I am feeling pretty good about the state of my Kombucha these days. My local Kombucha expert assured me that the shiny top is a good sign that a mother scoby is growing. She also said that Rapadura isn't ideal for growing Kombucha because the sugar is eaten up very quickly and it goes sour sooner. I've decided that this batch is sacrificial. Or maybe I should say that this is my starter. I'm going to leave it until I have a good sized layer of scoby on top and then I'll start again, this time with white sugar. I might even go out and buy regular old white sugar instead of using cane juice. I don't think the cane juice is anything but sweet but I don't want to mess it up.
the sheep free knitter 
I'm glad you're blogging the process. I think I may be getting motivated to do this myself soon (or at least sooner rather than later).
It's turning out to be much simpler than I first expected. It just requires patience. I was surprised when I figured out that this was only day 7, I feel like I've been watching it forever!