??'s re: using loose tea

[Guest guest]

Good day,

I am going to try to make Kombucha for the very first time....using the

recipe in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

ANYHOW - she recommends four tea bags...well I bought two one pound

packages of tea from Frontier herbs (must less costly this way)....so

now have loose tea. I can take apart a tea bag to see how much " tea "

is in there...BUT am guessing it is best to simply through the loose

tea in the jar then, after removing the scoby, when finished strain the

Kombucha through cheesecloth to remove the tea. I'm thinking putting

the tea in a metal tea ball and throwing it in the jar wouldn't be a

good thing.

Advise, comments? Thank you,

Sheila

[Guest guest]

Sheila, I use loose teas exclusively. My method (and there will be many other

equally valid methods!!) for making a gallon of KT is to put 2 quarts of water

in a stainless steel pot to boil. Add 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of loose tea leaves

(depending on your taste and your type of tea - I use pueh-erhs and oolongs, so

use less) to the boiling water. After 5-10 minutes (many types of tea do not

require this long a boil, especially if you steep as well) I remove the pot from

the heat and add 2-3 cups of white sugar, put the lid on the pot and steep up to

15 minutes, stirring several times to dissolve sugar. .. Other types of tea

will not require this long a steep. Meanwhile, in the sink I have my clean

glass 1 gallon pickle jar waiting with about 2/3 full of cool clean well water.

When the steep is over, I place a big strainer over the mouth of the pickle jar

and strain the liquid tea into it. The leaves are put back in the pot, more

water is added and this is brought to boil and lidded and steeped again, just

not as long. This makes me another pot of very good tea from the same leaves.

Which suits my thriftiness, as these are not cheap teas! The water already in

the gallon jar will immediately cool the tea to body temperature, and I add my

scoby and about 2 cups of starter. Then it is covered with paper towels and

linen clothes and rubberbanded and put in a nice stable dark environment to

ferment for the first time. At 5 days I start sneaking sips, and when it is

exactly right, it is bottled for the second fermentation. These bottles can

have all sorts of things added to them - other flavored teas, herbal tinctures,

bits of fruit, dried or fresh, etc. Or perfectly plainjane KT. Due to most of

our months being warm, I usually only 2nd ferment about 3 days before

refrigerating. But this can be longer for cold weather. This method which I

have come to by trial and error of years of KT making works best for quality KT

for me. You will find your own, but you must be willing to experiment and

record your efforts if you have as poor a memory as me! Happy Fermenting!

Norma