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Jun

Jun is a milder version of kombucha. Where kombucha is made with black tea and sugar, jun is made with green tea and honey. This makes it ideal for people who are trying to avoid sugar on the GAPS Diet because if the honey is not fully consumed and broken down by the jun scobys, jun remains GAPS legal.
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Ingredients
  

  • 1 tsp Organic Loose Leaf Green tea 1 tea bag = 1 tsp of loose tea
  • Raw Honey
  • Filtered Water
  • SCOBY with 1/2 cup of starter
  • Flatford Cotton Diaper or Cheesecloth

Instructions
 

  • Prep your tea bags.
  • Start your water boiling. You will need four cups of boiling water per gallon jar.
  • After the water starts boiling, take out your finished jun batch. If it’s the first time you do it, start with step
  • Take your SCOBY’s and ½ a cup of liquid into clean bowls. Pour your remaining jun into containers. I prefer using a half gallon mason jar to assist with the transfer. I also use a plastic mesh strainer to remove some extra sediment.
  • Once your jars are empty, rinse your jars. Jars don’t need to be sanitized, just rinsing. We’re rinsing because the yeast tends to grow more. Removing that seems to help keep the colony balanced. Make sure to finish your last rinse with filtered water. If you’re using newly cleaned jars make sure there’s no soap or dish washer residue on them as these chemicals will harm your scobys.
  • When your water is boiling, put the tea bags in your jars and pour the boiling water over them. (4 cups per gallon jar!)
  • Let it steep for ten minutes.
  • Take the tea bags out.
  • Add in approximately 6 cups of cold filtered water for 1 gallon jar. You ultimately want the liquid to be to the shoulder of jar, including your starter liquid and SCOBYs. If you’re not sure how much water to add, err on the side of caution. You can add more cool water in at the end.
  • Make sure not to skip the step of cooling down your tea before adding your honey. Do not cook your honey! It needs to be less than 100 degrees before proceeding.
  • Add a heaping cup of honey for 1 gallon. Stir until the honey is completely dissolved. The honey will not dissolve further on it’s own. It’s not accessible for your SCOBY to eat if you don’t dissolve the honey.
  • Add the SCOBY and the starter back into the jar.
  • Clean off the top lip of the jar inside and out with a clean paper towel.
  • Top the jar with a piece of cotton flatfold diaper and secure with a rubber band. You can also use cheesecloth but make sure to fold it. Fruit flies really like trying to get in the jars.
  • Leave on the counter out of direct sunlight.
  • Ferment between 9 & 13 days, depending on the temperature of your kitchen, how many SCOBYs you have in it, and how tangy you like it.
  • If you want to add additional flavor to your jun, you can double ferment it. This is adding to your completed jun and leaving it on the counter for an additional 24 hours. You can strain out the flavorings if you want or enjoy them as part of the beverage.
  • Store your completed jun in the fridge until you’re ready to enjoy it as it will continue to ferment if left at room temperature. If possible, store your jun in containers with narrow mouths. This will help to keep the carbonation in the jun. You can store it in the gallon jars but it won’t be nearly as carbonated.