GT's Kombucha

I had to pick up new headphones this morning before work because the left earbud on my last set just spontaneously stopped working, so while I was at Walmart I grabbed this kombucha to drink for the rest of my commute in. I don’t believe it’s a new flavour from GT but it was the first time I’ve seen it at this store before.

I liked this a lot! In general I tend to really like GT’s kombucha flavours though. They’re never too sweet but also not too acidic/vinegary and the fruit flavours are always so natural and fresh. Aside from orange juice I probably buy peach juice more than anything else, and this tasted like fresh peach juice with a tangy “pop” of kombucha to it. Juicy, sweet, and summery. Maybe even gives the Golden Pineapple flavou (which is a personal favourite) a run for its money…

This was also really good! Usually ginger plus fruit is a pretty safe and enjoyable combination for me, so I expected to like this and was pleased those expectations were met. It’s very gingerale or gingerbeer-like in taste, but with a vibrant and lively fresh and tart blueberry note. Super well balanced, and just delightful!

I thought this was going to be like a Strawberry Lemonade kind of vibe, but it was more dense and jammy tasting than expected with overt raspberry notes instead of strawberries. Still, of course, had a brightness and overall tang from both the lemon and the kombucha vinegar itself, but was just more complex and layered than I’d expected of it. Still super summery, and overall one of the better GT Kombucha flavours I’ve had in a while.

Edit: Apparently this is my 16,000th tasting note. Dang.

Not sure what “flavour” this kombucha is supposed to be, but it was actually pretty good. Lao Kombucha, here in Montreal, has a kombucha made with white tea that’s reaalllyyyy light and fresh and this gave me similar vibes to that – quite delicate for a kombucha with crispness and also a playful fruity sweet acidity. Ingredients list kiwi juice, and that makes sense to me. I wouldn’t blindly ever identify this as kiwi but it does have that sort of “hard to categorize” fruity taste that kiwis do. Not a stonefruit, or a berry, or a drupe…

Anyway, it was good!

Picked this one up while grocery shopping. I may be on vacation and eating out a fair bit, but it’s not really sustainable to eat out for every meal for the two weeks I’m here…

I knew I’d had this before and thought it was just alright, but it’s been a few years so I wanted to revisit. First things first, I know that some sediment and/or scoby isn’t a weird thing in bottled kombucha – but this was probably the kombucha I’ve bought with the most in it. Like, just a ton of very large particles of mushy scoby floating throughout. So much so that I noticed the texture difference while drinking. The taste? Fine. It was sweet and tropical but a bit muddied tasting and lacking clarity, which I think lines up with my impression last time I had it. I wish it was either a sweeter, ripe pineapple note or that the kombucha had more of a vinegar-y acidic bite and the flavour was more bright and tangy pineapple.

Kinda so so.

You’d think a kombucha that is literally just pineapple flavoured kombucha would be pineapple-y enough but I really wanted more of a sweet and saturated pineapple flavour from this. It was good though; still a ripe pineapple flavour versus anything too sour or tangy. Aside from the very distinct kombucha vinegar tang, that is.

This one caught my eye at the store and of course, my new favorite kombucha flavor is a limited edition one. (insert sad face here)

Based on the color I thought this would be a fruity flavor. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually tastes like fall to me. It’s more of a coconut ginger flavor profile. The ginger here is not like the one in ‘Gingerade’. Here it feels like a big warm hug of fall spices. It’s essentially the fall tea I’ve been looking for and was not at all expecting from the blue color. I’m gonna end this tasting note off with “It looks like Windex but it tastes like fall”.

Couldn’t remember if I’d tried this but, of course, it looks like I have. I must have grabbed a bottle a previous Spring/Summer when it started popping up in grocery stores around this time of year. Very, very good though – really spot on taste to the name. Almost felt thicker than a normal kombucha but not in a weird or gross way. More like it was a bit more “juice like” with real fruit puree.

