I finally had the ingredients to get this done. I tried to find a recipe that I would like but I could not. I wanted to make it without a scoby and use only a bottle of store bought kombucha that is pasteurized for the starter. I can’t get a scoby here in town that I know of so I would have to order it online. I have tried to make it this way before and it really worked, just using the bottle of kombucha, it just takes longer. The gallon jars at the store are crazy expensive so I am using a pickle jar. I washed it out and it does not smell like pickles at all. I boiled 1 gallon of water with 10 black tea bags. I read that using tea like Earl Grey will not work because of the oil in the tea leaves, so just straight black tea. I thought about using green tea but I don’t like the taste. I added 1.5 cups of sugar as well. I found a recipe that had only 2/3 cup of sugar and 2 tbs of tea for 1 gallon of water but I was afraid that the fermentation process wouldn’t work as well since I am NOT using a scoby as the starter, so I added more sugar and tea. Let the tea cool and then add the Kombucha. I assume that the heat of the water would kill the yeast in the bottle of kombucha that I am adding at the end. I did add it to slightly warm tea. Then place a rubber band round a paper towel on top so it can breathe. I remember it taking several weeks for the scoby to form. It forms a gel like substance and then the whole scoby forms and becomes thick. You can separate it and put it into another jar and have two. Store it in a dark, warm-ish closet or cabinet. Finally! I have been thinking of this for weeeeekzzz…
I started this on July 28th and it is now September 9th….
It really worked!! The scoby or mother is super thick!
This is different than store kombucha, and tastes really sour! I poured out some of this kombucha into a coffee cup and then added 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of that to 1/4 of a teaspoon of sugar and added that to a fresh cup of tea that I brewed in the coffee pot, also a couple of splashes of lime juice.
then I put the rest of the coffee cup of the strong kombucha into the fridge, covered, to drink later.
October 14th
I have been drinking some of this mostly every day, but I left the rest in this jar and now it looks like this!! so now I need to take out one of the mothers and put it in a different jar or take out all of them and redo the tea again. I am not sure how long it will take this time since I have a mother already.. 
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