20/02/2026
Store bought vs home made kombucha 🤔🍻
I’ve made kombucha for YEARS and finally got it pretty much like the store bought stuff.
Things that go wrong with home made kombucha (it turns out):
🍵 over brewing the tea (makes it really bitter)
🍇 forgetting about the brew jar (partly because it takes so long to actually brew in a cold uk climate)
🍾 forgetting about the finished brew (it continues to ferment which can make an exciting uncorking worthy of a formula 1 winner)
I’m sure there are other things but these are my personal main offenders.
I somehow continue making it despite not really being that bothered about it. I suppose i feel responsible for that scoby 🍮😂✌🏻
But over the years product has improved a lot.
Here are my top tips -
🍵use green tea only. I know people say it should be black tea. They are wrong! Green tea is lighter in tannins and makes for a better brew, your scoby will be fine with the transition.
🍓bottle it with frozen purple/red fruit. Strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant, blackberry, blueberry, redcurrant have all been successful for me. It looks pretty, tastes nice and they don’t add much (explosive) extra sugar for fermentation.
🍬it’s ok to sweeten post brew, and add plain water if it’s been over brewed (ie you forgot about it 🤦🏼♀️). Just make sure you use stevia or a non fermentable sweetener when bottling, or add honey etc (if you eat it) only to the glass before drinking.