Sipping on this one currently as I wrap up tasting notes for the evening.

I actually was trying to order a different flavour of GT’s kombucha in this week’s online grocery delivery/order and the person in charge of doing my shopping for me said it was sold out and offered this as a replacement. I didn’t even know this was a flavour that GT carried (and y’all know how I love trying new things) so I was even more on board with this replacement suggestion. Turns out GT has a bunch of new flavours in their line up, so I’ll definitely be on the hunt for more of them…

I feel like I want to enjoy this more than I actually am. It’s not that it’s unpleasant, but it’s so lemon forward and I really wanted more of an “equal parts” interpretation of a strawberry lemonade. Like, kombucha is already so acidic/sour that you do often need a bit of sweetness to balance that out a bit and I thought the strawberry would be a really good way of doing that. Instead they are admittedly dead on in their description of this being “tart lemon” with a splash of strawberry. Just… so much pucker!

This is nice. The ginger has a nice warming effect as it settles into my stomach. Ginger kombucha will never not be my favorite; I think the two things are a match made in heaven!
The fizziness of the kombucha and the very slight alcoholic buzz from the fermentation are all welcome and very relaxing. The spirulina turns it a very pleasing shade of blue.

Sipping this now and it’s good. I feel like this company is really killing it with their limited edition flavours of kombucha – to the point where I wish they’d start carrying them all the time and cut out some of the grosser standby flavours…

This is mostly blood orange and hibiscus – both densely citrus tasting and tart/puckering from the hibiscus. It’s actually one of the most specifically “Blood Orange” tasting blood orange flavoured teas/drinks that I’ve had in a LONG time. There’s a floral undertone, but I couldn’t name it as rose without knowing before hand. The finish has an interesting light and fleeting bitterness that reminds me of orange peel/rind, and while it could be unpleasant in this circumstance it feels like it makes the flavour seem more authentic and natural.

I’m into this one a lot.

Can you believe I’ve never tried kombucha until now? I’ve seen the colorful bottles on grocery shelves everywhere but dismissed it as a hipster drink and not real tea. Well curiosity got the better of me and I picked up a bottle of this at Trader Joe’s. The guy there recommended this flavor for noobs.

And I have to say this was pretty tasty although a tad on the sour side. It’s slightly fizzy with more lemonade than strawberry. Smells a little vinegary but thankfully that doesn’t come through in the taste. Whatever straight kombucha is supposed to taste like is masked by the strawberry Lemonade flavor.

I couldn’t drink too much of this since I was nursing a sore throat but it’s definitely piqued my interest in kombucha. I think next time I’ll try the mango or one of the other flavors that is a little less sour.

So I picked up this kombucha a few weeks ago and then kind of forgot about it in my fridge for a while – when I did remember it was there it was after trying GT’s mango flavoured kombucha and being really disappointed in it. So, immediately I was not expecting a lot from this…

However! This was a damn good kombucha!!

Like, I drank a lot of kombucha throughout October and this may have actually been the second best one after the amazing white tea kombucha from Lao Kombucha. It’s incredibly autumnal/fall feeling, and the flavours are just incredibly spot on. By some miracle, I really can taste each distinct thing that they’ve listed on the bottle: turmeric, apple, carrot, cider spices – it’s all there. There’s natural sweetness from the carrot/apple but it’s not artificial or cloying/intense and candy-like – it’s very, very well balanced. I’d say this gives me mulled cider vibes for sure with the warm from the inside out spice thing – but there’s also just this quality that’s kind of like carrot cake or cinnamon apple pie, and a pumpkin spice vibe too. All of those are very autumn themed things so it’s just so incredibly fitting for the time of year, but also just delicious. I enjoy the hint of spice, the hint of earthy carrot, the juicy crispness of the apple.

I just… damn!

