Oh my! Yes! You need to get that water boiling. I use spring water and have a designated tea kettle just for my kombucha. I let the tea kettle whistle, and then sit for 5 minutes before I pour into the container with my tea. I use about half the water heated for steeping, remove the tea, add the sugar to dissolve, then add the remainder of the water to cool it down so I don't wait forever before I have to add my SCOBY and starter liquid. Also, make sure you are using spring water and not distilled. Beer brewers don't use distilled water, so I follow my husband's advice on that.
Good for you! I have a propagating mat wrapped around the primary brewer to keep it upper 70s or 80 because my space is cool. But to get my first scoby I put it on an upper shelf where it was warm. It's so satisfying to see it working and smelling right! And very hard to let it alone long enough to do a good job in the next step. At least for me.
Sometimes the starter that you buy at the store will make a difference! Thinking good thoughts about your new "house guest", lol.
I used a variety of teas but predominantly Gunpowder Green tea. I preferred the flavour to that of black tea.
Same about sugar. As far as tea I use half organic gunpowder green and half organic black tea. I started with bags but now buy loose leaf. Better tea, better for the environment.
Oh, yum. Good for you. I have been adding smashed fresh picked wild black raspberries in 2nd ferment and it is so delicious! The raspberries are growing all around us. They are seedy so they are perfect for flavouring kombucha because I strain it.
