Mighty Mighty Boosh: Green Tea Kombucha with 🌶Jalepenos & Lime🍈

in #health6 years ago


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I hate paying exorbitant amounts for drinks. It seems the shelves of cafes here are filled with really tempting concoctions from apple cider vinegar and honey (okay okay, that's not to everyone's taste, but I love it!) to chai and vanilla kombucha to frangipani coconut kefir.

I'm a bit of a sucker for 'treating' myself to a nice drink in the name of experimentation - I have to taste test it so I know how to make it, you know? I'm sure you do the same thing with like - cake! It's a great justification for buying stuff you don't need.

But ouch! The apple cider vinegar on the right cost me $7! It was one of those embarrassing check out moments where you just don't want to yell - 7 bucks! What the actual flying fuck! It's VINEGAR AND HONEY! And the kombucha below was about $5 too - about twenty times more than you can make it for.

Granted, ayurvedic chai / handblended spices / slow fermented / organic and live probiotic elixir sounds awesome. Especially since they call it an ELIXIR. I wonder how healthy these drinks are - they are mass produced, after all. Apparently, if it's pasteurized, it's going to get rid of those 'elixir' medicinal qualities anyway, and if it's not, it's going to keep on fermenting in the bottle and get more alcoholic. How do I know if it's pasteurized or not? Most bottles won't tell you. I googled the 'Bod' one pictured (handmade in Melbourne) and turns out it is definitely RAW and unpasteurized, so that's good.

Despite the fact I enjoyed it, I did start obsessing over figures in my head and thinking it could cost me $35 a week for a hardcore 'boosh habit. After duly reprimanding myself for being a lazy, scoby neglecting bad person, I launched into Operation Scoby Saving, grabbling them from where they languised in the dark under the laundry sink where they layer like fat alien babies, vying for space. I don't know how long they last for, but I'm sure they'd appreciate a feed of sugar.


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A scoby is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. It's a home for the bacteria and yeast that enable sweet tea to turn into tangy kombucha. It's slimy and it's weird when you first create it but it's a miraculous beast indeed.

I usually make tea kombucha, but my girlfriend just returned from Burma where she had donned nun robes and took the ten precepts for a few months, and she brought me back some Burmese green tea.


Bestie being nunnish in Burma

Tea is an important part of daily life in Myanmar, and they even make a salad out of green tea leaves called Lahpet, pictured below. Have you ever tried it? I got quite addicted to it when we were there! It's crazy stuff:

Burmese tea leaf salad (လက်ဖက်သုပ်) is served as two main forms. First is mainly used to serve in ceremonies and is called A-hlu lahpet (အလှူလက်ဖက်, လက်ဖက်သုပ်လူကြီးသုပ် or အဖွားကြီးအိုသုပ်) or Mandalay lahpet. The second one is mostly served with meals and is more popular. The best tea leaves are selected for fermenting and the rest for drying. They are steamed for about five minutes before either drying or fermenting. Young leaves are packed into bamboo vats set in pits and pressed by heavy weights; the fermentation process is checked at intervals and the pulp may occasionally require re-steaming

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You can find a recipe for Lahpet here

Gawd. That's making me hungry - must concentrate - where was I? Oh yeah! Green tea Kombucha...

So, with a stack of green tea I thought I'd ditch the black tea 'boosh for a change and see how a green tea one would go. I'd heard that it didn't take as well as black tea but I didn't find that was the case at all, although it did take a little longer to get to the desired tartness - although that could have been the weather.

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How to Make Green Tea Kombucha

  • Make a strong tea (enough for about 2 litres of liquid - this will fill around 2 x 2 litre bottles) and 1 cup of sugar, dissolved into the brew.

  • Strain the tea leaves, and add a scoby to the cooled liquid, and leave for around 7 - 14 days. The warmer your environment, the quicker it will ferment.

  • When it gets to the desired 'boosh taste (ever so slightly vinegary or tart), pour into bottles, preferably with a sealed lid. Ones like these are great, but you can use Grolsch or cordial bottles that use the same sealed kit. I stole Jamie's bottles from his home brew drawer - I won't tell him if you won't.


