That jelly-like disc floating in your kombucha has a name and a job. Here is what it is, how it forms, and how to keep it happy. An acronym, not an animal SCOBY stands for Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast. It is a living community, not a mushroom and not a jellyfish, even though it looks a little like both. The bacteria and the yeasts work as a team: the yeasts turn sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, and the bacteria turn that alcohol into the tangy acids that make