51 Unique Kombucha Flavors and Recipes

Infusing raw kombucha with different flavors can alter the taste without sacrificing the probiotics and weight loss benefits. The process relies on setting up a second ferment. The second ferment refers to any anaerobic fermentation that the fermented tea undergoes after the initial brewing. The process relies on the already present yeast culture in the kombucha to breakdown the sugar that's often present in flavors. The culture feeds on the sugar and releases carbon dioxide causing the drink to become fizzy. 

Not Much Time? Skip To What You'd Like To Learn...

• What Influences The Flavor Of Kombucha?

• How To Flavor Kombucha

• Kombucha Recipes - How We Chose

• Considerations Before Brewing

• Quick Tips

• Recipes:

- Easy Recipes

- 2-Gallon Recipes

- Infused Recipes

- Fruit Recipes

- Cocktail Recipes

- CBD Recipes

- Tea Alternative Recipes

- Sugar Alternative Recipes

- Low Caffeine Recipes

- Low Sugar Recipe

- Coffee Kombucha Recipe

- Beer Kombucha Recipe

 

What Influences The Flavor Of Kombucha?

 

Length Of Time

The taste of your homemade kombucha gains an acidic vinegar-like flavor when allowed to ferment for longer than 21 days. While this can be diluted with freshly brewed herbal tea or just water, it will still have a tart taste. Usually kombucha takes anywhere from 7 to 14 days to ferment. However, this can be adjusted to fit personal preference or recipe specifications. The fermenting time is also subject to some external factors such as temperature, whereby the brew will ferment at a faster rate when stored at room temperature. If the temperature drops too low, the culture will become dormant, thus reducing the rate of fermentation.

Type Of Tea Leaves

Tea varieties have their distinctive flavor, which gets passed on while making kombucha during steeping. However, fermentation weakens the taste, but the final product will still have a distinctive flavor. Kombucha can be prepared using green, black, white, Oolong, and rooibos tea.  

Tea Type	Effect On Flavor
Green Tea	Light taste with a bit of tartness
Black Tea	Light earthy tones
Oolong Tea	Lightly grassy flavor
White Tea	Mildly tangy flavor

Sugar Used

Making kombucha requires sugar to be present for the yeast culture to feed on. While refined sugar is the easiest to brew with, there are other healthier sources of sugar, such as evaporated sugarcane juice. Other sources, such as honey and molasses can also be used, giving the brew a unique flavor profile.

Sugar Type	Effect On Flavor
Plain white sugar	A hint of sourness
Brown sugar	Rich, sweet taste
Honey	Light, refreshing flavor
Molasses	Slightly sour
Maple syrup	Sweet
Evaporated cane sugar	Sweet, rich taste

Flavor Added During The Second Ferment

This is the most instrumental method of controlling the flavor of your kombucha brew. Whether it's through experimenting or following a recipe, you can use fruits, juices, herbs, and spices. Most of the ingredients used to flavor kombucha contain additional sugar, which is fermented by the culture during the second ferment giving the drink a fizzy nature and alternative taste.

 

How To Flavor Kombucha

 

Measure The Flavor 

Various flavors require a different mixing ratio to bring out the best of each. It's imperative to get the right mixing ratio to avoid ending up with undrinkable brew due to flavor mismatch. However, the rates given can be adjusted accordingly if the blend is either too light or too concentrated.

Type Of Flavor	Amount To Use Per 1 Cup Kombucha
Fruit	1/4 cup
Juice	1/16 cup
Raw Almond	1/4 tsp
Vanilla Extract	1/4 tsp

Mix The Flavor And Kombucha

This step can be performed either in a glass jar or the bottles you intend to use for the short ferment. Gently combine the ingredients and ensure that they are thoroughly mixed in. This makes it possible for the yeast culture in the kombucha to feed on the additional sugar content to produce carbon dioxide.

Seal The Bottles

Wipe any liquids that may have landed on the mouth of the bottles before screwing on the lids. Ensure that you leave a 1 to 3-inch headspace in each bottle to accommodate the excess carbon dioxide produced during the fermentation cycle. The purpose of sealing the bottles airtight is to prevent carbon dioxide from escaping and also cutting off the oxygen supply, which would lead to an increased culture population.

