Fermentaholics ORGANIC Kombucha SCOBY With Twelve Ounces of Starter Tea - Live Starter Culture - Makes A One Gallon Batch - 1.5 Cups of Strong Mature Starter Tea - Brew Your Own Kombucha (1 Pack, 1, Count)

UPDATE 3/8/18: Still going strong. I'm swimming in extra scobys now. Very very healthy starter scoby from this seller, can't compliment this company enough on the high quality of their product. Since I wrote my original review, I've seen a lot of other people's scobys and they are UGLY. Very thin layers, stained dark brown, with gross black yeast strings, sitting in blackish brown liquid. SUPER gross looking. Fermentaholic's scoby is nothing like that - they are clean, healthy looking, creamy colored and thick. Mine doesn't make many yeast strings at all, just some sediment on the bottom. All my baby scobys have turned out to be beautiful and healthy looking as well, just follow the instructions included exactly. I've also read that using green tea instead of black tea helps keep your scoby from getting stained and becoming darker, so my typical mixture is 50/50 green tea and black tea (3 green tea bags, 3 black if you use the proportions in the instructions). However, my best batch yet was when I used 100% green tea (6 green tea bags) - it was pleasantly floral and sweet, with just a hint of tartness, not the aggressive sour and tannic flavor of typical kombucha. From my research, green tea works just as well as black for a scoby food source, and my scobys have been much prettier when I do batches with green tea, so try it! Last thing, I've been making so much kombucha that once in awhile I won't have time to refresh the liquid and a batch will ferment too long and become kombucha vinegar. It's not necessary to throw this out at all - there's tons of recipes online that substitute apple cider vinegar for kombucha vinegar, and I've found my over fermented kombucha to be super handy when I need vinegar in a pinch (ie. salad dressing). This may freak some people out, but I've even tried using my kombucha vinegar as a hair rinse (diluted down with cooled chamomile tea), and it worked amazingly as a clarifying shampoo and even took care of some flakes that I've been getting from the dry winter weather. If you have color treated hair, it will strip out your color. However, I really liked that my hair was so clean, volumized, and shiny the next day. I actually got several compliments about having a "hair model" day. For my method: Brew a cup of chamomile. Drink a third of the cup as you wait for it to cool. When cool, replace the third with your kombucha vinegar (1 part kombucha vinegar, 2 parts chamomile tea). After shampooing, dump this on your head, concentrating on the scalp (careful, it might get in your eyes and ears). Rinse well (I rinsed several times because I was afraid I'd smell like vinegar later). Condition as you would normally. While your hair is wet, the kombucha smell might follow you around, but it dissipated when it dried (I had several people smell me to confirm). Best of luck with your kombucha!! If you're buying it here, you made the right choice. I can confirm it's an excellent source. -------------------------- Oh this worked out great!! I read the reviews here that said these scobys come with a full cup of the kombucha starter liquid so that when you add it into your gallon of sweet tea, it will end up the perfect ph (instead of you having to add vinegar in to adjust the ph like other kombucha sets on Amazon that don't come with enough of the liquid). As a first time kombucha brewer, I was willing to pay a little extra to ensure the ph was correct from the get go, and I'm happy to report back that this worked great. I highly recommend buying your scobys from here if you are a beginner like I was. Just to be safe, I did test the ph with some ph test strips and it was in the perfect range! Instructions are very clear and simple. My scoby was about the size of a hockey puck. I could actually see several layers already existing in the scoby I got in the mail and from what I read, I'm sure it was probably thick enough to separate the layers and give to a friend. I didn't since I was new at this and didn't want to mess with it. It definitely moved around in my gallon jug in the first week - some days floating on top, some days stuck to the bottom, some days drifting on it's side. You're dealing with something that's alive, people. Just let it do it's thing. After only one fermentation cycle, I saw the beginnings of a new scoby forming at the top of my jug so this culture does seem very healthy. I was impressed. My first batch tasted about right to bottle after about 10 days (I live in San Francisco so fermentation times might be longer since it's a little cooler here).

Wonderful starter to begin making my own kombucha again! I love the detailed directions and the ease of beginning the process. Kombucha costs pennies to produce, and this scoby makes it simple!

We got our first pouch of this 5 years ago, and since then we have been using the same SCOBY to make a new batch every two weeks or so with excellent, consistent results. It was finally time to replace the old mother with a new SCOBY, so we just bought our second bag. Great stuff and wonderful longevity if you treat it right!

