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This is a living microbial culture also called a kombucha SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) that can be used to ferment sugary tea, transforming sugars into acids. It can also be used as a material in and of itself, for leather alternatives and paper-like thin materials. See also this [recipe for Kombucha Paper](https://class.textile-academy.org/2020/loes.bogers/files/recipes/kombuchapaper/).
Color without additives: varies, may be white transparent with darker areas, or get yellow brownish.
Need attention: check for mold growth and irregularities every few days.
There are various ways to do this and different methods work for different people, also depending on the temperature in your home. Here we use the living culture from store-bought kombucha and add some extra nutrients by preparing some sugary black tea for it to grow a little faster. The ratio is 2:1 kombucha, sugary tea.
Try to work as sterile as possible throughout.
* **Kombucha drink with live culture (raw), without flavouring**
* used here: Yaya Kombucha Original (Ekoplaza supermarket)
* 660 ml (2x 330 ml) or just make sure to make a 2:1 ratio of raw kombucha and sugary tea).
* we will cultivate the live bacteria in the drink and grow them into a solid SCOBY
* some say it's best to find a bottle that already has some blobs of culture (baby scoby's) sitting at the bottom.
* **Denatured alcohol 96%** to desinfect all your tools and pots
* **Two large round coffee filters** to prevent contamination by fruit flies
* **Two rubber bands** to prevent contamination by fruit flies
* **Water - 330 ml**, to make black tea
* **1 tea bags of black tea**, organic simple black tea such as ceylon, darjeeling or English breakfast are good options.
* **(organic) sugar - 30 g**, just plain white sugar is best.
* Optional: a splash of vinegar if your water is alkaline
1. **Two glass jars** try to get a wider ones, min 10 cm diameter
1. **A pot**
1. **Kitchen paper**
1. **Anti-bacterial soap and kitchen towels** to wash your hands
1. **A scale**
1. **A spoon**
1. **A thermometer**
2 SCOBY's if all goes well. They will grow the same size and shape as the diameter of the jars you grown them in.
- Wash your hands with soap for at least 20 seconds
- Sterilize all your tools with 95% denatured alcohol
- If you don't have alcohol: sterilize with hot water. Don't put cold glass inside hot water! It will break. Heat up slowly.
- Add the teabag and turn off the heat. Let the tea brew and let it cool all the way down to 30 degrees Celcius (so you don't kill the bacteria of the kombucha).
1. **Mix in the kombucha and seal**
- Make sure all is sterile - maybe wash your hands again?
- Mix in the store-bought kombucha and stir
- Distribute your kombucha/tea mix into the sterilized jars
- Seal them with a coffee filter and a rubber band to prevent fruit flies from going in. You don't want their larvae in your SCOBY. You want to ensure air flow without letting any bugs in. You can also do this with a clean cloth, but make sure the mesh is small enough.
1. **Let it grow**
- Put it on a shelf in a warm place but away from direct sunlight, and leave it for 2-3 weeks, or until it has grown 5 mm thick (to use for paper) or closer to 10-15 mm thick, to grow for leather-like pellicles. Do not move the jars.
- Check regularly for unusual growth. Ideally your SCOBY becomes a thick white-ish film floating on top of the liquid. But it takes many forms and can definitely look funny. Learn how to discriminate between a heathy SCOBY and fungal or yeast growth. The resources from [Kombucha Camp](https://www.kombuchakamp.com/kombucha-mold-information-and-pictures) are a good starting point.
- Use your SCOBY to make paper or leather (or kombucha tea) see [this recipe for Kombucha paper](https://class.textile-academy.org/2020/loes.bogers/files/recipes/kombuchapaper/)
- Use your SCOBY to grow more SCOBY:
- sterilize everything and wash your hands again thoroughly
- prepare another jar of sugary tea as described above
- consider: should you wash your hands and sterilyze your tools again?
- cut a 5x5 cm square (approx.) off your fully grown SCOBY
- seal the jar(s) with a coffee filter and rubber band and let them grow undisturbed like you did before.
It is important not to distrub the SCOBY, just leave it in peace. Use glass jars so you can peek inside without touching it. Check for irregular growth. Start over if unsure.
- Mold depth and diameter: height = 20 cm or less, diameter = 10 cm or more
- Shrinkage thickness N/A
- Shrinkage width/length N/A
2 weeks, or until it is 5 mm thick (to make paper) or 10-15 mm thick (or more) for leather.
Make a **SCOBY hotel** to store your SCOBY for later use:
- Never put it in the fridge
- Instead: learn to make a SCOBY hotel, and perform maintenance every 2-6 months, to keep growing for ever and ever and ever. Kombucha Camp has very good resources to learn this (see references).
- Also learn how to trim and thin big SCOBY's to learn how to achieve optimal growth.
**Further research needed on drying/curing/growth?**
Yes, there's a huge kombucha community out there. Get connected and learn all the ins and outs.
