The Complete Guide to Flavoring and Carbonating Kombucha

check this out alright hello friends welcome back to the brother group hello friends welcome back to breathing hello friends welcome back to the green brothers so you've seen us over the years make a lot of videos About

kombucha

, we've become quite obsessed with my favorite dress. obsessed: you know, we grew up drinking soda, now we've replaced it with this beautiful drink, but we wanted to take it to the next level for this video, so tea no gt's

kombucha

made a video on how to flavor kombucha and cool creative ways on them. We're going to do some more classic stuff, we're going to be a little experimental and we're also going to show you how to make your own Scobie with a bottle of kombucha, yeah, because one of the questions we get the most is do you know how to carbonate kombucha, how to get the best flavor. so you can have amazing tasting kombucha at home, so when it comes to

flavoring

your kombucha, there really are endless options between spices, herbs, fruits, purees, shaping and mashing, so I'll actually be talking to the master of gt's kombucha main flavor, his name is Braden, he's going to fill.

Tell us some good details to make this even more delicious. What would you call your role in GTS? I like the word alchemists, but I'm the food and beverage artist here in research and development at Gigi's Living Foods. Sounds like a fun job. You can create very neighbors. How do you come up with inspiration to make new flavors? um inspiration comes from everywhere a lot of times GT will bring me ideas I'll bring ideas to him they'll bounce ideas off each other and you know I get dirty in the R&D kitchen and I think when you say he you know GTS who you're from speaking BT Dave GT Dave themselves gg gg T David is a man, he is a real person, he would call himself part artist, part businessman and entrepreneur, so what are your best tips for homebrewers who are looking ?

They know how to flavor their kombucha to be creative with their kombucha. What are your best tips for them? I think one of the best tips is to just have fun and get creative and adventurous, there's no wrong answer, really know how to get some really fun kitchen tools, you know, I've seen some of the stuff you guys have, you know you've got it locked in. and marking and that also helps generate creativity. to farmers markets, I mean I mean one of my favorite things to do, not just for work but just for pleasure and for my own culinary experiences in my diet, like I love, I love going to farmers markets every weekend, that's something I do and you might get so inspired by foods you've never heard of before, like, oh my gosh, do you know what I can do with that?

My only other question would be: Are there any ingredients that you would say should be avoided at all costs? Know? so it's like it's really hard to work with anything that adds fat, so like avocado with coconut, that's two components, hooha, I tried it, it was like it was a, I'm obsessed with avocados, I was tied and Determined to bring an avocado kombucha to the table for GT in the world and it was simply worth it. The most explosive kombucha I have ever created. I could open it so the lid would hit the ceiling and there they were, you know, our walls and them.

They are white because of the edge, it was only green. I remember Gigi came in like what happened building the Hulk here doesn't work, so for those of you who don't know what kombucha is, it's really simple, it's a fermented sweet tea drink and it's really simple to make, everything What you do is you take some tea that you brew, you add a little sugar to it and then you add your Scobie, which is the bacteria and yeast growth that actually ferments that tea to make the kombucha, oh, when it comes to Scoby, you can go online and buy one and if you've ever seen this before it's like a gigantic circular like the buggery you can go online you can buy one or of course they sell them in the store or to a friend or to a friend .

Yeah, people can pass, so every time you brew a big batch of kombucha, you get an extra Scobie, so it's like a passive, long, you know, ride or die deal, but there's a really cool trick, how Was it that ride or die? I think you travel and then you pass it, it dies or it goes into its friend, so kombucha, but there is a cool trick if you want to make your own Scobie, all you need is a bottle of unflavored, unfiltered kombucha and the gt original It's a perfect example because it has these floats and you can make your own Scobie from a bottle of this.

