Clean your jar out very good. If you have a dishwasher, run it through there. Let it drip dry upside down.
Make a batch of tea (any kind will work) by combining 1 gallon of water and 10-12 tea bags in a kettle on the stove. Bring to a rolling boil and let it boil for about 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn the stove off and add 1 cup of sugar. I recommend some type organic cane sugar. Stir gently to incorporate the sugar. Be careful not to break the tea bags!
Let the tea sit until it reaches room temperature. You can leave the bags in while it cools.
Once the tea is room temperature, take out the tea bags and pour about 3/4 of it into the gallon jar. Carefully add the scoby and the 1-cup of already prepared Kombucha. Make sure your hands are super clean before you touch the scoby! Also make sure that the tea is completely cooled off. If it is too hot, you will kill the scoby.
Top off the jar with the remaining brewed tea. Make sure you leave about an inch of space at the top of the jar.
Cover your jar with a towel secured by a rubber band. DO NOT PUT THE JAR'S LID BACK ON! The gases from the fermentation process will cause the jar to explode!
Put the jar in a cool dark place, such as your pantry. Your kombucha and scoby will not do well in sunlight so keep them in the dark!
In 10 days your Kombucha will be ready. Pour it as you want it. You can add ice or more sugar to it if you like. If it's not as fizzy as you would like it, you can pour it off (without the scoby) into quart-sized canning jars, screw on the lid and let it sit a few days for a second fermentation.
Make sure you don't drink it all! You'll need a cup left over to start another batch.
You will also see another scoby grow. You can keep it and start a second jar or you can pass it on to a friend! Just remember that it needs to also have 1 cup of prepared kombucha!
You don't have to use caffeinated tea every time (my first batch was made using Tazo's Passion tea) however, if you are consistently using decaffeinated tea, make sure that every couple of batches you brew it with caffeinated tea.