Store At Room Temperature For Up To 3 Days

For the yeast culture to completely breakdown the sugar in the added flavoring, the bottle needs to be stored at room temperature for up to 3 days. After this, the bottles should be moved to the fridge where the cold temperatures will make the culture dormant, thus slowing down the carbon dioxide production, which could otherwise lead to too much pressure within the bottle, making it explode.

Filtering out any solid pieces of fruits from the kombucha is a matter of personal preference, so you can either opt to or not. However, if you intend to keep the kombucha in the fridge for long, then it's much better to filter out the solid pieces with a sieve cloth. Remember to do it gently so that the kombucha can retain its fizzy nature.

 

Kombucha Recipes - How We Chose

 

The choice of flavor to use will depend on a couple of factors. As a result, the flavor you pick will have its unique recipe to follow for the most optimal results.

Brewing Time

Various flavors require different brewing time before they can achieve the required taste. This gives rise to quick brew recipes and prolonged brewing recipes. We have broken down each of these and provided a list of best recipes for each.

Type Of Flavor	Brewing Time
Fruit	3-5 days
Juice	3-5 days
Molasses and Green Tea Based	7-14 days
Spices	3-5 days

Variety Of Flavors Used

While some recipes rely on a single flavor, others call for secondary ingredients to be added to further enhance the taste and even the color of the brew. These can, therefore, be listed as per their primary ingredient, such as ginger kombucha.

Taste Of The Final Brew

The taste of kombucha will be significantly influenced by the flavor used and brewing time. This is because some flavors will lose their taste during fermentation while others completely change the taste of raw kombucha to match theirs.

Health Factors

To accommodate for some of the health concerns of modern-day, we have also picked some healthy recipes that are caffeine-free and sugar-free.

 

Considerations Before Brewing

 

Length Of Brewing Time

The period of brewing time is influenced by the specific flavor used. However, it's also subject to other factors such as the amount of kombucha being brewed whereby the more kombucha you are dealing with, the longer it will take to complete the second ferment.

Amount Of Kombucha

The second fermentation is best carried out in airtight bottles or containers as it relies on the anaerobic environment for optimal carbon dioxide formation. If you intend to bottle flavored kombucha, ensure that you have the capacity. In this case, a continuous brewing system will come in handy.

Equipment Available

Flavoring a large batch of kombucha requires a considerable number of quality glass bottles or containers. The brew builds up pressure from within, which can lead to bottles bursting if they are weak. Ensure that your bottles are equipped with lids that form airtight seals to prevent any oxygen from getting in or the carbon dioxide escaping.

Ingredients 

The ingredients required for the second ferment will vary depending on the recipe. Before you start, ensure that you have all the required ingredients and measure them amount as per the recipe's ratios to the amount of kombucha you want to brew.

 

Quick Tips

 

Stir The Kombucha Before Bottling

To get an adequate amount of yeast and bacteria culture in the kombucha, it's recommended to stir the fluid after removing the SCOBY. The culture will feed on almost all of the sugar in the kombucha to produce carbon dioxide and acetic acid. When the culture exhausts the sugar, they will go dormant. This also ensures that your kombucha still has the necessary probiotics.

Use Proper Brewing Bottles

To avoid having to deal with broken bottles, you should consider investing in thick-walled glass bottles. The containers should also be equipped with airtight lids to ensure only anaerobic fermentation takes place.

Prepare Fermentation Area Away From Direct Sunlight

Sunlight contains ultraviolet rays, which are somewhat harmful to the culture. Ensure that you have adequate space to store the bottles, preferably in the pantry. Room temperature will also be required for optimal fermentation rate, ensure that your brew is only exposed to constant temperatures at all times. 80 degrees F (26 degrees C) is the best-recommended temperature range for the second ferment.

Sanitize Equipment

It's important to sanitize all of the equipment to avoid the growth of harmful bacteria and fungal culture in the bottle, which would otherwise ruin the entire brew. Use concentrated vinegar to rinse off the bottles and containers as well as funnels that may be required during the brewing and bottling process. Avoid using hot water on some glass equipment, followed by a cold rinse as it might lead to cracking.

Use Fresh Ingredients

On top of using freshly brewed kombucha, it's essential to use fresh flavors that contain some form of sugar which are required to feed the yeast culture. If the flavor doesn't have enough sugar, the drink will lack the fizzy flavor, so add two teaspoons of white sugar into the kombucha and stir well. Fruits, on the other hand, have sucrose, which is the source of sugar for the anaerobic fermentation while also flavoring the drink.

