bring down the PH level of your brew, creating an acidic environment that prevents the harmful growth of bad bacteria. Together with your scoby, it kickstarts fermentation and coverts your sweet tea into healthy kombucha!

If you are travelling or just wanting to take a break, you can keep it as it is and just remember to feed it sweet tea. Some brewers maintain a scoby hotel to store all their unwanted scobies, and return when they are ready.

Burping refers to uncapping the bottle every few days to release the pent up carbon dioxide, and avoid any messy situations or mini explosions. As carbon dioxide is produced and built up during second fermentation, it might fizz violently when you open the bottle since carbon dioxide rushes out. It is recommended to do it over the sink, and unbottle it slowly. Alternatively, chilling your bottles in the fridge slows down fermentation and brings the fizz down.

The 2 most common reasons are: 1. Bottling - It is advisable to fill up your second fermentation bottle up till the neck as the carbon dioxide produced will be forced back into the kombucha. It is also important to have an airtight bottle so that fizz can build up. 2. Sugar level - Your kombucha culture feeds on sugar. The lack of carbonation could be due to low sugar level, which is insufficient for your kombucha to continue brewing.

It all works, with the most common being fruit juice or cut fruits. Naturally, fermentation happens faster when there's more surface area. One thing to note, you might face difficulty getting it out if they are too large, so we'd recommend using fruit juice or smaller fruit bits for crunch! Check out our recipes tab for more ideas!

You can usually store homebrewed kombucha for 1-3 months in the fridge. When your kombucha is refrigerated, fermentation slows down or even stops, hence, you have a longer window to enjoy it.

Fun fact: 60% of all kombucha sold in the world has ginger included! Peel and slice 4-6 pieces of ginger (thumb size) for your 0.5L swing bottle. With an apple-ginger-cinnamon kombucha, you can never go wrong :)

You house them in a scoby hotel! As you continue brewing more batches, you will accumulate more scobies. Just like brewing regular kombucha, just add sweet tea into a jar of scobies and keep them till you need it. Alternately, brew more booch and share your flavoured kombucha with your friends and families!

As sugar from the tea & fruit is broken down, it produces healthy probiotics and releases carbon dioxide. We advice burping your bottles every 1-3 days, depending on the speed of fermentation, to release build up pressure inside. Our brewers have also found it useful to bag the bottles in a plastic bags to keep out insects and prevent any mini explosions.