What kind of Tea & Sugar Should I Brew My Kombucha With?

So, you brewed your first batch of kombucha with your Bucha Brewers Brewing kit, and you’re ready to get batch #2 fermenting!   But wait! You need to decide what kind of tea and sugar you will use for the batch.  Never fear!  Picking the tea and sugar you use for your kombucha is as simple as you’d like it to be!

What does Bucha Brewers use?

Here at Bucha Brewers, we use organic cane sugar and a natural black tea blend to brew all of our kombucha.  This is the most traditional combination, and reportedly the best for growing big and healthy SCOBYs (more on this to come)!  However, these are not your only options.  Let’s take a look at the different types of tea you can use to brew your kombucha.

What tea should I use?

Black Tea

Once again, we recommend using black tea for brewing your kombucha.  Black tea is highest in caffeine and tannins, both of which feed your SCOBYs!  However, you can still brew just fine with other options.  Other options are more acceptable when you are less concerned with growing big and healthy baby SCOBYs.  If you are focused on SCOBY health, we would recommend adding some black tea in even if you do opt for another type of tea.

While it was previously believed that green tea had many more health benefits to offer than black tea, recent studies have demonstrated that black tea has a lot to offer as well!  Studies have shown black tea may reduce the risk of heart disease, improve mental performance, reduce cholesterol, and provide protection against cancer and diabetes. 

Green Tea

Green tea can also be used for brewing kombucha!  Green tea contains a fairly high amount of caffeine to fuel your kombucha SCOBY, which is good news.  While not as high in tannins as black tea, green tea does have a fairly high tannin content to offer your kombucha SCOBYs.  Green tea also has a unique flavor and offers variety in the taste of your kombucha.

Green tea also comes with quite a few health benefits.  It is loaded with antioxidants, which offer various benefits ranging from protection against cancer to reducing inflammation.  Green tea has also been shown to reduce body fat, regulate glucose levels in the body, and lower the risk of heart disease.  These all sound like pretty compelling reasons to give green tea a whirl in your next batch of kombucha!

White Tea

White tea is another option for introducing variety to your kombucha brewing.  However, white tea contains the lowest levels of both caffeine and tannins.  For this reason, we do not recommend regularly brewing with white tea.  The SCOBYs you grow on white tea will not be as strong and healthy as SCOBYs grown on black or even green tea.  Still, white tea offers many of the same health benefits as black and green tea and is another great option for your health!

What NOT to use

When it comes to kombucha brewing, you will want to stick with the three options above.  Black, green, and white teas are oil-free, contain caffeine, and also contain some level of tannins—this makes them ideal for kombucha brewing.  Unfortunately, this is not true for all teas!  You will want to stay away from other tea options such as herbal teas, flavored teas, and decaffeinated teas.  Some simply do not provide the caffeine and tannins that your kombucha SCOBY needs, and others contain additives and oils that can cause direct harm to your SCOBY. 

Can I use any sugar for kombucha?

Organic Cane Sugar

Organic cane sugar is our top recommendation for the sugar you use in your kombucha.  It offers the SCOBY exactly what it needs in its purest form, and will usually result in the most effective and efficient fermentation as a result. 

However, it can be quite expensive.  If you are looking to save a dime or simply do not have organic cane sugar around the house, you have other options:

• Non-organic cane sugar
• Refined white sugar

Both of these options will get the job done and will produce results similar to those of the organic cane sugar.  We do not recommend using any form of sugar outside of these options for regular kombucha brewing!

While it is possible to use other forms of sugar, we would only recommend experimenting with them if you have additional SCOBYs on hand and can afford to have a batch go wrong.  You can experiment with options such as honey, brown sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup, etc.  Just know that the fermentation process will not look the same—your baby SCOBY will probably look quite different, the time may be considerably longer as it is harder for the SCOBY to process these types of sugars, and the flavor that you end up with will change considerably!

It’s Bucha Brewin’ Time!

In summary, you should use black tea and organic cane sugar for the best results when brewing kombucha.  However, you can also use green or white tea instead of black tea.  You can also substitute plain cane sugar or white sugar for the organic cane sugar without producing significantly different results. 

Thanks for learning with Bucha Brewers today!  Happy Brewing! 🙂