You drink THAT?! Ewwww!

Yes, I do. I like it.

I will admit, kombucha is something of an acquired taste - but for a lot of us, so was beer - and kombucha is better for you than beer. And if you time it right, it might even give you a little buzz. Admittedly, very little buzz, but there is like a half a percent of alcohol or so in it unless you like yours more on the vinegary side.

I just had some of my latest bottled batch, the one I made to be lower in caffeine, and since it turned out so well, I will include the "de-caffeinating process" in my description of how to make kombucha once you have grown or acquired a SCOBY. See my immediately previous post describing how I grew my own SCOBY.

SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START

About temperature

It is important that you not shock either the SCOBY or the starter tea with too large a temperature change, as the yeast and bacteria in the culture are not very tolerant to sudden large temperature changes. This goes for a cold SCOBY/starter into room temperature kombucha tea mix, or room temperature SCOBY/starter into a hot kombucha tea mix.

About caffeine

There appears to be disagreement among the kombucha brewing community as to whether or not there is caffeine in the fermented end product. Some state that the caffeine is "converted" during the fermentation process, another website provides the results of lab testing that shows a reasonably significant amount of caffeine remains in drinkably fermented kombucha - but that the amount of caffeine goes down the longer it is fermented, and that there is much less caffeine in vinegary sour kombucha (there is also much less drinking enjoyment in kombucha that has been fermented that long). Given my own experience with a HORRIBLE, POUNDING headache in the middle of the night after I had run out of kombucha for nearly 2 days, I am pretty certain I experienced caffeine withdrawal - so I personally believe that there is enough caffeine in kombucha to cause withdrawal if you go without after regularly drinking it over a period of weeks.

About alcohol

Alcohol is a by product of fermentation. While some say there can be a significant amount of alcohol in kombucha, the range that appears to be most commonly agreed on by the kombucha brewing community no more than 0.5% to 1%. For comparison: Beers sold in the U.S. range in alcohol content from 3.5% (some light beers) to 10+% (some microbrewery crafted beers) - if you're interested in a listing of beers with their alcohol content and other information, take a look here. As for kombucha, the longer you ferment, the less alcohol will be in the final product - and the more vinegary it will taste. So far, my kombucha has not appeared to contain any significant amount of alcohol - certainly less that G.T.'s kombuchas, which often give me a little flush to my face - never had that response to my own.  Darn. :-)