As I ran out of tee, again, I finally managed to get to the local tee store and by some different kinds of tees to play with as base for my kombucha. To test them out I created three small batches of kombucha, each using a different tee for the first fermentation.

For F2 I’m going to use the same recipes for all of them: one pure, one fruity and one herbal.

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Tee

Until now I usually used Assam tee for the first fermentation. Now I got three different kinds:

• Oolong (half fermented tee)
• Ceylon (black tee - fully fermented)
• Special House Mix (black tee - fully fermented)

First Test

For this test I also changed the recipe for my tee a little bit:

• 0.5l water (90 degrees)
• 3.5g tee (rest for 10 minutes)
• remove tee bag
• add 50g sugar (stir until dissolved)
• 0.5l cold water
• wait until temperature falls under 30 degrees celsius
• 250ml F1 kombucha
• scoby (20g)

In regards to the Oolong I reduced the temperature of the water. In future batches I will use boiling water for all three of them. As such small batches usually ferment super fast I used a small scoby for each vessel.

Taste Without Sugar

The most pleasant taste of tee (with the recipe above, before adding the sugar) had the Ceylon, closely followed by the Oolong. Later one had an amazing taste, though more bitterness (which came due to the long rest time). However there was a big difference to the House Mix and to the tee that I used before.

Taste With Sugar

With sugar the difference between Ceylon and Oolong was barely noticeable. The house mix again was noticeable less tasty.

Taste Of Finished F1

Comparing the taste of the F1 starting from day 4 I found that they developed quite at different speed. In the end (after 7 days) the house mix had the most acid taste (quite similar to my normal base recipe using Assam tee). The Oolong had the most kombucha flavour while very less acidity. It would have been possible to let this one rest for a few more days easily. The Ceylon was not very acidic though also did not have a very intense kombucha flavour. It could have been longer in F1 for a one or two days.

Taste Of Finished F2

For F2 I bottled one 1/4l bottle blank without ingredients or sugar.

As suspected the house mix had by far the highest acidity. It was pretty close to the Assam tee that I used in most batches before. The Ceylon had the least acidity and a very round body. The Oolong had a round body similar to the Ceylon, though with a touch more acidity.

As an unflavoured drink I prefere the Oolong over the Ceylon, because the higher acidity is an amazing sidekick. However I think the Ceylon is the better basis for most brews as it allows you to play around with the ingredients more.

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For a flavoured test I used hibiscus flowers, orange peel and ginger with a little bit of sugar.