This recipe for mango kombucha is a simple and delicious way to make a sweet fizzy drink. It involves brewing a mixture of SCOBY, green tea, rooibos tea, starter, fresh mango, coconut sugar, and a small amount of sage. The mango kombucha is flavored during the second fermentation process, giving it a sweet and tropical flavor. The recipe is allergy-friendly and suitable for those who are gluten, dairy, shellfish, nut, egg, and soy-free.
To make mango kombucha, boil 6ish cups of water, add SCOBY and starter tea, and puree mango into a smooth pulp. Mix the pureed mango and kombucha in a large glass bowl or pitcher, then bottle the mixture. To create a 30-day ferment of Kombucha culture, black tea, green tea, kiwi juice, and cane sugar, mix 4oz GT’s Mystic Mango Synergy Kombucha with 4oz coconut water, sprinkle with Angostura bitters, and garnish with a fresh cut mango.
To make GT’s Mystic Mango Kombucha, add 3 oz of GT’s Mystic Mango Kombucha to a chilled flute, top off with Sparkling Wine or Prosecco, and blend the mango puree until smooth. Rim your glass with sparkling wine or Prosecco before adding the mango puree. If you want to copycat GT Kombucha at home, follow these steps:
- In a chilled flute, add 3 oz of GT’s Mystic Mango Kombucha.
- Top off your glass with Sparkling Wine or Prosecco.
- Blend the mango puree by putting ingredients into a blender and blending until smooth.
- Rim your glass with sparkling wine or Prosecco.
- Pour the mango puree into a glass and enjoy!
📹 How-To Make Kombucha
Lisa Lov from Relæ shows how to make Kombucha, a sweet Chinese tea made from a fermented scoby. WATCH NEXT: How-to …
Who should not drink kombucha?
Kombucha should be avoided by pregnant or those with a weakened immune system. However, it can be consumed in moderation. Commercially produced kombucha drinks can be found in grocery stores and online. Home-made kombucha kits can be purchased online or in specialty health food stores. Store-bought kombucha can last up to a week in the refrigerator, but after a week, it may lose its fizz and nutritional value. Kombucha that goes bad will smell vinegary, taste vinegary, and appear cloudy or slimy.
Is it worth making kombucha at home?
Brewing kombucha at home offers a cost-effective alternative to purchasing store-bought kombucha. With its unique taste and health benefits, kombucha is a popular choice among many. However, the cost of brewing kombucha can be high due to its live fermentation process and the need for refrigeration. Despite this, making kombucha at home can save you money. On average, the cost of homemade kombucha is $0. 25 to $0. 50 per 16-ounce bottle, compared to $3 to $5 per bottle for store-bought kombucha.
This means that you can enjoy substantial savings in the long run by brewing your own kombucha instead of purchasing it from a store. Despite the potential health benefits, the cost of brewing kombucha can be a significant drawback for those who are already addicted to the drink.
How much starter liquid for 1 gallon kombucha?
To prepare 1. 5 cups of kombucha starter tea per gallon, it is necessary to employ measurements in cups rather than ounces, given that one cup is frequently sold for a gallon batch. It is therefore inadvisable to accept a smaller quantity.
How much kombucha should a beginner drink?
Kombucha is a fermented beverage that can be consumed in small amounts, with the Centers for Disease Control recommending four ounces of it to be consumed one to three times a day. Overconsumption can cause headaches, nausea, gastrointestinal distress, or ketoacidosis. However, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, individuals with liver or kidney disease, HIV, impaired immune systems, and alcohol dependency should avoid kombucha. Despite these restrictions, kombucha is a refreshing beverage with numerous benefits when consumed moderately.
Peyton, a senior majoring in Nutrition and Food Science/Dietetics and Nutrition Management, is interested in pursuing medical nutrition therapy, specifically focusing on the effects of cancer on metabolism. She hopes to work with cancer patients through her own practice or partnering with an oncology-specific medical center.
Does mango kombucha have alcohol?
It is possible that trace amounts of alcohol may be produced by Remedy Kombucha, a non-alcoholic beverage, during its natural fermentation process. However, this is rigorously tested to ensure that the alcohol content does not exceed 0. 5, in accordance with national standards.
Why can’t you drink kombucha everyday?
Kombucha is a fermented beverage that can be consumed in small amounts, with the Centers for Disease Control recommending four ounces of it to be consumed one to three times a day. Overconsumption can cause headaches, nausea, gastrointestinal distress, or ketoacidosis. However, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, individuals with liver or kidney disease, HIV, impaired immune systems, and alcohol dependency should avoid kombucha. Despite these restrictions, kombucha is a refreshing beverage with numerous benefits when consumed moderately.
Peyton, a senior majoring in Nutrition and Food Science/Dietetics and Nutrition Management, is interested in pursuing medical nutrition therapy, specifically focusing on the effects of cancer on metabolism. She hopes to work with cancer patients through her own practice or partnering with an oncology-specific medical center.
