Watermelon in Kombucha

We love watermelon kombucha recipes thanks to the versatility of watermelon.  At home, I often make recipes in a pinch by adding leftover watermelon juice from our tubs of watermelon to our bucha.  It doesn’t get any easier than that!

Watermelon is notoriously sweet, but I find that it ferments quite a bit quicker than many fruits.  Juices generally ferment faster in my experience—this is likely due to the liquid form and resulting ease of access to the sugars that the yeast have.  Watermelon has an extremely high water content, making it about as close to juice as the edible part of a fruit gets.  This is likely why even the flesh of the melon (as opposed to just juice) ferments rather fast. 

Moral of the story: this recipe may contain two different sweet fruits, but I would recommend keeping a close watch on the fermentation if you want to keep it on the sweeter side.  In this warm summer weather, it often takes just 3 days before I end up with a vinegary watermelon kombucha!  We love a tart watermelon kombucha in my household, but those with sweeter tastes may want to taste bottles after just two days of fermentation.

Watermelon Goji Health Benefits

As you may know, watermelon and goji offer quite a few health benefits. Goji berries are high in antioxidants and immune-boosting vitamins.  Among their benefits are defense against cancer and aging, immune-system support, and defense against free radical damage in the body.  They have also been known to boost libido.  Goji berries pack a pretty big punch for their size!

As mentioned earlier, watermelon has an extremely high water content.  As a result, it is great for staying hydrated.  It also offers a wide array of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.  Amongst these is lycopene, which has been studied for many purported health benefits, including protection from sun damage and promotion of mitochondrial health.

As if the loads of probiotics, antioxidants, and other beneficial nutrients in kombucha itself weren’t enough!  Our Watermelon Goji kombucha recipe, like all recipes you will find on our site, is something of a health tonic.

Watermelon Goji Kombucha Recipe

Finally, onto the recipe.  While we use watermelon juice in order to simplify the recipe, you can certainly opt to use watermelon flesh (whether sliced or pureed is up to you).  We use dried goji berries, which are generally easy enough to find at your average health food store.

If you want this recipe on the sweet side, we highly recommend checking on it after two days of fermentation in warmer temperatures.  Otherwise, we still recommend checking it out on day 3 as it can ferment pretty quickly! 

This recipe produces a lovely pink-peach color.  On the sweet side, the watermelon and goji complement each other very well.  When tart, the two fruits keep the recipe well-balanced.  We love the LOADS of carbonation with this recipe too.  If you opt to eat the goji berries once fermented, you will likely find they are smuggling tasty little carbonation bubbles!  That’s enough talk for now—it’s watermelon goji bucha time!  If you are familiar with our recipes, go ahead and skip down to the recipe card now. If you’re a newbie here, we recommend checking out the notes below first. 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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Watermelon Goji Kombucha Recipe

Our Watermelon Goji kombucha recipe is a crowd-pleaser: make it sweet and your kids will believe they have hit the soda jackpot, or make it tart and full of flavor that would make a watermelon Jolly Rancher jealous!

Course Dessert, Drinks, Snack

Keyword fermented, fruit, goji, goji kombucha, health drinks, kombucha, probiotic recipes, probiotics, summer kombucha, watermelon, watermelon kombucha

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Servings 1 bottle

Equipment

• 16-ounce glass flip-top bottle

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp Watermelon Juice (Fresh) may use puree or sliced watermelon as well
• 2 Tbsp Goji Berries (Dried)
• 12-14 ounces fermented kombucha Enough to top off the bottle, leaving approx. 1 inch of headspace

Instructions

• Add goji berries to bottle
• Use a funnel to add watermelon juice to bottle
• Fill remainder of bottle with fermented kombucha, leaving approx. 1 inch of headspace at the top of the bottle.
• Seal bottle and move gently to combine ingredients
• Allow kombucha to ferment in a dark, warm space for 2-3 days*.  Then, begin tasting daily.
• Once kombucha meets your flavor preferences, refrigerate it and enjoy! Eat or strain fruit, per your preferences.

Notes

*Taste after 2 days fermentation if you like your kombucha on the sweet side. 

You may want to “burp” bottles (AKA lift lid slightly to release excess carbonation) on a daily basis.  If there isn’t much pressure to be released after 24 hours, try every other day.

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