Coffee Kombucha

Perk up your summer refreshments

This is a drink I came up with about 10 years ago, not long after I created my own wild starter for fermented drinks. I was playing around with variations, discovering combinations of seasonal inputs that worked well together so I could develop a repertoire of flavors that would become my regular refreshments. I’ve made a jar of something in this genre just about every week since then. You can read about the basics for tepache, which is a perennial favorite, here—though more recently I’ve been using a lot less pineapple and much more local or local-ish fruit.

Seasonal and local are both fine and admirable goals, and focusing on them as a way to limit options and increase inspiration is in fact the center of my culinary practice. But certain ingredients are pretty non-negotiable for a lot of us (the so-called Standard Exceptions), and most of us would agree that list includes coffee. So if you’re a regular coffee drinker, in whatever form (though you do have to make it yourself with real ground coffee beans) then this technique is for you.

I realize that the “cha” in kombucha refers to tea, so I’m using the term advisedly because I’m not sure what else we could call it. Semantics aside, this is a seriously great beverage that will make your iced coffee game the stuff of legends. Best of all, it’s possible to make this in a very low waste (and therefore very inexpensive) way. It’s wonderful straight, and gets even more exciting when you combine it with some other fun possibilities—like an incredible espresso martini remix. Let’s break down the components, and the method, and then what you can do with it (besides change your life).