Kombucha is everywhere these days. If you love kombucha, you already know that it is a popular drink that is beloved for both its unique taste and myriad health of benefits. As a natural probiotic fermented tea drink, kombucha promotes digestive health, contains lots of antioxidants, and is a detoxifying favorite. If you want to combine your favorite herbal tea or flower infusion with the fermentation process of creating a healthy kombucha, stick with me. There are some things we all need to know.
It is possible to make kombucha from herbal teas and herbal tea blends. Traditional Kombucha is made with true teas, such as black and green teas. It can also be made from flower and herb infusions such as hibiscus and mint. However, the fermentation process can change or negate health benefits, so understanding the process is important.
You might want to make kombucha from herbal teas to use locally sourced herbs and teas or to be sure that you can keep your scoby going based on what you have available. Me, too.
It is important, though, that you consider the kinds of herbs or herbal teas that will offer the best results.
This article will cover the best and worst teas for making a robust, healthy kombucha as well as detail the steps.
“It is possible to make kombucha from herbal teas and herbal tea blends. Traditional Kombucha is made with true teas, such as black and green teas. It can also be made from flower and herb infusions such as hibiscus and mint. However, the fermentation process can change or negate health benefits, so understanding the process is important.”
TEA CROSSING
Can You Make Kombucha With Herbal Tea?
Some kombucha purists might say that you must use the leaves of the traditional tea bush, Camellia sinensis, if you are making kombucha, and you can follow the steps below for making kombucha with any of your true teas.
However, the fact is that you can also make kombucha out of most any herbs or herbal teas.
You might be thinking, “Great! I’ll get started!” but you’ll want to first consider the kinds of herbal teas to use since the fermenting process can change, diminish, or enhance the medicinal or therapeutic properties of certain herbs.
If you want to ferment herbal teas for their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, it is a safe bet that the fermentation process will enhance those properties.
However, you do need to know that the specific and sought-after therapeutic properties of herbs like St. John’s Wort (often used as a mood stabilizer) could be negated, enhanced, or altogether changed in the fermentation process.
The change in those therapeutic properties is why it is important to consider what herbs or blends you infuse into your kombucha. Infusing St. John’s Wort into kombucha as a mood stabilizer might backfire since the fermentation process can have unpredictable effects.
So, let’s cover which herbs are the best and worst for making kombucha.
Which Herbal Teas Are Good for Kombucha?
There are dozens of herbal teas and herbal tea blends that you could ferment into kombucha but, as mentioned above, you’ll want to be careful when choosing the herbal tea to infuse into your kombucha.
Let’s cover many of the teas that will come through the fermentation process with health benefits intact:
Hibiscus Teas
Hibiscus tea is an herbal tea made from the flowers of hibiscus plants that bring unique fruit and floral flavors. Hibiscus teas are popular for the many health benefits they bring and can be turned into delicious kombucha.
Hibiscus teas are packed with antioxidants, the compound that fights free radicals to improve the immune system and prevent disease. Hibiscus may also help to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and could improve liver function.
The health benefits of hibiscus have been studied extensively and, while it is hard to prove that hibiscus teas have those properties, the flavor and simplicity of hibiscus teas make them a great alternative to the traditional green and black teas that are brewed into kombucha.
Mint Teas
Mint plants, such a peppermint and spearmint, are easy to grow and dry into teas and there are lots of herbal mint tea blends available at the supermarket. Mint tea is valued for its flavor, can promote digestive health, and can provide antioxidant, antibacterial, and antiviral properties to support your immune system.
Lemon Balm
Dried lemon balm can be made into a flavorful tea that is naturally high in antioxidants and research shows that lemon balm kombucha is higher in antioxidant activity than plain lemon balm tea. Lemon balm is also a natural antibacterial and retains that property when brewed into kombucha.
