Time your tea carefully. Steep it for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the tea and on your personal taste.

Clark, a former subscriber to the Kombucha list, says: "My only experience so far after about 10 weeks of drinking the K-tea was to become dehydrated after about 5-6 weeks. This manifested itself as constant physical and mental fatigue (my chiropractor aptly described it as brain fog) and finally my lips became dry and cracked. See similar questions...

The tea should very light in color, such as a light amber color. It will not be dark such as a black or green tea. See similar questions...

In a teapot, loose leaves have room to fully circulate and expand in the water while they steep, giving you a fuller flavor. Tea bags and tea balls tend to restrict extraction and flavor. See similar questions...

Yes. Because the water is maintained a fraction of a degree below boiling point, the SuperKettle makes perfect tea, as well as other hot drinks. No. Much of the energy in a traditional kettle is wasted because of poor insulation, in the water converted to steam before it switches off, and in the excess water which is heated and left in the kettle but not used. See similar questions...

It is generally agreed that "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing," by Charlie Papazian is an excellent beginners text. Other find David Miller's "The Complete Handbook of Homebrewing" just as good for the beginner, as well as containing more information suited for intermediate/advanced brewers. I use both.Other texts include "The Big Book of Brewing," by Dave Line, which is a British text (with British & metric measurements), and "Brewing Lager Beer" by Greg Noonan. Mr. See similar questions...

This FAQ can always be reached in its most up-to-date form via WWW. The link is htttp://www.dna.lth.se/home/kurt/rcb.faq. Other specific FAQs (yeast, hops) can be found at ftp://ftp.stanford.edu/pub/homebrew. Spencer Thomas' beer page is http://realbeer.com/spencer. The humble author's home page is http://www.dna.lth.se/home/kurt/. See similar questions...

Yes. We suggest filtered or distilled water. If you use tap water, let it run so it's cold, fresh, and aerated. Then, bring the water to a full boil before steeping for 3-5 minutes. See similar questions...

Yes, if for any reason you do not want to take it in capsules, you may pull out the content and mix it with water, juice, or yogurt. See similar questions...

Tea is a drink made by infusing leaves of the tea plant (Camellia sinensis, or Thea sinensis) in hot water. The name 'tea' is also used to refer to the leaves themselves; and it is also the name of a mid- to late-afternoon meal in the British Isles and associated countries, at which tea (the drink) is served along with various foods. See similar questions...

The caffeine content in tea averages about 1/3 the amount found in equal liquid quantities of coffee, about 28-44 mg of caffeine per cup. It is only a myth that green and white teas have less caffeine. The leaves contain the same amount of caffeine but you tend to brew green teas for a shorter period of time and this will lessen the amount of caffeine that ends up in the brew. See similar questions...

Michael Laybourn, Norman Franks and John Scahill were the founders of the company. Michael and Norman had been home brewers for l0 years till they decided to go professional. Don Barkley and Michael Lovett were brewers at the New Albion Brewing Co. and they along with Jack McAuliffe were hired early on to help us build the Hopland brewery. See similar questions...

If you are using any water other than distilled you should boil for 10 minutes. Even bottled water may contain bacteria. It depends on where the water originated. It could also contain microscopic parasites. See similar questions...

Yes. It is usually safe if it's boiled first--provided you live in an area that is well away from an industrial site that uses toxic chemicals. If you live in a heavy industrial area or farm area where they use toxic chemicals, the surrounding ground water could be polluted by heavy metals as well as herbicides and insecticides. These toxic compounds could find their way into the underground stream that feeds into your well, and poison the water. See similar questions...

It isn't a requirement to use distilled water, but many people do use it. However, bear in mind that the distillation process, while removing toxic chemicals etc., also remove all the minerals from the water. See similar questions...

To brew tea, one may use the Sing?Longsint water dispenser. Its temperature is set at between 85? to95?. The water will not be boiled to 100? which will become "dead". Besides retaining the fragrance of the tea or coffee, it also maintains the quality of the water. However, this is not suitable for making soybean milk. The non-boiled soybean milk and hyacinth bean will both cause poisoning. See similar questions...

The folks at Lesaffre and Red Star have a very nice web site with a lot of basic information about yeast. You can send away for a free handbook with information about using yeast in cooking, as well as some ideas for experiments to see how yeast grows. See similar questions...