The summer holidays are long. Very long, if you’re the person responsible for keeping children entertained for six weeks.
There are only so many craft projects, trips to the park and rainy afternoons you can fill before you start looking for something new to do.
So, what if you started a project together that lasted the whole summer?
One that changes every day, involves a little science, lets children experiment with flavours, learn about fermentation and ends with bottles of natural, homemade fizzy drinks that they helped to create.
Meet your new summer holiday project: making kombucha. This blog will explain the whole process and give you a homemade kombucha kit list, but if you're looking to get everything you need in one box, check out our 5 star rated range of Kombucha Starter Kits linked here.
Why fermentation is such a brilliant activity for children
Fermentation is one of those activities that combines science, making sustainable food choices and using up waste, and teaches them how delicious natural foods can be.
Kombucha is a brilliant ferment to start with as it uses simple ingredients that most people already have, and its very low maintenance. It doesn't matter if you forget about it for a few days. You can also start out with very basic equipment, and don't need much space.
For children, making kombucha from scratch is a chance to see a living process happening right in front of them.
They can watch bubbles appear, smell and taste how the kombucha changes over time and see a brand new SCOBY layer growing across the surface of the liquid.
And the best thing about a kombucha brew, is that one batch can become the next. One SCOBY layer will become two. And one batch of plain kombucha can turn into lots of different homemade fizzy drinks flavoured with fruits, herbs and spices.
Everything you need to make kombucha with your children
You don’t need lots of specialist equipment to start making kombucha at home, but having the right equipment and ingredients will make your first brew much easier.
We specialise in Kombucha Starter Kits for beginners, so if you'd like everything ready to go, delivered in one box, check them out here.
Oh and it doesn't matter if you're going on holiday, your kombucha brew can survive for 12 weeks without any care and attention, here are the steps to make your brew holiday proof.
Equipment:
- A large glass brewing jar. A 2 to 3 litre jar is a good size for starting your first family brew
- A breathable cloth cover and elastic band. The cover should allow air to reach your kombucha while keeping insects and debris out
- A saucepan or heatproof measuring jug for making your sweet tea
- Glass bottles suitable for carbonated drinks if you want to make fizzy flavoured kombucha
- Labels , a calendar and a pen for recording your flavour experiments and the date each brew was made.
Ingredients:
- Tea. We always recommend starting out with a high quality green tea (black tea also works but the flavour can be more bitter, and the final caffeine content will be slightly higher). The quality of the tea makes a massive difference to the taste of the final kombucha so chose wisely
- White granulated sugar. The bacteria and yeast in your kombucha culture need sugar to ferment your tea, and this is the easiest source for it to use
- A healthy live kombucha culture. This often includes a pellicle, the rubbery disc that we refer to as a SCOBY, along with plenty of strong starter tea.
The easiest way to set up a kombucha brew at home (for both adults and children)
One of the most exciting things about making kombucha at home is watching a new SCOBY layer grow. SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast.
We teach people to brew kombucha in a way where you simply leave your SCOBY, which is your live kombucha culture, to grow in the jar. Follow the easy kombucha brewing process as detailed on this page here to set up your first brew.
Leaving your SCOBY to grow in the jar is fascinating, but it also has many advantages, which you can read about here.
Watching the first SCOBY layer grow
When you set up your first batch of kombucha using sweet tea and a healthy culture, a new SCOBY layer will begin forming across the surface of the brew.
At first, it will look like a very thin, clear film. Over time, it becomes thicker and might look smooth, bumpy, patchy or slightly strange.
This is a brilliant process for children (and adults) to observe.
Compare what you see with what's shown in our Kombucha SCOBY Gallery.
The first kombucha brew is only the beginning
Once you have a kombucha brew set up, all you need to do to make batch after batch is refill with sweet tea. You don't need to clean the jar out, buy a new SCOBY. Your family fermenting project can continue for the entire summer, or even longer (your SCOBY will actually last forever).
This is one of my favourite things about making kombucha with children.
There is always something happening.
A jar fermenting with a new SCOBY layer growing.
A bottle becoming fizzy with a new flavour combination waiting to be tested.
Once the first stage is done - with the SCOBY and tea in the jar, typically referred to as the first fermentation, you get to move onto the part children will probably enjoy most.
Making your own naturally fizzy drinks.
Turn kombucha into homemade natural soda
Making kombucha is only the starting point (although you can simply bottle it and drink it as it is, for low effort batches, but the second fermentation is typically what grabs a whole families attention).
Once your kombucha has fermented, you can transfer it into carbonation safe, sealed bottles and flavour it with fruit, herbs and spices.