White Oak
While white oak teas, made from the dry bark of white oak trees, aren’t high in antioxidants, white oak tea kombucha shows similar levels of antioxidants to traditional kombuchas. White oak is valued for natural astringent, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory properties, but it is unclear whether the fermentation process allows white oak tea to retain those benefits.
Ginger
Ginger is a spicy root which can be dried and brewed into tea or can be used to flavor tea blends. Ginger root is valued for its flavor and can promote digestive health. Infuse ginger tea into your kombucha for a spicy kick.
Rooibos (Red Teas)
Rooibos tea, also known commonly as red tea, is actually the dried leaves of a red bush plant that is found in South Africa. Rooibos teas have been consumed historically for lots of health benefits but there is little research to prove those benefits.
Many people enjoy rooibos tea as a caffeine-free alternative to green and black teas and rooibos has a naturally sweet, vanilla-like flavor that can be delicious infused into a delicious kombucha tea.
You may also want to read my article 17 Reasons Rooibos Tea is Good for Babies and Toddlers.
Rosehip
The robust, floral notes of rosehip tea are sure to cut the inherent sourness of kombuchas Rosehip teas are made from the fruit of a rose plant and are high in vitamin C which is vital for a healthy immune system.
Licorice Root
This one might be controversial. While many people are turned off by the flavor of licorice, the people who enjoy the flavor really enjoy it. Licorice root is a natural expectorant that can promote lung health and, while it is unclear whether fermenting licorice root tea would retain those properties, the flavor can be wonderful with the lightly sweet and sour notes of kombucha.
Herbal Tea Blends
All of your favorite tea companies probably carry blends of herbal teas, from mint teas and rooibos teas to hibiscus teas, which are blended with black or green teas, dried fruit peels, and other natural ingredients.
As long as you avoid any medicinal or therapeutic tea blends, herbal tea blends can make it simple to infuse lots of flavor into your kombucha teas. If you want to avoid caffeine, hibiscus, rooibos, and other floral tea blends are perfect for you.
You can also blend your own teas to customize the flavors of your kombucha. Some pre-blended teas will contain added sugars, essential oils, or other natural flavors, so be sure to read the label of whichever tea or tea blend.
Which Herbal Teas are not Good for Kombucha?
As mentioned, you might want to avoid any herbal teas or blends that are renowned for medicinal or therapeutic properties.
This list of traditionally therapeutic teas either lose their properties when fermented or might even have adverse effects when fermented and consumed.
Eucalyptus Leaf Tea
Eucalyptus is valued in traditional Australian medicine as an anti-hypertensive to help decrease high blood pressure but research shows that the fermentation process required to make kombucha tea decreases the anti-hypertensive properties of eucalyptus leaf teas.
Bay Leaf Tea
Like eucalyptus leaf, bay leaf teas are valued as a traditional medicine. Bay leaves are said to have anti-inflammatory properties and improve digestive health but research shows that fermentation decreases the medicinal properties of bay leaf teas.
Bay leaf teas can still deliver a unique flavor and provide antioxidant properties when fermented into kombucha but if you are tempted to ferment bay leaf tea into kombucha for those medicinal properties you will actually decrease those properties.
Chamomile
Chamomile tea is made by steeping the chamomile flowers and is valued worldwide as a natural alternative to sleep aids. It is unclear whether or not chamomile teas, when fermented, will retain those properties or if those properties would be amplified but it is best to avoid fermenting any tea that could have adverse effects.
Avoide other Medicinal and Therapeutic Teas
There are lots of teas readily available that claim to have medicinal and therapeutic properties that can be full of flavor, but it is impossible to be certain what effect fermentation will have on those properties.
If you want to be sure that you are getting the benefits of those therapeutic teas, it is better to steep and drink them plain rather than brewing them into teas as the fermentation process could alter or negate those properties.
In rare cases, the therapeutic properties of teas might be amplified but it is really uncertain without testing and studying those properties, which most of us aren’t equipped to do at home.
