Crave Kombucha

Picked up a bottle of this from the farmer’s market last week!

This is one of Crave’s two limited edition summer flavours; haven’t had a chance to try out the other one yet because they’ve always sold out every market by the time I get down there. I like this one as a concept though; however as far as flavour goes I didn’t find it as exciting as a lot of the blends that they carry year round. It’s a little simplistic; and just tastes like especially tangy/acidic/vinegary lemonade. Not bad, per say, but I think that most kombucha really benefits from ‘dual’ flavours so give more balance/depth to the profile. So, like, a “Pink Lemonade and Peach” or something…

#VacationTea

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This bottle of kombucha traveled with me on my vacation – not too far, just hopped over to the next province over.

Of all four flavours of kombucha that I grabbed from Crave this was the one I was most sure I wasn’t going to like – I’m not particularly the biggest fan of lemon OR ginger. However, I wanted to give it a fair shake. I mean, you never know, right? I was pleasantly surprised too! I think of all four flavours this might actually be my second favourite!

The lemon is very bright, and not tart at all – it reminds me of a nice, lightly sweetened lemonade. It’s so smooth too; usually kombucha has a bit of acidity/bite to it and that sort of vinegar quality but this hardly had that at all! Even the ginger in this was extremely tasteful, just a nice undertone to the lemon. Very refreshing!

This was a nice, pleasant reminder to myself to continue pushing myself and trying things just slightly outside my comfort zone – you never know when you’re gonna be pleasantly surprised!

Didn’t realize I could review Kombucha here. _
This one was great! If you’re not a fan of really strong ginger the lemon here seems to do a good job of softening that taste although it could be that they just to include so much ginger. Still, tasty all around.

Recently reconnected with a highschool friend; we met up for coffee at a local cafe. Of course, I didn’t actually get coffee – instead I took advantage of the fact they were carrying some locally brewed kombucha and I got that instead (along with the world’s tastiest home baked Saskatoon Berry ‘poptart’). I think I actually liked this one better this second time trying it than I did the first time; it seemed sweeter overall with more of a defined mango taste. It still had a crisp, tart finish though from the cranberry. It was really nice getting to revisit this one; even though this Kombucha is made locally it doesn’t seem to be the easiest thing to find…

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Another Kombucha from the farmer’s market!

This one sounded really, really good to me – and to be honest I’m enjoying it but not actually as much as I expected to. The mango is actually very, very light in flavour and I actually wish there was a little more of it. The rest is very much just like drinking a glass of cold, refreshing cranberry juice – but carbonated and just a little bit vinegar-y.

Still good, but I feel like it could have been better.

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Second Kombucha that I picked up at the farmer’s market. There are actually so many different vendors at the farmer’s market that do raspberry mint flavoured things. Kombucha, freezies, yogurt cups, iced teas, etc. I usually like raspberry and mint a fair bit – but it’s almost excessive how much the local vendors seem to get into it.

I’m enjoying sipping on this one though; the raspberry is really nice and bright with a very natural sweetness. Plus, the tang/acidity of the raspberry mixes really well with that natural vinegar/tang that kombucha usually has. It makes that vinegar sort of aspect a lot less jarring. The mint is actually my least favourite part of this one – I think it’s a little too strong, and combined with the sugar in this it’s reminding me A LOT of those spearmint leaf five cent gummy candies that were just coated in straight up sugar.

These things: https://goo.gl/images/7y53Go

I’ve never really liked those, so the connection to them in flavour is a bit of a negative for me. I kind of wish it was more of a peppermint flavour too; that’s what I was expecting when I cracked into this one instead of the spearmint. Apart from that, there’s also a bit of a licorice/anise sort of flavour in this that I don’t mind but that I do find really weird alongside the spearmint and the raspberry.

Not the worst kombucha I’ve tasted, for sure – but I’m not in love and I probably wouldn’t purchase it again either.

More Kombucha!

So, Crave Kombucha is a small local company based out of Regina, SK – where I live. They sell their kombucha almost entirely out of our Farmer’s Market, from what I’m aware of. Today was actually the last outdoor farmer’s market of the year – and after a whole summer and basically going “Oh, I’ll try their kombucha next week” I finally realized I had to pounce on the chance like now. So, I picked up a bottle of each of their four current flavours.

This is one that they did specifically for the fall this year – and it’s a limited edition flavour. I was really curious about it, because kombucha already generally has a bit of an apple cider vinegar/tangyness to me so I figured that a kombucha that’s actually supposed to taste like apple must be good, right?

And you know – I think it’s arguably the best kombucha I’ve ever had. It certainly does have that vinegar/tang to it that you expect from a kombucha, but it’s actually very sweet overall and the cinnamon sugar flavour that comes from some of the added ingredients really pulls that apple pie imagery and flavour profile together quite succinctly. It tastes like the ‘guts’/filling of an apple pie, really and truly! I mean, it lacks the buttery crust component but that’s something that I imagine would be awfully hard to recreate in kombucha format – and even with it missing, I don’t feel like I’m losing out on flavour.

Truly, this was way better than I could have expected it to be – and that makes me REALLY excited to try the other three flavours that I picked up!