It's time to celebrate Kombucha with National Booch Day (January 15)! This lightly effervescent, fermented tea can be flavored all sorts of ways, and its popularity is growing. Mixologists are even tapping into kombucha's power when elevating cocktails. Here's to gut-healthy consumption!
Kombucha Moscow Mule
Ingredients
1 oz vodka
3 oz kombucha (ginger or gingerberry)
½ lime, juiced
Method
- Fill a highball glass with ice. Pour in 1 part vodka (say, 1.5 ounces) and top it off with 3 parts kombucha (so 4.5 ounces).
- Add a generous squeeze of lime and an optional lime wheel for garnish.
Spiced Apple Cranberry Kombucha Sangria
Ingredients
1 bottle white wine
3-4 apples, any variety you’d like
2 oranges, sliced into thick rounds
whole cloves
2 ea. cinnamon sticks
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
½ cup pure cranberry juice, no sweetener added
1 cup apple cider, no sweetener added
¼ cup brandy
¼ cup raw honey (or any other sweetener you prefer)
1-2 bottles Kombucha (original unflavor recommended)
Method
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Stud the orange slices with cloves by sticking the oranges with a tooth-pick to create a hole, then stuffing a clove into it. Keep a few clove-studded orange slices aside for garnish.
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Add all of the ingredients except the kombucha to a large pitcher or sangria bowl. Give it all a good stir until the honey is dissolved. Allow it to sit a several hours or overnight in the refrigerator, to let the flavors come together.
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To serve, pour into glasses, grabbing some of the fruit for each glass. Top each glass with a generous swig of your favorite kombucha (or sparkling water) and give it a stir. Garnish with a clove-studded orange wedge. Enjoy!
When Figs Fly
Ingredients
3 tsp fig simple syrup (see below)
2 oz spiced rum
2 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
Whole ice and crushed ice
Kombucha (original unflavor recommended)
To serve: fresh fig, quartered
Method
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Add the fig syrup, spiced rum, orange juice and a few whole ice cubes to a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously.
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Strain into a glass with crushed ice and top with kombucha. Serve with a fresh fig.
Ingredients for Fig Syrup
12 oz fresh figs, stems removed and quartered (about 6)
½ cup granulated sugar (raw sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple sugar, etc)
¾ cup filtered water
Method
- Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir until sugar starts to dissolves and figs begin to soften.
- Mash the figs as they cook. Once all of the sugar has dissolved and figs are breaking apart, remove from heat and allow to sit, covered, for 30 minutes. Cool completely before straining into a clean jar or bottle, cover and keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.
