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Blenders and voltmeters...
Apr. 7th, 2013 07:46 pmOver a month ago, while coming home from Natalie's house, Galina and I stopped by the Russian General Store near the intersection of Hillcroft Avenue and South Braeswood Boulevard. Among other things, I picked up a container of чайный гриб, which translates literally as "tea fungus" or "tea mushroom," but I call the stuff kombucha.
The price was moderate, but then again, the container held only the wispiest trace of "mother" (the "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast," or "scoby," which produces the kombucha), and upon returning home I tasted the beverage, which tasted a little like kombucha, but diluted almost to the point where the taste was, as the French say, a mere soupçon.
The thing about kombucha is that it's alive (in the sense that, say, yogurt is alive with probiotic bacteria). The liquid is filled with little symbiotic colonies that, if given time and fuel (tea and sugar, as I understand), will grow and coalesce into bigger colonies, eventually forming a continuous layer at the surface that increases in thickness.
It's taken this long, but the addition of some strong tea and sugar soon after returning home from the store—and a liberal application of patience—appears to have borne fruit. My kombucha still tastes a little weak, but the scoby appears to be robust. I've filled five bottles for near-term use, and there's another batch brewing.
* * * A funny thing happened on the way to making waffles last week. It turned out we had no milk in the house, but we did have a surplus of almond milk, which I used instead as an experiment.
The experiment did not turn out all that badly, with Galina suggesting that the waffles remain in the iron for several additional minutes to rid them of excess moisture. We repeated the recipe this morning, taking her suggestion into account, and the waffles were quite good. (Then again, it must be acknowledged that waffles are actually a mechanism by which one can convey copious quantities of butter, whipped cream, cinammon, and syrup into one's mouth in a socially acceptable manner.)
* * * After 10 days, the NiCd "N" cells that I charged at the end of last month have lost about 3% of their charge. The voltage of the cells I did not charge after taking them out of the package has not changed a whit. Data points...
The price was moderate, but then again, the container held only the wispiest trace of "mother" (the "symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast," or "scoby," which produces the kombucha), and upon returning home I tasted the beverage, which tasted a little like kombucha, but diluted almost to the point where the taste was, as the French say, a mere soupçon.
The thing about kombucha is that it's alive (in the sense that, say, yogurt is alive with probiotic bacteria). The liquid is filled with little symbiotic colonies that, if given time and fuel (tea and sugar, as I understand), will grow and coalesce into bigger colonies, eventually forming a continuous layer at the surface that increases in thickness.
It's taken this long, but the addition of some strong tea and sugar soon after returning home from the store—and a liberal application of patience—appears to have borne fruit. My kombucha still tastes a little weak, but the scoby appears to be robust. I've filled five bottles for near-term use, and there's another batch brewing.
The experiment did not turn out all that badly, with Galina suggesting that the waffles remain in the iron for several additional minutes to rid them of excess moisture. We repeated the recipe this morning, taking her suggestion into account, and the waffles were quite good. (Then again, it must be acknowledged that waffles are actually a mechanism by which one can convey copious quantities of butter, whipped cream, cinammon, and syrup into one's mouth in a socially acceptable manner.)