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  • Leave the top few inches free - you want to allow room for fizz - and it can really fizz!! This is called the 2F or second ferment, and I would seriously caution you here - put it in a laundry sink or somewhere you won't cry if it explodes. Yep, it's happened to me!

  • Squeeze in a lime and a few jalepeno peppers and seal it up. Leave for anywhere between 1 and 4 days - but I'd 'burp' your bottle every day to relieve a little of the excessive gas so it doesn't explode. Once it's got a proper fizz going, pop in the fridge where it will keep for weeks and the brewing slows down in the cold - eventually, it will turn to vinegar, but I've never had it in my fridge long enough for that to happen!

    If it's too strong (and too much kombucha can really affect people, especially if you aren't used to it) try watering it down with soda water.

    However, with the jalapenos and lime, one of the best combos of this drink is with some soda water and vodka. It's a great way to make your vodka healthy, right?

    Do you make kombucha? What flavours do you make?

    In this round, as I had about 6 litres of it, I also saw what other flavours I had to hand, and also made a mango & turmeric, fennel & lemon & ginger, and a chai spice 'boosh. So much fun.

    Plus, I felt victorious - I'd saved a ton of cash. Woo!



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Wow! Jalapeno-lime! Hubby @iamstan sent this to me and I say Wow! I am not that experimental yet on my kombucha so the tweak I've made so far is just adding blueberries and apple.

@quochuy has his own twist using clouded apple juice which I'm going to try since I have one currently fermenting, ready for 2F!

SO, how do you make mango and turmeric? Share recipe please? :D

Hey! Thanks for sharing my post 😊
I have experimented with various juices and slices of fresh fruits. Slices of fresh strawberries are nice and make very fizzy Kombucha. Freshly squeezed orange juice is nice too. Cloudy Apple (not from concentrate) is still our favourite.

Have you tried leaving the tea to ferment for more than 30 days and use the Kombucha to replace store-bought vinegar?

You're welcome!

I have 2F bottles I put slices of fresh strawberries :) I'm excited.

There's a lot of kombucha flavors I'm seeing and I have to experiment on 2 bottles per flavor.

And...I just now reviewed my witness list. I sure thought I voted for you way back when you announced your witness but somehow it didn't stick so now I made sure it did.

From steemian.info you're Active Rank 100!

Oh thanks 😊
You’re not the first one who have voted for a witness and it didn’t stick. I sometimes see users voting for me and then few seconds later they removed their vote. Like if they clicked twice or something.

My ranking is up and down between 100-97 depending on the day as people review their votes on all witnesses

Yes! I think I wrote your account name then have to enter the active key then I had to enter your account name again.

I had to refresh and check steemd to make sure it went through because I'm sure I voted for other witnesses and they're not there when I reviewed today.

Yes!! I have! I have a lot of kombucha vinegar. I've also made my own fruit vinegars - check out this post if you like!

https://steemit.com/homesteading/@riverflows/home-brewed-vinegar-pear-egar-and-quin-egar

Strawberry kombucha is amazing, as is raspberry - very strong and tasty.

Nice! Thanks

I have also made kombucha fire cider... have you tried That?

Never heard of!
I went and check and sounds am awesome. I grow ginger, turmeric and black turmeric. I think I have a new project now!

Blueberries sound yum - raspberry is one of my total favourites!!!! Oh my goodness - cloudy apple!!

Mango and turmeric: Thin sliced mango (you can use frozen - I often do out of season) plus thin sliced turmeric or ground turmeric - straight into bottles for 2F! It's one of my favourites too!

Thank you! I don't have raspberry but I do have frozen mango. I might need to hurry up and slice them to add to the apple. Hmmm apple-mango...

I see @thelaundrylady is here too! Fun! I think there's going to be a kombucha group here in Steemit pretty soon :)

Aha that's a good idea.. we could have a banner he he... Boss Booch Babes Unite 😂😂😂

Thanks for your comment and resteem!!

did you mean to flag me?