 

Recipes

Easy Recipes

 

This list comprises of some of the most natural recipes to prepare that don't require any specialized equipment other than quality fermentation bottles and the ingredients. These recipes take around 3 to 5 days for full fermentation to occur after the second ferment. The containers should then be moved into the fridge where the cold temperature prevents further carbonation.

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Blueberry Ginger

Strawberry Lemonade

Blueberry Vanilla

Lemonade

 

Ginger and Blueberry Kombucha - Recipe

This easy to make recipe requires only blueberries and grated fresh ginger for flavoring. In case you want to add more fizziness to your drink, you can add 2 tablespoons of sugar mixed with 1 cup of ginger kombucha.

 

Strawberry Lemonade Kombucha - Recipe

Strawberry lemonade kombucha offers a great refreshment on any day due to its slightly tart but sweet taste. The recipe is also simple to prepare as you will only require to cut the strawberries into thin slices and cut the lemon into wedges that must be small enough to fit in the bottle or fermentation jar.

 

Blueberry Vanilla Kombucha - Recipe

Blueberry fruits can match with quite a large selection of secondary flavors while brewing kombucha. Adding vanilla to frozen and smashed blueberries allows it to mix well during the second ferment and flavor the batch with a sweet tropical flavor that's also quite colorful.

 

Lemonade Kombucha - Recipe

When you want a quick fix flavor, then this is the easiest option you can get. You only require a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice, your raw kombucha, and a tablespoon of coconut sugar. The ingredients are all soluble, meaning you will not have to deal with any solids that require sieving out before drinking.

 

2-Gallon Recipes

 

** Disclaimer: These recipes aren't designed to be 2-gallon, but we think they'll work perfectly. Just multiply the ingredients **

The best way to prepare 2-gallon flavored recipes is by first ensuring that you have the required 2 gallons of raw kombucha. This can then be divided as per the recipe ratios to avoid over or under flavoring the drink.

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Apple Cinnamon Chai

Elderberry

 

Apple Cinnamon Chai Kombucha - Recipe

Apples are packed with sugar making them the perfect flavoring ingredient to use when dealing with substantial quantities of kombucha up to 2 gallons or even more. A quarter medium apple sliced and diced can be used to flavor 16 ounces of kombucha. This means you will require four apples to ferment 2 gallons of raw kombucha. The resulting drink is bubbly and sweet, with a slight cinnamon flavor.

 

Elderberry Kombucha - Recipe

Elderberries make for a deliciously creamy and jam-y flavor. The fruits also pack a substantial amount of sugar, which undergoes carbonation making the drink bubbly. The recipe requires four teaspoons of dried elderberries for every 2 cups of kombucha so that a 2-gallon ferment will need at least 4 cups of elderberries.

 

Infused Recipes

 

Flavor infusion refers to the art of extracting flavors from plant extracts into a solvent. In this case, the solvent is the raw kombucha, and the flavor is infused into it will depend on your pick. The process relies on suspending the flavoring ingredient in the kombucha for the entire second ferment, thus allowing it to absorb the required flavor. This method is best for dealing with dry ingredients such as spices, herbs, and aromatics.

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Pumpkin Spice

Spiced Apple

Orange Blast

Rosemary Chamomile

Elderflower

Dark Chocolate and Peppermint

Rhubarb and Honey Soda

 

Pumpkin Spice Kombucha - Recipe

If you love the warm flavors of pumpkin pie spices, then you will love the subtlety of the same flavors in your kombucha. Due to the limited amount of sugar in the spices, it's recommended to add 1 teaspoon of sugar for every 2 cups of raw kombucha to make it fizzy. After the fermentation and infusion of the flavor, you should filter out the clumps of spices with a strainer.

 

Spiced Apple Kombucha - Recipe

Spiced apple flavor gives kombucha a sweetly taste while still harnessing its probiotic-rich nature. To prepare 2 quarts of this magical drink, you will require an apple, cinnamon sticks, and ginger to taste. The ingredients are then mixed and bottled to allow for flavor infusion after which they are filtered out, and the late fall drink served or stored in the fridge.

