How To Make Jun Tea
Learn to make a probiotic-rich drink with an abundance of health benefits in this guide on How To Make Jun Tea. Jun is an effervescent fermented drink with delicate flavours reflective of the ingredients used to make it – green tea and raw honey. It is quite floral and much less tart than its similarly fermented close cousin, kombucha.
In This Article
What Makes This Recipe So Good?
Jun, with its delicate flavour, is considered the champagne of fermented drinks. The jun SCOBY is brimming with Lactobacilli along with several other species of beneficial bacteria. This is why adding the SCOBY from one batch to the next – along with some of the mature tea – helps to kick start the fermentation process. The probiotic-rich drink produced during fermentation is a great digestive aid that can help to nourish and replenish friendly gut bacteria. Additionally, we also enjoy the health benefits of the high antioxidant green tea and raw honey.
Ingredients – What You’ll Need To Make This Recipe
Three simple ingredients are all that’s needed to get your Jun Tea ferment underway. That said, one of them, the Jun SCOBY, can be a little harder to come by. My best advice is to search for jun scoby in your local area on Google and see what’s nearby. There is usually always someone selling one, just ensure they are sending a little mature tea with the SCOBY. You’ll need this to kickstart the fermentation of your tea.
- Good quality green tea – Tea leaves are my preference as they are generally more potent and medicinally beneficial than tea bags.
- Raw honey – The best choice for this health-promoting drink as it retains most of the beneficial nutrients and antioxidants honey is known for.
- Jun SCOBY – SCOBY stands for symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast, and it’s the slimy little disc that helps fermentation occur. If you’ve made your own kombucha you’ll be familiar with SCOBYs
- Mature jun tea – In addition to the SCOBY this will help kickstart the fermentation process.
Like kombucha, jun tea requires ongoing attention and is slightly higher maintenance. You will need to brew tea for every batch, let it cool before combining with the other ingredients. It’s not difficult at all but it does require a little planning. You’ll be reward with a delicious, nutrient-rich drink for your efforts though.
How To Make Jun Tea
If you’ve made kombucha before, the process for making jun tea is really no different. It’s simply the ingredients that have a slight change.
- Prepare the green tea – Put 1.5 tablespoons of green tea (or 2 tea bags) in 250ml of water that was recently boiled (never pour boiling water straight onto green tea so as not to scorch the leaves). Leave to steep for 3 minutes then strain off and keep the liquid (you can put the tea leaves out in the compost).
- Combine the 250ml of just-made green tea, the remaining 750ml filtered water, the raw honey and the mature jun in a large jar. Stir well to ensure the honey dissolves completely.
- Add in the jun scoby, cover the jar with a cloth, secure it with a rubber band and sit on the bench out of the sun. Leave to ferment for 3 – 7 days.
- Once the jun is ready you can put it through a second ferment if you’d like to add flavours to it. See my post on how to make my favourite flavour combo Jun Tea – blueberry and lime! DO NOT FORGET to save some of the mature Jun for your next batch before you add any flavours.
How quickly or slowly the jun will ferment largely depends on the temperature in your home. Check in on it after 3 – 4 days and you should see bubbles rising to the surface. If not, just leave it another day or perhaps a few if needed, but not much longer or it will start to get too sour.
Substitutions And Variations
SCOBYs can be fickle things and the jun SCOBY is no exception. They don’t love change, so it’s best not to swap out or substitute the honey in the initial fermentation. If you go on to do a second ferment then by all means add all the different flavours you like. Initially though, keeping it simple is important. Green tea, raw honey, the mature jun liquid and a SCOBY should remain your base.
Tips For Success With This Recipe
I always consider this to be a very special, nourishing drink. With this in mind, my advice is not to skip on sourcing the good ingredients. You won’t go wrong with a beautiful, local raw honey and the best quality green tea leaves you can find.
Storing
This drink will keep for several weeks in the fridge. Once fermented (and second fermented if you’re adding flavour) simply keep it stored in a large glass bottle.
More Drinks Recipes
- Jun Tea – Blueberry and Lime
- Strawberry Shrub
- Ginger Beer Mocktail
If you try this recipe, I’d love to know. Leave a comment, rate it, and remember to tag @wholenaturalkitchen in your pics or reels on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok!
How To Make Jun Tea
Equipment
- Large jar (at least 1.5 to 2 litres)
- Tea towel
- Rubber band
- Small saucepan
- Fine mesh sieve
Ingredients
- 1 jun tea SCOBY
- 1 litre filtered water
- ½ cup mature jun tea
- ⅓ cup raw honey
- 1.5 Tbsp green tea (or 2 tea bags)
Instructions
- To make the green tea – boil 250ml of water, let it sit for a few minutes then add in 1.5 tablespoons of green tea (or 2 tea bags). Leave to steep for 3 minutes, then strain off and keep the liquid.
- Add the 250ml brewed tea, honey, mature jun tea and the remaining 750ml filtered water. Stir until the honey has completely dissolved.
- Add the jun SCOBY to the mix, cover the jar with a tea towel, secure with a rubber band and sit on the bench for 3 – 7 days to ferment. You should be able to see the bubbles rising to the top of the jar. If not, leave it for another day or perhaps a few – but not too much longer or it will start to become too sour.
Notes
- Once this batch has finished fermenting, set aside 1/2 cup of the mature tea and the jun SCOBY for your next batch.
- Serving Suggestion: Decant the remaining jun into a swing top or capped bottle. You can drink it as is or do a second ferment adding in your flavourings of choice. See my blueberry and lime jun recipe for instructions on how to do a second fermentation.
Nutrition
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Gabby Campbell
Gabby is a degree qualified Naturopath/Nutritionist (BHSc Nat) with a love of all whole foods. She started her Naturopathic career in clinical practice before making the move to recipe development and online education – a result of wanting to combat the misinformation that abounds on the internet about food and health. Whole Natural Kitchen aims to transform the way you think about healthy eating by helping you embrace an abundance of nutritious foods while leaving the health fads behind. MORE ABOUT GABBY
I live on tea and have been having fun with fermentation lately. Can’t wait to try this!
Oh yay! You’ll love this then Beth.
Hubby will certainly love this. He loves tea and drinks it everyday. I can’t wait to try this and see how he likes it. 🙂
I hope he loves it! A fermented tea is a taste sensation and Jun is my absolute favourite. It’s called the champagne of the (non-alcoholic) fermented drinks world and I fully agree.