Question about Mailing

[Guest guest]

I have never mailed KT culture before, but I'm thinking if I did, I would

pour it into one of our old seal-a-meal unit bags and leave a little

airspace and then seal the bag...maybe even double bag it. Has anyone

ever done this before? and did it work for you? and, if so, about how

much is mailing cost in the U.S. to do it this way? My starting culture

that I received from a relative did not do well in shipping. It had been

sealed tightly in a glass jar and then jar was in a ziplock bag...with

packing chips around the bag. When it got here, the natural cornstarch

packing chips were soggy where the liquid surrounding the scoby had

leaked out of the jar (lid was still screwed on!) and ziplock bag. What

little liquid that remained in the ziplock bag was black and very

unappetizing. The scoby proved to be successful in the long run, but

obviously the mailing method was lacking!

Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks

a

[Guest guest]

In message you wrote:

> I have never mailed KT culture before, but I'm thinking if I did, I would

> pour it into one of our old seal-a-meal unit bags and leave a little

> airspace and then seal the bag...maybe even double bag it.

Hello a,

I am a regular Kombucha-starter-supplier from the United Kingdom (England).

I used to send just the solid culture/scoby double wrapped as you describe

it above. The few times I included some liquid the package leaked and ended

up in some mess.

The method I now very successfully use and have been using for several years

is to use a small pressure proof plastic bottle (I use mostly recycled

and well cleaned 380 ml Lucozade bottles) which have a wider neck than the

usual drinks bottles. I insert the culture either rolled up or cut into

one long continuous strip if it is too thick to go through the neck otherwise

and insert it in the bottle and top it with very acidic KT from my starter

pot. In this very acidic KT the yeasts have gone dormant enough not to

cause a lot of fermentation with resulting pressure and possible leaking

of the bottle.

I send this bottle in a large light plastic-bubbled jiffy bag through

the ordinary mail not only within the UK itself but also further afield

and have never had any problems. The culture always arrives with bottle

intact and goes on to ferment some great brews for the new owner.

I only charge for postage and packing (rounded up to the next pound/dollar).

The charge for sending the culture here is never more than 2 UK pounds,

about 3 dollars?

Anyway, I hope sharing my successful method with you might be helpful.

All the best,

Margret:-)

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