Skip to content
FarmSteady Wrapped | Your Year in DIY | 20% on Select Items | Code: WRAPPED
FarmSteady Wrapped | 20% on Select Items | Code: WRAPPED

How to Flavor Kombucha

How to Flavor Kombucha

The best part of making your own kombucha is choosing how you’d like to flavor it. With a steady brew at the ready, you have plenty of options for customizing your antioxidant-laden fermented tea. We’ve compiled some tips and flavoring ideas that will help you infuse fun tropical blends or classic combinations of time-tested favorites into your kombucha.

Once you’ve brewed your kombucha for 7-10 days it’s ready to drink! We enjoy ours fresh out of the fermenter and poured over ice. The flavor of your kombucha can be determined by what type of tea you use (green, black, herbal, etc.), and if you have a healthy SCOBY, kombucha can even be made without tea; like our Concord Grape Kombucha. However, if you’d like some more control and variety within each batch, you can easily add flavoring after your initial fermentation. If you like uncarbonated kombucha like we do, you can add flavoring each time you pour a glass, or you can let the flavors diffuse while in the refrigerator. Otherwise, flavoring and carbonating typically go hand in hand, during a step referred to as “secondary fermentation”. So, if you want bubbles and flavor, you will need to do a secondary fermentation. Read all about how to bottle and carbonate your kombucha during a secondary fermentation here.

Adding rosemary to kombucha bottles
Kombucha Bottles in Window

How to Flavor Kombucha

We often make three different flavors per batch of kombucha, leaving us room for some fun experimentation. We primarily use fruit (fresh, frozen, dried, and even fruit concentrate), herbs and spices, and sugars to flavor our kombucha.

Fruit

Fruit makes for a bright, tasty addition to any kombucha brew. We like to chop up fresh fruit or puree it with some of the kombucha before bottling. Pureeing fruits is a great way to get more flavor and fizz at the end of secondary fermentation because it increases the surface area of the fruit that is exposed to the kombucha tea.  

Peaches, mangoes, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, apples, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, pomegranates, pineapples, and even pumpkins can make for some great flavoring blends. One part fruit to four parts kombucha is a good starting point when flavoring your brews.

Herbs and Spices

Add fresh ginger, basil, mint, thyme, hibiscus flowers, vanilla, cinnamon, turmeric, green tea, jasmine, or sassafras bark if you’re feeling particularly adventurous. You’ll want to add more herbs if they’re dried and experiment with amounts as you perfect your flavor profiles.

 Sweeteners

Carbonation depends on the amount of sugar present during fermentation, as the bacteria will turn that into CO2. If you opt for a blend of fruits with less sugar, consider adding some sweeter fruits, raw sugar, honey or maple syrup to provide additional sugars for more carbonation. Kombucha with higher amounts of sugar will carbonate faster, so make sure to keep an eye on the sweeter ones as they will be ready sooner.

Our Favorite Flavor Concoctions:

  • Ginger Kombucha: Adding freshly peeled and sliced ginger will give you super gut-friendly kombucha with some zip and lots of fizz. Adding lemons or blueberries give this brew some playful depth.
  • Mango Pineapple Kombucha: Pureeing ¼ cup of mango and pineapple with your kombucha will transport you to a tropical paradise.
  • Root Beer Kombucha: Sassafras bark, sarsaparilla, ginger and licorice will produce a healthy root beer, complete with a fizzy finish, less sugar, and more flavor than your traditional soda.
  • Raspberry, Lemon, and Ginger Kombucha: A tried-and-true favorite with a pleasantly tart, clean flavor profile. Fresh or frozen berries, lemon juice, grated ginger, and a little bit of honey make this blend delightful.
  • Peach Pie Kombucha: Pureed peach with a dash of vanilla extract and a dash of maple syrup can turn a bottle of kombucha into a delicious treat.
  • Rosemary Grapefruit Kombucha: Toss a couple rosemary sprigs in with some freshly squeezed grapefruit and a pinch of sugar for a delightfully tart and herbaceous mix.
  • There are dozens of ways to develop your kombucha repertoire. Have fun experimenting to find your favorites and for more kombucha info, read our kombucha tips and tricks and how to bottle your kombucha.

Kombucha Picks:

Everything Bagel and Cream Cheese Making Kit box on concrete