Friday, December 17, 2010

The Food Obsessed Mind Changes Gears Quickly

I started another batch of kombucha a few weeks ago, and I think he's ready to go. Kombucha is usually brewed from black tea, into which a bit of sugar and the happy little guy below, known as a scoby, are introduced. Then time does the rest--the scoby is basically a cake of bacteria and yeast that converts the tea and sugar into several things, among them a really great tasting acetic acid that makes the drink oh-so-very-sour. Some claim there are great health benefits gained from kombucha, others say that's just not true; I'm not here to make a claim either way--I just love the taste of it. Why am I bringing all of this back up, if I wrote about it before? Well, I've done some more looking into capturing the carbonation put out by the yeast in the scoby; and have had some solid results. In today's case, I've added a small dosage of muddled pomegranate seeds, agave nectar and the kombucha itself, then added it all back into the main batch. The sugar in the nectar will feed the yeast, who will output carbonation, and I'm hoping that the pomegranate will flavor things positively while offering a deep ruby color. We'll see how it goes: I'm expecting a nice, fizzy acidic drink in a week or so. Meanwhile, I advise you to get to a produce market and load up on pomegranates--'tis the season. And I've gotta go--my crazy haired friend just dropped off an extra bahn mi. Time's a wastin'!