How to make kombucha at home for beginners?
This recipe involves brewing strong, unflavored black tea, adding unbleached cane sugar, SCOBY culture, and starter liquid. Cover the top with cheesecloth or a dish towel, leave to brew at room temperature for one week, strain out SCOBY, and store with 1 cup starter liquid for future batches. Chef Olivia Roszkowski, a native New Yorker with 14 years of professional kitchen experience, teaches Plant-Based Culinary Arts at ICE since 2013. Kombucha is an effervescent tea elixir with a dynamic probiotic profile.
How much homemade kombucha should I drink daily?
To start with kombucha, start with 2-4 oz. per day, alternating with water. Increase the amount the next day, then 6 oz., and finally 8 oz., ensuring you stay hydrated. If you enjoy the taste, continue drinking. There are no ill effects with kombucha, whether store-bought or homebrewed, so there’s a certain population that takes to it immediately without easing into it. It’s important to stay hydrated, as everyone should drink plenty of water.
What are the ingredients in mystic mango?
Mango, a fruit of the gods, is revered and appreciated in Asia for its medicinal properties. Originating from Myanmar, it is cultivated worldwide for its long-lasting fruit bearing capacity. Mango trees can bear fruit for over 300 years, and they have been used in high-quality oils and therapeutic products. Today, the mystical mango is also idolized in our Mystic Mango. The mango is now used in a wide range of tiki drinks, including bar lemonades, paired with tropical pitanga fruit, also known as Surinam cherry.
The tropical pitanga fruit’s slight sourness complements the mango perfectly, making it a perfect pairing for our premium mixer. This allows for more creativity in making tiki drinks, such as whiskey, tequila, mescal, herb liqueur, or rum. To create a Mystic and Spice cocktail, mix 40 ml rum, 10 ml fresh lime juice, and Thomas Henry Mystic Mango.
Is mango kombucha good?
Mangos are a sweet fruit that can be used to impart a flavor profile to kombucha that masks the inherent bitterness and sourness. This renders it suitable for those who dislike strong flavors or are unacquainted with kombucha. Additionally, mangos are a rich source of nutrients and antioxidants, offering a multitude of health benefits. These include the prevention of skin sagging, promotion of healthy hair growth, and reduction of the risk of various cancers.
How much alcohol is in GT kombucha?
The Classic Gold lineup includes three flavors: Heavenly Hops, New World Noir, and Pina Paradise, each with 3 percent ABV and packaged in 16. 2 oz amber glass bottles. These products are slightly richer in flavor than GT’s flagship Synergy or Kombucha offerings, with a slight alcohol note at the finish. New World Noir is a fruit-forward kombucha with an oaky flavor, aronia berry and blueberry juices, and a touch of vanilla. It tricks the palate into thinking it contains wine, but still has the bite of kombucha in an otherwise smooth finish.
📹 The Complete Guide to Flavoring and Carbonating Kombucha
In this video we go over 1. A brief introduction to making kombucha 2. How to grow your own Scoby from a bottle of GT’s original.
I know this article is old BUT, there a few things in here that are miss leading. You can use green tea for kombucha, or a blend of green and black. But don’t use flavored or altered teas. And you MUST add already brewed kombucha (starter) to your tea. The “SCOBY” she is referring to is more of a bi product of the actually SCOBY and most of the bacteria and yeast are in the liquid not the SCOBY mat that is produced. You can technically brew with just starter and sweet tea, no SCOBY mat since the life force is in the liquid. Hope this helps you on your kombucha journey!
when adding a scoby to a new batch of brewed tea you must add a portion of starter liquid (already brewed kombucha) in with the scoby so that it ups the acidity levels which helps fight off unwanted bacteria. Always make sure your utensils and hands are sterilized when reaching into your brew. Bacteria on your hands can seriously mess things up which is why I recommend trying not to handle the scoby too much. Scoby’s like to be undisturbed, and in a dark, warm place. If you live in colder climates you will have to use some sort of heater or nothing will happen as the scoby will go dormant.
After a week of fermenting, I personally use 1lt glass bottles. I pour in 800ml of the Kombucha along with 200ml of Apple/Blackcurrent juice (with no preservatives) to give it more flavour. I leave those bottles in a dark, warm place for another week before storing them in the fridge. So I recommend adding juice to your own Kombucha. If you do, it was to contain no preservatives or anything artificial.
Not sure why stirring your fresh brewed loose leaf tea before you pour it into the gallon jug is never mentioned but I highly recommend it! Of course filter it before pouring into your brew vessel. Stirring before it’s poured especially right after it’s done brewing gives you a much stronger and rich tea!
