Since a year, or two it’s everywhere. You can find it in almost every grocery shop. It’s fuzzy, fruity and delicious. And don’t forget it’s healthy too. Kombucha is simply a new way of drinking tea.
If you never heard of this slightly oriental named drink, it’s essentially a fermented, sweetened drink based on black or green tea usually lightly flavored with fruit extract. It belongs to the so-called group called functional beverages because of their (supposed) health benefits. Kombucha is made by fermenting tea with a “symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast” (a SCOBY).
We don’t want to advocate about the health benefits of drinking kombucha, we just like the taste of it, and we think that it’s an excellent alternative to sugary soda drinks. And it’s really refreshing in summer days, especially the hoop version of Brew Dr. Kombucha (probably our favorite kombucha we’ve ever tried). If you ask us, this is our favorite brands of this genius drink.
Brew Dr. Kombucha
“Our flavor profiles come from our attention to the quality and formulation of the organic tea and botanicals we use, creating a difference you can taste.
Today we operate eight teahouses and our organic 100% raw kombucha is distributed across the US and Canada. We have stayed true to our roots as a tea company, using high-quality organic tea in every batch. We hope you’ll agree our no shortcuts approach is worth the effort.”
Based in Portland, with a long tradition in brewing tea, they started making kombucha in 2008. Since then they offer a wide range of flavors, including our favorites: mentioned earlier CITRUS HOPS, CLEAR MIND (a blend of rosemary, mint, sage and green tea), and LOVE (a blend of Jasmine and lavender).
Not only they make this amazing drink, they also conduct sustainability practices by supporting ecology in classrooms and outdoors in Oregon’s elementary schools, using renewable energy and responsible waste disposal.
RISE
“The three friends, all intent on creating a locally produced, organic, fair-trade and vegan kombucha, put together a super-star team of businessmen, brewers and scientists to form what’s now the over 60-member team that makes up RISE. The maple tree-lined streets of Montreal might be a far cry from the palm tree-dotted beaches of Hawaii where it all began, but that’s what makes our mother’s story so special. We’re happy to share her ecologically-sound and socially-conscious kombucha with you. Think of every bottle of RISE as a Hawaiian lei made of Quebecois fleurs-de-lis — totally unique.”
There is a unique story behind the RISE kombucha. It’s a tale of friendship and locally supportive company. And the product of this tale is simply divine. From simple flavors such as GINGER, LEMONGRASS, Canadian classic BLUEBERRY & MAPLE to more adventures like MINT & CHLOROPHYLL, not forgetting about the crowd pleaser HIBISCUS & ROSEHIPS.
Búcha Live Kombucha
We invite the world to taste a bit of our quirky, our “Tea of Immortality,” and provide a little prop to Emperor Ti in China for the birth of búcha®, and to Prince Vlad in Bucharest for búcha’s® rebirth. We invite everyone to enjoy the clean, refreshing, complex “cha,” we lovingly call búcha®.”
Another quirky and easy-going brand making a delicious kombucha is Búcha Live Kombucha. Their mission is to serve “a smart alternative to the other nutritionally empty sugary beverages”. They claim that their búcha® is the best-tasting one among any other.
And there is something real in their statement. Because among others they use specialized yeasts and specialized fermentation processes, Búcha® has very clean and sophisticated taste without a typical taste similar to vinegar, which makes it smooth and incredibly refreshing.
THE HEALTH-ADE
“The anchor is an icon that represents what Health-Ade kombucha is: grounding, classic, strong, hard-working. The word “Kombu” is Japanese for kelp or seaweed. Upon learning of kombucha’s deep-rooted connection to the sea, we chose our anchor icon.”
PINK LADY APPLE, CALIFORNIA GRAPE, or maybe MATCHA + COLD BREW COFFEE, no matter what’s your jam, you’ll find something right for you. Because THE HEALTH-ADE is one of the most delicious kombuchas on the market. What’s their secret? They are fermenting their kombucha only in glass jars, to prevent plastic & metal leaching. And they do it only in small batches of 2.5-gallon glass at a time using cold-press juices from organic produce. They just simply old-school. And that’s what makes their kombucha special.
Cover photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash