Homemade Kombucha Flavoring Fails - Worst Flavors

[@aileenradualan3876]

I have a lot of success with calamansi for 2nd F. Since I have access to the fruit, I squeeze out the juice discard the seeds, throw the rind into the brew together with the juice and add a few tbsp of brown sugar. 2 days of fermentation at Asian room temp usually does it. Everyone but everyone loves cala-kombucha!

[@isagoldfield7393]

Yay!! CALABUCHA‼️🌿

[@entheltan5528]

I have done passionfruit + mint and everyone loves it. My workaround is I store the mint leaves and passionfruit together in the fridge a few days, then filter out the mint leaves and passionfruit seeds before I mix the liquid juice into the kombucha for 2F. So technically the mint leaves didnt ferment together with the kombucha.

[@the_7th_sun]

Peppermint hibiscus aswell is an amazing combination. My boyfriend (who never likes kumbucha) enjoyed it even

[@julie-annepineau4022]

I love strawberry and mint together. Beautiful mouth feel. I do put hibiscus in my 1st ferment so mine colony is a bit different. Worst flavor fail for me was chai. some how it tasted dry.

[@beautyfox6683]

I make flavoured suger water, out of twining infuse cold water teabags, For my kamboocha, I don't have to muck around with acual fruit, And infuse has quite alot of flavours to pick from.

[@dipanshigarg9153]

I have used so many different flavours and everything but nothing beats the good old strawberry with some ginger!! I mean always, the sweet smell it gives! What a fresh treat

[@MilanieMohdNor]

Tq for this suggestion. I was wondering how to carbonate with only ginger. My husband loves 1F w ginger. I like it fizzy. Will add strawberry the next batch of F1.

[@dipanshigarg9153]

@ add strawberry pulp rather than pieces

[@kyliefan7]

So I have a tip for using mint!! Use fresh mint and only use about 1 Tablespoon per gallon! My favorite is what a call ImPeachMint which has come out beautifully each time and fizzy!! You’ll have to guess the other flavor! Kidding! I use about 1 cup chopped frozen peaches! This is per gallon and 2nd ferment for 3 days! Two of my major disasters were Pina Colada and apple cider! Pina Colada the coconut flakes + kombucha tastes like soap! And apple cider has it’s own dead yeast and bacteria and made it taste just wrong!

[@Youresodisco]

I have a Kombucha brewery next door and they have a fantastic mint kombucha. It's actually my favourite one of theirs after rhubarb (but the last one is a seasonal flavour only, sadly). I don't what witchcraft they're using but it's light, still flavourful and suuuuuuuuper refreshing.

[@sheilajoyforones5493]

Since I am from the Philippines, I also tried brewing with calamansi, and yes, it just doesn't carbonate well even I mixed it with lots of sugar. What I'm currently using is some flavored tea and honey, and it's amazing, the kick I get from a strong carbonation is just satisfying.

[@natew4494]

So interesting. I’ve had really good success with fresh mint leaves in the second fermentation (w/ fresh puréed blueberries). Love the fresh minty notes. Good video. Keep them coming:)

[@lanetower3411]

I usually combine flavors. I love using coconut water in my secondaries. I’ve made a pomegranate pear coco brew that is amazing. I’ve also used fresh calamansi , but it’s true that there isn’t much fizz. As for mint, I did do a pretty good watermelon mint brew, but the mint leaves turn a gross black and I fished them out after a day.

[@angiecolwell9596]

My mojito kombucha (with mint) is one of my favorite! Maybe the lime helps? I've also found that muddled fresh mint is great in a plain kombucha. This also works for ginger and I would bet it might work for turmeric. For coconut, the only thing that has ever worked for me is Amoretti coconut cream flavoring.

[@giacomolevoni8235]

I am trying to make a mojito kombucha just as well!! do you have any suggestion as far as quantities of lime vs mint and type of tea used??

[@red12stone]

i have learned that pureed red or green grapes carbonate well without giving any noticable flavors. Just experiment with the correct amount. I might use 2 teaspoons per pint . good luck! If i can find some frozen calamansi i will try it.

[@mariacooper]

I've just mashed red grapes in a bag and put it in there - it's great!

[@kyliefan7]

I never liked trying grapes as it didn’t add flavor but good idea about fizz!

[@red12stone]

@@kyliefan7 that is the point with grapes. If anyone has issues with carbonation this should work without creating any additional flavors!

[@KK-on2sj]

pineapple ginger mint is a staple for me using a couple dried crumbled leaves from my summer garden. Perfect refresher.

[@cathyhann7957]

I recently used organic pure tart cherry concentrate. Any reason why it would not ferment during second fermentation? The flavor is good just no carbonation. Left them on counter for 5 days in 8oz bottles. Should I added more cane sugar during 2nd ferment?

[@emy7873]

I just brewed my first batch that I was about to flavor for the second ferment and was about to put mint in one 😄I'm glad I clicked on this!

[@IEqualBetterThanYou]

No to mint?? Wow. My all time favorite flavor is mojito, and I always have a bottle in the fridge. I use green tea and a Jun culture, so I’m wondering if that makes a difference.

[@TheAntiMalthusian]

Watermelon mint is my go-to. I don't chop or bruise the mint, I just put in whole leaves.

[@BabyFlickBuster]

Clementine/ fresh turmeric (like you said, a little goes a long way). That’s actually one of my best flavour combo.

[@loveclementines]

I tried making this after reading your comment and loved it!! Tysm

[@ajcashman2762]

I made a scoby and now I’m on the first fermentation stage. Getting ready to bottle with flavor and I have some canned “no preservative” peaches. It says from concentrate on the can. Will this work as well as anything else from a scoby-health perspective? Is canned fruit okay? Also, thinking of paring it with sage if you have any opinion about peach-sage as a combo

[@maxio1824]

I’ve had a different problem with mint I couldn’t get my bugs to carbonate when I used too much mint that I grew from our garden. Once I decreases the amount of mint in F2 I was able to get carbonation and some mint flavor.

[@vocalwriters8491]

Mint generally has a chemical in it that naturally makes stuff not to ferment and even if it does ferment it won't come out quite well. So just a very little in a large batch will do the trick here

[@mariacooper]

Wow - mint is one of our favorites! Our first F2 we had a little mint left in our garden and used lemon, hops, and ginger and then mint disappeared for winter from grocery stores and my garden. It was so good that that has been our holy grail in flavoring although we've used many varieties since then like lavender and honey, rose buds and honey, honeysuckle. Now that mint is back, we've done 3 cycles of F2 of nothing but fruit and mint leaves and we are super happy. It MUST be the bacteria and yeast make up then. Very interesting! By the by, we've also used rosemary and basil - both good as well.

[@potterma63]

Very interesting. Mint seems to be a bit temperamental. Glad you are getting great results! Mind sharing (in general) where you are? I'm wondering if it is a geographic/local yeast/bacteria difference. From southern Oregon, USA, I can't get any flavor from it.

[@mariacooper]

@@potterma63 Hi there! I’m in Texas. Our mint grows like weeds here. The best combo was strawberry and mint but really anything we’ve put it in. I put quite a bit of mint in otherwise the flavor isn’t very strong. During winter I went with mostly floral flavorings like (dried) lavender, chamomile, rose buds, hibiscus and also dried elderberries. It’s true, I think, about different make up of Scoby. My first one I had huge problems with. My current Scoby has been really successful with great carbonation. I’m now on batch 10.

[@potterma63]

@@mariacooper My mint deficient brew may simply be not enough mint. Seems to take a lot to get the flavor to come through. Now that its spring and the mint is springing everywhere, maybe I'll give blueberry/mint another roll and up the mint quantity. Thanks.

[@kjmo10]

Can you pls do a video showing the best flavors for extreme carbonation? I thought it was just me, but I have found that some flavors create more carbonation than others. For example, pineapple always carbonates like crazy. But lemon juice doesn't create the same effect. (I do add some extra sugar)

[@dana102083]

Its the sugar levels. Lemon has barely any sugar where pineapple has a lot.

[@waiyeec6829]

One of my favourites is mint, strawberry and basil. And I've used ginger and mint, but never mint on its own

[@alexiusjones6034]

I add mint to my glass when I am ready to drink my kombucha. I don’t add it during the fermentation process

[@potterma63]

That is so weird! I've used mint in at least 3 different batches and the most I can say for it is that it really didn't do a whole lot. Muddled the snot out of it and didn't get much flavor, so I've kind of given up on it. Never got the skunk, though. Just made my second batch of ginger/turmeric/black pepper. Best ratio is 1:1:1/2 for my palette. Great stuff and great for lowering cholesterol. Love the vids! Keep up the good work.