So glad I came across this! When I was growing up, I remember something similar was introduced in our community for everyone to benefit. When a small piece of the yeast substance was placed into a large bowl, it would grow and fill up the bowl. It had to feed on water and sugar. Here’s my question: Does anyone have an idea about what that was? Please let me know. Thanks
Thank you for this information. I just had knee replacement surgery and took 5 days of antibiotics afterward. Everything is going great, but I know I need fermented foods to get my microbiome back in balance. I’m going to make cambucha today. I’ve already made simple sourkrout. I’m amazed at how perfect nature is and I’m grateful for the wealth of info to be found here on the internet.
Interesting. I start out the same, measuring out 4 cups of water, bringing it to a boil, adding and dissolving the 1 cup sugar, steeping 8 bags of tea. Then – we differ. I pour my strained tea into a 1 gallon glass jar, add cold, filtered water to about 3/4 full, then I plop in the baby scoby that grew on top of the mother scoby, add in 1 cup of plain, fermented tea from either my Scoby Hotel, or from the batch I previously brewed. Cover and let ferment for about 12 to 15 days. Then I bottle it with 2 Tbsp Mango Juice (I like the Naked brand here in the U.S.). And it ferments on a heating mat for about 8 more days before going into the fridge. Delicious! Have not had a cold since I started drinking it.
Hello. We’re doing with green tea with less quantity. We used 800ml water, 80gm sugar and 8gm green tea. We used the GTS Kombucha drink (green tea flavoured), to make. We used 50ml of Kombucha drink. So how many days we should keep it outside? And how many do you think it’ll take the scoby to grow? Any tips? Thanks, in advance!
Let me assure anyone reading the comments that you can add either starter liquid or scoby (pelicle) or both to your cooled tea. The scoby has all the same microbes as the liquid because it is saturated in said liquid. In fact, you could take the smallest possible pinch off a scoby/pellicle and brew kombucha, and it probably won’t even take significantly longer. And personally, I agree with her that the scoby likes to be touched.
So, i just started my 1st 2 batches of kambucha. First batch i started came from a local health store, a blackberry black tea, and it came with a scoby in the kit. i cleaned the 1 gallon jar by rising it with apple cider vinegar. I’m not using a heating element to keep it in the desired temperature. I covered it with a cheesecloth, about 4 layers. It’s been 2 weeks and 1 day. Today i wanted to tasted it to see how its doing. I saw what looked like a little blue mold spot on top. Is my kambucha ruined? 2nd batch, i got a scoby from a friend. Used green tea instead of black. All looks well. Its been just under 2 weeks. Again, not using any heat. It’s around 70 degrees in my house. I’m wondering if it’s too cold.
Is 2nd fermentation necessary? Or can we drink it after its been fermenting two wks? This is my first time. Tomorrow will be two wks since I put the scoby in my tea. Can I drink this tomorrow (after I take the scoby out and put it in more tea).? Or do have have to ferment is again for a couple of more days before I drink it? I know that for the second fermentation we can add flavor. But can I simply add stevia and drink this tomorrow?
Great article. Except there are 2 common scientific mistakes about tea and kombucha (in one), which don’t alter the instructions. First, black tea has less cafeine, not more. So, if kombucha was produced by SCOBY processing sugar + cafeine we should use green tea. But in fact it is not the cafeine that is needed, but the tannins. And there are more of those in black tea (which is oxydized tea) than green tea.
The article is well made and Lisa is a charming host. However, the quantities of the ingredients used have not been mentioned properly. For instance how much water is being used and what about the kombucha starter liquid? The article doesn’t show that being added and so I am wondering how the SCOBY is able survive if the environment is not acidic enough for it to start growing the SCOBY baby and converting the sugar and caffeine to organic acids.
seeing a lot of people in the comments asking if you can leave your kombucha starter + scoby out for a longer time and to answer your question: i’ve left mine out for months at a time (even in a chillier space) and it’s survived for three years 🙂 (also, kombucha know-it-alls, please tell me if this is dangerous lol)
First off, the word “Kombucha” is not Chinese. Kombu is Japanese for Seaweed. Kombucha is actually a tea made of seaweed and it is hot and savory. Japanese do drink a cold medicinal vinegar(I think the mix ratio was one part vinegar to 4 parts water). How the Japanese vinegar drink got mixed up with a hot seaweed Tea is any ones guess.
Dear bizarre comment section: I find it hard to believe that anyone saying to throw the pellicle away has ever brewed kombucha. It’s true that the SCOBY pellicle isn’t “necessary” but kombucha brewed with only starter tea will ABSOLUTELY TAKE MUCH LONGER TO BREW. This isn’t rocket science, you can try it for yourself- brew one batch with the pellicle and starter tea and one batch with just starter tea. The one with the pellicle will brew way faster. Also, the SCOBY is not that delicate. I touch it with my hands, use brewing jars for tons of cycles without washing them, and never worry about PH or having super filtered water. This stuff is pretty resilient and getting good kombucha is more about learning when to move to 2nd fermentation then refrigeration based off taste, rather than following a recipe.