This is a new flavor from one of my favorite kombucha brands. I didn’t like this one at all but a fellow family member really liked it.So I handed it off to her. It reminds me of the watermelon jolly rancher candies except more tart. I don’t taste the vinegar-y kombucha aspect of it either. I think this would be a very popular flavor for a lot of people. Unfortunately I’m not one of those people. It’s my least favorite flavor I’ve tried to date. I definitely prefer the taste of fresh watermelon to watermelon candy.

Still probably my favourite flavour carried by Synergy!

There’s this big wave in food/beverage trends right now with late 90s and early 2000s nostalgia inspired flavours and one in particular that’s seeing a lot of emphasis put on it is grape. I actually sought out this kombucha while shopping because I found myself caught in that weird space of craving a thing directly because you recently saw it/were reading about it. Hell, I even went back to look at my past tasting notes for this and my very first time trying it I compared it to grape soda – how very “2000s Nostalgia” of me even back then!

But yeah, it was a yummy kombucha.

Delicious funky little grape drank.

Grabbed a bottle of this last time I went grocery shopping, just sort of as an impulse shop kind of thing. I really, really enjoyed it last time I tried it and I had been craving soda while shopping so this seemed like the much better, healthier way to satisfy that craving.

It’s very rare for me that I don’t finish bottled drinks the day I open them – but I actually found that as much as I love the more stripped down, natural ‘Grape Crush’ sort of taste that the carbonation itself was too intense for me and I couldn’t drink all of this in one go because that much carbonation was actually making my stomach feel a little flippy. So I finished this one in a few sittings – though enjoyed it greatly (grapely!? har har…) each time.

So, my Step Mom actually recommended this company to me because she knew that I was getting a bit more into Kombucha – I’m not sure for what particular reason, but I’m pretty sure this is her favourite company that sells Kombucha.

I started with trying their grape flavour, because it seemed a little more unique to me and I do really love grape drinks…

I actually thought it tasted surprisingly like Grape Crush/Fanta but just less sweet overall. That really surprised me, because as far as I’m aware Grape Crush is largely artificially flavoured and this uses actual grape juice!? However, it was a pleasant surprise because without the overwhelming sugar the flavour of grape soda is pretty damn tasty.

It also has that acidic/vinegar like quality that most Kombucha has to me; however I don’t mind it even a little bit in this one. Maybe that’s because I’ve tried enough kombucha now to get used to it? Or maybe it’s because that vinegar quality easily hides itself in something grape flavoured. I don’t know.

Anyway; this one was REALLY good. I think, actually, the best bottle/over the counter kombucha I’ve tried yet!

Help! I’m addicted!!

The fermenting causes the tiniest bit of alcohol but is is not considered an alcoholic drink. Although this tea Iooks like a fruit juice, it’s taste is anything but fruity. You really have to try it. Just don’t expect sweet.

It is effervescent so don’t shake it or you’ll be really sorry. Whoosh all over the place! (I know this from experience since it happened in my car as I was going down the expressway!)

The reason you might want to shake it (mistakenly) is because you see the gross looking junk at the bottom of the bottle. (I assume that’s the fermented/probiotic stuff) You can g-e-n-t-l-y recap after opening and tip it over a couple times to mix it more thoroughly.

The biggest downfall to me is cost: about $3. a bottle. Supposedly there are 2 servings in a bottle but you know you are going to drink all of it. There are 30 calories per serving. It must be kept refrigerated because of the raw kombucha.

Some people say you can make your own but I’m not willing to do the work… buying the starter, fermenting, etc.

Started This Month the 1st of March, with a 16 oz Bottle of GT’s Classic Original Kombucha.
What a Great Morning Starter, I Do Not Like or Drink Beer, (Excepting Ginger Beer). When Opening this Bottle today, It having been BEST USED BY 9/9/2015, it now being 6 months Matured beyond recommendation, It Now took on the Character of A Finely aged BREW, It seems that the Natural Alcohol Content Increased to a VERY ENJOYABLE and PLEASANT CONTENT.