Where should I buy a Scoby?

When you are new to Kombucha and you want to buy your first Scoby, it can be quite challenging to go through all the offers and options which are available online.

If you have a Kombucha producer in your neighborhood (a rarity), who happens to have a physical retail store (even more rare) in which he/she sells Scobies, that might be comparable to winning a Lotto.

Otherwise, it can be a daunting process to pick the right one.

Usually the options are like this: eBay, Amazon, an online business which sells different cultures (and other supplies), or even a Kombucha brewery.

On eBay (kleinanzeigen in Germany), you will find almost endless variety of Scobies. Some of them you can have for free, but you have to go and pick them up. Some of them will cost around 5 Euros (wow, what a deal!), and some a bit more. Some will be labeled extra large, but when you look into that more carefully, you can find out that what someone considers to be extra large, might be quite small for someone else.

So, price-wise those offers might seem like a great deal, but these are usually the offers from private people, but you can also find businesses offering Scobies there, too.

Amazon will also give you quite a few options. There you will find Scobies in different sizes, and from different purveyors (with some of them operating from abroad). Free shipping is great, if you have Amazon Prime, but are all those options so good also?

There are a few places that has been selling different cultures for quite some time, with Kombucha Scoby being one of them. They usually offer Water and Milk Kefir cultures, jars sets, and other supplies.

And finally, there are some Kombucha breweries which offer Kombucha Scobies or Kombucha sets through their online stores.

So, what is the best option for a Kombucha novice?

If this is not your first time, you might already have some experience, and you might have your favorite place where to get your Scoby from (or where to avoid buying it from, if you had a bad experience).

Before I go over all those options, I would like to clarify a few things about Scobies.

Kombucha Scoby (SCOBY) is a culture needed for making Kombucha at home. SCOBY is an acronym, so it comes from the first letters of: Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast.

Earlier it was referred as Kombucha Mushroom (Pilz), but nowadays Scoby is more commonly used. When you buy it, it should comprise of a cellulose disc, and a liquid in which this disc is submerged.

Just like on the picture below.

This is very important, as you need both. If you only get the cellulose disc, it will not ferment the tea into Kombucha. If you only get the liquid (there are some place selling only liquid, calling it a liquid Scoby), it might also not work right. And that's because you would need a precise amount of that liquid, and it should be of proper strength. It should also contain right amount of yeasts, and not only organic acids. All this makes it even more complicated, so if you are new to Kombucha making, you should probably avoid this option.

The other point which I want to make is this:

we have been making our Bärbucha Kombucha for more than 10 years now. The way we make it, is almost exactly like one would make it at home. We just use better ingredients, and we have more knowledge and more experience. And that is why our Kombucha will almost always taste better than the one you'll be making at home.

We have been growing and selling our Scobies for also more than 10 years, and we never had a complaint when it comes to our Scobies, or our Kombucha sets.

And that comes from a lot of every day experience, as we make twenty different Kombuchas. So, we see our Scobies in action with different teas and different botanicals, as well as in different seasons, with different temperatures, humidity and atmospheric pressure.

That is why we know what an average person needs to start their first Kombucha.

And we also know that these two things are crucial to achieve a success with your first brew:

a Scoby, which should have the appropriate size, and, and the starter liquid (in right amount, and of proper strength, with right composition).

Having all this in mind, let's have another look at all the options.

Starting with eBay. The price might seem great, but there are a few dangers lurking there.

First, you do not know about hygienic aspects of how those Scobies were grown.

What water was used? What kind of sugar was used? What quality teas?

And finally, are you going to get a good starter with your Scoby? And this last aspect is crucial. Especially that most of those Scobies are extra Scobies which grew sitting in a jar.

Scobies generally grow the best in a quite acidic environment (when usually all the sugar is broken down and converted into organic acids). And people who sell those Scobies will usually include this acidic liquid with the Scoby. But this is far from optimal, as you also need yeasts in your starter liquid, as it is those yeasts that will break down sugar in your first Kombucha at the beginning of the fermentation process. And the more acidic the starter liquid is, the fewer yeast are present in it

The excess of those organic acids will usually not jump start the fermentation process, and if it does for some reason, your new Kombucha might turn acidic quite fast.

