Fro-yo girl here. Now that I’m making my own kombucha on a regular basis, I’ve been experimenting with different teas and flavorings. Mr. Froyo loves coffee, so he wondered about coffee kombucha.
There are several ways to make kombucha coffee. The first method starts by making a coffee syrup with brewed coffee, water, and sugar, adding the coffee syrup to your finished kombucha, sealing the bottle and waiting 5-7 days for the second ferment to occur. The second method is to brew a big batch of coffee, dissolve sugar into the coffee, and add your SCOBY. The third method involves adding coffee beans to your homemade kombucha during the 2nd ferment.
Method 1: I had some leftover coffee from a good coffee place (Constellation Coffee in La Canada Flintridge, CA) which I used to make coffee syrup. I added it to my freshly (home) brewed kombucha in a bottle and let the second fermentation happen. After about a week, I tried it. The coffee kombucha liquid smelled like vinegar with coffee. It wasn’t the most appealing scent, but my extra strong homemade kombucha usually smells like vinegar. I could definitely taste the coffee and the kombucha but the kombucha flavor was much stronger than the coffee flavor. I thought I could smell/taste a bit of alcohol too. It wasn’t bad but I think I’d like a stronger coffee flavor. Mr. Froyo seemed to like it. It also seemed less refreshing than regular kombucha.
Method 2: This method seems like it would result in a stronger coffee flavor, since it starts with a pot of freshly brewed coffee. Basically, you brew the coffee, dissolve sugar in it, add your SCOBY and ferment.
I started with half a cup of Trader Joe’s Dark 100% arabica whole coffee beans. After grinding the beans, I added sugar and 4 cups of hot water to a French press, brewed for 4 minutes, and let it cool to room temperature. A few hours later I transferred the contents to a glass jar using a filter, added a SCOBY, covered the top with a dark cloth, and set it aside. The SCOBY turned very dark. After 10 days, I tried it.
The liquid was much darker than the coffee kombucha made with coffee syrup. It smelled more like coffee than kombucha. It was also much more carbonated than the Method 1 product and even my typical homemade kombucha.
In terms of taste, the coffee flavor was dominant but it had a sour, vinegary kick and a bitter aftertaste. Mr. Froyo said it was okay. The coffee I brewed was probably too strong and too bitter. Method 1 resulted in a slightly tastier coffee kombucha.
Method 3: I used whole coffee beans added to homemade kombucha to infuse coffee flavor during the second ferment. I added about a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s Dark coffee beans to a bottle of homemade kombucha during the second ferment. I let it infuse for a few days.
This was my favorite method. The end result tasted more like kombucha than coffee and it was much less bitter than the brew from Method 2. The coffee flavor was dark and smoky, like the flavor of the beans. It wasn't as sweet as Method 1's brew. However, Mr. Froyo wasn't so fond of this batch.
There are other ways to make coffee kombucha, including using different methods to brew the coffee. Apparently, cold brewing the coffee can provide a good result.
SCOBY thrive in tea but not in coffee, so if you plan to make coffeebucha, make sure you have extra SCOBY. Warning, Mr. Froyo did not love coffeebucha.
You know you love me. X0 X0, fro-yo girl.
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