I like kombucha, and certainly some of GT's flavours, especially Gingerade, this one gets its extra flavour from lemon juice. I would say this is a pleasantly zingy kombucha, really good if you like lemons. Another fallback kombucha if my ginger one is not available.
Before I tried the Gingerade, this kombucha from the California brewer of kombucha was one of my favourite flavours; my beautiful Bride likes this one too, for its health benefits and how it tastes. The Multi-Green comes from a combination of algae (Klamath mountainblue-green), spirulina and chlorella, all three of which are packed with vitamins and good protein, little powerhouses of nutritional benefits. The kombucha flavour is more subdued, while the green-ness of the three gives it a very pleasant underlying taste that complements the kombucha.
I've tried maqui berry recently, in freeze-dried form; it's a powerful antioxidant and superfood, very red in colour, so I wondered how or if it would enhance the health benefits or flavour of Synergy's kombucha line. The redness of the maqui berry is there, and there is the flavour of the maqui berry too. I find this a subdued kombucha, in that there is not a strong kombucha flavour (which I find with all the Synergy line). There is also an underlying mint flavour which does not overpower any of the other flavours. Overall, this is a pleasant kombucha drink, but not one of my favourites.
I've tried many different kombuchas from several different makers, but I would say that this particular kombucha is not only my very favourite, but also what I would think is the ultimate kombucha is; the main flavour, ginger, coming from ginger juice, is certainly one of my favourites, if not my favourite; it's also quite bubbly - I could drink this every day and any day, and be quite pleased and content. G.T. has been making kombucha since 1995, a homegrown business that has expanded without sacrificing quality and healthfulness since its humble beginnings. They've also released a line of enhanced kombuchas, with various healthy ingredients.
If you are looking for more information on kombucha, its health properties and how to make it yourself, check out Günther W. Frank's website The Kombucha Journal. There's lots of information there, including a free recipe on how to make kombucha, where to get your kombucha starter culture, lots of other information. He sells a book (in several languages), and you can also get a kombucha starter culture -- buying directly from him is definitely cheaper.
Kombucha is one of my favourite drinks, raw, bubbly, healthy goodness, much better than any sugared pop. I've come across several new suppliers in the various health food stores I frequent here, this one is from California. G.T. Dave has been making kombucha since 1995; one of its main ingredients is "100% pure LOVE!!!". This is Original flavour, the ingredients are just, besides the LOVE, water, kombucha culture (yeast and bacteria) and tea. This is raw kombucha, there are strands of the culture floating at the bottom. GT's kombucha tasted pretty good; I'd like to investigate the other flavours in his line. The bottle cost me under $4.
The last of the four different flavoured kombuchas from the Montreal, Quebec based company Crudessence features green tea and lemon (actually lemon tea). It also has ginger in it. If it had more ginger flavouring, it would be my favourite of the four, but it definitely came a close second to the Passion with rosehip and hibiscus. I would definitely drink this again.
This is my favourite of the four kombuchas I recently discovered from the Montreal, Quebec company Crudessence.This one features rosehip and hibiscus, two flavours I really enjoy, also ginger. Some of their ingredients (cane sugar, black tea and ginger) are Fair Trade. This one I could drink again and again.
I do like kombucha, and was pleased to find this one at Whole Life Expo. Crudessence is from Montreal, Quebec, they make a number of different flavoured kombucha drinks. This one features white tea (kombucha is a brew made from tea and a combination of yeast and bacteria) and ginger (fresh ginger and ginger juice). Some of their ingredients (cane sugar and white tea) are Fair Trade. This one I liked very much, very ginger-y, one I hope to find a source for. They make it with lots of Love!
Crudessence is from Montreal, Quebec, they make a number of different flavoured kombucha drinks. I do like kombucha, the bubbly brewed tea. This one features blueberry and maple; the tea of the kombucha (kombucha is brewed from sugar, tea and a combination of yeast and bacteria) is black tea. Some of their ingredients (cane sugar and black tea) are Fair Trade. This one I did not care for, perhaps because of the black tea flavour, perhaps because of the maple flavour; I also did not taste any blueberry. When I sampled it at Whole Life Expo, I knew I didn't like it, but just bought it for the sake of trying more than a mouthful.
I would say this has been my least favourite of the kombuchas from Wonder Drink. Juniper berries are the main flavouring for gin, which I don’t care for. The spearmint is not a strong flavour, less than the juniper berries; the lemon myrtle I missed its taste completely. The kombucha didn’t come across as being very strong in flavour either. I am disappointed in this one, and miss my Himalayan
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Here’s another large (750 mL) bottle of Fairy’s Tonic kombucha; this one is the regular flavoured one. It is made with a combination of black, green and ginger teas. This is good tasting, and one I could drink on a regular basis (but still don’t have a good source, ie. a close source, for).
I have tried Zoey’s Fairy’s Tonic Kombucha Teas Digestif and Uplift with Lemon (which I preferred of the two); this one features the flavour of ginger.
I like ginger, as you might know, and was looking forward to trying this. This also comes in a much larger bottle size, 750 mL, so more to enjoy. The kombucha is made from a combination of green and black teas.
Of its many health benefits, ginger stimulates liver and gallbladder function to aid in digestion.
This tastes as good as other kombuchas from Zoey. The taste of ginger is not very strong, but still there. I think I like this second best of her kombuchas.
