Don't Sleep On Kombucha If You Want To Add A Sour Kick To Your Cocktail

Whether you're winding down from a long week of work or watching reality television with your friends, a cocktail can loosen and liven you up. But it's not all about the buzz. Whether it's a dash of simple syrup to cut the heat in a spicy margarita or a jigger-full of bitters to mellow out the sweetness of an old-fashioned, a great cocktail relies on the thoughtful interplay of well-balanced flavors. However, the cocktail flavor spectrum extends beyond just sweet, spicy, and bitter — there's a whole world of libations that rely on sour flavors to elevate and refine their palate. Although sour flavors in cocktails commonly use the juice of citrus fruits like lemon or lime to give them that pleasantly face-twisting taste, fizzy kombucha is a fun way to shake up how you introduce new flavors into your favorite cocktails.

Kombucha is a bubbly probiotic tea made by fermenting a SCOBY — a living culture of bacteria and yeast. The SCOBY turns sugars into ethanol, which the bacteria then consume, facilitating the sour taste associated with this wellness beverage. Human taste buds can begin detecting sourness when a food or drink has a pH balance between four and five, and kombucha generally has a pH between two and a half and three and a half, making it a perfect option for sour cocktails.

Although using kombucha as a sour agent in your favorite libation is as easy as mixing it with your preferred spirit, even master mixologists need guidelines for perfecting drinks. So, before you purchase kombucha for your next cocktail hour, here are a few tips to keep in mind to achieve a refreshingly sour boozy beverage.

From berry to ginger and lemon, kombucha comes in many flavors, ensuring that you have plenty of options for cocktails that suit your tastes and preferences. However, with great variety comes great responsibility! Some kombuchas are sweeter than others, while some might even include a hint of spice. And although they're all tart to a certain degree, you should select your kombucha according to the flavor profile you aim to create. When sour is the goal, consider avoiding varieties with high levels of added sugar or spice. If you end up with a too-sweet kombucha, a dash of citrus juice can bring it back to a sour state. Starting with a small amount of kombucha and adjusting the quantity to taste is a good way to avoid unbalanced cocktail flavors.

Kombucha is fizzy, so consider stirring instead of shaking the cocktail to avoid an explosion of bubbles. Adding it as a final ingredient is another easy way to prevent a bubble blowout. Like most foods and drinks, kombucha tastes best when fresh. To get the fizziest, freshest flavors, use a new bottle instead of a leftover one.

Now that you're convinced about using kombucha to add a sour twist to your favorite drinks, you'll need some recipe ideas. The good news is that kombucha pairs well with a vast array of classic cocktail ingredients, offering you plenty of versatility.

Margarita fans, rejoice! The tangy tartness of kombucha enhances the vibrant citrus flavors of the classic cocktail while balancing the sweetness of triple sec and the bold bite of tequila, making it perfect for sipping on a sunny day. Kombucha can also add a hint of sourness to a Moscow mule, complementing the tart lime juice and adding dimension to the spicy ginger beer while providing an extra effervescent edge.

Don't hesitate to think outside the box and freestyle a recipe that's as exciting to make as it is to drink. A blend of muddled, tart berries, gin, and kombucha poured over ice and garnished with a sprig of mint will quench your thirst and activate your sour taste receptors in equal measure. A combination of muddled pineapple, coconut water, and a splash of your favorite kombucha creates the perfect tropically tart cocktail.

Whichever way you choose to incorporate kombucha as a souring agent in a cocktail, there's no wrong approach. Have fun with it!