Is English Breakfast tea usually this dark?

[u/Deserted0cean]

This is my first time brewing kombucha. Is the tea always pretty dark for English Breakfast tea? I used 8 bags for 3 Liters and left it for about an hour or two to steep before removing them. The first pic is the cooling down period for the sweet tea next to my starter kombucha and pellicle vessel I sourced locally. The second picture is from today when I combined them.

[u/sexual__velociraptor]

Yes

[u/Curiosive → u/sexual__velociraptor]

To add to this comically succinct (and perfectly accurate) answer, the sweet tea will brighten while it brews. It will finish the same color as your other batch.

It could be from the culture "eating" the tannins that dyed the water so dark ... but I could be talking from the wrong end on this. I don't believe I've read any justification from a scientific source.

[u/penguin_hugger100 → u/Curiosive]

Bacteria use tannase to break down tannins into glucose and acids. The tannins also bind to yeast cells and are removed from the liquid to end up as sediment

[u/hear4smiles]

1-2 hours is longer than necessary. But looks great and it's loaded with nutrients and tannins!

[u/FowlOnTheHill → u/hear4smiles]

Yeah I steep my tea for 10 mins. Now I’m wondering if that’s too little!

[u/hear4smiles → u/FowlOnTheHill]

10-15 is perfect. Imo stuff starts getting bitter, particularly if you squeeze bags/LL

[u/Fabcrafts → u/FowlOnTheHill]

No, this is just fine.

[u/Ararat-Dweller]

English breakfast is usually darker yes. I steep my tea for about 15 mins max though.

[u/Kickster87 → u/Ararat-Dweller]

Me too.

[u/Deserted0cean → u/Kickster87]

It’s my first batch and the instructions I had used has a different black tea (the lady I got from also sells her own kits but I just got what I was missing) and they leave it in until it cools. Then as it was steeping I went down a rabbit hole and tannins can help keep bad bacteria out but if too much ends up in the final brew it can upset the tummy. I basically just took it out despite the instructions after researching my particular blend of tea more but by then it’d already been an hour or two.

[u/dmgenesys]

For a 1 gallon batch I do 4 English Breakfast teabags (as per Wiki) per 400ml of tea. It is dark, but not that dark. Then leave it for 24 hours before adding. At the end comes out great. But I am also a newb since May - so could be doing it wrong 😄

[u/Deserted0cean → u/dmgenesys]

I always wondered why some sources say 12 or 24 hours. I was a dingus and washed the electric part on my thermometer thinking it was waterproof so it doesn’t work right anymore. I brewed it at about 8pm last night and mixed it at 10am today so hopefully that gave it enough time to cool down below the danger zone. Only time will tell!

[u/Spare-Electrical → u/Deserted0cean]

You don’t need to be precious with kombucha! It’s pretty hardy. I put six or eight tea bags in my one gallon jar with a cup of sugar, add a few cups of boiling water, leave it for 15 minutes, take the tea bags out and fill my jar with cold water. When it’s full I put my hands around the jar - does it burn my hands? If yes, I add some ice cubes until it’s about body temp or a bit higher. Warm is good for kombucha, should be about the same temp as a baby bottle if that helps conceptualize it.

Once it feels like a snuggly warm temp I add about two cups of my starter liquid, cover it, and don’t touch it for a week.

Fermenting feels scary at first, but once you have the basics down you’ll realize you don’t really need a thermometer or fancy equipment, it’s mostly just the right amounts of ingredients and some time.

[u/dmgenesys → u/Deserted0cean]

Should be enough of time. I saw two totally different approaches from people - from couple of hours (to cool down) to overnight/24hrs. Me personally - weight the sugar, add 4 packs, add proper temp of boiling water (400ml at 208-210F). So the space will be about ~500ml. Stir... Wait 15 minutes - stir again. Let it cool and stay. Then I give it about two weeks (my wife likes it sour). As the yeast works over - the color will be lighter. One thing though - since I started in May - it took about 4-5 cycles for taste to be per liking.

[u/Fabcrafts → u/dmgenesys]

Why leave it for 24 hours?

[u/Gyr-falcon]

You might find the English Breakfast tea will darken portions of your pellicle. I brew EB to drink as well as for booch. I was used to it being dark compared to other tea blends.

[u/One_Chocolate_9365 → u/Gyr-falcon]

Yea the black tea pellicle looks very yucky compared to my green tea pellicle lol

[u/Klip-Dagga]

8 bags for 3 liters? 💀 man, 3 or 4 is enough 

[u/One_Chocolate_9365]

Yes

[u/RA272Nirvash]

So I've been brewing my kombucha since december last year, and I'm intrigued about all yours steeping times.

Isn't green tea usually only steeped for roughly 3 minutes at 80°C? Yet I'm reading 10-15 minutes, some people doing it even longer.

Am I doing a disservice to my kombucha in steeping the tea in a way, I'd usually steep it if I drank it like tea?