*Preparing for a few jars, Loes Bogers, 2020*
*Some experiments brewing, the one on the right has grown a nice thin SCOBY after two weeks, Loes Bogers, 2020*
## Variations on this recipe
- Kombucha SCOBY can grow in many different liquids (wine, beer, green/black tea) that each give a different color to the SCOBY as well. Natural colorants can be added to the tea (such as hibiscus, beetroot etc).
- Try out different treatments for the kombucha, such as coconut oil or other natural and essential oils.
- Research the use of growing mats and temperature controlled boxes to keep your SCOBY at 24 to 30 degrees Celcius for optimal growth and the smallest chance at mold formation. Ideal temperature is 27 degrees celcius. If you use a plant mat, don't put it underneath the jar but rather wrap it around it (otherwise you're more likely to increase yeast growth instead of SCOBY growth).
- **The NOMA guide to fermentation** is a great resource on microbial growth for safe human consumption that describes how you can make a fermentation chamber form a styrofoam cooler.
- Try growing a mature piece of SCOBY in other liquids such as **Lorena Trebbi's recipes** using 200 ml (organic) red wine, 200ml water and 40g sugar. Or start a new one with 200 ml raw kombucha tea, 200 ml of organic red wine and 20 g sugar.
- Or Lorena's **beer version** that is said to grow very fast(!) using 300 ml organic craft beer, 300 ml water, 60 g sugar and 60 g white vinegar with a 5x5 cm piece of mature SCOBY.
- Or try growing a piece of SCOBY (5x5cm) further on 500 ml of dyed water (consider autoclaving it first to sterilize), 50g sugar and 50 ml vinegar.
Kombucha is an ancient Chinese fermented drink made of sweetened green or black tea and yeast and bacteria cultures. It is said to have originated in Manchuria (now Northeast China) and was hailed for its curing qualities. It spread across Asia and later also Russia. It was brought to Europe with the expansion of trade routes in the 1900s where it gained popularity (most notably in Germany and Switzerland, as "Kombuchaschwamm" due to alleged health benefits comparable to those of yoghurt. Initially it was brewed by enthousiasts sharing the mother SCOBY or mushroom with a grassroots community of fermentation lovers, both in Europe and the U.S. Commercial enterprises started to pop up from the mid-90s onwards and recently one of the big kombucha brewers KeVita was purchased by PepsiCo for $200 million.
Using Kombucha SCOBY's as a design material took off most notably after Suzanne Lee's Ted talk "Grow Your Own Clothes" in 2011. And the use of kombucha cellulose as vegan leather has been further developed and shared by many other initiatives like thr34d5, the fashion department of Queensland University of Technology and scientists from The Edge, State Library of Queensland, Australia.
**Needs further research?** Not sure
### This recipe draws together information from these other recipes
- **How to Start Brewing Kombucha Without a SCOBY** by Kathleen Quiring, for Becoming Peculiar, 6 November 2013: [link](http://becomingpeculiar.com/how-to-start-brewing-kombucha-without-a-scoby/)
- **How to Grow a Kombucha SCOBY from Bottled Komucha** by Carol Lovett, for Ditch the Wheat, n.d. [link](https://ditchthewheat.com/how-to-grow-a-kombucha-scoby-from-bottled-kombucha/)
- **How to Grow a Kombucha SCOBY** Kristen Michaelis, 2 February 2018:[link](https://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-grow-a-kombucha-scoby/)
- **How to Grow a Kombucha SCOBY in just 10-12 days** by Brod and Taylor, n.d. [link](https://brodandtaylor.com/kombucha-scoby/)
Because the SCOBY scan regrow itself infinitely with a bit of water, tea and sugar, and can be composted, it's a relatively uncontroversial material but still requires resources and more importantly, a lot of time. Especially in colder climates it is tempting to use heating to speed up the growth. As a material, it is still very much in development.
Additives and post-treatments to dry and tan the pellicle, like boiled linseed oil and turpentine are not necessarily eco-friendly products. Chemicals are added to boiled linseed oil to make it dry quicker than raw linseed oil for example. There is room for improvement in the area of techniques and compounds to make the pellicles stronger and more durable.
- Renewable ingredients: yes
- Vegan: yes
- Made of by-products or waste: yes
- Biocompostable final product: yes
- Re-use: you can continue to use SCOBYs to grow more SCOBY, more kombucha, more is more.
## Material properties
### Comparative qualities
This recipe does not create a usable design material per se, but describes a way to grow a semi-finished product or ingredient. So it is hard to assess what to compare its material qualities against. It is like a thick jelly.
