Scoby City

The bacterial city within our gallon-sized glass jar continued to multiply over a three week period.

Conception.

Age: 2 weeks.

A scoby is born.

What began as a rural community of God-fearing microbes in uncharted beverage territory became increasingly more populated, enjoyed the cerebral stimulation of the Enlightenment, experienced rapid industrialization, endured a bloody revolution, and became a full-fledged scoby ready for fermenting a gallon of white tea into kombucha.

We brewed a large sauce pot full of white tea for our first batch of kombucha. Dave courageously reached into the jar, extracted the slimy disc with his bare hands and relocated it to a large glass bowl with a quarter of the jar’s contents. The rest of the jar was emptied into the sink and carefully cleaned. The slightest smear of soap can annihilate a bacterial civilization.

By the time the pot of tea cooled, Dave realized that we didn't add a cup of sugar to the tea, a blunder that would have spurred the slow starvation of our sweet-toothed scoby. Dave reheated the saucepot of tea as the clock struck 11:00 pm and the scoby dozed under a fresh white towel.

Once the second pot of tea came to room temperature – with ample assistance from the freezer – we poured the tea into the jar and released the scoby into the depths of the tea. Then we covered it with a towel secured with a rubber band.

Now we wait.

Many questions occur to me. Did we grow the scoby correctly? Does the scoby know that I'm thinking about it? Can it feel human emotions like love and anguish? Will the resulting kombucha make us blind like bathtub gin?  These questions and more will be answered when the kombucha is unveiled.