Making Komucha/Molecular Gastronomy [MakerID-7]

Kombucha and Molecular Gastronomy

The objective of our project is to learn the inner workings of probiotic food science by making kombucha and spheres using molecular gastronomy.  The inspiration to make kombucha was our field trip to the pickle shop where we learned the process of making kombucha and experiencing first hand how good it can taste. After deciding on kombucha we did some online research on fun and interesting ways we could use it, and ended up picking molecular gastronomy, specifically kombucha spheres. 

    

    We both came up with our idea pretty quickly but what took us a little longer was what type of molecular gastronomy we wanted to do. After discussing for a little we decided on the sphere because they are more budget friendly and had a very simple process. So far our only struggle has been deciding when our kombucha was fermented enough. Our only time constraint will be making the spheres because the solution you make them in need to sit for 24 hours and also we need to freeze the liquid in molds before we put them in the solution. We also weren’t able to test out the recipe for the spheres because the solution and the liquid themselves have to freeze or settle for awhile.

    The one challenge we faced was not having enough time or classes to freeze enough spheres and also we had to wait for material to come from amazon. We are going to be able to do it if put liquid in the molds in the morning and refilling them at the end of the day. 

 What we’ve learned in the process is that ferment kombucha doesn’t take as long as we thought and only take around 2-3 weeks if you add fruit juice. We also learned that molecular gastronomy is a lot easier than it looks and it’s actually a very simple process to make the spheres. Also while making our project we learned how to make and customize kombucha as well as how to turn it into spheres using sodium alginate. If we had more time we would try making different flavors of kombucha and using molecular gastronomy to turn kombucha into more forms than spheres. We might also try experimenting with different liquids or shapes while making the spheres.

Our project, including all the material for the kombucha and spheres were totaled to about $70.  One of our outside resources is the pickle shop we were inspired by called The Cultured Pickle and we also used this video for our recipe for the spheres.