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Raw kombucha is tasty, but creating your own kombucha recipe flavors? Wow!

A batch of home brewed kombucha taste delicious on its own. It is nicely tart with some residual sweetness and the carbonation imparts a nice fizziness on the tongue.

However, we think that adding flavoring ingredients to raw kombucha produces a wonderful variety of flavors that enhances the natural kombucha taste. There is an endless variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices that alone, and in combination, make for some truly outstanding beverages.

So many kombucha flavors

We never tire of trying new flavor combinations and have difficulty picking a favorite. Like fine wines and beers, some flavors seem to go better with certain seasons, food, or even certain moods.

In the recipe section of kombuchajournal.com, we are continually adding some of our favorites.

A basic understanding of the different factors that affect the taste of home brewed kombucha will help you to create your own yummy favorites. Here are some things to remember when flavoring your kombucha.

1. How Much Flavoring to Add to a Kombucha Recipe

The amount of the flavoring agent will obviously greatly affect the taste of the final kombucha. Too much of an ingredient may overpower the flavor of the beverage in a negative way. The adage, “less is more” is sometimes good to remember.

Here are some good rules of thumb of how much flavoring ingredients to add (per 16 oz bottle):

Ingredient	Amount per 16-ounce bottle
Sweet Fruits, minced or chopped	maximum of ¼ cup
Fresh Spices, minced or chopped	1- 2 teaspoons
Vegetables, chopped or grated	maximum of ¼ cup
Spices, powdered	½ to 1 teaspoon
Ginger	depends on form¹

¹Ginger: there is something about the warm spiciness of ginger that nicely balances the tartness of kombucha. It can be used in many ways. Read 5 Different Ways to Make Delicious Ginger Kombucha with Fresh Ginger for details on how much ginger to add.

Related: Discover the best bottles for flavoring your kombucha

2. The Size and Shape of the Flavoring Matters

Ingredients can be added in the flavoring phase in a few different forms. Fruits and vegetables can be chopped, grated, pureed, or only the juice can be used.

The larger the surface area of the ingredient, the less you will need to add to produce a nice kick of flavor. You don’t need as much juice to flavor your kombucha than you would chopped ingredients for example.

3. The Kombucha Flavoring Ingredient Time Factor

Generally after you flavor and bottle your kombucha you will leave it at room temperature for a couple or three days so that the carbonation will produce a fizzy drink. How long you leave the brew in contact with your flavoring ingredient will affect the flavor of the finished drink.

Even after the beverage is in the refrigerator, it will continue to ferment and the flavor will change over time. You can of course, filter out the flavoring ingredients before you refrigerate the kombucha, and doing so will keep the taste constant for longer.

It is important to remember though, that kombucha continues to slowly ferment in the bottle, even after you have filtered out the flavoring ingredients. Over a period of week or months, the flavor will likely become a bit more tart.

We totally enjoy the creative process of concocting new and interesting flavors of kombucha. And we love the pleasantly surprised look on the faces of our friends when we present them with a unique kombucha flavor combination that they haven’t tried before.

Check out the recipe section here on kombuchajournal.com and use it as a jumping off point to creating your own signature kombucha flavor combinations.