about using sun tea... my experiment

[Guest guest]

I wondered about using sun tea to make Kombucha and asked people if they had

done it. At least one person had done it and they do a lot with Kombucha. And

one person told me in an email that boiling the water is to kill germs so if I

don't do that then don't blame the group if I get sick. So, I got opposite

advice. Well, I didn't want to risk my scoby after getting it from someone, so

instead I just made sun tea (but without the sun! just soaked some tea bags in

warm water, then added sugar) and then had it sitting in a plastic bottle on the

floor. Well, it didn't match how I make Kombucha (had a lid on the bottle not a

napkin, and I certainly don't have Kombucha on the floor!) but it was sun tea

anyway. So, over about a week the tea grew some interesting looking spiky clumps

of mold that kinda floated around in the tea, and some grew on the wall of the

bottle. It went from brown to a golden color. And its smell wasn't too bad but

not normal. So, anyway, the way I would make sun tea would end up contaminating

my scoby, I think, so I guess boiling the water would be more important in my

case than for some people, maybe.

My next batch of Kombucha is with instant tea, that seems safe I suppose, even

though I have two different brands of tea bags too.