I need help. I made hibiscus tea and used trivia and stevia sugar (slightly reduced amounts of course). Once cooled, I poured in a bottle of kombucha, covered my jar with a coffee filter, and waited. A few days later I see the scoby forming, but there is mold on top. This is the second time this has happened. Is my kombucha ruined or does it still need time to do its thing?
How to make 1 gallon of Tea Wine (Kombucha) Sterilize everything (pots pans tools Container ect) you can do this with boiling water or disinfectants. In large pot, boil 1 gallon of water. When water is boiling, add 18 teabags of your choosing. (I used black tea.) Add 1.5 cups of plain sugar. Brew for 15 minutes. Keep pot covered. After 15 minutes, turn off heat and wait for it to cool to room temperature. This is extremely important. Remove tea bags. Once the tea is at room temperature, add it to 1 gallon container. Get yeast, and put it into the container. (any type of yeast will work, including bread yeast. I recommend using yeast specifically used in wine making. Anything from the Red Star brand is good.) Put ballon or airlock over container. (This is because yeast eats sugar and produces alcohol and c02 gas. ) Put container in a dark, warmish place. (Yeast doesn’t like light.) Wait for when fermentation stops. This should be in around 1-2 months. You can halt fermentation prematurely by putting it in the refrigerator for a few days and removing the scum (yeast) that forms on the bottom.
I regret jumping into this trend of kombucha making. It is a nuisance to continuously feed the scoby, and frankly if you aren’t a frequent kombucha drinker, it is not worth the time and doesn’t always taste good. They grow like crazy so I now have a kombucha hotel and I might just scrap it, and anyone who says scobys are edible is gross.
Hello! First of all, thank you for your helpful article. I have a question, maybe you or someone can help me. I made kombucha tea and let it sit for 10 days. After I unveiled the jar the color of the tea wasn’t so yellow as yours. Mine was a light brown. Where do you think I messed up? Is it too much black tea? Is it too much sugar? I should let it sit for 14 days? Thank you.
Do you really need the starter tea? I didn’t know anything about Kombucha except that I tried, and I enjoyed it, and that I’m looking for ways to get a healthy gut biome. to make a long story short, an acquaintance passed a Scoby on to me and gave me her recipe; tea, water, sugar and the Scoby. I made it a week ago and it seems okay. But I never used any starter tea. After perusal YouTube articles from kombucha makers, it seems I may have something dangerous brewing now. One week in and it’s not moldy and smells nice. should I take the Scoby out, throw out the kombucha I’ve brewed and start over with some kombucha starter tea ordered online instead? thanks
I’m already taking apple cider vinegar with lemon juice and i like to make my own drinks,but having to deal with that Scoby it would make it almost impossible to drink it and enjoy it thinking about how it was made, i will buy it in the store to see if it taste close to my drink A.C.Vinegar& lemon juice for me the only thing that comes close to handling that scoby is cleaning chicken” PS.I HATE CLEANING CHICKEN with all that fat which is like slime and the yellow fat is like phelm which some people call it (aka buttercookies) to me i almost vomit everytime i clean chicken,
There’s a lot of misinformation in this article, but above all kombucha is not ancient Chinese medicine…. If the drink this person had as a girl was of Asian origin it was more likely to be Jun which is similar. It seems they based their intro music on this assumption she made as well, which is unfortunate. This could have been verified with a quick Google search before being touted as fact in the article
So I got some scoby from a my moms friend, and I’m a bit confused about it. She gave me directions on how to make a kombucha, and I made some green tea and put the scoby in there. So, like does a new scoby just form in there and I throw out the old one or what happens to the scoby? Is there like an expiration date on scoby??? I’m very confused.
Scobys usually look nicer than that. Hers looks really like gunk. The one I make at home is a nice flat piece that looks like a silicon sheet. I usually continue to brew the next batch in the current bottle so I don’t move the scoby with bare hands. I think they move it around too much and introduce lots of bacteria from the hand. Also it’s best to throw away scoby after 4 fermentation. Hers look really like snot.
Quick Google: Kombucha has been claimed to have various health benefits, but there is little evidence to support such claims. There are several documented cases of serious adverse effects, including fatalities, related to kombucha drinking, possibly arising from contamination during home preparation. Since the mostly unclear benefits of kombucha drinking do not outweigh the known risks, it is not recommended for therapeutic use.
