KOMBUCHA FLAVORING IDEAS PLEASE!

This is one of several blog posts that I've seen:

I was recently given a bottle of cranberry juice concentrate, I used it in the second fermentation, straight undiluted. It was very good.

Sometimes when I have an abundance of overripe fruit, I put whatever is available through the juicer and store in the freezer in small containers. One container goes into the kombucha, it makes for interesting, can’t be duplicated, flavors. Those little juice cups also make great icees for the kids.

My favorite right now is soursop and lychee. I've been making peach, nectarine, and dragon fruit as well.

I add fresh ginger root slices or dried hibiscus sometimes.

I don't do second ferments with fruit or juice (because it raises the alcohol level) but I sometimes mix with juice right before drinking. Watermelon juice, drained from cut-up watermelon, is excellent with kombucha. My favorite summer punch is 1 part kombucha, 1 part watermelon juice, and 1 part grapefruit sparkling water (like grapefruit Perrier or LaCroix).

Great suggestions! I can't wait to try eat watermelon juice in ours.

We have a lot of elderberries. so I make a thin elderberry syrup with honey instead of sugar, then I add some of that to the kombucha during the second fermentation. I also add a little bit of sugar. Just to help with the carbonation. We also recently got a hydrometer... to test the alcohol levels. Because I make a soft kombucha for the kids in a hard kombucha for the adults.

I've just recently started keeping a kombucha notebook and measuring exact amounts of juice and sugar during the second fermentation so that I can adjust the carbonation levels based on previous readings.

Sometimes I cheat and add blueberry juice that I bought. It's really good though. ☺️

All of these flavoring and sweetener tips are great, and will give good results for a few generations, but here is an important warning I've learned in my years of making kombucha:

The SCOBY colonies feed on black tea and white sugar, and you must periodically return to these fuel sources every few cycles, or your product will start producing strange, unpalatable flavors.

It's fine to use honey, or green tea, or to experiment with many things, but black tea and white sugar are what the yeasts eat, and if you don't feed them that at a minimum every third or fourth brew, they get unhappy, and that will make you unhappy.

I almost always do a second ferment with my kombucha. When I first started I would only use fruit juice, either pineapple or mango or a mixture of the two. Now I experiment with many flavors. My favorite is purple basil. It turns a beautiful purplish-red color and tastes wonderful. I've also used lavendar flower and lemon rind; cucumber, lemon and mint (which was good for a week or two and then turned very strong and was unappetizing); apple and purple basil; earl grey which was delicious; and whatever I have available in the house at the time. I hope to try beet and rosemary soon.

It's great hearing everyone's experiences with kombucha! I love trying new flavors and will be incorporating some of these flavors in upcoming brews!

I use homemade jams for flavoring and always add a small chunk of ginger for the second ferment. Blackberry, fig and muscadine have been me favorites to use. My jams generally have more fruit and less sugar than store bought.

My favorite is simply garden mint and kombucha. If you dont have garden mint, yogi tea makes an especially good mint. I ferment the kombucha with the mint tea. And i also make it with earl grey, ceylon tea. Any herbal or black teas. Also really good with runi tea

Juice your watermelon rinds and add honey. Then use that for your second ferment.