 

Orange Blast Kombucha - Recipe

Orange kombucha brings back the taste of oranges in the summer, sweet with a twist of tartness. The drink also contains additional health benefits in the form of added vitamins that are present in the fresh oranges. The fruits contain enough sugar to give the drink a fizzy nature, so there's no need to add extra sugar. Some of the spices that can be infused with this recipe include cinnamon and turmeric.

 

Rosemary Chamomile Kombucha - Recipe

Rosemary and chamomile match perfectly with green tea. The resulting blend of tastes and aroma is enough to get your stomach growling while also packing many health benefits derived from the infusion ingredients. It is recommended using rosemary syrup as it's much more comfortable to mix in the raw kombucha allowing for more significant flavor infusion.

 

Elderflower Kombucha - Recipe

Elderberry bushes usually bloom with elderflowers; these tiny whitish flowers contain nectar with a sweetly strong flavor. The elderflower syrup prepared from the flowers is then mixed with kombucha in a 1:1 ratio and bottled for a second ferment.

 

Dark Chocolate and Peppermint Kombucha - Recipe

What better way to enjoy the sugary sweetness of chocolate and the cool subtle flavor of peppermint than with kombucha? This drink packs quite a considerable number of calories, making it perfect for dessert. The flavors are also well matched for a probiotics drink.

 

Rhubarb and Honey Soda Kombucha - Recipe

Rhubarb and honey soda kombucha features a rosy flavor in a drink that can only be described as a sparkling lemonade. The drink is rich in probiotics from the raw kombucha fermentation process, and the added flavor dulls out the tart taste of raw kombucha. It's important to note that the drink does get drier and acquires a tart taste if left to ferment for too long, aim for 3 to 5 days.  

 

 

Fruit Recipes

 

Fruits are the ultimate flavoring ingredients when it comes to kombucha. This is because not only are they packed with unique taste and aroma, but they also contain natural sugar, which the culture feeds on to provide the required carbon dioxide. Fruits can be used either whole or chopped up into pieces or even blended. The choice on which to use is, however, limited to the size of your brewing container, so remember to prepare beforehand.

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Pineapple

Cherry 

Beet

Cucumber Mint

Mango 

Lavender

Apricot

Watermelon

Plum

Oroblanco Grapefruit

Grapefruit and Rosemary

Passionfruit

Pomegranate 

Lemon and Ginger

 

Pineapple Kombucha - Recipe

Pineapple fruits are sweet and full of vitamins and minerals. When added to raw kombucha, the resulting drink is not only sweeter but also more nutritious as it contains the added probiotics from kombucha as well as the nutritional benefits accrued to consuming pineapples. The fruit can be blended with the kombucha before the second fermentation to increase the surface area for quicker results.

 

Cherry Kombucha - Recipe

Cherries have a characteristic tart and sweet taste making them a great match with raw kombucha. The fruits also contain sugar, which gives the drink a bubbly flavor as well as a much-improved color. In case you run out of fresh cherries, you can use frozen ones, grind them up and remember to filter out the fruit parts after fermentation.

 

Beet Kombucha - Recipe

Flavor your raw kombucha with fresh beets to give it a brilliant magenta color with a balance of sweet and tart flavors. Beetroots contain stored sugars that get broken down during the second ferment, and carbon dioxide produced by the culture dissolves in the drink, making it fizzy. The fermentation should take place within three days, after which you should strain out the beets and bottle the beet kombucha for fridge storage up to 5 days.

 

Cucumber Mint Kombucha - Recipe

Cucumbers offer a refreshing twist to the old kombucha drink. To give the flavor a bit of a kick, mint is also added in this recipe. Cucumbers also contain minerals and vitamins which get infused into the kombucha during fermentation, thus adding to its health benefits.

 

Mango Kombucha - Recipe

Mango kombucha has a uniquely sweet and bubbly taste. The mango puree contains sugars which the culture feeds on anaerobically during the second fermentation, thus producing carbon dioxide. The drink also retains the bright yellow hue from the mangoes.

 

Lavender Kombucha - Recipe

Adding lavender to kombucha gives it a delightful flavor and a richer taste instead of the tartness commonly attributed to raw kombucha. This drink requires only three days for the lavender flavor to be infused to the kombucha and should be strained before refrigeration.