And that's usually not a desired outcome, unless vinegary Kombucha is something that you aim for.

Amazon is a bit better option. There, you might find something that you can work with.

The prices are higher than on eBay, and the shipping might be free, but you should definitely check out the reviews. After reading them you should stay away from places with reviews stating something like this:

"I got my Scoby and when I set up my Kombucha it got moldy (or bad)"

Especially, if you see a comment like that more than once.

Why? Simple. Scoby as such might have been OK, but the starter liquid was too week (or too acidic), and it did not contain those much needed yeasts to start the fermentation process.

And this is crucial. If those yeasts are not there, your newly set Kombucha will sit and sit, and since the fermentation process has not started, or if it is too weak, then other bacteria, or yeasts will get in there and will spoil the brew (usually the so called Kahm yeasts will get there first, infecting the Scoby, and eventually leading to mold afterwards).

A brief digression, but still on the topic.

During our recent trip to Kerala, India, we were staying in a lovely Airbnb place. The owners found out about our Kombucha, and they wanted to take advantage of us staying there and they asked us to teach them how to make it, so they can offer it to their guests. So, they ordered a couple of Scobies through Amazon. And when those Scobies arrived I checked the starter liquid which came with them. It was more like a Kombucha vinegar, than a proper starter.

Needless to say, it was really difficult to start the fermentation process, even in those 30 degrees plus temperatures. It really took three attempts (and a few tricks) to get it going.

(And that's with plenty of experience.)

The second thing to have in mind is not only the size of the Scoby, but also for how much Kombucha is this Scoby (with the starter) designed for.

So, you should either know how big is the glass that you have, or how much Kombucha you intend to make.

You should keep the following in mind: if you have a 5 liter jar, you will not get 5 liters of Kombucha out of it. As, you can not fill it all the way up. A maximum here would be 4.5 liter. You will also need 0.5 liter from your Kombucha to use as a starter for your new brew. And you will lose some liquid from the bottom of the jar (as it is cloudy and it's full of particles and dead yeasts), when you transfer it into bottles.

So actually, out of 5 liter jar, you will only get 3.7-3.8 liter of Kombucha.

In the Scoby description on Amazon, you should find how much Kombucha you can make with that Scoby. Most of them are designed for 2-3 liters, The prices will vary from 15 Euro to even 25 Euros depending on size. But size alone can be confusing as there's one offer with a 14 cm in diameter Scoby (quite big), but it is designed for only 1-2 liter Kombucha.

And finally, some commercial Kombucha breweries also offer Kombucha Scobies.

Just keep in mind that quite a few breweries use Kombucha concentrate to make their products, and commercial Kombucha production process differs from how people make Kombucha at home. Their Kombucha is most likely artificially carbonated, and most of them use filtration to remove yeasts from their Kombucha (to make it more stable). A lot of them use a stronger starter liquid for fermentation, and they don't use the traditional Scobies.

For that reason they offer the so called "liquid Scoby" instead.

Our Scobies are big enough to handle Kombucha home brewing up to 5 liters. The starter which is included with the Scoby (more than 350 ml) is fresh and it contains both the organic acids and the yeasts. Our Scobies are around 13 cm in diameter and up to 1 cm in thickness.

We also offer a Kombucha Set, with a 5 liter jar, and with instructions in German, or in English.

In case you run out of starter liquid, we have that one too.

Our price is also reasonable, with 18 Euro per Scoby, for a trouble-free brewing.

If you live in Berlin, and you stop by in person, you can request our Scoby in a glass jar.

If you are interested in Jun Scobies, we have those two. And again, with a very active liquid starter, as we also make Jun Kombucha (honey-based Kombucha.

If you want to find out more about Scobies, you can check out our blog entry:

Kombucha 101 - Scoby

If you are planning on purchasing one of our Scobies, you might also check out this blog entry:

"When you buy our Scoby"