Oh my god are you kidding!!!!! How do I undo that???? Where did I do that? Absolutely not!!! I could not be sorrier!! Must have been a thumb slip???? @lovenfreedom more than apologies! Tell me where I did it so I can undo it! Mortified!!

I can't see where I flagged you - I don't get it - sob!

Okay - I see it! Why do I panic lol - it's undone now - kisses!! xx

then also on steemd

I guess you're on your phone? Busy?

I make kombucha at home. My favorite flavor combination is blueberry + rose hip + ginger + lavender... so good! My husband is pretty sensitive to caffeine, so I make my kombucha with herbal tea.

Jalapeno-lime sounds interesting! I can't imagine the taste though. I guess I will just have to give it a try sometimes! Love kombucha

I've never done a lavender one, but I really want to try! And - wow - rosehip!! That sounds great - I know rosehip makes a kick-butt country wine, so I'd love to try it. I don't grow roses, and there's a wild one on a fenceline I usually harvest from but someone cut it out!! I was so disappointed.

What herbal tea do you use? Does the scoby handle it okay?

I have been experimenting with different herbal teas, such as comfrey, nettle, lemon balm, hibiscus, raspberry leaf ... I should probably do a post on this sometimes to share what I have learned. SCOBY does not like all herbal teas, so some of my experiments failed and poor SCOBY died, but I learned which ones it does not like.

Hello! Nice to see you on this thread. Question, have you tried peppermint/spearmint for the tea?

I'm curious. I think I'd like a minty kombucha. I think I have a few scoby to sacrifice for an experiment.

We should totally start a kombucha group on steemit. For some reason, I did not think there were people loving kombucha here.

Peppermint and spearmint herbal tea have too much volatile oils, so your SCOBY will die. However, if you like the minty flavor, try adding a few fresh mint leaves when you bottle for 2nd ferment. I have tried this and it adds a perfect amount of mint flavor for Summer time booch.

Thanks for the info! I will definitely do this for my next batch!

I made a post about how to make kombucha with herbal tea today. I also included the failed experiments to avoid. Come check it out when you have time. Would love to see what you think. https://steemit.com/homesteading/@thelaundrylady/kombucha-brewed-with-lemon-balm-herbal-tea-no-caffeine

I'd love for you to share a post on it, and would undoubtedly give you my 100 percent upvote. There is a lot of informaiton on the net about making a standard kombucha but not a lot of helpful stuff about boosh with herbal teas.

I feel like I need a whole cupboard just for boosh experiments!

You got it. I will tag you when I make the post. It's cool to find people on steemit who also like kombucha! I never thought about making a post on kombucha making. Thanks for the idea!

I know, it's funny - the things that become ordinary for you, like bread or soup or kombucha, can be amazing for other people who have never heard of these things and would love to make them, or also feel enthused. Plus, I've now got all these cool ideas and flavours I hadn't thought of!

I finally made the post on how to make kombucha with herbal tea today. Come check it out when you have time and let me know what you think. https://steemit.com/homesteading/@thelaundrylady/kombucha-brewed-with-lemon-balm-herbal-tea-no-caffeine

I will try this mix, once I get the Konbucha working normally. :)

Damn that seems like a pretty funky flavour combo! I am a big fan of grated ginger and some pieces of lemon (or maybe even a few berries)

Oh yeah I love ginger kombucha!!!!

Although $7 does seem excessive, making it always seems like a lot of work, especially if you want it right now. And if you double ferment it so it's bubbly and put fruit in it so it tastes good, that's just gonna take even longer. A girl could die of thirst by then!

Haha BUT ... if you are super organised you don't HAVE to wait.. It's just the initial brew before successive ones that's the bugger. Also yeah... dependent on me bringing it with me for when I have a thirst! Damn it @choogirl don't spoil my boosh dream! 😂😂

Lol. Soz. As you were then. I'm sure your kombucha will be lovely in 2 weeks time.