[@dana102083]

Ahhh the old science sayign we shouldnloqer didnt show that at all and the new science shows cholesterol and saturated fat do not cause heart disease. So we dont want to lower cholesterol.

[@seanyoungman]

A bit of jalapeno pepper & apple was awesome for me recently! Yellow pepper is great too

[@jeanscherrer7849]

can you use raw or pure cane sugar. It is not white but that seems to mean it is not processed. Please help husband purchase it when I asked for white can sugar. thank you

[@hollyduggan8139]

Have you tried a couple of drops of peppermint oil? I've not tried it but just a thought.

[@studiorobo]

Have you tried cooking down calamansi juice? Cooking fruits denatures enzymes, so you may have success with cooked calamansi juice if it is in fact any enzymes hindering the ferment. A concentrate may not cook the juice at a high enough temp.

[@YouBrewKombucha]

Oooh I will try this. Thank you for the tip!!

[@ronlu2952]

I love lavender and rose petals!

[@RobVespa]

This is a fun video - Thanks for taking hits for the team! Ha... some of these combination fails surprised me.

[@NickieNonstop]

Hi! First of all, thanks for all the content - you've really inspired me with lots of very insightful videos! I was surprised about your mint experience. I F2 it with pineapple and fresh mint - it's one of my favourites actually! Fermentation done with green tea. Tried that already?

[@KK-on2sj]

same here … perhaps we landed the right combo. i also add a smidge ginger to this combo.

[@privateprivate9285]

Hi, I have 1kl tub of scoby puree, whilst I use it in recipes such as humus and pate, I am never going to get through all this puree, and making fruit leather is not an option. Do you know if I can freeze the puree? Seems such a waste! I give some away, and put some in my pet's food, but this is in no way depleting the amount I have, and have a lot because my scooby hotel grew like crazy as well as the scobies being 9" round, so they are big. Needed room, so pureed half my hotel - now I want to freeze some for use as and when. Can I freeze it????

[@ByronWatts]

Looking forward to trying this when I get home to Mindanao

[@chriskalapodcast]

Hi, I can't seem to find an answer. I set aside my huge patch of kombucha for the first fermentation (made my tea, added store bought kombucha) but i didnt have an scoby. And I set aside second container with store bought kombucha to get that scoby. My question is, can I add scoby into the bigger vessel in the middle of the first fermentation process and does it quicken now the process as well hence having to wait for month and a half?

[@LINVanilla]

I did pineapple mint, but I used store bought mint syrup. Really fizzy and nice

[@MissQiChu]

I use fresh mint for my second fermentation and it taste great

[@normalizedaudio2481]

I try peppers with strawberries. I'm not sure if it's good or bad and should I do it again? It's a good thirst quencher. I like the pepper finish. I might try with pineapple.

[@potterma63]

Peppers are fun to experiment with! One of our favorites is Peach Jalapeno. Ginger lime Serrano is another of our favorites.

[@HAKIMEOVER9000]

I started out with pineapple and it's very good

[@mariacooper]

@@potterma63 oooh. Ginger lime serrano sounds good! Mango jalapeno is also good. It’s one of our staples. My husband likes hops and jalapeno.

[@potterma63]

@@mariacooper If your husband likes hops, tell him to give grapefruit and hops a go. Especially Citra hops. They really complement the grapefruit.

[@lolitajellyman1956]

10 to 13 g of fresh grated turmeric, and 14 g of ginger grated, 1/2 to 1/3 cup water, boil then simmer. For 7 mins, add 2 1/2 tbsp of sugar, this is for 750 ml bottle, beautiful taste

[@bluemagi1656]

calamansi or lemon + dried mint plus a little sugar or honey works for me (2f taste + carbonation)

[@hillsidevegan5118]

try mint & lime with a tsp of white sugar

[@matthewwhite5513]

Turmeric sorrel and ginger is a pretty good combo for a flavor

[@keisham9731]

Omg this is a great idea!

[@carolinamadrigal7569]

Do you consider if your kombucha its not able to carbonate ist a faile? I got some flavors that don't do it so I don't know if the bottle or the fruit it's the responsable. Greetings from Costa Rica!

