Put some hooch in your booch

The kombucha train has been chugging along for some time – these days you can get a bottle at the local dairy. I did not hop on board early – I surprised myself by not really liking the fermented tea at first; I’m usually down for all things fermented or pickled – but I think I just got a brew that wasn’t really my cup of tea.

Kombucha is what you get if you add a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (scoby) to a sugary black or green tea and let it ferment. It is effervescent, slightly sour, low in sugar and ever so slightly alcoholic (usually less than 0.5 per cent). The alcohol content increases slightly with fermentation time, but over-fermentation results in vinegar.

If you want to have a go at producing your own kombucha, there are a number of kits available to get you started (if you don’t have a likeminded friend who can give you some of their scoby).

If you’ve also been on the fence about kombucha, it might change your mind if you add a little spirit to the mix. People have been concocting kombucha cocktails for a while and the reasoning is sound: the sour, sweet taste of a good booch mixes delightfully with most spirits. Here are my two favourite ways with kombucha in a cocktail at the moment.

The boochy aviation 60ml gin 10ml violet liqueur 120ml kombucha A squeeze of lemon Add the gin and violet liqueur to a mixing glass with ice, stir and strain into a glass. Top up with the kombucha and add a squeeze of lemon.

Sakura booch 60ml gin 120ml Remedy cherry

plum kombucha A squeeze of lemon Pour the gin into a tall glass with ice, top with the kombucha and add the lemon.

If your can’t be bothered mixing your own, the fine folk at Good Buzz have done the work for you. You can now get a New Zealand-produced ready-to-drink kombucha and charcoal-filtered vodka drink that knocks the socks off those RTDs that taste like melted Popsicles.

Happy Booch comes in three flavours – my favourite is Pineapple Mango. I can see this being a good option when summer rolls around. Beach, booch and books sounds like a very nice way to spend your holidays.

Cheers!