If you're going to grow your own Scobie from a bottle of plain kombucha, you just have to make sure it's unfiltered and it's still raw and you'll see GT's are great because they have those little floats that come out of the mother in the real kombucha because they haven't taken anything out during the actual manufacturing process, some brands through the manufacturing process you are not going to get live kombucha so you don't get a good price from Scobie and also keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with drinking this, some People get scared, but it's perfectly safe to drink, a lot of people take Scobie's and mix it into smoothies and stuff.

So it's really good for you, so it's very easy to make a Scobie from scratch. Take about two or three cups of boiling water and pour it into a glass jar. Now take two black tea bags and then let them steep there for about 20 minutes once. are soaked, you can remove the tea bags and add half a cup of sugar to them and just mix until it dissolves and then let the solution cool to room temperature, so the last step is just take two cups, about a bottle of The kombucha has been, you know, unfiltered, unflavored, and you mix it all together and then you just take something to cover it that will let air in like a tea towel and a rubber band, but don't make sure that dust particles get in. and other things, just let it sit, yeah, make sure it's not cheesecloth because fruit flies can get in there, which will be a problem after about four or five days, you'll start to see a little bit of growth like this here and then, over time. you know, in a week and a half two weeks you'll get a Scobie that's really nice and it's shape will start to get thicker.

You can leave it like this for a month or three weeks. You want a nice strong starting liquid to get you going. You're off to a pretty good start with your comb boots and where did you keep these? In the dark and in hot and cold weather. Oh, that's the day you want to make sure it's not exposed to direct light, that's bad for today's culture and you want too. a warm environment because kombucha is actually a tropical fermentation process so I kept it on a heat mat since it's winter it's cold and that will really help the actual growth but if you wipe your hands you can see that this Scobie from here it was cultivated. from this sexy reach, which is a sexy reach, Ian, if you let it go, this was about two weeks, if you let it go another week, another two weeks, it will get thicker and this liquid, let's try this liquor, I'm sure It looks good, so that's very good advice.

Also, if you're not ready to make a large batch of kombucha, you can keep it at room temperature and it will continue to ferment and you can always add a little more liquid if it's fermenting too much. Yes, just keep it at room temperature. it's good for a lifetime Wow so it has a strong vinegar flavor which is actually good that's not what we want in our actual kombucha product but as a starting liquid and you want something really strong because you're going to have a really good beginning. You also post an interesting tip I learned.

I didn't know this, but if you're fermenting your kombucha and it's a little overcooked, you can add more water to balance it out a little bit, so now that you have your Scobie Did you make it from scratch or got one somehow, we actually have to do the kombucha, the fermented tea, so we have a whole video on that whole process that goes really in depth, we're not really going to cover that, but it's really simple, it's just making more sweet tea and letting it steep, really basic stuff, but we want talk more about the actual flavor in carbonation.

This is the fun part, so of course, when you ferment your kombucha, you can drink it straight. and it would be basically like an original, it would just be the taste of the tea a little bit sweet but it's not looking to have carbonation and the second part of the process, the second fermentation, is where you get the carbonation because you're putting in different flavors that have sugar and things like that. , so it's eating what the ship is eating, something is eating the sugar, so the yeasts and bacteria are still feeding on the sugars, but what's happening now is you're trapping them in the bottle. when you eat those sugars, they produce carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide bubbles, yeah, when you trap that gas in there, not only are you

flavoring

the kombucha with what you put in there, but you're also creating fizz or carbonation, which is the reason it tastes so good. so we thought it would be fun to take you through the season so no matter what time of year you're watching this video you'll be able to make kombucha so we're going to make two kombucha seeds yeah I make everything. all year round, so things are in season, they're out of season, that's a key thing to really like what's in season, what's new, throw it in there, yeah, that's definitely the first key thing, so Josh and I have each created a kombucha for each other. season, some of these are being tested for the first time on camera, we're experimenting with some of these our favorite flavors that we've been making for years, so you have your giant batch of fermented kombucha and I know personally that for me this is the most complicated because there are these kinds of things where yes, you have a pH, you know you're testing it, how do you know when it's ready to move on to the next step?

