Kombucha -- who's a fan?

It’s a really interesting world of flavor to explore! It seems to be one of those things that you either love or hate. I love it. I helped a friend teach a class on making it a few times and have a dedicated crock, etc. But I guess I’m not willing to dedicate that much space in the fridge once it’s in bottles. But that could change (the universal refrain for kitchen goods hoarders)!

True. I wonder why some had caffeine listed as an ingredient? Others did not.

@kobuta my local store had Kevita. What are you favorites lately?

@meatn3 yeah there are lots of cool flavors. I am going to try another in a few when I run to the store. Have you thought about a mini fridge? They are cheap nowadays.

So far my favorite is probably GT, if only for all the different flavors they have! I am a sucker for anything blueberry, and they have a nice gingerberry (ginger+bb) flavor. I’ve also tried their guava goddess (love guava!) and it’s great. I really haven’t had a bad flavor yet, but I lean towards berry flavored drinks.

Kevita is good (tried raspberry + blueberry) as well as Humm. Humm is often cheaper at the stores, but they come in slightly smaller sized bottles. I do find Humm to be a bit sweeter than the others, and I’m trying to cut down on as much added sugar as possible.

I have. But I’m moving into a serious downsizing mode so it is no longer an option.

So I just got back. Every kevita bottle I looked at had stevia so I passed on those. The 3.99 bottles of Bing Z were on sale today for 2.99 (so I showed up a few hours before the s sale last night lol)

I picked up 2 of the same cherry and 2 apple. The black cherry was sold out as seen in these pics below. Notice the bing z with the missing center section. I’m about to have the apple after it cools off for a few in the freezer. I’ll let you guys know how it tastes.

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Build a shelf somewhere. You can do it somehow :slight_smile:

Lol, that’s what I did 2 weeks ago. They had a BOGO sale on the GT kombuchas, and I think about about 8 bottles (all that could fit into my small rolling grocery cart, and still leave room for other groceries).

There are definitely some unique West coast local offerings that I wish were here. Enjoy!

The bing z company is from CO. I’m drinking one now.

The apple is very good! It tastes like a hard cider almost.

The cherry will take the win for me though.

I’m planning to move into an RV and give up the sticks and bricks. So a kombucha shelf is not gonna happen my friend! Even if I could, I don’t think the brew would mesh with traveling down bumpy roads.

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That’s pretty sweet. I want to buy one myself but have no where to keep it at my house. Will bumpy roads mess up the fermentation?

@Ttrockwood is knowledgable on this subject. She brews her own Kombucha. I think she probably buys a lot too.

Just digged up an old conversation from WFD, for anybody who wants DIY:

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I’m not sure but I lean toward yes.

I can’t keep it at my home. So the timing will end up being tricky. I don’t want to get it too far ahead of time and have to pay storage for eons. First step is attending RV Boot camp so I can get educated! Trying to move through the learning curb as much as I can before putting money down.

Hey! Welcome to the delicious world of booch!! Your tummy is going to LOVE you!

Although most are made with black tea the actual caffeine content in the end is equivalent to a chunk of dark chocolate, not something to worry about for me anyhow.

For store bought I really love GTS, the “gingerade” is what i matched my own brew to, although if you want something with a kick they make a cayanneade (lemon and cayenne) that has a cult following. Lemme know if you want to start making your own- it’s really not complicated, my sister keeps her in the laundry room which stays fairly warm (she’s in CA), mine is ontop of the fridge and just needs a warming mat in the winter.

Have fun trying more flavors! There’s a coconut lime from Humm that’s extra fantastic with a good splash of rum :joy: FYI

Wow that gts gingerade only has 4g of sugar. Nice!

Yeah I might look into making some soon. Seems like a fun time. What do you use for your culture?

Read those labels carefully. GT counts a serving as 8 oz, so you have to double it all.

I dont remember the brand but one of them said serving size one bottle (16 oz) becsuse we know you’re gonna drink the whole thing! Lol

This is the label from target so it appears to have 4g total

I just buy an organic kombucha scoby off of Amazon, you also need a temperature sticker/strip for the side of your brewing jar (i bought a huge glass jar) and whatever bottles you want to use with a funnel to make your life easier.
cultures for health has a great step by step here:
https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/kombucha/how-to-make-kombucha/

The kombucha needs sugar when it is brewing as well as for the second ferment, however from everything I have read once the brew is no longer sweet to the taste- takes my batches about ten days- that means most all the sugar has been “eaten”. when bottling to do the second ferment- this is how you get carbonation and when to add flavors- i add literally a half teaspoon sugar which is plenty to get carbonation. Surprisingly I have the best second ferment if my initial tea was using all green tea, so that’s what i do now- i just get whatever generic large box of green tea since my batch size is ten teabags with two cups of sugar.

It’s fun! the first batch will be a learning curve, so just expect that either it won’t get carbonation or something will go wonky, but i would say by my second or third batch i had amazing store quality kombucha. I get a dozen 16oz bottles per batch so if i time everything right i literally have one a day continuously :))

Thanks for the info. After watching some videos and reading it seems pretty simple. However, where do you get the two “starter cups” of tea initially? I think probably Amazon. How much tea do you brew at a time? If I do this I want to go big lol

Oh, the initial starter tea comes with the scoby, it’s floating in it- then for subsequent batches you just preserve some of your previous brew to use as the starter for the next batch. Hmm, my shitty math skillz have my big brew jar holding about 24 cups- so whatever that is in gallons/quarts. When it’s full the damned thing is heavy! I got a jar with a spigot- like an iced tea jug, but that hasn’t worked for a long time cuz no matter what it clogs with the scoby bits and such, so now i just pour the huge jar brew into a big pyrex with a spout to easier fill bottles- you never want the scoby or brew stored or stirred or touched with anything metal, glass and plastic and silicone are fine. Oh, and you can save old kombucha bottles to use to bottle your own, the GTS bottles work well for me.

Look up the bon appetite kombucha brewing video, that’s super helpful too

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Cool. Thank you.

So here is my bullet point list…

I have a big jar with spigot that I to infuse tequila with peppers

Buy scoby with starter kombucha

Brew black tea with sugar and let get to room temp

Dump in tea, mix kombucha, place scoby on top, cover container

Wait a few days and taste. What do you use to sample? A spoon or ladle?

So I found the one I wanted and then I also found one giant one hidden under my bar. So how much should I make in the smaller one? Sugar and tea are cheap so I’m not worried about messing up a big batch. Will the Amazon scoby be strong enough for a large batch? I’m trying to figure out the sugar to tea amounts for something big hopefully :smile: