I’m not going to say I wasn’t a little freaked out to taste the kombucha. 

The scoby looked totally healthy with no signs of mold, but there were definitely more strands of bacteria floating around in there. It’s pretty amazing how much the liquid changes in a course of 10 days, and the new baby scoby was growing on top- just as anticipated.

It actually worked! The mixture tasted fantastic and had a great amount of tang, similar to store-bought ‘buch. I figured it was time to bottle it for the second round of fermentation so it can carbonate over the next week or so.

I picked up some glass bottles at Home Goods, which seal well -you don’t want air to escape in the bottling process- for $6.99 each.

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but they’re fairly large bottles; I could have poured almost the entire 8 cup batch into one.

I washed the bottles, then added grated ginger and orange juice to one, while leaving the other plain.

To each bottle, I also added a handful of dried cranberries. I read online that adding a little bit of dried fruit feeds the bacteria and helps it to carbonate more quickly. We’ll see what happens! I already have my second batch fermenting away. I also have the baby scoby in the fridge with some starter liquid, if any of my work or Tucson friends want to start some kombucha of their own.

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