Fire and Smoke – Kombucha Recipe

It’s taken us a little while to perfect our “Fire and Smoke” Kombucha recipe using Lapsang souchong. It’s key ingredient, Lapsang souchong, is a Chinese smoked tea which can be very overpowering. Generally Lapsang souchong isn’t something people brew Kombucha with, but we wanted to try and find a way to incorporate its flavours into a batch. After several disasters in the kitchen, eventually we formulated a recipe that worked.

We call it Fire and Smoke Kombucha. Its a fiery ginger brew that leaves a lingering smoky aftertaste. We use camomile tea to balance the whole thing out. If your a fan of ginger beer we really recommend giving this recipe a try.

Ingredients based on 3 litrs of non chlorinated water:

• Kombucha Scoby
• 8 teaspoons of black tea.
• 2 teaspoons of Lapsang souchong
• 2 teaspoons of Camomile tea
• 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon of crystallised ginger (optional but adds a nice sweetness). Reduced the fresh ginger by 1 teaspoon if you do use it.
• 180g white cane sugar

“Fire and Smoke” Kombucha recipe using Lapsang souchong

1. Bring your water to 75 degrees celcius.
2. Stir in the sugar until it has dissolved.
3. Add the Black, Lapsang souchong and camomile teas and allow them to steep for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Strain the tea leaves from the mixture and allow it to cool back down to room temperature.
5. Place you cooled mixture into your fermentation jars, add your Kombucha scoby, cover and leave for 5-7 days.
6. Remove you scoby from the jar and add the ginger, seal the jars and leave them for 1-2 days to allow carbonation.
7. Strain out the ginger and bottle the Kombucha. You can leave some ginger in the bottles if you like your brew really fiery
8. Refrigerate and then enjoy!

Why drink Kombucha?

Kombucha is easily digested and provides beneficial bacteria and yeasts. Its easy and safe to make at home. A single purchase of Kombucha Scoby  from us here at Freshly Fermented can provide you with an indefinite supply of Kombucha.

Your find many health claims online about drinking Kombucha .Some with, and many without scientific backing. We don’t want to make any health claims for drinking Kombucha here at Freshly Fermented. If you have found our shop then you have probably already done some research and decided to try drinking Kombucha yourself.  All we can tell you is that everyone here has been drinking Kombucha daily for some time now, and we all feel much better for it!