there is some really great ideas here. One thing I find many YouTubers unfortunately don’t really talk about when it comes to Kombucha is all the flavoring possibilities that you can explore in your primary fermentation by using different base. The SCOBY does not require tea to do its thing it requires sugar, so any sweet liquid will work, some will work better then other of course, and regular black tea is a great stable base. However I have played around with different tea, like white tea, puer, oolong, also chai blend, earl grey blend, and other quality tea blends I source from a local loose tea provider. I have also great success making my primary with various herbal tea or herbal blends, One of my favorite that I got from TNGTF is Lemon Verbena kombucha (which you can then flavor with ginger in your 2nd ferment, and is to die for), Catnip is very interesting, almost hoppy in flavor, actually doing hibiscus herbal tea as first ferment instead of doing in the 2nd is also really interesting, Rose petals also good, Skullcap also great, fresh elderflower is another great one from TNGTF (just make sure you pick only the flowers and remove all stems). I have also done Coffee kombucha, Maple syrup Kombucha (just maple syrup and water, can’t get simpler then that), and even raw apple juice. And then when you start cobining all this with 2nd fermentation aromatics… the possibilities really are endless! Of course one thing to be aware of when you do this is that the SCOBY will store some of the flavors from the liquid, with a lot of the herbal stuff it will be too subtle to notice, but if you try your hand at some more intense liquid like coffee, you might want to keep that scoby separate.
Technically, the SCOBY is actually in the liquid kombucha itself. The pellicle (gelatinous cellulose thing) is not needed to create a batch of kombucha (as they demonstrated in this article when they make a batch from some starter tea) . The pellicle forms on the surface when the SCOBY is trying to regulate the amount of air the liquid is in contact with. No harm in including the pellicle when brewing though since there’s a lot of liquid SCOBY in it anyway so it’s like a host for the SCOBY. This is why sometimes you get little SCOBY pellicle forming after you bottle it for the second fermentation stage.
I have been reusing my big GT Dave’s bottles for my own kombucha for a while. It’s so great! My fridge has a lot of weird vertical space and not much horizontal space so a big, tall bottle is ideal. I also have a lot of flip top bottles. I’ve tried a lot of flavors and so far my favorite is just straight up mango juice added to flavor and provides enough sugar for the carbonation to happen in 3 to 4 days at room temp. I get a nice, sweet and tart tea with good fizz.
You guys, this article is amazing. I love the recipes and the atmosphere you created. Keep it up! One quick comment on why ginger and turmeric produce so much carbonation. The rhizomes all have their own set of yeasts, and yeasts are the ones that actually produce C02, so when you add them to the booch, which already has bacteria and yeasts, you produce a lot more carbonation.
The reason for a small amount of head room is that the carbon gas is released into whatever space is available until the pressure of the gas is great enough to keep any more carbonation from releasing from the liquid. This is why your 2 liter bottle of pop goes flat if you drink half and put it in the fridge. You have such a large air space that the carbonation can release and release until you have very little carbonation left. This is also why they make bottle lids with pumps in them to pressurize the airspace, if your container is pressurized, any carbonation your liquid still has will theoretically stay in solution.
I started out with wine making. I made some dandelion wine from wild foraged dandelions which was delicious. But I quit drinking a year ago. I think making kombucha will actually be even more fun because like you said, making alcohol is more complicated. I’m so excited to try all of the different flavors!
I brew my own probiotics drinks, kombucha, geer, pop and wine. For flavored bubbly kombucha I recommend using different tea mix as the base. I use green tea for citric flavors, black tea for chocolate, coffee, deep flavors, chamomile + horchata for sweet frutal flavors and green tea + ginger for herbal flavors. When flavoring think as a bartender/chef 🤣😎 My favorites flavors are: Blackberry + ginger Strawberry + mint Passion fruit + vanilla Cinnamon + clove + anise Lemon + pimienta + nutmeg Apple + Cinnamon + Clove I use a mix between dry and fresh fruits and herbs 😉 Also, you can always add a measure of white ron ir vodka to make your kombucha a little more daring 😅 Fermentation is an addition after you know how it works, sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, beer, wine, vinegar, are few of the things I do at home and they are better than the industrial versions
I am a beer brewer and soon to be kombucha brewer too. Idea, you can dry hop the bottle using a cheese cloth like with beer making. This will allow you to control the bitter flavor depending on how long the hops stay in solution. I would look for aromatic hops, which adds more floral qualities. Also, have you guys heard of a ginger bug? Fresh ginger, sugar and water will ferment and give you a great base to add flavor to, cheers
I started my bucha days several years ago. I found home cook dude’s how to article the most informative and practical. Here are a few thoughts: Buying french lemonade in those bottles is the way I go. My fav shape and cheapest way. I take out chunks after 3-5 days so they do not start fermenting. Rose hips are amazing. Stoked to try Juniper berries and hops. Thanks and I love all your how to vids for other foods and fermentations. You inspire
I have been making 5 gal batches on my homebrew system. It ages in a brewing bucket with a mesh over the top. It is very beer-like. Then it gets kegged. This has been my favorite way to make kombucha so far. cheers I will be doing a batch (inspired by you guys). I steep at 190F so I’ll drop that to 170F and add about .5oz and then let ferment. Then put it in a closed/sealed bucket and dry hop with about 1oz. That melon cucumber sounds amazing though.
