Derval

well I tasted my blueberry and it is a pretty pink colour, but no diff flavour.

yeah they had lots of mixes too, but they all contained banana which I don't think would work well...

I picked up these today to flavour with, should make it easy & fuss free - €0.99 each. They are freezable too so I will prob use half a pouch for each litre & freeze the remainder for next time.

So I drew off another bottle this morning, 36 hrs approx, after it's top up. I squashed some fresh blueberries in first and I'm leaving it in the dark cupboard for 24 hrs - is that long enough for 2nd ferment/flavouring? I am using 3 tea bags + 100g sugar (approx half cup according to conversion) for each litre (34fl oz) of top up tea for my CB.

CB = Charlotte Bronte or....Charles Bronson or......

I had a glass of mine this morning, out the garden, in a crystal glass. If the neighours saw me they must have thought I was one of those moms. Not as sparkling as when I bottled it why is that? I left it overnight in dark and then put in fridge this morning. Maybe it was so bubby because it had just been transferred. Still pleasantly effervescent & a lovely flavour.

Omg the quote box is back!! Hurray! eta - boo it's not, only shows in the reply box. I have a huge selection of fruit & herbal teas - good to know I can pop one in once it's bottled. Anything one should avoid or does it not matter once it's had it's first ferment?

Thanks, yeah she's loving it! Thanks for clearing up the water diff for me.

I asked my company & they told me to use boiled tap water, that the scoby might not like the stuff in mineral water. Is mineral water & distilled water the same thing? Picture time! Lily loved opening the tap I opened it to top it up again (I used slightly less sugar in the top up tea) to replace the drawn off litre and here's how it looked. I think the film on the top is the beginnings of a new baby, yeah? And the 2 darker semi-circles you can just see underneath are my orginals. The brew is already pleasantly sparkling, as you can see. I have put this in the press (cupboard) overnight, will burp it in the morning & then put in fridge tomorrow night, does that sound right?

I have drawn off my first bottle, the excitement! Will post pics later.

I will go plain first batch. My starter recipe was very strong very sweet green tea do it should have a good flavour.

Nope, I got the cheaper version without. The only heat it gets is being near my hotness, ha ha.

I taste tested mine last night, nearly ready I think, so hard to judge! I will have another taste this evening, it will be 9 days on.

No, am holding out till day 10.

Picture as per request, my two beauties and Komcucha progress day 6

Lily & a scoby, I will try! I'll have to wait till it floats back to the surface though.

No rubbers bands are a bugger! if you have a big vessel

Nadia, when I got them they were smooth and now they're not, does that sound ok? It's not mould coloured. I will try string next time thanks moluv.

Argh, having a frustrating day with my booch, I took off the elastic band to have a peek - looks eh, interesting, the top of the scobys have got a little furry so something is happening. But could I get that rubber back back on?? Agh!! I was terrified I'd top the whole thing over. Is it nevessary that it's tightly covered? Can i just leave the cloth over? I just got ds to help me & now I can't see the scobys, they must have sunk with all the movement. I hope that's ok... Anyway elastic back on!

Re quantities this is from the instructions I got with my kit and followed myself Okay, boil 4 litres of water. Put 12 tea bags into your container, and then add between 320 and 400 grams of sugar to the container. We usually go for nearer 340 grams, but this is preference. (If you are using several smaller containers divide these quantities between the containers).

I use instagram + webstagram .

"Lily Kitty", love it, like little kitty! It's so friggin' cute eh?

That was the fabric that came with the kit (I'd prefer a more shabby chic ditsy print )- I tell you getting the elastic band on single-handed tested my patience! I saw on stupid easy paleo that she makes icecubes out of puree to flavour hers, but that wouldn't work for narrow necked lemonade bottles that I'll be using. But I'm going to leave the first bottle plain I think. p.s Lily likes your avatar "look, a frog chillaxing"

She's all set up I have it at the end of the sofa to keep it out of light...and on top of my dumbell box so I can fit my jug under the tap. I used organic green tea & organic sugar => organic kombucha I was thinking, would baby food fruit purees be an easy way to flavour it? Something like these would be very easy to squirt in to the bottle. http://www.plumorganics.com/products