Thanks Lisa! If you’re new to brewing Kombucha I would recommend sticking with using black tea, or a 50/50 blend of black and green tea. From what I’ve read, many herbs and spices (such as the ones found in Chai) have natural antibacterial properties, which could potentially hinder the growth of the beneficial Kombucha bacteria.

However, once you’ve mastered traditional black/green tea Kombucha, you could experiment with more exotic tea blends – because I do know that it’s possible to use many different kinds of tea. There’s a company called Brew Dr. and they are quite unique in that they flavor their Kombucha by using various types of tea during the fermentation process, rather than adding fruit juices AFTER fermentation is already complete – which is what most companies do. Maybe taking a look at their lineup of flavors would give you some ideas and inspiration: http://brewdrkombucha.com/raw-organic-kombucha/

Hope that helps. Happy brewing!

Hi Melanie, I’m glad you got a laugh out of it! I’ve found that second fermentations can help give you that extra fizz (which I love) by allowing the carbonation to build up. If you’re planning on doing a second fermentation, I’d suggest cutting your typical fermentation time down by two days – so if you normally ferment Kombucha for 14 days, try 12 instead (since you’ll make up those 2 days during the second fermentation).

So after 12 days, you’d add the flavoring of your choice to the Kombucha (but don’t flavor the “starter” Kombucha that you’ll need to set aside for the next batch that you brew), then you’d pour the flavored Kombucha into individual bottles or jars (I prefer pint size mason jars), screw on tight fitting lids and let the Kombucha sit at room temperature for about 2 days – then put the bottles or jars in the fridge and enjoy! I always refrigerate my Kombucha once the fermentation process is complete.

I don’t know the exact point at which Kombucha starts to contain alcohol, but I don’t imagine you’d have a whole lot of alcohol if you kept fermentation to two weeks. There will almost certainly be trace amounts present, but I don’t think it’d be significant.

Thanks for being the first comment EVER! 🙂