 

Apricot Kombucha - Recipe

Apricots provide a great taste and flavor to kombucha. This balances out the tart flavors of raw kombucha to fool your taste buds. Apricot kombucha also contains some of the vitamins normally contained in apricots. The fruits should be sliced before the second ferment to increase the surface area exposed to the culture.

 

Watermelon Kombucha - Recipe

Spiced watermelon kombucha can only be compared to a party in your mouth. Cayenne pepper can also be added to the drink to make it a bit spicy as per your flavor choices. The second ferment takes around 3 to 5 days for the sugar in the watermelon to get fully broken down to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

 

Plum Kombucha - Recipe

Plums are refreshingly sweet, which makes just about any other kombucha brew taste heavenly. Plums are also packed with sugars which get fermented and release carbon dioxide to make the drink fizzy. Remember to filter out the fruit parts after the second ferment before storing it in the fridge.

 

Oroblanco Grapefruit Kombucha 

Adding oroblanco to raw kombucha will give it a great color and a sweet and tart flavor. The second ferment process also improves the health benefits accrued to the drink by increasing the number of probiotics. The anaerobic fermentation of the fruit makes the brew turn bubbly.

 

Grapefruit and Rosemary Kombucha - Recipe

Adding tangerine to raw kombucha gives it a zesty flavor that's refreshing to drink any time of the day. The citrus fruit used also adds vitamins and minerals to the brew, and the sugar found in the fruit ensures that the drink gets carbonated during the second ferment. Rosemary can also be added according to the recipe to give flavored kombucha a taste boost.

 

Passionfruit Kombucha - Recipe

Passionfruit has a distinctively sharp sweetness that matches perfectly with the tartness of raw kombucha. As a result, the flavored brew is slightly sweet with the right amount of sourness. During the second ferment, the sucrose found in the fruit gets broken down by the culture, which leads to natural carbonation.

 

Pomegranate Kombucha - Recipe

Pomegranate fruits can be used to flavor kombucha to give it a fizzy, tangy, and tart flavor. If the fruit is not locally available, you can use fresh juice instead. The fruit also contains vitamins and minerals, which gets infused together with the flavor to the kombucha, making it much healthier.

 

Lemon and Ginger Kombucha - Recipe

Blending lemon and ginger provides quite a magical tonic. Adding the pair to raw kombucha only serves to make the entire concoction tastier. Lemon ginger kombucha has a slightly tart and sweet taste with quite a refreshing aroma. Adding a dash of honey provides the culture with the necessary sugar to carbonate the drink.

 

Cocktail Recipes

 

While raw kombucha contains less than 2% alcohol content, that doesn't mean it can't go well with higher amounts of alcohol. This calls for kombucha cocktails, which is a combination of kombucha, your favorite alcoholic drink, and in some cases, a secondary ingredient to add flavor to the drink.

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Festive Pear

Moscow Mules

Ginger

Sangria

Rosy Gin

Swedish Tart

Vodka Highball

 

Festive Pear Kombucha - Recipe

Adding pear to kombucha produces a fruity, delicious, and fizzy drink that's also healthy. The flavor makes it perfect for a warm day as a refreshment and workout recovery drink. The fermentation process weakness the pear flavor. To counter this, ginger and cloves are added, giving the drink a much richer taste and aroma.

 

Moscow Mules Kombucha - Recipe

Just like the name suggests, this drink will require a bit of Russian vodka. Moscow mules have a dull edge compared to neat vodka, thus making them the perfect party drink. Juiced lime is also added to improve the flavor of the drink. You can ice depending on personal preferences.

 

Ginger Cocktail - Recipe

Mixing kombucha with ginger, crushed ice, and vodka gives a perfect afternoon cocktail. The drink relies on the mixture of flavors to tone down the burning taste of vodka and the tartness of kombucha. The resulting brew is gingery and sparkly with a slight hint of mint, which is added to balance the taste.

 

Sangria Kombucha - Recipe

To prepare a glass of sangria kombucha, you will require a blend of apples, blood oranges, berries, mint, and brandy. The ingredients form a rich flavor, making it the perfect way to enjoy your brandy and probiotics at the same time.

