Kombucha is traditionally made with brewed tea (from the Camellia sinensis plant). Did you know you can also use coffee to make this probiotic elixir?
I decided to start with a cold-brew. My bet was that the flavors would be more noticeable in the finished kombucha coffee. I was right!
After you use a SCOBY (the mother or starter culture for kombucha) to make coffee kombucha, you should store it separately from tea SCOBYs. Start your own “SCOBY café”!
Coffee Kombucha
Prep time
Fermentation time
Yield: 56 oz/1.6 liters
Ingredients
- 1.6 liters (54 fl oz.) plus 60 ml (1/4 cup) filtered water
- 66 grams (1/3 cup) or 60 ml sugar
- 113 grams (4 ounces by weight) whole coffee beans (or ground coffee)
- 113 grams (4 ounces by weight) or larger kombucha SCOBY
Equipment
- ½ gallon or larger glass jar or ceramic vessel
- Food grade canvas/muslin bag to hold coffee grounds
Instructions
Make Cold Brew Coffee
- Grind coffee (medium-coarse grind size) and pour into a canvas/muslin bag. Tie bag off tightly so grounds cannot escape.
- Fill jar/vessel with 54 oz/1.6 liters of cold water. This is a 1:14 ratio of coffee to water. Add canvas bag with coffee to jar, and put jar in refrigerator to steep.
- Twelve hours later, remove coffee bag and lightly squeeze bag over jar/vessel to capture remaining liquid. Compost or discard grounds.
- Filter coffee into another container through a paper coffee filter to remove any sediments. Pour back into jar/vessel.
Make a simple syrup
- Add sugar and ¼ cup/ 60ml water to a small saucepan. Heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool.
- Add simple syrup to jar.
Ferment
- Allow coffee to warm to room temperature (70°F/21°C or higher).
- Add SCOBY to jar.
- Cover jar with a cloth and secure with a rubber band. Place in a spot out of direct sunlight.
- Check after 5 days. If you like the taste, remove the SCOBYs and decant to another jar. If not, check again in another day.
- When finished, transfer kombucha to an airtight container and store in refrigerator.
- Serve chilled.
- NOTE: Keep coffee SCOBYs separate from tea SCOBYs.
Thanks for sharing. Mine tasted great. I drank it with some almond milk. I also mixed some cold brew coffee with some of my tea kombucha as a flavoring in a second ferment. One question is what liquid do you store your used coffee scoby in. Some of the liquid from the fermented cold brew coffee as you do with the tea? I want to make some more? I read somewhere the oils form the coffee makes the scoby a little easier to mold then the tea scoby
Thank you this is a great idea. Absolutely brilliant and I am heading for the coffee beans right now. Do you rinse the tea scoby before converting it to a coffee scoby or just put it straight in the coffee solution? Regards Merryn
Great, glad you like it! I didn’t do anything special to rinse the SCOBY when converting; I didn’t think it was necessary. If you really wanted to, you could pour some some ACV or distilled vinegar on it to remove any residual tea flavor.