Buying Kombucha Scobys On eBay

Hi! this is no big deal... it is not life and death; but, if you are thinking of buying a kombucha culture to make your own kombucha tea at home, I am going to tell you a thing or two about buying kombucha on eBay or anywhere on line for that matter.

Anyone can sell on eBay and anyone does... i mean some of these people are good, well informed and then some are not so good... some have these <>< signs and talk about how much integrity they have, some are really devious... with kefir there is a guy who sells his kefir grains for .99 or 2.99 cents but his shipping is 9.99 and it is first class mail...when he offers a return for the kefir he offers complete money back....minus shipping and handling so you get your money back and you get 99 cents worth of it because that is the price you paid... get the picture? That is one of the reasons I am writing this lens.

Very briefly let me say that all kombucha scobys or portions of kefir grains can be sent via USPS Priority mail and the package will be under a pound.. you need priority mail to get the cultures to you in 2/3 business days... You could get by with first class mail but for a dollar or two more why not get the cultures there asap...the rate for the package should be 4.80 plus maybe a couple of quarters more for handling... but no more

It is a good idea to look at the sellers detailed customer service ratings... know that most kombucha buying people are new to deal and also are for the most part very nice people.. so they tend to give out good ratings to people who sometimes send out poor products.;.. a new kombucha person will not know the difference so sellers detailed ratings are usually high but take a look anyhow ... I would buy from a sellers whose detailed customer satisfaction levels are no lower that 4.5 in any of the 5 catagorys

I would recomend you buy from someone using a machine sealed vacumed bag... not a couple of zip locked bags... a vacumed bag puts the cultures to sleep and a machine sealed bag prevents anything from leaking... the scoby should be packed with 6 to 8 ounces of kombucha tea to be used for starter but more on that later

There is a lot of misinformation being put out on ebay by sellers who maybe are misinformed themselves... I want to address that now. Here are some of the things I noticed. Here is some of the misinfo I have read on listing at eBay.. One seller sends 4 ounces of starter and says you can ferment a gallon with it.. another says you can fermnet with rooibus tea.. others say brown sugar, molasses and honey are good to use for the culture.These are not good ideas.

Kombucha is made by putting the scoby in sweat tea.. inorder to discourate mold from growing in your solution the solution must have a ph level of 4.5 or less... you do this by putting some kombucha tea from a previous batch in with the new sweat tea. What is happening here is you are creating a solution where because it is acidic to a degree ...mold won't like it.. if you put in your kombucha tea with you new sweat tea mold will not happen... It is suggest that to get your solution you need to make that solution have a ph level of 4.5 and to get that solution to that place it must consist of 10 to 15% old kombucha tea that we call starter.

So to ferment 32 ounce of kombucha tea you get 32 ounce of new sweat tea and remove 3.2 of of it and replace that sweat tea with 3.2 ounces of kombucha tea starter.. that is usually sent with the cultures in the package you get from the mail.. You don't really have to remove the 3.2 ounces of new sweat tea because any thing close to the 10% level is fine... it doesn't have to be exact just close. And you can use a lot less sugar once you know what you are doing.. keep your kombucha going regularly into fresh sweat tea... even if you are not going drink it... you can also brew for yourself and for the cultures.. if you know you are not going to drink this batch... give the cultures a little extra sugar as a treat and for there health; after all, you are not going to drink this batch...

You would also add no more than 3.2 ounce of sugar.. no more but possibly less if that is how you like your kombucha... too much sugar will encourage yeast growth at the detriment of the bacteria.

As much as we might not like it, it is best to ferment with your kombucha culture using Black tea and plain white sugar. There are nutrients in black tea that kombucha especially like, caffeine for one. You can get by using some of the other teas from the black tea plant... green tea is one and oolong tea is the other.. green tea has some caffeine and Oolong tea has a little more caffeine than green tea but not as much as black tea.. so kombucha prefers black, oolong and green tea in that order ... it is actually a good idea to switch back and forth or maybe mix these teas so you kombucha can get the varity of benefits each of the teas offer... If you wish to ferment with a tea that is not from the real tea plant be aware that it is not idea for the culture and it won't make the most optimal kombucha tea.. .you can get away with it... you can actually brew your kombucha tea in Coca cola if you wish but it will not be the best tea

So you can mix hebal teas with tea from the tea plant and that is fine but watch out for oily teas and teas that have anti microbal properties like Earl Gray... don't use that guy.

Kombucha cultures prefer plain old white sugar as they are simple organisms and they have simple digestive systems and white sugar is the easiest form of sugar for them to digest .. .brown sugar or mollasses will make you brew taste bad... Honey is anti microbal.. use white sugar

If you use brown sugar and ferment with green tea or rooibos teas exclusively your culture will survive but they will be weak and pasty looking like many of the scobys on eBay look like... they won't be very bubbly... enjoy your kombucha... I suggest you get into bottling it... I do it and it is great... you can do it too... all the best

Oh I did forget almost the most important thing... one seller says they drink glass after glass of kombucha.. this is not a good idea... kombucha is a weak acid..when it enters the body a chemical reaction takes place that changes this weak acid into an alkaline... this is one of the reasons why we drink kombucha in the first place ... to change the ph of our bodies so they are a little more alkaline..but in the process of this chemical change we use ionic minerals from our tissues and our blood... if you drink glass after glass of kombucha we may use too much of these minerals.... we may use some of the minerals from our bones... this is not what we want... don't drink more than 4,6 maybe 8 ounces maybe twice a day and drink a little water behind the kombucha tea... other wise enjoy and remember just because something is good doesn't mean that more is better... enjoy your tea...