I have made kombucha for several years now!! I have only used scobys from friends and I was not happy with how mine was looking. I wanted to start fresh so I bought this. I love the step by step directions on the back. Even after making it many times it’s still nice to see what is suggested and have the directions right there. I was able to double check everything to be sure I am still doing it right. I use their test strips already but the kit also came with some.

I am very satisfied which the product. The Scoby is big and looks really healthy. It is so big that I could divide it in two to have a spare, just in case.

Delivered earlier than I expected. It also works quite well.

Thank you thank you !!! My first brew was delicious and perfect. My new scoby that was created from my first batch looked perfect. God bless you guys for making a beautiful product and thoughtfully packaged too.

I bought two scobys from this seller and each time they arrived DEAD. I’ve made kombucha several times over the years and there’s nothing to it. When I got the first one it was super tiny and thin, I didn’t expect that but I figured there was enough starter tea in the bag that it wouldn’t matter. I figured it was fermenting extra slowly because the ambient temperature was a little cooler than usual so I put it on a heating mat. The scoby sunk down to the bottom of the jar and a second one never grew on the surface, it wasn’t until mold started growing that I dumped it. I figured it was a fluke so I bought another except this one was super pale, was also really thin, and it had a hole in it. The tea that came with it also smelled “off,” and tasted tart in a way that I wasn’t familiar with. (Maybe they sent me a Jun scoby by mistake?) I made my tea the same way I always do, sanitized my jars the same way I always do, measured my ingredients the same way I always do, checked the temperature before adding the sample like I always do, and again no success. A film did grow on the top of the second batch after several weeks but not into a real scoby and it didn’t taste right either. The only reason I’m leaving this review now is because I was thinking about starting a new batch and saw this product in my past orders—buyer beware. If your scoby can’t make at least a gallon of kombucha within the first two weeks let alone a whole month then contact the seller before your window closes.

Muy buen producto el scuby muy sano todo como está publicado si lo recomiendo llegó en tiempo.

Excelente producto, el hongo es de muy buena calidad y se ve muy sano, respondieron a todas mis preguntas muy rápido y las instrucciones vienen, muy claras, lo recomiendo. La calidad del kombucha resultante de la fermentación es realmente buena muy contento con el producto y el soporte prestado.

Kurzfassung: Im Paket enthalten war alles (bis auf das Braugefäß), was man zur Herstellung von Kombucha benötigt. Das Ansetzen der Nährflüssigkeit war nach der Lektüre der Anleitung kein Problem und nach etwas mehr als einer Woche konnte ich die erste Ernte einfahren. Ich bin also vollkommen zufrieden mit dem Produkt und dem angebotenen Service (Step-by-Step-Anleitung und Zutaten). Längere Fassung: Der Inhalt des Paketes bestand - neben einer Plastikverpackung, die den Scoby beinhaltete - aus einer Menge Zucker, einer Grün-Schwarztee-Mischung, pH-Teststreifen, einem Jute-Säckchen zur Aufbewahrung nicht genutzter Elemente, einem Stück Stoff zur Abdeckung des Braugefäßes nebst eines Fixiergummies, sowie einem selbstklebenden Temperaturmessstreifen zur Anbringung an einem Braugefäß. Die Anleitung zur Erstellung eines geeigneten Nährmediums für den Scoby auf der Umverpackung ist zwar auf Englisch, aber auch für Menschen, die des Englischen nicht sonderlich mächtig sind, gut verständlich (keine Worte, die man zwingend googeln müsste). Über die Anleitung war es ein Kinderspiel die erste Ladung Nährmedium fertigzustellen. Über etwa 8 Tage beobachtete ich die Arbeit meines neuen Mitbewohners und konnte bereits die erste Ernte des Kombuchas einfahren. Geschmacklich muss ich noch damit herumexperimentieren, sobald der erste Ableger kräftig genug ist, ein eigenes Gefäß zu bewirtschaften. Aber das soll nun wirklich keine Kritik an der hier angebotenen Ware darstellen! Abschließend kann ich nur wiederholen, dass dieses Paket also bestens sowohl für Anfänger als auch für erfahrene Braumeister geeignet zu sein scheint. Man benötigt zusätzlich lediglich ein entsprechend großes Gefäß.

It was so easy to follow instructions. The flavour is terrific. I wanted to repurchase but is currently unavailable. However I will buy it again as soon as it is available. Would make a great gift for someone

C'est de la bonne qualité. ça fait maintenant 2 mois que nous avons reçu notre scoby , elle se porte bien et commence à se reproduire. Livraison rapide et sans problème.