Our recipes are the products of what we’ve learned about brewing kombucha in volume over the past couple years. There is certainly a difference between making a single good batch of kombucha and creating craft brews with consistency - an exciting journey into understanding the basics of kombucha itself. From the initial brew to the secondary fermentation we bring you the best in seasonal, local flavors, craft-brewed and delicious.
Our Brews
Year Round Brews: On Tap & In Bottles
Ceylon Pekoe Black
The traditional black tea flavors hold up well through the fermentation process. Maple wood and maltiness make this a smooth medium bodied kombucha. There is stone fruit on the finish - apricot for my pallet - that compliments the acidity of a good booch. I have found this brew to be quite versatile. It’s drinkable throughout the day like a good cup of tea with enough body to bring to the dinner table. We enjoy it with stews and hearty soups throughout the fall and winter.
Hibiscus Rose Verbena
During the winter there are fewer fresh botanicals around so we take the opportunity to play around with some of our dried herbals. We had some extra hibiscus, rose and lemon verbena from our experiments over the summer and decided to play with them as another botanical blend. It’s clean, crisp and slightly floral and lemony without being overly acidic with a beautiful pink hue from the hibiscus. This brew was so successful over the winter we have decided to keep it year round!
Red Diamond Rooibos
Our customers have been asking about kombucha options without any caffeine, and we answered with Red Diamond Rooibos! Rooibos tea is one of the few non-tea plants with which we can brew kombucha consistently well. It also happens produce a uniquely rich, earthy kombucha with woodsy wet cedar aromas and acidity that has a savory sweet balsamic profile. It’s a great worry free mid-day grab to invigorate your taste buds.
Summer Seasonal Brews
Strawberry Fields
(SOLD OUT)
Our first kombucha truly made for summer, it features everything that we’re excited about with local craft kombucha: we picked the strawberries at berry farms just up the road from us. Juicy and fragrant, with a strawberry-forward nose that tastes like a kombucha version of strawberry lemonade. It finishes with floral notes of lavender and chamomile. We’d love to say “strawberry fields forever”, but in reality the strawberry season is short and this one will go pretty quick. Get it while you can!
Blueberry Holy Basil
This brew is a true showcase of the U-pick blueberry experience here in the Snoqualmie Valley. The purple-blue colored hues and floral honeyed bouquet on the nose evoke the sense of anticipation we got walking through Henna Blueberry Farm seeking the first ripe Reka blueberries of the season. Like early season blueberries the taste is dry, crisp with a touch of sweetness. We added a tisane of Krishna tulsi “holy” basil to bring undertones of peppermint, licorice, and lemon to finish the taste. Plus, it is said to reduce cortisol levels (stress hormones). So we hope you find a moment of peace and tranquility to enjoy a glass.
Raspberry Rose Ceylon
Our take on that summer classic porch sipper - raspberry black iced tea! A full raspberry nose flows through to luscious fruit forward tase. The rush of fruit flavor in the front of the taste is held beautifully by the full-bodied tannins in our ceylon pekoe black tea base. Floral notes of rose, hibiscus and lemon balm linger on the pallet. Sit back, relax and savor some summer!
We couldn’t be happier with how this turned out and give special thanks to Harvold Farms for their raspberries and our wonderful tea supplier B. Fuller’s Mortar & Pestle for their rose tisane.
Apple Marigold Chamomile
(Mid-September)
We married fresh picked orchard apples and citrus marigolds with soothing notes of chamomile. This brew is perfect for a smooth transition from the summer heat into the early days of autumn.
The sweet scents of fresh pressed apple cider and heady floral spice of citrus marigold on the nose start the taste with summer energy. The taste starts with notes of mandarin citrus and tangerine from the marigold and tang from the early season apples. As the taste finishes the acid is cooled by the soothing honied profile of chamomile flower which lingers on the exhale.