I just made my first 2 batches. It took me a while longer as the first fermentation was delayed due to a very cool downstairs kitchen. I ordered a warming mat online and once that was in place, shazzam! I had my first drink today; which was apple-rosemary. I think I left the batch too long as it’s very strong; almost at the apple cider vinegar stage, so I will make sure the next batch will stay within the 7-10 days instead of about 21 days (waiting for the heating pad). Thanks for your expert advice.
I would say a great source for bottles is Grolsch beer. Sold in 4 packs, you get some beers and you get bottles for a similar price as you would empty bottles on Amazon. I’ve had a better experience with colored glass bottles than clear bottles as well! I use the green Grolsch bottles but also bought a set of Blue glass bottles from my brew supply store once I got more serious into home brewing my booch.
Thanks, this is really great as I am just getting into making kombucha and I already know that I going to have to have some fruit and/or other aromatic flavorings up in there. I had thought about adding some of that Klas brand Aqua Fresca mix to the tea to add flavor, as I already add it to tea to make flavored teas like peach tea and watermelon tea. It is imported from Mexico and has natural flavorings, dried fruit puree and natural sugar. But this is really great! I would think mint and citrus peels would be great aromatics to include with kombucha as both are great in regular unfermented tea. I bet that hops kombucha would be great to have before bedtime as a hops flowers naturally promote sleep. BTW, I don’t know where you live, but here in the South, blackberries don’t ripen til summertime.
I’m thinking about using Cayenne with Mango because I love that combination with fruits; Pineapple, Mango & maybe Starfruit. I really want to get all exotic there with fruits, spices and aromatics 😅. Now I know I won’t go near this, to avoid getting kicked out of the apartment, and that is Durian 😅. I need to get my hands on to some Lychee and possible some Quenepas. Lavender and Hibiscus is highly on my list for to mix as well
Auromatic with fruit. Good idea. Lol a cucumber is a melon (its a fruit) btw. Also cinnamon stick with the clove…thats amazing! I’m excited ro try! I need to get small glass jars, and a large glass jar. Make sure i use my 7th day fermentation to use for flavor (burping) and keep the jar for my scoby.
Back when I was making an absurd amount of kombucha, my favorite flavors were strawberry or watermelon with basil, apple pie (apple, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla bean), mango habanero, and my all time favorite was key lime pie (key limes with vanilla bean). Honorable mentions: Strawberry banana was really good but looked really gross before straining. Pear and rosemary was really nice. Cherry hibiscus was awesome but I’m pretty sure it could stain wood. The only bad one I made was pineapple, idk why but I could never get pineapple to taste good. I also made cantaloupe with cucumber so I was surprised to see that you had the same idea!
My last batch I made I used dried coconut. It..worked fine but it did leave a skim on the top and around the edges of oil that I was a bit concerned about. I found myself having to shake it much more often. Once I skimmed and bottled into smaller bottles (recycled GT bottles!), it was good. It was okay. I just knew I had a much shorter storage time frame. Where as some kombucha I’d store for months, I’d give this a shelf life of MAYBE 2 weeks. Edit* it was also EXTREMELY fizzy. I found myself having to off gas it extremely slowly. Like sitting there opening a bit and closing for probably five to ten minutes straight.
diving in head first, your articles have been a big help and inspiration. I decided that kombucha was going to be a better investment than mead and I’m feeling better about that than ever. I hope its not out of the spirit of your homebrew series that I plan to make an LLC and sell at farmers markets just as soon as the country opens back up after covid. But I’m going to need a lot of practice. Thank you!
I hope you are able to read this, as this article was two years ago. I have made some Turmeric and Ginger Kombucha. I grated fresh roots. A friend suggests I cannot absorb the Turmeric unless I add fresh pepper. Do you know this to be true? What should I add to my mix to make it an optimal healthy choice beverage?
Hi! I am from Ukraine😁, grow up on combocha, it was always home made, we never had in the store . Looks like some one took to US and make good money😁 . By the way, do you know we have similar texture bacteria, looks like glossy rice, you can make some yogurt😁. I didn’t know about flavoring combocha. Such a great idea!!! Thank you for sharing🌼✌
Your article and instructions are great! Love the “detail”. Question. I made a scoby, I fermented 1st batch ( 1 gallon)…might be a touch too tart…took on a vinegar taste. Saved 16 0z that I put in the 2nd batch, (2 gallons). 2nd batch has been sitting on the seedling heat mat for 3 days now in a cool house. (NW Ohio). pH is 2.5. Tastes a bit sweet but really good. How does one know when most of the sugar has been eaten up? I bottled (to the top) 6 from the first batch that has been sitting for 3 days as well. Not a lot of carbonation. Tastes good, especially the “candied ginger”. Flavor profile in all is good…just not much fizz. Guava, Mango, Ginger Tumeric and the candied ginger. I am making for my sister who has cancer and sugar is the enemy however she LOVES Kombucha. 4 or so bottles a day. It was time I started figuring out how to make the stuff! Any insight from anyone would be great! Thanks in advance.