[@riolifemom5968]

Have you tried taking the rind off of the fresh calamansi before using it? Sometimes the rind is what messes with kombucha

[@jokev1324]

i kinda knew you were pinoy the very first time I watched u...and brewed my first batch...learned a lot from u kabayan

[@sharonshumpert1917]

Try carbonation drops. It works extremely well to insure good carbonation. Sixty drops cost about $8.

[@vocalwriters8491]

For the calaman you might want to add more sugar to the second fermentation then increase the Temperature of the fermentation environment too just to check things up. Then monitor it

[@YouBrewKombucha]

I’ve tried adding obscene amounts of sugar 😂 still no dice. Did this method work for you? Did you have success carbonating calamansi?

[@vocalwriters8491]

@@YouBrewKombucha well, made some researches though haven't tried it but for some reason it takes a very long time to ferment about a minimum of 2 weeks down to 4 weeks before you can talk about it's fermentation. And another thing to consider is the temperature required too. Because it's a citrus fruit and it's capable of fermenting but will take quite a very long time too.

[@kimjohnson7469]

I wonder if a high quality mint extract would be the way to go?

[@lanetower3411]

Hibiscus first ferm goes great w coconut water in second ferm.

[@weirdheathersgarden]

My fave kombucha flavour is coconut, but it’s £5 a bottle from my local health food store, so was hoping to figure out how to brew my own.

[@tiffanyx8577]

I’ve seen a lot of weird herbal and savory combos in cookbooks that really seems off to me. Avocado? Bacon? Basil?

[@emerytakacs7040]

Interesting. Hmmm... for me, adding fresh mint has always come out really good and friends have always liked it. 😉

[@snudge86]

Same here. We do “mojito” with mint leaves and lime. It’s awesome.

[@emerytakacs7040]

Just to make sure, I only use mint and all other flavorings in 2nd ferment when I bottle it. I Never use flavorings in the 1st ferment of the basic brew. It can have an adverse effect on the scoby and ruin it. Maybe the author here was referring to, when adding to the 1st having issues. To be safe, only add to 2nd... 😉

[@karthiknkamath]

I did ginger-lemon-mint. It's tastes refreshing till now.. it's been a week.

[@worldadventuretravel]

Soursop was my worst fail. I was so excited to use this soursop pulp from the latin grocery store given how good it tastes in other things (aka "custard apples"), but in my booch it smelled and tasted like actual vomit. I had to chuck the whole batch.

[@Sjtabor2000]

Thanks for great advice! I was hoping someday you can do a copycat of the best store brought ones you’ve perfected.

[@sameritaco]

Banana kombucha turned out awful for me. I thought that since banana cinnamon smoothies turned out well and pear cinnamon kombucha turned out well that banana kombucha with the tinyest amount of cinnamon could work as well. It turns out something about the vinegar acidity of kombucha just doesn't work with bananas. Also the first time I made lemon ginger kombucha I didn't add enough sugar to the second fermentation and it didn't carbonate quite as well as I hoped. That being said since then lemon ginger has become one of my favorite flavors now that I know how much sugar to add

[@fizziclekombucha]

I had great success with banana, passionfruit and lemon balm. Don’t overferment into vinegar. Do an earlier harvest and try it! We also made a successful banana pie using all spice and nanas.

[@missyleonis]

I make white tea komboocha and add home-grown dehydrated mint for second fermenti used pureed orange, strawberry, or pineapple. It turned out great! Maybe u used the wrong blend? I blended tge mint with the fruit and purified water and added stevia to the second ferment to sweeten. I also made a herbal mint hibiscus komboocha and the mint flavor died leaving the hibiscus. I used pureed beets and rwaspberry jam to flavor that. That one is good for that time of the month for women. Hibiscus helps with bloating and the beets help with low red blood cell counts from menstral bleeding. The komboocha cultures and enzymes make absorbtion easier increasing the benifits. Herbal tra komboocha takes at rast double if not triple the fermentation time for first ferment from the other two I make one of which is white tea the other is coffee

[@fade2black494]

have anyone tried wild rose flavoring? is it any good?

[@howiewill]

NGL. I’m new to this and tried pineapple on my third batch. It tasted like yucky beer. It carbonated so well though that it overflowed when I opened. I’ll probably use less sugar next time.

