What Is SCOBY?

If you know anything about kombucha, you'll know it's a fermented tea made with a floaty, wobbly substance that looks like something outta Flubber (the movie... showing our millennial age a bit, hehe).

But what is this flubber-esque substance, and why is it one of the most important ingredients in making a healthy, happy kombucha? Let's find out.

What is SCOBY?

SCOBY is the mother culture that turns sweet tea into kombucha. It's what we call a fermentation culture or a fermentation starter that we add to our brews before we leave it to ferment for 30 days.

You might not know that SCOBY is actually an acronym. It stands for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast, which pretty much sums up what it's made of: bacteria and yeast. After our 30-day brew, the SCOBY has risen to the top of the teapots in our Brew Room, so we're left with the yummo, fizzy, fermented drink underneath.

Of course, sometimes small strands of SCOBY float down into the liquid and may appear in your bottle of booch, but rest assured, this is perfectly safe! It's actually a sign of a healthy and happy kombucha, so we always do a little happy dance when we see a small strand of SCOBY appear in our bottles.

Fun fact: We use a descendant of our founders' original SCOBY, meaning every single bottle of booch holds ties to the very first bottle of Liquid Remedy Kombucha ever made.

What are the other names for SCOBY?

You might hear fellow booch heads refer to "the mother", "mother culture", or "kombucha culture". Heck, sometimes it's even referred to as the "kombucha mushroom", which we find a bit odd because it's definitely not a mushroom!

There isn't really a "right" term to use, but we usually refer to this gloopy substance as SCOBY or mother culture. No one fully knows where the term "mother" comes from, but it's widely believed to be called "mother" because it protects and houses the millions of live cultures that make for a bangin' booch!

When is SCOBY added to kombucha?

The first step in brewing kombucha is to brew a big pot of tea. At Liquid Remedy, we brew very big pots of tea—like, huge. Seriously, you have to either take a step back or look up to the top of the pot! Size matters, and all that jazz.

After we brew this pot of tea, it's moved into smaller pots where we add our SCOBY (AKA mother culture) to our brews. Our traditional kombucha brewing process means that we pop the pots of tea and SCOBY in a temperature-controlled room for 30 days. Not only does this brew out all the sugar and turn it into organic acids, but it also forms a thick layer of SCOBY on top of the pots by the end of the 30 days.

Pretty cool (and a little gross to look at) if you ask us!