 Hello, Bidgets. Fantasia 1940 here today, or Fantasia 2000 if you're really young. Everyone who watches me probably already knows this, but I have an addiction to something called kombucha. If you don't know what that is, the best way I can explain it is a healthy soda. By definition, it is a fermented tea, and half of you have not taken chemistry or biology, so you don't know what that means. Basically, you brew a tea, put some bacteria in it to start a reaction. The bacteria eats the sugar and creates kombucha. First time I tried it, I thought it was kind of weird because it tasted a little bit like vinegar, but my parents put vinegar on everything, so I don't really care. And to me, it tastes like soda. So I decided, why not cook some for you guys today? Keep in mind, this is for people who like kombucha. If you want to try this for the first time, please buy it at the supermarket. It costs $3. My sister got me hooked on it, and then I got my parents hooked on it. So that's why I'm cooking it today because my parents are impatient. I have my cat apron on. Welcome to Frederick's Asian Kitchen. The first thing I want to talk about is how to make kombucha because I actually want this to be educational for once. As I told you, kombucha's made by putting bacteria into tea. This is the bacteria. Sorry, it just, it kind of burns my eyes because it's very vinegary. I'm going to give a close-up, and if you're queasy, look away, please. That's what it looks like. So this is called scoby, and it's an acronym stands for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It looks like a stack of pancakes, but basically, that's the whole population of organisms right there, and they are called probiotics. So yeah, this is the same thing that's in your yogurt, in your probiotic drink, it's nothing new. It just looks disgusting. That's what put people off. You either make kombucha with green tea or black tea because that's what tastes best. I'm telling you right now, do black tea only. You can use loosely tea or just tea bags. I'm going to switch to loosely tea because I'm so tired of using up all this paper, and I just think this takes way too long, but you need six tea bags with a black tea. You also need sugar. I prefer raw sugar because it tastes better. You need a big jar. This is one gallon. One bottle of kombucha has about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of black coffee, by the way. So you will get caffeine addiction, like me and my sister. So what I'm doing right now is filling up the jar halfway because you're going to boil half of the water. You want to get your pot from the oven because my parents consider it a storage unit now. The dishwasher is a dish holder. Everything is Asian. But the reason why you only fill this up halfway is because you're going to add more water later. You're basically making a concentrated black tea. By the way, if your measurements are different, like you have a two gallon jar or half gallon jar, you have to double or half the amount of tea bags and sugar and everything else you use. I will list my recipe in the description and you can multiply and divide how you please. It's basic algebra. You know it. So you're just going to put this on high, let it come to a boil. All these batch in color. Sorry, that was a gay moment. Next up, you're going to measure one cup of sugar. And for anyone telling me that this is a liquid measurement, I bought a solid measure and I compared the two and they're the same. But Frederick, this is so much sugar. Isn't it bad for you? No, because the bacteria has to eat the sugar to create the kombucha taste. You're basically providing a home and feeding this goby for 10 days. Or forever, if you're like me who wants to drink kombucha forever. And while you're doing all of this, you have to make sure that everything, listen up, don't skip. Everything has to be clean. I'm talking, wash everything with hot water. Wash your hands with hot water. I want you to burn your hands. Actually, don't do that. And please do not use antibacterial soap because remember, this is bacteria. You use antibacterial soap, you'll kill the thing. And if you need to figure out where to buy this, I'll leave a link in the description because I got to send from Amazon. But seriously, the reason why everything has to be very clean and not soapy is because scoby is like a very sensitive child. You know, they don't like being insulted at it. They don't like being told the truth. They don't want people to come for their feelings. So if you introduce it to another type of bacteria, like your spit, for example, or just anything in general, like a piece of fabric that fell in or like a little part of a napkin that falls in, basically the scoby shuts down, cries and dies. Oh my God, I can relate. Yeah, don't, don't relate to that. That is bad behavior and a bad mindset. You don't have to go crazy with the hot water. I have never done it with hot water, but I'm just telling you that as a precaution. Are you boiling it? Well, I guess I'm really into film this part, but once that comes to a boil, you wanna put your tea in there and let it boil for 10 minutes. I'll see you when it's done boiling. Sun is setting, by the way, so we gotta wrap this up real quick. This is finished boiling. I just let it sit for a little bit. Ooh, be careful, children. Please let an adult do this. Before you pour all of it into here, you wanna first get rid of the tea bags or the loose leaf tea, because what happens if you leave them in? Contamination, yes. And if you're someone who likes to get most of their money's worth, AKA your cheap, squeeze the tea bags as hard as you can to get the remaining juices out. And before throwing this away, use it as fertilizer. Put it into a composter and you get fertilizer. Now you have to pour all of this into that jar without spilling yourself. Do not pour towards you. I'm not responsible for your burns. You wanna mix this all in so that the sugar is fully incorporated. This also looks like I'm making soup. Now you're gonna fill this up the rest of the way. Leave a few inches because you wanna put your scoby in. And if you let it go to the top, it'll literally, yes, this is a pickle jar in case you were wondering. Now listen carefully. This is hot right now, correct? Yes. This is room temperature. What you don't wanna do is put that in there because it will die instantly. It will burn in hell. It will boil that bacteria to death. So leave this overnight. Maybe do the dishes for once while you're at it. How about you learn how to use the washing machine and fold some clothes? Much, much later. All right, so after the kombucha has settled down to room temperature, I just typically leave it overnight. We're gonna take it out. So I'm gonna grab it real quick. Well look at this beauty. So it does look gross, I will admit. If you've had kombucha before, I advise that maybe on like the eighth day you start taking like a little sip to see