Very nice article! However I think you schould let a proper amount of headroom in the Bottle. That is mouch safer since it’s not going to explode that fast. Since the air can be compressed, the amount of pressure build from the same amount of C02 produced by the bouch, will be much lower with more space in the bottle.
AHH this is all so great! What an awesome article you two! My first ever Brew is a week off then I am all over this (hopefully). BUT I have questions!!! Open to all bucha-makers: 1. How do you get the fruit out of the bottles once done to reuse them? 2. How long do you ferment the flavoured kombucha for?? Seeming like they are all different? 3. How long can you store these for? Assuming in the firdge? Many thanks in advance!! 🙂
Here’s a question that I don’t see answered here and it seems important. How do you CLEAN you bottles after use? You shove (I use this word because some of that stuff it seems you would have to force) a bunch of stuff through the neck for flavoring. How do you get it back out again, for the next batch? Is it practical to use these items for flavoring if you can’t re-use the bottles. I would love an answer either from the OPs or from someone else on here who knows.
Check out this tip about hops. Try doing a cold extraction with hops and then using that as tea for flavoring the boochah. You can even ferment it to beer with malts and then put that beer through an F2 ferment of kombucha. However when you cold extract hops and use a blender there is a chance to get the seeds out of them, and also there’s a chance to get hops scraps kind of like when you have scraps from a juicer except it is better to do by hand in order to collect the seeds and then cultivate the seeds. New hop growth is one of the most expensive vegetables in Europe. Then you can also turn the hop meal into pellets and let those pellets collect yeast, probably even after a first cold extraction kind of like cold brewing coffee but maybe even never heating it up. Otherwise, you could try to steep them like White tea at a lower temperature than for most tea. Boiling would ruin the terpene. Cold extracting like what they do with cannabis is ideal for hops.
Hahaha, i just finished with the process of starting mine from a bottle of kombucha, then this article started on my playlist and I noticed you covered it with exactly the same washcloth as I did. I know, it’s useless information and doesn’t mean anything, but it was funny enough to me to share! I hope you readers can at least smile.
I’ve always seen and read to do first ferment as plain tea and preferably black tea but it looks like many are saying they use flavors on the first ferment? Or did I misunderstand? I’ve always read start out plain as when it ferments it will change those flavors and can make them off. And to only do flavors on second ferment. But it seems in the comments many do otherwise. Unless I’m misreading it. Alonso I watched a article the other day where someone used pineapple and ginger in second ferment and used a bigger jar with a wide mouth to do so. Then once the carbonation and flavor was right for them, they strained the fruit out and poured through a sieve into narrow neck bottles to fizz up more and then put into the refrigerator. So that looked like a third round to me. So I wondered if you would lose the carbonation or have much sweetness if any by taking that extra step? I’ve always seen people just pour from that secondary fermentation into a drinking glass to not have to drink the fruit or they just bottled it in the swing tops and people just ate the fruit as they were drinking the flavored kombucha. I’ll watch it again to make sure but it seemed like this guy took the fruit away but let it build up more fizz by keeping it on the counter for another period of time before putting it in the fridge. Does anyone else do that? Also I tried making some with muscadines that I had frozen. Also I did fresh blackberries. The muscadine kombucha was sweet and a pretty color but I didn’t get that kick that muscadine flavor has.
Greetings together with thanks for the tutorial. This is a HOT summer in south Texas, where I live. Purchasing a scoby online would likely kill that during shipment through heated weather. I’m taking advantage of the heat condition. I’m growing my own scoby at home in a controlled environment. Now, as I grow my scoby I’m getting your healthy, fun and knowledgeable YouTube support. I’ve already told others about you. Cheers!
ok, so it has been a while maybe a year or more since i first watched your article. the enthusiasm you had for kombucha made me order a brew kit. i now have 4 brew kits and make about 16-18 750ml bottles of kombucha every 10 days. although i watched your article before, when revisiting it, i picked up on kombucha being tropical and i a retired in the tropics in rSE Asia. Also as to the comment you made “if this doesn’t make you wan to make kombucha…” IT DID! and my wife and I love it, we share with friends, it is great with BBQ helps to cleanse the pallet after each bite. i actually stopped buying alcohol. This is my source for regular probiotics, well a main one. Thank you so much for making this article, if i hadn’t watched it seeing the fun you guys were having, i never would have given it a second thought. Don’t buy kombucha solely, make it and buy it, mix it up. My fav ingredient is 6 pieces of pineapple and 120 ml of Ceres red grape juice. it makes and awesomely quick wine. You have helped my gut flora improve and check another item off my bucket list (make my own brew). Thank you guys! i also took up sour dough bread and make 3 loaves per week, thanks for that article also.
