Cherry, Oh Baby
From organic cherries..
to cherry Kombucha!
Kombucha is a probiotic culture of beneficial microorganisms, made by culturing organic black tea, sugar and (optionally) fruit juice. In use for more than 2,000 years, most kombucha drinkers report experiencing a general sense of well-being following consumption.
This particular batch has been made using the easy methods described at The Nourished Kitchen, and enhanced with the juice of fresh cherries.
This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays
Tara said,
June 12, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hi,
I’m a relatively new reader and I’m really enjoying your site. Thank you!
So, just to clarify, did you use the method without the mother as described in the video? Could you tell me if you have used this method before and, if so, how it worked out for you? Do you end up with a viable ‘mother’ so you don’t have to keep using the drink? Speaking of drink, which brand did you use? One more question (I hope I haven’t scared you away yet), how do you “enhance” with fruit juice?
O.k., I lied, I have another question. Does the final product taste sweet or is it similar to culturing coconut kefir or some non-dairy type kefir? I heard kombucha may not be appropriate for people with yeast issues.
Thank you for your time,
Tara
Ren said,
June 12, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Hi, Tara,
Great questions!
Yes, I used a variation on the quick method as described in the video, with the primary difference being that I macerated a bowl of fresh cherries in the tea and doubled the steeping time.
This is the 1st time that I’ve tried this method (here’s a double-fermented recipe), so I’ll post the results in a couple of weeks. My expectation is that I’ll wind up with a viable zoogleal mat (kombucha mother).
I used approximately 1 pint of Buddha’s Brew Blueberry kombucha to 3 quarts of brewed tea. The end result isn’t particularly sweet.
If by yeast you mean candida albicans, you’ll find that kombucha contains apathogenic (harmless) yeasts which are actually antagonistic towards the pathogenic yeast infections. I’m not a doctor, though, so please do your own research if you have any concerns.
Hope that helps!
FoodRenegade said,
June 12, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Ah, if only I loved cherries! I like seeing how people experiment with their kombucha.
Thanks for sharing this in today’s Fight Back Fridays carnival.
Cheers,
KristenM
(AKA FoodRenegade)
Erin said,
June 14, 2009 at 1:20 pm
When I did Cherry Kombucha, I just tossed a few fresh Cherries into the bottle for the second ferment. But it was a VERY mild taste! I’ll have to try your method of putting te cherries in the tea & steeping first! I jsut picked 20 lbs of cherries yesterday, so I can afford to play a little!
Ren, I made a cherry pie yesterday & it was still-edible-but-mild-disaster-IMHO….got any great sprouted pastry & pie ideas to share?
Ren said,
June 14, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Whoa, that’s a lot of cherries!
You can sprout all kinds of flour, of course, so you should be able do so for a pie crust as well. I’ve never done it, though.