if it's the taste you want. I've done this for months now. So I've had to cut off layers because it just gets too thick. I think this is five stacks of pancakes. And when you have more scoby, it does the reaction faster. So it tastes vinegary faster. Which means if I let this sit for 10 days, it'll taste like straight up apple cider vinegar. If you want it to taste like that, you can do whatever you want. But I like it to be sweet. So once again, he's very sensitive. So you have to make sure your hands are clean. Remember, if you use antibacterial soap, you're gonna kill it. You wanna take a clean jar to set your scoby in for another time you do a batch. And if you wanna use gloves, you can. But I'm a man of the household. So if anyone is queasy, cover your eyes right now. God, I understand why people don't like this. Yes, your hands will smell like vinegar for a few hours. So that's why you can use gloves. Or if you don't give a shit, you do it like me. And if you wanna check up on it, I just take a straw and like push it on the side and just take a little sip. But you wanna put like half a cup or just one cup of the kombucha you made into the scoby. The best analogy I have is say you only know English and you're suddenly moving to China where it's mainly Mandarin and Cantonese. It'd be nice to have a translator to make your life a little easier, right? The kombucha is the translator for the scoby. Cause if you put that scoby into just straight up black tea and sugar, it's gonna feel really weird and out of place. It's gonna feel like an outsider who'll be introverted. So the kombucha just helps it realize like, oh, it's like a new home, but it's a little familiar. That's the best analogy I have. If you don't plan on making a new batch right after just put this over top of it, let it sit. It'll be good for like two weeks, but you wanna try to use it again because then this will taste like straight up vinegar. And do not seal it with a jar. It needs air to breathe. So you now have a shitload of kombucha. You can drink it like this actually. It just won't taste that fizzy or good in general. It just tastes like sugary black tea. That's a little bit tangy. But a lot of people will do a second fermentation. And that's when you add the flavoring. So like different fruits, ginger, other common flavors you see on kombucha. So I'm gonna go get my fruit. Easiest mixture, get some ginger, freeze it up so it can last. Go to Costco, buy this. And we're gonna make a smoothie basically. That may look like a lot of ginger, but keep in mind ginger isn't really juicy. I can't give you an exact measurement of how much to put in. I just eyeball it because I'm Asian and I hate measurements. But you wanna have like 10 to 20% of your flavoring in each bottle that you're gonna make. So I'm just gonna let this defrost for a little bit and I'll be back when we're ready to blend. All right, so I waited about two hours for this to thaw. Now you're gonna blend this for like two minutes straight because you wanna get all the juices out, but you don't want chunks in your drink. And just to make sure it doesn't end up like a yogurt texture, just add some water to it. Because I don't know if you've tried this before, but extracting pure juice is impossible unless you have a juicer. But I don't have that time in patience. All right, three, two, one. I think it's good. Do this a couple times. Now I used to strain this through a cheesecloth every time. That's why this is purple. But I found that it's not worth your patience because it is extremely hard to get all the juices out. But if you have a good blender, if you do it for a long time it basically just turns into a juice. And when you mixed it in with all the kombucha you don't even taste it. If you don't care about a few berries in your drink, just don't cheesecloth it. But if you hate even a little bit of pulp in your drinks you should consider buying just straight up juice at the market. So what you do now is you go on Amazon and you buy six beer bottles. I'm talking these things. I found that having a gallon jar and having six of these bottles is exactly enough. So what you wanna do is just put 10 to 15% juice in here. At this point I just eyeball it because I've done it so many times. Also don't taste this because it's very ginger-y. If you're not a fan of ginger I would just recommend putting like one or two pieces. This is a health drink so that's why I put a lot in it. And because I'm Asian my mom forced to be ginger my whole life so like I don't taste it anymore. And make sure you have a funnel because it makes your life so much easier. Don't try without, trust me. Please don't fall and trusting you. Also if you're one of those people that thinks ginger is spicy just don't put any in at all. This is basically an education channel which is why you should let your kid watch me. Final step, take some of the kombucha out. Be careful pouring. If you've taken physics you should know that it tends to run down the side. It's not gonna work if you just do it really fast guys. Trust me, just buy a jar that curves inwards because then when you pour it doesn't leak all over you, see? And you don't have to use a beer bottle. It can be any type of glass. You can even use a big jar and just have it in storage. But for any container you use make sure it is sealed very well and you leave about two or three inches away because it will explode. This is how you get it fizzy because when it ferments again I don't know the chemicals but there's something in fruit juice that mixes with kombucha and creates carbon dioxide. And for you simpletons, it makes bubbles. And bubbles create pressure which can create boom, boom. All right, I filled the rest of these and I'll show you what to do for your last step. By the way, if you see like any remnants of the scoby in the bottom of your jar it doesn't matter, you won't taste it. All good bacteria, you won't die. All right, now you're just gonna seal all of them. I haven't tried to make kombucha in a big container like this but it doesn't have to be like airtight to this point. You can just put on the lid. All right, so this step is kind of important. All right, so typically people like to say that you leave these just in a dark area. I still use the box that it came with but they tell you every day to open it so the air doesn't get too pressurized and blow up. Yeah, don't do that, that's a waste of time. You're basically slowing down the process because you're releasing carbon dioxide every time and it'll take like five days longer to get the kombucha. What my friend taught me to do is just let it sit for two to three days. That is more than enough bubbles for you. And after those two to three days put it in the fridge for eight hours and that basically gets rid of the pressure. Don't ask me why but I've done it for months. Haven't had one thing blow up yet. So I'm just gonna put this back here and I'll see you in two to three days.