- **Strength**: fragile
- **Hardness**: resilient
- **Transparency**: translucent
- **Glossiness**: glossy
- **Weight**: medium
- **Structure**: closed
- **Texture**: smooth
- **Temperature**: cool
- **Shape memory**: low
- **Odor**: strong (acidic smell while growing)
- **Stickiness**: low
- **Weather resistance:** N/A
- **Acoustic properties:** N/A
- **Anti-bacterial:** antimicrobial effect on some types of microbes, (see Jayabalan et.al. below)
- **Non-allergenic:** needs further research
- **Electrical properties:** needs further research
- **Heat resistance:** low
- **Water resistance:** N/A
- **Chemical resistance:** low
- **Scratch resistance:** low
- **Surface friction:** low
- **Color modifiers:** none
## About this entry
### Maker of this sample
- Name: Loes Bogers
- Affiliation: Fabricademy student at Waag Textile Lab Amsterdam
- Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
### Environmental conditions
- Humidity: not sure
- Outside temp: 5-11 degrees Celcius
- Room temp: 18 – 22 degrees Celcius
- PH tap water: 7-8
### Recipe validation
Has recipe been validated?
Yes
By Cecilia Raspanti, Textile Lab, Waag Amsterdam, 9 March 2020
### Estimated cost (consumables) in local currency
Approx. 6,15 Euros for a yield of initially two, but eventually infinite SCOBYs if kept alive with more sugar and tea or other nutrient.
Techniques for growing kombucha SCOBY are documented widely and considered something of an oral culture that may be 200 to 2000 years. Although none can really claim the intellectual rights to such an old recipe, references used are listed below. This information is in the public domain.
- **How to Make Your Own Kombucha SCOBY** by Emma Christensen for Cooking Lessons From the Kitchn, 5 june 2019: [link](https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-kombucha-scoby-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-202596)
- **How to Start Brewing Kombucha Without a SCOBY** by Kathleen Quiring, for Becoming Peculiar, 6 November 2013: [link](http://becomingpeculiar.com/how-to-start-brewing-kombucha-without-a-scoby/)
- **How to Grow a Kombucha SCOBY from Bottled Komucha** by Carol Lovett, for Ditch the Wheat, n.d. [link](https://ditchthewheat.com/how-to-grow-a-kombucha-scoby-from-bottled-kombucha/)
- **How to Grow a Kombucha SCOBY** Kristen Michaelis, 2 February 2018: [link](https://www.foodrenegade.com/how-to-grow-a-kombucha-scoby/)
- **Kombucha Mold Information and Pictures** by Kombucha CAmp, n.d. [link](https://www.kombuchakamp.com/kombucha-mold-information-and-pictures)
- **SCOBY hotel video quick tip** by Kombucha Camp, n.d. [link](https://www.kombuchakamp.com/scoby-hotel-video-quick-tip)
- **SCOBY hotel maintenance** by Kombucha Camp, n.d. [link](https://www.kombuchakamp.com/scoby-hotel-maintenance)
- **How to Trim SCOBYS: Kombucha Care** by Kombucha Camp, n.d. [link](https://www.kombuchakamp.com/trim-scobys-kombucha-care)
- **The NOMA guide to Fermentation** by René Redzepi and David Zilber, Foundations of Flavour 2018.
- **Kombucha** by Cecilia Raspanti (Textile Lab, Waag), Fabricademy Class "Biofabricating", 2019, [link](https://class.textile-academy.org/classes/week05A/).
- **How to Grow a Kombucha SCOBY in just 10-12 days** by Brod and Taylor, n.d. [link](https://brodandtaylor.com/kombucha-scoby/)
- **A Review on Kombucha Tea—Microbiology, Composition, Fermentation, Beneficial Effects, Toxicity, and Tea Fungus** by Rasu Jayabalan, Radomir V. Malbaša, Eva S. Lončar, Jasmina S. Vitas, Muthuswamy Sathishkumar, in *Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety*, 21 June 2014: [link](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12073)
- - **Open Source Kombucha**, by thr34d5. n.d., [link](https://thr34d5.org/2019/08/28/open-source-kombucha/)
- **Biofabricating Materials** by Cecilia Raspanti for Fabricademy 2019-2020: [link](https://class.textile-academy.org/classes/week05A/)
- **Grow your own clothes** TED talk by Suzanne Lee, 2011: [link](https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_lee_grow_your_own_clothes?language=en)
- **Kombucha Fashion** by Cameron Wilson, Peter Musk and Jimmy Eng for the The Edge, State Library of Queensland, n.d. [link](https://wiki.edgeqld.org.au/doku.php?id=workshops:public:kombucha_fashion:start)
- **QUT reveals how you can make your own leather at home** by The Conversation, republished by SmartCompany, 24 November, 2016: [link](https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/advice/startupsmart-growth/startupsmart-innovation/qut-reveals-how-you-can-make-your-own-leather-at-home/)
- **Kombucha 101: Demystifying the Past Present and Future of the Fermented Tea Drink** by Christina Troitino for Forbes, 1 Feb 2017:[link](https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinatroitino/2017/02/01/kombucha-101-demystifying-the-past-present-and-future-of-the-fermented-tea-drink/)