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You either love it or hate it, but if you can’t live without it, it may save you some money by making it at home. Kombucha is actually not that difficult to make. It does require patience, some skills, and a lot of love for this unique drink to turn out exactly as it should.

And most importantly, you will need to have the right tea. Let’s see what the best tea for homemade kombucha is.

Should you be making kombucha at home?

Kombucha may sound extremely difficult to make at home. However, just like any other fermented foods, you can make it yourself too. But be cautious. Kombucha is a fermented drink, and fermented drinks need proper conditions and time to ferment. They contain good bacteria and yeast, but they may contain bad bacteria too. The key ingredients in fermented kombucha are acetic, lactic and gluconic acids [1].

That’s why it’s very important to follow the steps, use proper tea leaves and thoroughly clean all utensils you will be using.

So, let’s see which teas are the best for making kombucha.

What are the best teas for making a scoby?

To make kombucha at home, you will need a scoby, or a tea mushroom. Scoby is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. It looks like a jelly pancake, and it’s used for making all kombucha drinks. You can either make it yourself of buy it. To make it, you will also need tea and a started kombucha. Scoby is now widely available from many shops.

If you are making your own scoby, the best tea to use is:

·         Unflavored, pure tea leaves

·         Regular daily strong tea

·         Organic, non-GMO tea, grown with no pesticides or chemicals

Why is this important? Once your scoby is ready, you will use it for making all other kombucha batches. Since scoby is live, feed it with the best ingredients to keep growing healthy and providing the best batches of kombucha.

Black tea is the traditional and best choice for making kombucha. Best teas to use for making a scoby or with a young scoby:

·         Organic Darjeeling

·         Organic Assam

·         Organic Golden Monkey Paw black tea

Alternatively, strong green tea such as Organic Gunpowder may be a good choice, too.

What are the best teas for making kombucha?

Once you have a healthy scoby, you can use other types of teas too, but not all. Both tea bags and loose tea will be fine but do keep in mind the quality of the tea. Just like with the regular brewing, the tea you are using will have a lot of impact on the final flavor.

Never use:

·         Teas flavored with natural or artificial flavorings

·         Blended teas with fruit ingredients

·         Teas scented with essential oils

·         Low quality teas from unknown sources

·         Stale, moldy, expired teas

Best teas to use:

·         Pure white tea

·         Pure green tea

·         Pure oolong tea

·         Pure black tea

·         Pure pu’erh tea

·         A blend of pure green and oolong tea

·         A blend of pure green and black tea

·         A blend of pure rooibos and black tea

You may use any pure tea you want, or even herbal teas if your scoby is healthy, but avoid any blends or scented/flavored teas. If you want a rich, flavorful drink or unique flavors, add flavor during second fermentation by adding different ingredients such as other ingredients such as fresh or dried fruits, herbs, even spices or dried flowers.

If you are just starting out, the best way is to buy all the ingredients you need from reputable sources. Not only will this save you a lot of time but will provide the best and healthiest drinks.

Have you made kombucha at home yet? What did your first attempt look like? Which tea did you use? We would love to hear about your experiences.

Sources:

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15282124/