 

Rosy Gin Kombucha Cocktail - Recipe

For a more refined approach to kombucha and cocktails, you will have to try the rosy gin kombucha. It comprises of gin, Campari, fresh lemon juice, grated ginger, kombucha, and lemon wedges for serving. The drink is also surprisingly easy to prepare as it only requires mixing up the ingredients and straining through a fine-mesh sieve.

 

Swedish Tart - Recipe

The Swedish tart relies on an incredibly simple recipe, which results in a refreshingly sweet drink. To fix this drink, you will need sugar, coarsely chopped dill, vodka, and green tea kombucha. However, this drink can end up overly sugary as the recipe does require quite a considerable amount of added sugar.

 

Vodka Highball Cocktail - Recipe

Combining vodka, simple syrup, kombucha, and lime juice gives a slightly bitter drink that's best served when chilled. Due to the simplicity of the recipe, you can either opt to chill the kombucha before mixing the drink or add plenty of ice cubes. You can use a lime wedge to garnish the drink before serving.

 

CBD Recipes

 

Infusing kombucha with CBD gives it quite a potent combo in terms of its capability to restore, revive, and relax your body. CBD is typically derived from the hemp plant, which belongs to the cannabis family. However, it should be noted that the effects of CBD are still being studied, and if it's your first-time taking CBD, you should seek your doctor's opinion.

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Blueberry Mojito

CBD Blend

Blood Orange Gummies

 

CBD Infused Blueberry Mojito Kombucha - Recipe

Infusing CBD oil with blueberry mojito will give you the ultimate mocktail. With a delicious taste and a bubbly flavor, this drink will keep you relaxed while also restoring your body, thanks to the accrued benefits of consuming kombucha and CBD oil.

 

CBD Kombucha - Recipe

CBD kombucha requires setting up a second ferment to infuse the CBD flower to kombucha. The process also requires additional organic sugar, which the culture feeds on during the ferment. The resulting drink is bubbly with a tart taste and a hint of CBD scent. However, the drink will still serve its purpose, which is to rejuvenate your body while still providing the probiotics benefits of kombucha.

 

Blood Orange CBD Infused Kombucha Gummies - Recipe

You no longer have to shop for kombucha gummies; with this recipe, you will be well on your way to preparing your first batch of blood orange CBD infused kombucha gummies. The process takes around four hours, although less than 5 minutes involves actual cooking the rest of the time is used up in straining, concentrating the jelly and freezing it to a solid shape.

 

Tea Alternative Recipes

 

Skip To:

Black Tea

Oolong Tea

Green Tea

White Tea

 

Black Tea - Recipe

Kombucha brewed with loose-leaf black tea has not only the required probiotics but also the added nutritional benefits accrued to consuming black tea. It also makes for the best tea for activating a SCOBY. The resulting drink has a bold, fruity flavor. Black tea contains a higher concentration of caffeine when compared to other varieties as its prepared from mature tea leaves. Remember to use unflavored tea leaves to avoid negatively impacting the quality of your brew.

 

Oolong Tea - Recipe

Oolong tea is prepared by partially oxidizing tea leaves, giving them a mild flavor that's almost grassy and fruity this flavor gets passed on to the tea during fermentation. Oolong tea has all the medical benefits accrued to raw kombucha, such as increased alertness, increased metabolism, which helps in weight control and also reducing the chances of heart disease.

 

Green Tea - Recipe

Green is one of the healthiest teas you can use to brew kombucha. This is due to the numerous health benefits associated with the consumption of green tea. The fermentation process adds important probiotics to this drink, making it even more coveted. Green tea kombucha takes around 7 to 14 days to brew, during which most of the sugar gets broken down to produce an effervescent drink that can be enjoyed at any time of the day.

 

White Tea - Recipe

White tea is prepared by baking and drying minimally oxidized tea leaves. Just like the name suggests, this tea provides a delicate flowery flavor, which is then passed on to your white tea kombucha. However, it's not recommended to activate your SCOBY with white tea as it lacks the tannins required by the culture. White tea also contains lesser caffeine when compared to other brews such as black tea, making it much more recommendable for anyone with caffeine intolerance.