Kombucha Basics: What is It?
Kombucha is a beverage traditionally made from green, black, or oolong teas and sugar that are fermented with the help of a scoby.
Scoby, sometimes affectionately called a “mother,” is an acronym for the “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.”
The process of making kombucha is similar to the process of making vinegar. Bacteria and yeast eat most of the sugar in the tea to ferment the beverage into a slightly sour, naturally fizzy, and mostly non-alcoholic beverage.
The great thing about fermenting kombucha at home is that you get to infuse a custom blend of flavors into your kombucha tea. Experiment with the flavors you enjoy until you blend the perfect balance of herbal teas for your taste.
How to Brew Your Own Kombucha with Herbal Tea: Supplies, 10 Steps, and Tips
Brewing kombucha at home is simple. You’ll want to gather all the necessary supplies before you start and make sure to go in with a game plan.
Gather your tea, herbal or otherwise, your scoby, and a fermentation jar.
You could also use store-bought kombucha as a starter if it’s your first time making kombucha.
Here are the supplies you will need:
- Scoby
- A large stockpot
- Tightly woven cloth
- Fermentation jar or container
- Herbal tea or blend
- Sugar
- Purified Water
Once you have your supplies organized, you are ready to work through the kombucha-making process.
Follow these 10 steps to get started:
Step #1: Make or Purchase a Scoby
You can make a kombucha scoby from store-bought kombucha but be aware that it could take 2 to 4 weeks for your scoby to fully develop.
Simply make some sweet tea with black, green, white tea, or oolong tea allow it to cool, and then add a full bottle of unflavored, unpasteurized store-bought kombucha.
Truthfully, making a scoby with just herbal tea will probably not work well. However, if you truly want a completely caffeine-free, herbal kombucha, feel free to experiment with an entirely herbal tea and see how it works for you.
Another option is to combine your herbal tea with 20% to 50% black or green tea. You should be able to grow a scoby with this ratio.
Cover this mixture with a tightly woven cloth. Cheesecloth is not ideal for this as you don’t want flies and other things to be able to enter your scoby.
After a week or so, you will start to see bubbles form on the surface of your mixture; that means it’s working.
After a few more weeks, the bubbles will form into a film on the surface of your mixture. With more time (and patience) this film will thicken and become opaque. When you have a ¼ inch thick, opaque, and jelly-like film, your scoby is ready to become more kombucha!
If you don’t want to wait a month or more to grow your own scoby, you could buy one from one of the many kombucha supply venues online.
Step #2: Brew Kombucha With Herbal Tea
There are lots of kombucha recipes online that you can use to calculate the exact ratios of scoby, sugar, water, and tea that you will need to use to begin brewing kombucha.
If you find a recipe that uses the specific herbal tea or blend that you want to use, you will have a more accurate measure of ingredients than if you repurpose a recipe that uses black or green teas.
For example, Wellness Drinks recommends these combinations as time-tested ratios that work well together:
Herb Recipe 1
Ingredients: Rosehip peels, nettle leaves and green tea mixed in equal parts.
Herb Recipe 2
Ingredients: Yarrow, nettle leaves, chickweed, dandelion, woodruff and dost mixed in equal parts.
Herb Recipe 3
Ingredients: Blackberry leaves, raspberry leaves, black currant leaves and wild strawberry leaves mixed in equal parts.
Herb Recipe 4
Ingredients: 1 part lycopod, 1 part nettle, 2 parts dandelion, 3 parts yarrow.
Herb Recipe 5
Ingredients: Yarrow, dandelion, raspberry leaves, nettle and elderflower mixed in equal parts
You can also experiment to find a mixture that tastes good to you.
Step #3: Make A Starter Tea
A starter tea is the leftover tea from a previous batch of kombucha or unflavored, unpasteurized store-bought kombucha. You will need a starter tea to make your kombucha acidic so that the mixture prevents the growth of unfriendly bacteria.