During this stage, the remaining bacteria and yeast continue fermenting available sugars and can produce carbon dioxide. In a suitable sealed bottle, that carbon dioxide can create fizz.
Suddenly, your kitchen has become a natural soda laboratory. Let each child choose their own flavour.
Mash up strawberries. Squash some raspberries. Grate fresh ginger. Pick mint from the garden.
Try peaches, blueberries, blackberries or watermelon.
Older children can write down exactly how much of each ingredient they use and score their finished drinks for sweetness, flavour and fizz.
You could even have a family competition to invent the best kombucha flavour of the summer.
10 kombucha flavours to try with children
- Strawberry and mint
- Raspberry and lemon
- Peach and vanilla
- Blueberry and lime
- Apple and cinnamon
- Watermelon and strawberry
- Mango and lime
- Blackberry and apple
- Pear and ginger
- Mixed berry.
The possibilities are almost endless.
You can visit a pick-your-own farm and turn some of your fruit into kombucha flavours.
Use seasonal berries gathered on a family walk, provided an adult can confidently identify them and they have been gathered safely and legally.
Try herbs from the garden.
Or simply challenge everyone to invent a flavour using ingredients already in the fridge.
Turn it into a six-week summer fermentation project
If you want an activity that lasts throughout the school holidays, give each week a different theme.
Week one can be about learning what fermentation is and setting up your first kombucha brew.
Week two can be spent observing the jar, taking photographs and starting a fermentation diary.
Week three can be about tasting small samples of the kombucha with an adult and noticing how sweetness and acidity change as fermentation progresses.
Week four can be your first natural soda experiment. Let everyone choose a different flavour and bottle the kombucha for a second fermentation. Meanwhile refilling the jar with sweet tea, so you have a batch to play with in the final week.
Week five can be spent tasting your creations, and scoring the flavours.
Week six can be the ultimate family kombucha challenge. Everyone creates their best flavour, designs a bottle label and chooses a name for their homemade natural soda.
By the end of the summer, your children haven’t just completed an activity. They’ve learned a skill they can continue using.
Children can create their own kombucha lab book
To make the project even more engaging, give each child a notebook to use as their kombucha lab book.
They can record the date each fermentation started, the ingredients they used, changes they notice in the jar, drawings of their growing pellicle, predictions about what will happen next, flavour recipes, fizz ratings, taste scores and their favourite discoveries.
They could even design their own kombucha brand, create bottle labels and name each of their natural sodas.
It turns making kombucha into a mixture of science experiment, cooking activity and creative project.
What can children learn from making kombucha?
A surprising amount. Fermentation introduces children to bacteria and yeast and helps them understand that not all microorganisms are harmful.
They can learn how yeast uses sugar during fermentation and can produce carbon dioxide.
They can observe how temperature affects the speed of fermentation.
They can explore how sweetness and acidity change over time.
They can practise measuring ingredients, following instructions, recording observations and testing ideas.
Most importantly, they learn that food and drinks don’t always have to come ready made, full of chemicals and from a packet or bottle.
Sometimes you can grow, make and experiment with them yourself.
A quick note about safety and adult supervision
Children should always make kombucha with adult supervision.
Adults should handle boiling water and oversee the fermentation process, including checking the brew for signs of mould or other problems.
Second fermentation also needs to be managed carefully.
Use bottles designed to withstand pressure, check them regularly, refrigerate finished kombucha before opening and take care when opening carbonated bottles.
Kombucha is a fermented drink and may contain trace amounts of alcohol, as well as residual sugar and caffeine depending on the ingredients and brewing method. Parents and carers should decide whether homemade kombucha is suitable for their children and how much they serve (kombucha can be diluted with soda water for children if preferred).
Children don’t have to drink large glasses of kombucha to enjoy the project.
They can take part in setting up the brew, observing the fermentation, creating flavour combinations, designing labels and tasting small amounts of the finished drinks.
Making kombucha gives children the opportunity to learn about fermentation, watch a new SCOBY grow, create naturally fizzy drinks and invent flavour combinations that are completely their own.
And the best part?
When the summer holidays are over, your kombucha culture doesn’t have to be.
You can keep brewing together, keep experimenting and keep creating new flavours throughout the year.
At BooChaCha, our Kombucha Starter Kits are designed to make brewing kombucha at home simple, even if you’ve never fermented anything before.
You’ll get everything you need to start your first brew, clear instructions to guide you through the process and lifetime brewing support if you ever have questions along the way.
Start your family’s summer fermentation project and discover just how much fun can grow from one jar of sweet tea.