ottawa foodies

i drank a lot of kombucha out west and would like to start making it here. on my last visit, i forgot to bring back a mother to start my own mix up. does anyone make kombucha in ottawa and have a mother to spare? the kind i drank was made with a base of flavoured stash tea. it tastes like a really healthy, yummy pop.

incase you have never heard of kombucha, it is a fermented tea that has a naturally growing mushroom ontop. you have to feed the mushroom aka mother. as it grows, you can peel off the layers and give them to friends to start their own kombucha.

I got some in the summer from someone on kijiji. I didn't do anything with it. It's in the basement fridge in tupperware. Is it still good?

have you fed it? is the container plastic? a glass mason jar or similar is the best thing to keep it in. it can last a few months, but not sure if it would still be good after all this time. you could try brewing some kombucha up, it should start generating new mothers and then you could start fresh with those.

almost a year later, i finally have a mother! i will start making kombucha. if anyone would like a mother of their own, i will be happy to give you some once mine starts producing.

Just a note; I believe they sell start up Kombucha at Market Organics in in the refrigerators by the supplements near the cash!

thanks darren. i have seen a few places selling Kombucha drinks in bottles and cans, but haven't found the starter for making it at home (until yesterday). are you referring to the starter (the mother) or to premade drinks?

I believe it was a starter, it was about 30$

that is interesting. i haven't seen a starter before, just mothers passed around. someone is getting wise and marketing what people have been doing for free!

my kombucha is fermenting away, i can't wait to try it. i made it with a base of organic black mango tea. from what i know you need a caffiene based tea, preferably with a flavour (mango/jasmine/orange/...). absolutely no essiential oils in the tea, so no earl grey tea. lots of sugar, the mother and then let it sit and ferment until it naturally carbonates.

i've tasted some of the prepackaged versions and they are pretty gross compared to the kind you make yourself.

I'm afraid you lost me at "mushroom on top". Could you post a picture of the starter? Your post piqued my curiosity.

solstice, i am no fan of eating mushrooms, but this one just floats on top. here are some pictures of my batch. you can see much more interesting pictures on line.

you can see bubbles starting to form from the natural carbonation.

here is another view. eventually the entire top will be covered by the mother.

thank you

This sounds very interesting. How do you drink it??? Is it consumed as is or is it added to water, tea or whatever. Is it served chilled/room temp./hot???? I think my grandmother attepted this once.... a very long time ago. Though I never tried it... I think.

OK, what is kombucha? Does it taste like tea if it is based on a flavoured one? I've never heard of it (except here) and I'm very curious. Where does it originate?

kombucha, it tastes like what ever its base is. when you make it yourself you can use any type of tea. i like a berry or fruity flavoured tea. the sugar causes the fermentation and gives it a flavour of a light, sparkling pop. if you let it sit too long it turns very vinegary and strong. some people prefer it that way, it is all personal when you stop brewing it. you are supposed to drink a very small cup of it every day.

i've read this about it: "While kombucha may not be the miracle that some claim, it does represent an intriguing marriage of antioxidant-rich tea and probiotics." link to the source of that at the bottom.

there are a million health claims, i've heard it will even do your taxes for you ;)

it has been around for thousands of years in some form or another. i've heard russia/china/japan roots. my guess is everywhere had some form of it or another.

it can produce very (very) low levels of alcohol. so you aren't doing it to make moonshine.

i'll let you google and read what you want. like anything, i'm skeptical of any super health claims. i don't think it will kill you or make you ill.

www.msnbc.msn.com
www.kombuchahome.com/

I've been searching for a kombucha mother/scoby for a while now. Are you still offering up portions of yours?

I started drinking Kombucha while in Belgium and found that the "real" stuff doesn't compare to the bottled/canned versions available in store.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing from you.

cheers

Hi New User,
I don't have any mother/scoby right now. I stopped brewing while our house was turned upside down with renos. I know they sell kits at some of the natural food stores in town that let you get started. Natural food pantry at Billings had some. From my experience, you want to be careful who you get your mother from. If it is too old, it can be really sour and it is hard to get away from that.

Herb and Spice on Bank Street now sells kombucha mother.

Since I wasn't able to find a scoby I ended up making my own using this recipe www.picklesnhoney.com

Despite being completely new to this entire process it worked out fantastically and I'm now brewing my own kombucha. It costs about $5 to make your own scoby rather than buying a starter kit for $20+

I know that Rainbow Foods also sells a kit.

There are people on kijiji giving it away. That's where I got mine from a nice Russian lady.

Unfortunately I wasn't a good keeper and it perished a couple of months later.

It seems kefir needs diary milk. I tried making some in soy milk but nothing was happening. After I stirred in two tbsps of sweetened condensed milk, then it started fermenting and smelling like kefir.

You can make water kefir! It generally involves dried fruit, however. Perhaps if you tried the soymilk with a fermentable sugar, it would help?