Top 3 Hemp Kombucha Recipes

Hemp Kombucha is one of the most searched topics in Australia. Even though this is Cannabis, will it give you any kind of buzz?

The main ingredient in Hemp Kombucha is hemp seed oil. Hemp seeds are nutrious with essential fatty acids, proteins, omega-6, omega-3 and more. Hemp Kombucha doesn’t get you high, but it does help boost your gut-biome. Hemp products are legal to consume since November, 2017 in Australia.

The most important ingredients for Hemp Kombucha

Kombucha has be filling the shelves in our supermarkets for the past few years, and Hemp kombucha is the latest addition. Its popularity stems from health benefits that the newly legalised hemp seed oil has.

• SCOBY: Found at GoodBrew
• Black/Green Tea: Found at your local supermarket of at T2
• Cane Sugar: Found at your local supermarket
• Hemp Seed Oil: Found at HempFoods

1) Beginners Green Hemp Kombucha

Ingredients

• 10 black tea bags or dried leaves and flowers
• SCOBY
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 4.5 litres distilled or spring water
• 1 cup premade kombucha (this can be bought or made separetly)
• ½ teaspoon of hemp oil

Instruction

STEP 1: Start be brewing the tea in the distilled water.

Bring the water to boil in a large pot.

Pour in one cup of cane sugar. Mix and stir well until it is completely dissolved.

Mix in the hemp oil.

STEP 2: Let the brew cool down to room temperature to create a climate that is not hostile to your SCOBY culture. Pour the brew into your glass jars with around 5cm of space left at the top.

STEP 3: Now, pour an equal amount of the premade kombucha into each jar. Then, add equal amounts of your SCOBY into each jar.

STEP 4: Add the covers to each jar and close them tightly to prevent any external contaminants from entering the space. Place the jars in a relatively warm area of your house, preferably at a temperature around 25°C.

STEP 5: The fermentation process takes around 10 days to reach completion, so some patience is required. The wait is made far easier when remembering what the nourishing end result will be. The flavour of the kombucha can be tested using a clean dropper. The taste should be slightly sweet, yet bitter. If that is the case, then your brew is ready! Pour away!

2

Ingredients:

3 litres of boiled water (filtered if possible) 5 black or green tea bags or the equivalent in loose leaf tea 1 cup of white or raw sugar 1 kombucha scoby (see below) 1 cup of kombucha liquid from a previous batch Method:

Add the water and sugar to a large saucepan and simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat, add the tea and allow it to rest for 30-60 minutes. Remove the teabags and allow the solution to cool to room temperature. Pour into a large, sterilised vessel, like our stunning handmade ceramic kombucha jar, and add the scoby and kombucha liquid. Cover with a tea towel and secure with a string or rubber band. Keep in a warm, dry place (the preferred temperature for kombucha brewing is 24C-32C) away from direct sunlight. Leave undisturbed for a minimum of 7 to 10 days. During this time it will grow a ‘baby’ scoby on the top of the liquid. It will also develop a sour, tart flavour as the scoby consumes the sugar. When the sour flavour is well developed, strain the kombucha liquid from the scoby using a coffee filter or sieve (do not use metal). Keep the scoby, along with one cup of the liquid for a subsequent batch and either drink the remaining liquid or ferment into a ‘flavoured booch’. An example of this is the Ginger aid kombucha also from www.goodfood.com.au:

Ingredients:

1 litre of the kombucha liquid ½ cup of fresh pineapple juice or one cup of finely chopped pineapple 1 tbsp of finely grated fresh ginger ¼ mint leaves Method:

Combine the kombucha liquid with the pineapple and ginger and stir well. Place in glass bottles and refrigerate overnight. (Biome sells these little beauties from Mad Millie, perfect for storage of kombucha) Serve with ice and fresh mint leaves

3

¼ cuprice malt syrup, or sugar if you prefer 2organic black tea bags (many say non-organic tea just doesn’t work as well) ½ cupkombucha (from a previous batch or store-bought) 1SCOBY (see Note).

Fermenting time: 7-14 days

Sterilise a broad-mouthed glass or ceramic bowl or jug with boiling water. (It needs a wide opening to allow plenty of contact with oxygen.) Combine the rice malt syrup or sugar in a saucepan with 1 litre of water and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the tea bags, cover and allow to steep for 15 minutes. Remove the tea bags and pour the liquid into the sterilised container. Leave it to cool to around body temperature. Or cooler. (This is important, Hot tea will kill the mother.)

Add the kombucha and then gently place the SCOBY on top (it may sink, but this is okay). Cover with a clean tea towel or muslin and leave to sit for 7–10 days (a week will be plenty in warm weather and/or if you use sugar). The temperature needs to be around 24–30°C.

At the end of 7–10 days, a ‘baby’ SCOBY will have formed on top of the ‘mother’. Remove both SCOBYs, placing them in a glass container. Pour a little of the kombucha liquid onto the SCOBYs, then pour the rest into a 1 litre swing-top bottle (one with a hinged lid and rubber stopper), or a plastic soft-drink bottle, and refrigerate, ensuring you leave a 2–3 cm space at the top.

To make it fizzier: Get a little more fizz going by adding a dash of extra rice malt syrup or a little chopped fruit and securing the lid. Leave the bottle out at room temperature for an additional 2–4 days. The live yeast and bacteria will continue to consume the residual sugar from both the fi rst fermentation, plus the extra dash you’ve just added. In the absence of oxygen (now that the whole thing is lidded), carbon dioxide is produced (and trapped), thus building up the fi zz. (If you like a ’bucha with fizz, you may wish to use sugar instead of rice malt syrup in the fermenting stage. It fi zzes faster.)

Note

• SCOBYs can’t be manufactured as such but are spawned from a ‘mother’ when one makes a batch of brew. Regular kombucha makers are always happy to give away a baby SCOBY. Check out sarahwilson.com for details on finding one online.

James King

James is an experienced writer and legal cannabis advocate in Australia. He answers all the questions about business, legalisation and medicinal cannabis.