Kombucha: Fizz & Flavor

Introduction

The bubbles and the various flavors usually come in during secondary fermentation. The tea has already fermented and turned into plain, still kombucha (primary fermentation). Next it is bottled with a bit of priming sugar and the brew continues to ferment. As this second fermentation happens in an enclosed space the CO2 that is produced becomes trapped within the liquid and you get carbonation. Bubbles.

The flavoring depends on what you add as your new fuel for fermentation. Straight up sugar will produce fizzy but plain booch. However the sugar can be added in the form of fruit or juice thus flavoring the brew. In the First and Next Booch Batch pages I wrote down some fruit combos I used (e.g., blueberries and rosemary) but I have honestly not been super successful at creating a lot of carbonation. This page is a series of observations on other flavorings and attempt to boost bubbles. It assumes some knowledge on booch brewing.

Notes and Observations

Warming Mat

Using a warming mat has helped my sluggish kombucha in both primary and secondary stages of fermentation. Kombucha likes a toasty temperature (around 70-80F) and The Barn is too cool.

Strawberry Basil

• Unknown quantity of fresh diced strawberries and chopped basil

• Ha ha! I found this picture so I know I did it but I don’t remember the results. Probably not amazing or it would’ve become a part of the rotation. Maybe the basil turned black. I’ll try again and update.

Apple Juice and Chai

• Used a spice blend from the tea bulk bin section of the supermarket. It did not have actual tea in it so chai is a bit of a misnomer

• Tasty - like sour spiced cider but beware of too much clove

Grape Juice

• Filled the bottle with a ratio of about 1:4 juice to kombucha

• One of the kids’ favorites

• Gets a good fizz and is quite flavorful

Watermelon/Watermelon Rose

I tried a few ways to get the watermelon flavor:

• Diced fruit

• Blended fruit

  • I found blending is helpful much in the same way as juice is easier to ferment from than chunks

  • The blended fruit separates so there’s pink thick sediment at the bottom and orangey clear liquid on top

  • I have found no way to prevent separation - separating in advance does not keep melon-y flavor

• Blended fruit put through nut milk bag

  • The nut bag was impossible - the fruit did not strain through well

• Homemade agua fresca (blended fruit with water, honey, and lime)

  • Agua fresca worked well in same way as blended fruit but was a less melon-y and there was less sediment

1/8 tsp rosewater (the small bottle found by vanilla in the store not the big Sadaf bottle by the Mediterranean food section) added to each bottle adds a lovely floral note

This one is the most successful fizz producer. Take care!

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Jasmine

I tried four ways to get jasmine notes

1. Made a jasmine syrup by cooking simple syrup with jasmine green tea bags and use as the priming sugar

2. Made a strong green jasmine tea and added to each bottle with 1 tsp of sugar (1:4 ratio tea to booch)

3. Steeped some tea bags in the kombucha for a few hours (after removing from brewing vessel but before bottling) then added 1 tsp priming sugar

4. Using jasmine green tea bags as a part of primary fermentation (5 jasmine tea bags, 3 black in a 2 liter ferment)

Only #3 and #4 worked. Probably using the jasmine in primary fermentation was most successful but now my main tea for the next brew is ”tainted”. Next time I’ll portion of a bit of the SCOBY and keep a jasmine mother around.