Fall time is finally here! Leaves are taking on beautiful colors, mornings have gotten very cool VERY fast, and stores are loaded with wonderful fall fruits! There are apples as far as the eye can see, and there are also my personal favorite: POMEGRANATES! Of course I had to come up with a new kombucha concoction to celebrate this; thus, I introduce… Pomegranate Apple Kombucha!
Pomegranate & Kombucha
Be on the lookout for more pomegranate recipes—I cannot stress my love for pomegranate kombucha flavors enough. I used to use pomegranate juice on its own regularly—even that simplicity is delicious! Pomegranate has a tangy tartness of its own, and I love the way it mixes with a sweet/tart kombucha.
Pomegranate also has great flavor and sweetness, meaning it is a pretty good option for carbonating your kombucha. Between the pomegranate and apple, your carbonation should be great. Pomegranate also offers your kombucha a beautiful color, and it just feels right for the fall!
Another wonderful thing about Pomegranate is the variety of options you have for adding its flavor to your brews. You can buy pure pomegranate juice—this is easiest and still delicious, but we prefer fresh when it is an option. We like to add fresh pomegranate, using a combination of the juice let out by the seeds and some mashed seeds themselves. Mashing the seeds a bit makes the juices more accessible for your kombucha to work its magic on!
Picking the Best Pomegranate
If you are new to pomegranates, picking a great one can be a bit daunting at first! If you follow these tips, you should feel like an expert in no time:
- Color – for a pomegranate with the most sweetness and strongest flavor, pick a BRIGHT, deeply colored fruit. If you can find one with a bright, almost ruby-like color, you’re off to a great start.
- Feel- your pomegranate should feel firm and heavy. It should NOT be soft or squishy, have wrinkly skin, or feel light. These qualities could indicate it is overripe or does not have many well-developed seeds
- Exterior – Finally, you will want to make sure the exterior looks healthy generally. Look out for large spots, bruises, or other strange marks. You don’t want a pomegranate that has taken a beating or been snacked on by critters! The smoother and more flawless, the better.
Removing seeds from your pomegranate
As a kid, I would honestly spend hours trying to pick seeds out of a pomegranate. This was usually followed up with chasing after my brother once he snuck in and ate all of the seeds I had labored over. Don’t do that!
There are contraptions that make it SUPER easy to deseed a pomegranate. I’m talking minutes. Check this one out on Amazon.
You basically cut the pomegranate in half, place a half on the contraption seed-side down, and hit the top side of the pomegranate with something like a large spoon until it flattens and your seeds have fallen into the catch bowl. Then repeat with the other half. So simple, yet so amazing!
Pomegranate Apple Kombucha
Finally onto our main event—pomegranate apple kombucha! This recipe makes a perfect fall flavor and fall color. I made it with gala apples, but I am excited to try others and think the sky is the limit on your apple pick. I am personally very excited to try this recipe with granny smith apples as I think it would be a delicious tart & sweet turnout! So, don’t feel limited to just gala apples—especially not this time of the year!
Pomegranate apple kombucha is deliciously sweet and tart. I prefer making it with fresh apples and pomegranates, but you could even do straight juice if you want! Just add 1/8 cup of pomegranate juice and 1/8 cup of apple juice to each bottle if you are looking for the simplest variation. If you opt to go with fresh fruit, you could have a lot of fun trying it with different types of apples. If you want a safe bet, just make the recipe as is below! It should turn out great 🙂
If you are familiar with the bottle sizes and equipment, go ahead and skip to the recipe below. If you are new to second fermentation, I’d recommend reading the notes below before moving onto the recipe. Enjoy!
Primary Fermentation + Airtight Glass Bottles
FYI, this is a second fermentation kombucha recipe. That means you need to have kombucha that has already completed the initial fermentation process on hand. Both are truly very simple—waiting for your primary fermentation kombucha to work its own magic is the toughest part! If you don’t know where to begin with brewing kombucha, no worries! We offer a Kombucha Starter Kit with everything you need to brew your first batch! It also comes with very straightforward instructions.
This recipe also requires airtight glass bottles. These are a staple for kombucha home brewers. I recommend getting 16 oz swing-top bottles; our recipes are written for them, they are a convenient size for drinking directly from the bottle, and they work well with kombucha overall!
Scale to Your Batch
This recipe is written out for a single 16 oz bottle. If you are brewing kombucha by the gallon, you should end up with enough to make 6-7 16 oz bottles of this recipe. We generally multiply the recipe by the number of bottles we plan on using, slice and/or puree all of the ingredients at once, and split the ingredients evenly between the bottles afterwards. Do whatever is easiest for you!
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That’s it for Pomegranate Apple Kombucha! We hope you enjoy it. If you love our recipes but aren’t a fan of hunting down ingredients, be sure to check out our Second Fermentation Subscription!
Have any questions or comments? Did you try a different kind of apple? We would love to hear from you– feel free to comment below. Enjoy! 🙂
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