I made a scoby from scratch (using a bottle of GT) after seeing another article of yours, and I just taste tested it today- after 10 days sitting in a warm place. It wasn’t a “strong starter” like you say it should be but it was basically perfect kombucha. I was shocked how good it was. I drank some (with a little peach juice mixed in for fun flavor), put 1 cup plus the gorgeous scoby in a new batch, and popped the rest in the fridge. Hopefully having something that didn’t taste like a super sour strong starter will still mean I get a good batch next time.
I used GT original to make my very first SCOBY. 💯 One week later (in my warm laundry room) and I have a beautiful SCOBY. On to another batch! I had about 30 oz of tea after I took the 1/2 c of tea plus the scoby out for a new batch so I flavored it with some elderberry syrup and I’m super excited for this week. 🙂 Thanks for the articles y’all!
Just found this in my list of suggested although I’m sub’d. You and brother have a great dynamic, both knowledgeable, different personalities but very much on the same point. I had never heard of Kombucha, and you both are years ahead. You guys drank more than your limit for the day, I searched….4oz’s per day?…lol or you have really good guts. Nice article!
Hello everybody I have a question in my question is can I use a bottle of Kombucha that says Raw on it that’s been inside the fridge can I try to make my own kombucha from that bottle and then add grapes to it afterwards I’m thinking about slicing the grapes in half or in quarters and slide that into the bottle when it comes down to it and ferment that bottle the only reason why I’m asking is because all the bottles that I’ve seen of Kombucha they’re inside the fridge and when I go and bottle my kombucha could I just use regular bottles or do I have to use Pacific kind bottles
Hi I would like to know what is the best kombucha Brew Safe spigot I have a glass juice container with a plastic spigot but it’s white plastic in the jar but the outside is that silver coating……I have read in places where it says plastic is bad and then in others places metal cant touch the kombucha so I’m confused which one would you recommend……thank you in advance.
Have you try green juice for flavor, this how I made green juice ( juice 1 cucumber, 4 stalls of celery, 1 green apple, 1 lemon, add super greens powder 3 tsp of a mix of wheat grass, kale, moringa and spirulina, also add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp of ginger powder) all of this make 1 liter of green juice
I’ve been fermenting kombucha since over a year, but one fermentation only. So I watched this and decided to try… I tried pineapple and after 2 days I decided to burp the bottle. Explosion 💥! Wow! I had to mop the floor, wipe down my cupboards, clean the ceiling (still has the marks). And it got in my hair and on my clothes. I had to leave home to catch a bus shortly after and the lingering smell of pineapple buch followed me around. Be careful, so many PROpulsion PRObiotics.
I read somewhere that if your kombucha isn’t carbonating very well during the second fermentation, then you can add a small amount of sugar to it to kinda kickstart it. I added a teaspoon of sugar to one of my flat bottles of kombucha, and it immediately fizzed up and almost exploded. Does anyone know why that is? Isn’t it supposed to take a few days to carbonate?
My favorite recipe is lemon ginger. I use my Champion juicer to juice 3 lemons and about 4 thumbs of ginger. I peel the ginger, juice it first, then put 3 peeled lemons in the juicer. I discard the pulp and just use the juice. I then add 5 teaspoons of raw sugar to this juice and add to my I gal batch of kombucha when I bottle on day 12. It tastes like a ginger beer and it also makes the best Moscow Mule I have ever tasted. 1 1/2 oz of Vodka, ice and I cup of this amazing tasting kombucha. If there is a better tasting booze drink out there, I want to hear about it.
I’m confused on a couple things. Im trying to make small batches (about half a gallons worth of kombucha at a time) I was trying to figure out what is the recipe y’all use to feed the scobi hotel?/ starter tea?? Also good job on keeping the website up I been following since the microwave college meal days.
Although this is an old article, I hope you will see my question. You mention that the square swing top bottles explode easier. I have only found those here in Phnom Penh where I’m living. I made ginger beer and had an explosion in the middle of the night (luckily no one was nearby at the time–still made a big mess). My question is can I just keep “burping” the bottles every day during the flavoring stage. Will it prevent the explosion? I’ve flavored mine with various fruits and ginger.
I am going to make my SCOBY and then make a second flavor batch. If I make different bottles and flavors? How do I store my big main batch in a 1 or two-gallon jar. On the counter or in the fridge? I hope this makes sense! I would like to have many different flavors. You convinced me to try this and my Senergy watermelon flavor from the store was really good. Thanks.
Great article about flavoring Kombucha. I usually juice whatever fruit or spices I use because getting the pieces out from the bottles is a pain in the b_ _ _. How do you take your swollen fruit pieces out? I love all flavor combos you did. I have a few other I use, cardamon, all spice, cayenne, vanilla and anise. Try those, you may like it. Where can you buy Hops?