This is the third of the new large-bottle Kombucha drinks from Kombucha Wonder Drink, the others being Essence of Mango and Cherry Cassis. The lemon flavour comes from organic lemon extract, which gives it a good but not great lemon flavour. What I did like, is that this one was cloudier than the other two, as cloudy as the original ones I tried. Still, I don’t think I would drink this one again.
This is the second of the new large bottle water+green tea+kombucha drinks from Kombucha Wonder Drink that I’ve tried, the other is their Essence of Mango. Again the ingredients focus more on the water and green tea than the kombucha, rather than previously the other way around (I wonder now if all they’ve done, is add water and more green tea, and carbonation, to their original kombucha drink). This particular one has black currant juice and cherry juice concentrates added for flavour, which gave it a great flavour and one I would have like to have seen in their original format, and even consider buying again.
Kombucha Wonder Drink has recently brought out some bigger bottles of a newer formulation of their Kombucha drinks, these are also labelled Sparkling Fermented Tea, and it seems to me, in drinking this, that they have created these products to be like wine coolers; it’s mostly water and brewed green tea, with kombucha (made from oolong), also cane juice (essentially sugar), mango juice concentrate, natural peach juice concentrate and carbonation - if you compare this to the original ones I tasted, and liked, before, those had kombucha as the first ingredient and they had far fewer ingredients with no carbonation (other than that from the kombucha). The liquid in these new bottles look far clearer, too.
I far prefer their older versions, long for the Himalayan. It tastes to me like a watered-down kombucha, and the mango flavour is not that good tasting either.
The second of the kombucha I sampled from Massachusetts-based Katalyst Kombucha has one of my favourite flavours - Ginger. The ginger that is within is Hawaiian Yellow Ginger.
From the 'Net, I found out that Hawaiian Yellow Ginger is a rare cultivar (less than 1/10 of a percent), that is know for its superior pungency (like Thai ginger is more pungent than Chinese ginger) and depth of flavour. The root is also denser and less fibrous, and very yellow when you slice it open.
This is the kombucha that I tried that had the rather thick scoby on it; I found it a little disconcerting, but there was no real flavour to it, and it went down rather easily, not at all slimy, as I thought it might be. The ginger flavour is strong and shines through the kombucha flavour (which I find weaker in comparison); this is definitely the Hawaiian Yellow Ginger flavour. I would definitely get this kombucha again, of the two that I have tried from Katalyst Kombucha.
What I though was a new flavour offering from Fairy's Tonic turned out to be kombucha from an American company called Katalyst Kombucha, based in Massachusetts. Kombucha has lately really intrigued me, and I was glad of the opportunity to try a new source of this mysterious elixir. The flavour was Schizandra Berry, and I first thought it was a fantasy flavour, but the schizandra berries are apparently grown right in Massachusetts, they add berry puree to their kombucha. This is also fully Organic.
From the 'Net, I found out that Schizandra Berry is a berry native to China and Japan, the fruit has sweet, salty, bitter, hot and sour taste (and is called wu wei zi, meaning five taste, fruit in China). The berries contain phytochemicals that have been shown to be anti-bacterial, a cardiac tonic, antioxidant and anti-depressant. Besides phytochemicals, Schizandra is also rich in minerals, vitamins and essential oils.
First thing I noticed was the layer of scoby (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) on the bottom of the bottle, and another I bought had a thick strand of scoby floating on the top. The bottle fizzed upon opening the cap, a good indication of fermentation. I found this to be an interesting flavour, kind of subtle, and I don't get the five tastes (but perhaps that's the fruit itself rather than as part of a more dominant flavour. I don't know that I would buy this particular flavour again, and don't really have a good source for it (I bought this at Essence of Life in Kensington Market).
I recently had the opportunity to try one of the made in Toronto kombucha drinks from Fairy's Tonic, their no-added-flavour black tea-based Digestif, which I enjoyed. Being in The Big Carrot on the Danforth the other week, I found for sale this kombucha, which is a green tea-based kombucha with lemon. It is very similar to the kombucha flavour I prefer from Wonder Drink, their Himalaya, though the Himilaya has a stronger lemon flavour and has oolong tea rather than green tea. They are very similar in price (this one was about $7 for 500 mL, but you can get it cheaper directly from the source much cheaper, see her website). I would say that this is a very good drink, the better of the two from Fairy's Tonic, and something I could drink on a regular basis.
I'm still looking for the elderflower one, but this one is pretty good.
Having enjoyed some of Wonder Drink's flavours, especially Himalayan, I finally had the chance to taste the last of their five flavours, Jasmine Tea and Niagara Grape. Three of them use Oolong tea, one Red tea, this one uses Jasmine tea, which I have enjoyed before (and is essentially green tea with Jasmine flavour).
Kombucha is a carbonated drink, a sweetened fermented tea or tisane, using a Mother of mushroom, or mushroom, or SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast). It is unlike any other drink I have tasted, an acquired taste to some, but good to me.
There is an underlying bitterness to this drink that I don't care for, and often comes in the first steeping of green tea (the second steeping is the sweeter, but more subtler). The Niagara Grape flavour (which comes from juice concentrate) is equal in flavour to the jasmine tea, but I don't know that the two particularly pair together well. I like the kombucha flavour of this drink, but still far prefer the Himalayan.