[@saab-xq8lc]

i heard avocado is one of the hardest flavors to use for F2. i’m pretty sure i heard this in a youtube vid with the guy who does flavors for gt but he said they were super explosive haha. i’m on my first F1 after making my scoby and the only thing i’m scared about is the bottles exploding

[@paulocarv4403]

I absolutely love watermelon but this fruit turned out bitter on my second fermentation. I was very disappointed. No watermelon for my kombucha anymore.

[@karelvanderbijl]

Today I flavored with tomato … very curious what the taste will be in 4/5 days …

[@elenacuthbertson2954]

Have you ever tried a root beer flavoring?

[@HAKIMEOVER9000]

I use mint a lot, but all I do is add the fresh leaves to it without any other flavors

[@Buckets41369]

Mint goes well with sweet and creamy flavours so I imagine it would clash with the tartness of kombucha

[@azerosblank5036]

Is banana kombucha a thing?

[@shannonblw]

Mints worked well for me, though. It didn't give a minty cool feel but it was good nonetheless.

[@ramonalewis5163]

Maybe you need to try the YOUNG coconut flesh (meat)

[@rayselby3487]

i tried to use rhubarb. I grow a lot of it. could not make it sweet enough for me.

[@beckymartinez9926]

Add a sprig of mint at the time of drinking

[@Roxay05]

I did plums. Maybe they were too tart but my kombucha tasted like leafs lol

[@tanyakilbane7636]

What about pachuli?

[@333Hchris]

Juicing mint with pineapple seems to work for me

[@mah4i]

It's amazing how everybody and everyone's kombucha is different, i liked mint a lot, made it for a while

[@lolitajellyman1956]

Can you share the recipe for the mint flavour?

[@mah4i]

@@lolitajellyman1956 To be honest i just added one tbsp of dried mint to the bottle then added a little bit of sugar and the kombucha, i don't have accurate measurements

[@mah4i]

@@lolitajellyman1956 you can probably make a mint syrup and then add the mint syrup to kombucha, i think it will extract more flavors

[@fabioconsonni3232]

I also think that fat fruits like avocado, banana, coconut, don't match with kombucha.

[@simonoosthuizen184]

Hopped online to get flavouring suggestions after sealing my first flavoured batch of kombucha... which is mint lemon and ginger... haha oh well, I guess I should have watched this video before doing it

[@somnathchanda1250]

coconut will dissociate to awful smelling acid as it happens in butter with formation of olieic acid

[@user-mr9tw6dj6h]

coconut juice is good, but you will need a different technique to keep it fresh. coconut milk, even better. you just need a technique to overcome the curdle

[@fizziclekombucha]

Congrats on the shock value of this video. As a professional kombucha brewer and kombucha judge, mint is an excellent ingredient in kombucha. I do happen to grow my own mint for R&D, using varietal mints like apple mint, Mauritian Moroccan mint and even chocolate mint. Next to that, you can’t use coconut milk - it has oil! Oil and kombucha don’t go together. Also, turmeric is great with tamarind and palm sugar. It’s a known Indonesian botanical remedy called Jamu. Finally, calamansi and mint is perfect for mojito Kombucha. I hope you will continue to experiment and find quality ingredients to work with. Good luck!

[@katrinaspooks]

Cantalope made my bottles near explode! That’s been my only mistake so far😛

[@coryart]

I had good experience with Turmeric in Jun Kombucha.

[@gregalger4683]

I tried flavoring with coffee + pinch of sugar once. It was the worst.

[@jibexi]

Post your favorite flavors here

[@idanyella1]

I love my mint kombucha.. prolly its just a question of taste. Didnt likes the coconut either

[@Isntreal1234]

Peppermint has worked well for me.

[@kimcollins2333]

A tsp of coconut oil works in a 12 ounce bottle

[@manuelalejandromartinezguz9325]

I tried with tangerine once, it was awful, it tatsted like when the fruit is rotten, not good

[@toas6693]

here's with 4 bottles of mint infused kombucha

[@TheLaurasantana]

I tried with banana and Guanabana fruit, and both were really disgusting.

[@jericson1109]

If it is an enzyme then maybe cooking would denature it.

[@cyndeemaine5717]

Coconut is the worst.

[@rogerferrell861]

Do it like u do ur Tepacha when it's ready bottle it with ur kombucha it will be carbonated I promise

[@twinklenutz]

Never use grapefruit as once the second ferment is done the sweetness is gone and the taste is like battery acid. It was HORRIBLE!