The most important thing is definitely the flavor and that is something you develop. Over time, yes, your pH you may find that you want it between 2.5 and 3.5, but it really comes down to flavor, it's that level between sweetness and acidity, you still need a balance of a little bit of sweetness and, Usually, that's about seven to ten days. of fermenting its original bag depending of course on the whole time of year, so summer stuff will generally ferment faster in the winter, it may be slower, there are a lot of elements to figure out when I started making it, I didn't realize account of that.

I was nervous. I wondered if I took it at the right time, but I fermented kombucha to make it a little more tart and I made something a little sweeter and they both work, but I like it and I also like it if it's a little more tart. you'll just have to let the carbonate bottle for longer, but it will definitely depend on the long term flavor, so it's something you'll get familiar with trying to get that perfect sweet spot between bitter and sweet, so when it comes to the actual bottles you want to use for your kombucha I really like these flip top bottles you can get them you know a lot of different places online and there are reusable ones they work great you want to make sure you have a round bottle a square bottle bad for the pressure.

Those corners where I've had some blowouts really handle the pressure well and then you can use your bottles too. You know, I use GT bottles all the time. Reuse these things when you buy them at the store. They will be excellent for

carbonating

. Well, Bottle Cuties has that big bottle too. I'll make a big batch until they're big. Oh, that's great, you don't make a thousand interesting little bottles, so let's talk about our first taste, since it's winter. Now let's start with a winter batch, what do you have? I have hops and this is actually one so Gigi is a great until heavenly hops has a great flavor but you first told me about hops and you like to try it somewhere. and I was just amazed and making a bottle of hops has that type of beer because hops are used nutritionally to make beer exactly if you don't want all the alcohol of an IPA by adding hops to your kombucha.

It's really amazing and it really carbonates well, so you use the whole flower for the hops and you want the fresh stuff. I've tried it with the dried hops that a lot of beer is made with and it's too much to want the fresh flower and you just add, you know, a good handful of hops to get a good flavor, so all of these carbonate for about four days I would say me, and I burped them, every lilian burped them like a baby every night just to release some of the carbon when you shave burp no, not many people know what that means burp is just a quick, yeah, quick, like that that because a lot of carbonation is going to build up, you don't necessarily want to stop the fermentation right away, so the first couple Every day, pretty much, you open it up a little bit and be careful because if it's too intense, it's going to spread all over your kitchen and then , before you try them, you can put them in the refrigerator overnight and that will really slow down the carbonation. okay, if they are super carbonated, put them in the refrigerator to reduce thea lot.

I put a clove in here and it's just cinnamon. Was it just half of us, half a cinnamon stick? So good, this is the lemon hibiscus, this one was subtle, yes this might be my favorite, this one is yours, well no I'm going between that one and then this one right here, the cucumber here and the melon again capture the summer, so well, and I felt that the flavors were really aroma, why Canal, yes, you like these a lot, you can have a fantastic aroma, very unique, yes, I like the aroma, the lightness and the melon, you don't like it, It often smells like melon, yes, fresh. it gives you that like you know you cut the fresh mint Yeah, even when you drop it, okay, and then the last one, blackberry and ginger, it's interesting when it comes to all of these, you know it's left a little bit on the side, but to To me this is so classic, very aromatic. a ginger it's like that's mostly what I'm going to take a cartoon again thank you so much for Gigi's first kombucha shot in the video and for giving us a beautiful Scobie these things are pirated with all the good stuff I need make a Scobie at home.

We hope this has inspired you to go out and try making your own kombucha. They can make whatever flavor they want. They can try anything. What I would say is to make a couple of more classic flavors. ginger turmeric and then take a couple they are rare and if you don't like them, worst case scenario you lose a bottle. I agree and if you are starting from scratch, go out and find some bottles, try them and get familiar with the real thing. flavor because it's unique, it's different, but put away all those bottles, save them for a rainy day when you really get down to making kombucha.

See you there.