Reddit reviews Positively Tea Company, Organic Assam TGFOP, Black Tea, Loose Leaf, 1 Pound Bag

That is a very reliable way to produce a healthy SCOBY. If you're seeing some good activity, it may be unnecessary but a fresh batch of tea with sugar and a bottle of plain store bought kombucha will be perfect for sure. In case you're reading something different, here is my recipe for my base batch of sweetened tea (using black tea):

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil
   
2. Remove from heat and stir in 35 grams of loose leaf black tea (cover with lid)
   
3. Steep for 4 minutes, stirring once at 2 minutes
   
4. Strain into clean fermenting vessel
   
5. Add 1 cup of sugar and mix until dissolved
   
6. Add another 8 cups of cold water
   
7. Leave in ice bath or on counter until temp drops to 72-75
   
8. Add two cups of starter tea (now you're at a full gallon)
   
9. Wash hands and rinse SCOBY under cool tap water to remove excess yeast/bacteria
   
10. Add SCOBY to tea and cover with appropriate cloth cover
    
11. Ferment at 72-75.
    
12. Taste a spoon/straw full each day beginning at about 5 days. If it's not tart enough, let it go another day and taste again. For me, a week is perfect. Just like with beer, an ambient temp that's higher will ferment faster and the reverse is true also.
    
13. Once you have it to your tartness preference, pour off two cups for your next batch.
    
14. Mix any juice flavorings into the remaining tea.
    
15. Bottle and let it sit for another 3 days to carbonate.
    
    A few additional tips while I'm at it:
    
    

• Take a clean plastic jug (mine was a leftover apple juice jug from making cider) and pour in 8 cups of water. Using a Sharpie, mark the water line. Going forward, after each batch, fill the jug to the water line and throw it in the fridge. When you get to your next batch, use that water in the steps above. The colder water will drop your temp faster.
  
  
• I sanitized everything the first time I made kombucha. I never did it again after that and I've never had a problem. Save yourself this step and in the rare instance that you have a bad (i.e. moldy) batch, pour it out and toss out the SCOBY. Grab a new one from your SCOBY hotel.
  
  
• I get organic tea and organic sugar from Amazon. They're cheaper and delicious. (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GA0QVMA)(https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B006CVNF2G)
  
  
• I'm thinking about purchasing a relatively large hop sock to put my loose leaf tea in. I want it to have plenty of room to move around but filtering the leaves after steeping is a bit of a pain in the ass.
  
  
• If you add flavor adjuncts directly into the bottles (like crystalized ginger), make sure to cut it small enough that it will still come out after swelling. I've made this mistake.
  
  
• Invest in clear EZ Cap bottles. They're easy and they look nice with the colored kombucha.
  
  Good luck!
  
  

This one has great reviews :3! Ive tried some of their other teas and theyve all been pretty great :D
http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Assam-Tea-Positively-LLC/dp/B00GA0QVMA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1417999763&sr=8-4&keywords=black+loose+leaf+tea

Just a simple loose leaf assam. I think this is the one I currently have:

https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Assam-Tea-Positively-LLC/dp/B00GA0QVMA

When you buy tea in bulk it isn't all that expensive, maybe only $0.10 per cup at cost to you. With cheap prices you can allow risky purchases as well as making a profit. With Amazon Prime you can cheaply buy lots of fairly good teas in bulk.

1LB Assam Black Tea, $18

1LB Irish Breakfast Tea, $17

1LB Ginger ORange Peach Black, $19

Figuring that each pound of tea makes 150 cups, and you can re seep the leaves once more for a strong flavor you get 300 cups of tea per pound.

For Irish Breakfast Tea you spend roughly $0.06 per cup under the second seep method. You can charge $0.25 and selling 1LB of tea would get you $75, four times the amount of money you spent on your initial purchase.

---

You don't want to start too big though. At $0.25 per cup people would have to be stupid not to buy it, at least that's what they'd think. But you're going to need to advertise and get the word out. You don't want to spend $100 on tea and realize that certain flavors aren't very popular, or realizing that 300 cups of tea sells out sooner than you expect with hundreds of students, or not selling enough tea to double seep your tea.

You also have logistics to worry about, such as how will you be preparing the tea? Will you make it on the spot, or keep it going thought the day? Will you only be doing it on your break? For preparing the tea I'd recommend an electric kettle. I'd also look into finding something to keep the tea warm.

For advertising you always have loud speaker announcements and the student newspaper, but it would be best to prepare for demand by sampling that demand.

---

Take some tea from home, brew it and sell it and see if people buy it. If people are interested, if people are coming back then expand the operation and start advertising. Tell people about how much healthier tea is than coffee. Tell them that you only charge $0.25 (or whatever number you chose) over Starbuck's $3. Hell, sell the "Star's Buck" deal for $3 and offer a prepayment good for 15 cups of tea, that's a hell of a good deal verses going to the coffee shop.

---

Depending on how many customers you have to offer you might start doing some other things too. Charging a quarter per cup you might take inventory of students names and let them pre pay. Steve pays $5 and is good for 20 cups of tea. Sell specialty teas besides black and green for higher prices, offer them as premium teas.

Also some questions you have to ask yourself: hours, are you going to have someone there during the entire school day? Boiling water, seeping tea maybe takes 7 minutes, do you customers have 7 minutes just to get their tea? What about mugs? Do they drink on the spot or bring their own?