25.1 SCOBY

I’ll mention this word SCOBY throughout this chapter. Or if you look elsewhere online, you’ll come across it. What is it? It’s an acronym: Symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It’s similar to a sourdough starter: It’s what you need to get started. You feed it sweet tea, and it will grow. Then you set some aside for the next batch, and drink the rest. During the fermentation, the yeast will eat the sugar in your sweet tea, and the bacteria will produce acetic acid.

As your kombucha brews, a film (well, starting at a film, it keeps growing over time) of bacterial cellulose will form on the top. Some folks call this film the SCOBY, some folks call it a mushroom, and some hipster-nerds insist that it should only be called a pellicle. I’ll probably alternate between mushroom and pellicle.

Importantly, this mushroom is not needed for the process. I regularly throw mine out (or you can compost it, or do a variety of other things with it). Much more important is the starter liquid itself itself, as that’s where the culture really lives. Anytime I say “SCOBY”, I’m referring to the starter tea.

Procuring a SCOBY

You can buy a kombucha SCOBY / starter on Amazon, and then just maintain it. Or you might be able to find a local hippie who will give you some. If you’re on reddit, there is a subreddit called r/findascoby (and another one called r/kombucha where people often post various flavor combinations).

SCOBY hotel

I’ll also mention a “SCOBY hotel”. Some folks think that the mushroom is all-important, and want to make sure they have extra on hand either to give out, or to restart a batch if it gets infected with mold. So they have the extra jug full of these kombucha mushrooms and with a bit of the starter tea. That’s not my SCOBY hotel. Mine is just the starter tea. It grows a new/thicker mushroom constantly, but I periodically throw it out. My intent with the hotel is to have the backup starter liquid.