When a week of midsummer thunderstorms washed out our blackberry crop we turned to our farming partners for inspiration. We knew there would be apples a plenty, but Pete and ToniYa at FullHeart Farm in Carnation sparked our creativity when they introduced us to their selections of edible flowers at a Fall City Friday market. Who says you can’t mix apples and oranges?!
Fall / Winter Seasonal Brews: Coming out of Hibernation Soon
Beet Carrot Ginger
Late winter and early spring can be a challenge for local seasonal produce and botanicals. We were asking the farmers at Jubilee Farm over the summer what the staples of our winter CSA box would be and they said “Root vegetables. We have A LOT of beets and carrots” The brew that conversation inspired has been an absolute smash hit!
Beets are the star, starting from the stunning magenta color all the way through the taste. Earthy aromas from the roots mingle with grassy notes of green tea to provide a richly balanced spectrum of vegetal flavors. One of the challenges I have with vegetable drinks is that they tend to be heavy and the flavor “sit on my tongue” - after a couple sips, my palette feels coated and tired. Not to worry, the residual sugars from the beet and carrots, the touch of ginger and kombucha’s natural acidity keeps the finish nice and light on your tongue. We’re going to keep this one around through the spring as long as we can!
D’Anjou Spiced Pear
This brew was inspired by a fancy sautéed brandied pear dessert that my mom would serve with french vanilla ice cream when the pears in the Harry & David gift boxes were ripening faster than we could eat them. A balance of D’anjou pear and vanilla are featured on the nose. The pear and vanilla provides an initially smoother velvety mouthfeel followed by a hint of cinnamon and clove on top of our Ceylon black tea base to give the finish some spice and structure.
Mulled Apple Cider
The kombucha version of a robust, full-bodied mulled cider, on the base of our Ceylon Pekoe Black. We use fresh pressed apple cider from local Snoqualmie valley orchards and a mix of traditional mulling spices. Clove and cinnamon on the nose followed by a classic crisp apple cider taste with lingering hints of cardamom. We serve this with cheese and charcuterie boards throughout the holidays as an alternative to a pre-dinner glass of wine. The probiotics in kombucha also served as a pre-digestive aid before a heavy meal. And we’ll try to produce enough for post-holidays, when find it a nice base for mock-tails as we dried out a bit from holiday alcohol consumption.
Ginger Pear Chamomile
We’re really excited about this year’s new pear flavor release. Finding a way to balance the velvety sweetness of a ripe pear with the grassy floral notes of our green tea blend was a bit of a stumper last year. Enter ginger and chamomile! The ginger sits on the front of the taste as a zippy refreshing intro and then provides a bridge to the smoother sweetness of pear. We added the camomile to add some floral notes complimenting the green tea and spice of ginger on the exhale of the taste.
Additional Brews: When Available
Green Tea Blend
(SOLD OUT)
Crisp and refreshing. Herbaceous, grassy aromas give way to tart green apple on the taste that lingers on the tongue. As one would expect from a green tea, it is light-bodied and a little more acidic.
Rosemary Botanical Blend
(SOLD OUT)
This is our first true botanical brew. Light, effervescent and invigorating - we think it’s perfect for anyone ready for activity and adventure! We were flavor tasting with a caterer who makes botanical syrups for our local coffee shop and were blown away by how well his rosemary tisane tasted with our Jasmine green tea base. The aromatic rosemary and savory sage invigorate the nose and are balanced well by the tart green apple and herbaceousness of our Sencha Saga and Jasmine green tea blend.
Blackberry Mint
(SOLD OUT)
This was our first seasonal brew and a late summertime favorite. We used fresh blackberries from the brewery gardens and combined them with two types of mint: mojito and yerba buena. Mojito mint gives a classic mojito flavor, as the name implies, while yerba buena (“good herb”) mint contributes a terrestrial earthiness. This is a classic summer sipper that we look forward to bringing back after every Pacific Northwest blackberry season.