Step #4: Make A Tea Base
Boil purified water and mix in sugar. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the solution from the heat and steep your tea in the sugar water until the mixture is cool. This can take several hours but it is okay to submerge your pot of water in an ice bath to cool it quicker.
Step #5: Add Starter Tea, Transfer to Jars
Once your tea has steeped and cooled, mix in your starter tea to make the mixture acidic. Before you add the scoby, transfer it to a glass or plastic container. You will want to limit the amount of time your kombucha spends in contact with metal as metal can alter the flavor.
Step #6: Add Scoby
Once you have your tea mixture in jars, it is time to gently slide in your scoby.
Cover the container with a tightly woven cloth and secure the cloth with rubber bands to prevent any bugs from getting into your kombucha as it ferments.
Coffee filters and paper towels also work well as a covering.
Step #7: Ferment
Your kombucha will take about 7 to 10 days to ferment in this environment. Keep it out of direct sunlight and make sure to check on your kombucha and scoby every two days or so.
Your scoby will float around and a new, cream-colored scoby will form on the surface of your kombucha. Sometimes the new scoby will attach to the old one. You might see sediment settle to the bottom of the jar or bubbles form at the top or on the edges of the scoby. All of this is perfectly normal and will let you know that the fermentation process is commencing properly.
After 7 days, begin tasting your kombucha by pouring a little into a cup. Once it has reached the desired balance of sweet and sour, it is ready!
Fermenting your batch of kombucha longer will increase sourness.
Step #8: Remove the Scoby
Before you remove any more kombucha from the batch, carefully remove your scoby for later use and set it aside. If the scoby is getting very thick, remove the oldest layers.
Whenever you are handling your scoby, make sure your hands are clean! You don’t want to contaminate the mixture of bacteria and yeast with any bacteria that might be on your hands.
Step #9: Bottle Your Kombucha
Measure out a starter tea for your next batch and bottle the rest of your kombucha.
If you want to make sure it is clear and remove any sediment, you can strain it before you bottle it.
This is also the step when you would add any fruit juices, or even fresh fruit, that you want to use to flavor your kombucha tea.
Step #10: Carbonate Your Kombucha
Once you have your kombucha bottled, store it out of direct sunlight for 2 or 3 more days to allow it to carbonate. It might take longer than this depending on your location so you might bottle your kombucha in plastic bottles until you know how long it takes for it to ferment.
If you give the plastic bottles a squeeze and they feel solid without any give, you’ll know that your kombucha is fermented.
Make a note of how long it took to carbonate.
What Does Kombucha Contain?
After all of these steps and the care it takes to make kombucha from your herbal tea, you may want to sit back and enjoy (or wonder about) what it actually contains. Here’s the tea (so to speak).
Probiotics
Kombucha is naturally high in probiotics because of the mixture of bacteria and yeast that is used to produce the scoby. Probiotics are a great way to ensure that your digestive system stays in good health.
Alcohol
Kombucha will have a small alcohol content as a byproduct of the fermentation process but it is typically 1% or less alcohol by volume, so low that companies and produce and sell kombucha on a mass scale don’t have to label their products as alcoholic beverages.
Make More Kombucha!
Now that you’ve experienced the entire process of creating your own kombucha with the tea of your choice, clean your jars and begin the process over with your starter kombucha.
There are a couple of things to watch for during the process.
If your scoby becomes black, it has passed its lifespan and it is time to make a new one.
Additionally, it is important to notice the smell your kombucha emits as you start brewing. It will smell more like vinegar as it ferments but if any other smells appear, such as a funky, cheesy, or moldy smell, discard the batch and start over.
Kombucha is a simple and fun project that almost anyone can begin at home that delivers great, refreshing taste and myriad health benefits.
If you don’t want to use green or black teas in your kombucha for any reason, try some of the herbal teas or blends listed above for unique flavors!