01 May Homebrewing Jun Kombucha

Hello my fermentation family! While most of you know of kombucha, I bet only some of you have heard of Jun. Jun is similar to kombucha, but instead of using black tea and sugar it is brewed with green tea and honey. Sounds great, right? It has a lighter and fresher taste in many opinions, and I like to think that it’s even healthier than kombucha. Here I will give you a step by step guide on all things Jun Kombucha!🍯

Just like many other ferments of this kind (kombucha, water kefir, and milk kefir, to name a few) you will first need to get your hands on a SCOBY for Jun. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, and it is what turns the sweetened liquid into awesome probiotic goodness.

It’s definitely not the prettiest thing in the world, but it sure does make some good buch! If you have a friend who makes Jun that would be your best source of a SCOBY as they are always multiplying.

You will also need a brewing vessel, in our opinion, continues brewing vessels with a spigot are best.

After getting a hold of a SCOBY and a nice fermenting jar, you will also want to get some green tea and honey. Feel free to choose your favorite green tea like jasmine or experiment with other tea varieties! For the honey, I try to buy raw honey from a local farmers market.

Time to brew!

Once you have all of your supplies and ingredients, it’s time to start brewing! First boil a little more than a half gallon of water, take it off the heat, then add a few spoonful’s of green tea and let steep.

Once the tea has cooled down quite a bit, strain it into the gallon jar.

Pour in one cup of honey and stir it well to dissolve.

Add cool water to fill your jar to about 3/4 full (or maybe slightly more). Have your Jun SCOBY and about 2 cups of starter liquid ready. If you don’t have that much starter liquid I would do this whole process on a smaller scale in a quart jar for your first round, then use that to start a gallon batch.

Make sure the tea and honey mixture is totally cooled to room temperature, then add the starter liquid to the gallon jar. Then carefully float the Jun SCOBY on top.

It will probably float, but it might sink. Don’t worry, it will work out no matter what it does!

Cover the jar with a clean towel secured with a rubber band and put it in an out of the way spot in your kitchen. Try not to disturb it.

Depending on the temperature in your house, and how fermented you like it, the Jun should be finished anywhere from 5 to 14 days.

I usually check it after about a week and often let it go for about 8-10 days, but I like mine rather strong. You will probably see bubbles rising to the surface.

The SCOBY should have formed a baby! I usually let it go for a couple of rounds before I start giving away my SCOBY’s, just to make sure I have what I need, but then I start passing them out to friends like candy!

Once it’s finished fermenting you will want to set aside your Jun SCOBY and about two cups of starter liquid for your next batch. If using continuous brew simply refill the vessel with sweet tea!

You can drink the Jun tea as is, or bottle it with another flavoring such as herbal tea or fruit juice.

This second ferment will create a naturally fizzy soda that is a real treat to drink. Just be careful that you don’t add too much fruit sugar as you can easily turn your Jun into volcanoes!

Fermenting your own Jun Kombucha is a fun experiment to do in your kitchen. It’s a healthy probiotic drink that is so much better for you than most things we are drinking, with it’s roots in ancient history.

You get the benefits of green tea and honey all in one naturally fermented, tasty beverage. Can’t beat that!

For a full recipe check out our latest recipe post!