Loved this post!! "Hi! My name is Tammy, and it has been 2 days since my last kambucha!" I love the jalapeño lime! Going to have to try that! We are big on blueberry white tea, strawberry mango rooibos, and peach green tea. I am working on birch syrup (like maple syrup).
Awesome blog post! Cheers!

Ahahha thats funny!!! KAA ... Kombucha Addicts Anon.

Oh wow.. birch syrup! Amazing. Ive done white tea too.. so delicate and would be great with blueberries!

I made it once when some hippy guy gave me a glass jar with just the water from his kambucha jar, and even the water itself after feeding grows a new one! miraculous! So you could say that i grew one first lol.
I didnt actually drink much of it, its proberbly lurking in the city garden i had in germany!

You can start it with a bit of Apple cider vinegar so you could do another! I love the idea of lurking scobies... they are ALIVE... thanks for the resteem 💛

When i was reading i was thinking did you mean to make from vinegar or i just read it wrong lol. So the kambucha creature can be made?!

yes definately. I started mine originally from a store bought unpasteurised kombucha which they said you couldnt do but that was bullshit, think they bought the pasteurised stuff.

So make a super strong tea - say in a 2 litre jar, you want about 10 teabags @movingman and 1 cup of sugar. Strain and allow to cool, then add about half a cup of ACV with the mother and leave in a dark place until you see it form on the top. Give it a taste - is it slightly vinegary or still sweet? You want it just vinegary - just, as it it's gone slightly tart. Then bottle with fruit for the 2f -just like a homebrew!

So that slimey creature thing, is made just from apple vinegar? Im gobsmaked! Ill definatly make some then :) it goes like a gel ontop of the water first right?!

Yeah after a couple of weeks. Make sure you use a cheesecloth or tea towel as lid, fastened with rubber band.

I have been doing some reading and no one has a definitive answer about ACV for starting a culture! But:

  • All scones have different cultures in them, according to area

  • The only way to properly test is if you send to a lab

  • ACV and SCOBY are essentially different cultures but both beneficial, so end result should still have benefit

  • SCOBY on an ACV brew COULD pick up wild yeasts from air and thus be a SCOBY anyway

  • Where did the original SCOBY form... surely all kombucha makers aren't using a derivative of some Adam and Eve one??? Thus wouldn't ACV be a legit way to start?

I find sometimes the only way to do it is to experiment. I will try too just to see!! I was told you could not do it with store bought boosh but that was wrong so...

@movingman let me know what halpens!!!

Thank you sooo much Kylie, now I'm incredibly curious to know the taste, and I'm only one world away from it hahahahahahaha

Have you tasted plain Kombucha before? You can make it, but it will take about 2 weeks... how patient are you?

I've never heard of it before, much less taste it =s

I'd say I'm pretty patient (I wait for 12 hours to bake my delicious bread hahahaha), problem are the ingredients, will I be able to find them in Brazil?

I had a pirate exhilaration on line and it turns out even people in Brazil drink it.

So... advice

  • find a health food shop. They may have the starter or a bottle of raw unpasteurized drinkable kombucha for a few dollars

  • order one online

  • ask.your social networks

If that fails try ACV as per comment on @movingman comment?

I tried brewing kombucha a few years ago in a kilner jar in my truck but the scooby kept growing and i the end i had bottles of the stuff everywhere, also i found it slightly brewed and a little alchoholic which didnt suit my taste.
A friend of mine runs a buisness making 250 gallon vats of it at a time the scooby he has is ginornous!

Oh my god I bet he has! Yeah, it's not to everyone's taste. People do all sorts of things with the scoby like stir fry them @happysmileyman - !!! But I just throw it in the compost. However, it's a cheap way to make vinegar, AND you can dilute with soda water for a refreshing summer drink. It's definitely taken off as a business thing - so many companies here!

I always think of Noel Fielding and that's the reference to the Mighty Mighty Boosh haha.

xx

The term Jalapeños comes from a place name "Xalapa" it's from my country Mexico, and the people from there are called "Xalapeños", it's just a curious fact friend, and I want some of your dish, it seems so tasty.

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