Meet Boo Boo

Kyli's (former) kombucha companion. I heard about kombucha when I was in Colorado, but wasn't a huge fan. And I guess I'm still not, since it doesn't normally occur to me to drink it. But apparently it's good for you, and it's fermented, so worth a blog post on that basis alone.

You make kombucha by adding a mother to tea sweetened with sugar and waiting while it does its thang. Kombucha is actually a SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast)--fancy, no?

I can't quite get a handle on these mothers, though (and throwing out the babies are sad, too). Does it float down to the bottom when it's used up all the sugar? Does it need to be partially out of the solution to be active? Will it keep getting more vinegary or will the mother eventually die if it isn't fed? I transfered my last batch into mason jars, and they both developed mothers--one on top, the other floating at the bottom. I'm confused.

If you've found a source for a kombucha baby, here are the instructions as given to me.