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Comment by deelowe | Hacker News Reader

Whenever someone tells me how much they love kombucha, I get the feeling they are trying to convince themselves more than they are me.

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Whenever someone tells me how much they hate kombucha, I get the feeling they tried one gross bottle one time, and wrote it all off as bad.

I am brewing 5 flavors right now in my house. I assure you, they are delicious.

Guava Jasmine is my current favorite.

But keep hating on it if you like, you're missing out on something great.

I love Guava but have not tried it as kombucha yet, definitely should give that a try! My personal favourite is either "ginger" or Canadian Berry (https://www.farmboy.ca/products/farm-boy-organic-canadian-be...). _Very_ different flavour, but could drink those all the time.

Could you share any good resources for someone to start brewing it? Or any tips?

Make sweet tea, add SCOBY, wait. It really is that simple.

This is the basic recipe I use: https://www.reddit.com/r/kombucha/wiki/how_to_start#wiki_mas...

For more information, The Big Book of Kombucha will have everything you need and more.

Have fun! :)

> SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast)

https://www.youbrewkombucha.com/scoby-care-hotel

(Just passing by; I have no personal interest in kombucha, was simply unaware of the term.)

Now, how about limiting the fermentation after bottling? I have a couple bottles still in the fridge, that I now call "kombucha grenades." I thought I could open the last one I tried safely, in the sink, and it basically hosed the kitchen and myself. The last few will be outside-only endeavours, wearing a garbage bag like a Gallagher audience member. (Tastes good, at least the half a bottle that is still in the bottle.)

Keep them in the fridge for longer, the carbonation will go down over time.

Also, try placing the bottle in a container or bowl, then hold another (slightly narrower container) over the top of the bottle. You should be able to catch all of the liquid in the bowl to pour into a glass.

If you added a bunch of sugar and/or flavoring into the secondary fermentation / bottles, you added too much. If you didn't add anything, then you didn't let the primary fermentation go long enough.

Oh, guessing the latter, thanks! I hadn't added anything for a secondary or bottling stage. I am used to regular beer brewing, I think that runs out of steam sooner. Will have to try the two-bowl method.

Yeah. I don't know my kombucha like you seem to, but I've just tried two flavors by two separate brands recently. One (I can't remember what it was) was barely drinkable, second one (hibiscus & rose hips by RISE kombucha) was delicious. It's weird to me to somehow being able to write off a whole family of drinks as undrinkable. I don't like purple Crush, doesn't mean I don't like all colas. I don't like Bombay Sapphire, but gin can be delicious. And so on...

Homemade tends to be milder than store bought and less vinegary. It continues to ferment as it sits on store shelves.

There are people out there that feel the same way about eating rats

The best kombucha I ever had was like drinking vinegar. I happen to love drinking vinegar, just as much as I love drinking lemon juice. Only, that's horrible for one's teeth, so I must restrain myself. I've had kombucha people tell me that vinegar is disgusting and the kombucha I had was "off." Oh well. To each their own.

I like kombucha but also lemon juice lol. You don't like the taste of alcohol or coffee either at first but then you love it

When I brewed my kombucha, it was all about how much time do you spend on brewing. In the start it's just very sweet black tea. As time goes, sugar gets processed into acids. With a lot of time, it turns into very acidic mix so it's definitely not something to enjoy and probably not healthy for stomach. So depending on how much time do you spend, you'll get something in between which might be not very tasty or might actually be very tasty.

You can also swap black tea for green tea or other liquids. I'm think that kombucha does not care, all it needs is sugar and tea is for human (although I might be wrong about it).

I actually liked it, but it requires too much housekeeping, so I abandoned it.

For me, kombucha has been a natural progression of my exploration into fermented foods. The concept that so many of our favorite foods are produced with the assistance of bacteria is just fascinating to me. The funky flavors of fermented foods is a hurdle, for sure.

Shhh, let people enjoy things.

It depends, I genuinely like Kombucha. But it's not a blanket statement for all of them, there's many different flavours and some I dislike, some I like. :)

Whenever someone asserts subjective opinion as some sort of axiom I dismiss them and their comment entirely.

See how that works?

Not true, i love it. Not always, kinda like beer there are times when it is more tasty

I genuinely love salty licorice. Sometimes we learn to love gross things.

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