 

Sugar Alternative Recipes

 

Skip To:

White Sugar

Honey

Molasses

Evaporated Cane Juice 

Maple Syrup

 

White Sugar Kombucha - Recipe

Granulated white sugar is the best source of food for the bacteria and yeast culture during the fermentation period. Because the sugar comprises of 50 percent glucose and 50 percent sucrose; both of these sugar molecules are easily broken down into carbon dioxide and alcohol, which the bacteria feed on to produce even more carbon dioxide. This sugar also doesn't have any dominant flavors, which would otherwise interfere with the distinct taste of fermented tea.

 

Honey Kombucha - Recipe

Honey makes for a healthy source of sugar with additionally dissolved minerals and vitamins. Raw honey contains its own culture of bacteria as well as anti-microbial properties, making it harmful to your culture. For this reason, only use pasteurized honey when preparing honey kombucha. The brew will take around the same time to ferment as any other source of sugar, but you will have to use around 7/8 the amount of sugar, as honey has a higher concentration of sugars, especially sucrose.

 

Molasses Kombucha - Recipe

Molasses is a byproduct of the sugar manufacturing process. This solid brown mass contains sugar and other matter left behind after extraction of crystalline sugar. Due to its dense nature, molasses takes much longer to brew, typically taking 14 days. The resulting drink has a strong taste and can, at times, develop a slightly bitter flavor if left to ferment for too long. One cup of molasses can brew up to 1 gallon of tea.

 

Evaporated Cane Juice Kombucha - Recipe

Evaporated cane juice is used as a sugar source for kombucha due to its fresh and sweet taste. It produces a rich drink without some of the bitter traits associated with other sources of sugar, such as brown sugar and molasses. Evaporated cane sugar is also great for the health of your SCOBY as the dissolved sugars are much easier to get to and breakdown, giving the drink a fizzy nature.

 

Maple Syrup Kombucha - Recipe

This can either be used during the first ferment or as a flavor during the second ferment. When used during the first ferment, the resulting kombucha has a sweet-tart flavor due to the dissolved minerals. It's important only to use natural maple syrup to avoid harming your SCOBY as there are other artificial syrups prepared using corn starch, which the SCOBY can't feed on.

 

Low Caffeine Recipe

 

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Low Caffeine

Caffeine Free

 

Low Caffeine Kombucha - Recipe

To reduce the amount of caffeine in your kombucha, you can either opt for decaffeinated tea leaves or use herbal tea to brew the kombucha. One of the most famous herbs to use is rooibos tea; while this plant isn't related to the tea plant, it has a distinctly similar flavor, but it doesn't contain caffeine.

 

Caffeine Free Recipes - Recipe

To make caffeine-free kombucha, you would need to start with caffeine-free tea this is best achieved by brewing rooibos tea and fermenting it to caffeine-free kombucha. The kombucha can then be flavored accordingly.

 

Low Sugar Recipe

 

Low Sugar Kombucha - Recipe

Because it's impossible to brew kombucha without sugar, the only way to prepare low sugar kombucha is to let it ferment for longer; thus, most of the sugar, if not all, will be broken down to carbon dioxide and alcohol. The process relies on the same kombucha fermentation guide but deviates in terms of fermentation days whereby the brew can be left to go on for up to 21 days. However, this greatly impacts the flavor, and the taste should, therefore, be monitored daily to ensure that it doesn't become too sour or vinegary. You can use a hydrometer also to keep track of the brew's sugar concentration.

 

Coffee Recipe

 

Coffee Kombucha - Recipe

Coffee can be fermented to make coffee kombucha in the same process as brewing tea kombucha. However, coffee has a much faster fermentation rate taking around 3 to 5 days instead. The resulting drink is slightly tangy with a hint of bitterness as the majority of the sugar will have been broken down, leaving the taste of coffee to be more noticeable. To make 1.5 quarts of kombucha coffee, you will require at least 1/2 a cup of sugar.

 

Beer Recipe

 

Root Beer Kombucha - Recipe

To prepare root beer kombucha, you will have to use sarsaparilla root, wintergreen leaf, turbinado sugar, and natural vanilla extract. The ingredients are infused with boiling water to make a root beer kombucha infusion, which is then added to kombucha during the second ferment to brew root beer kombucha.

 

 

 

 

Interested in learning more about kombucha? 
Check out these articles:

 Kombucha Products

Kombucha and pH

Kombucha Bottles

Does Kombucha Go Bad?

How to Pronounce Kombucha

How Much Caffeine Is In Kombucha?

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