Learn how to flavor kombucha with frozen fruit! Create endless flavor combinations and even recreate your favorite store brand flavors at home. It’s easy and fun to bottle and second ferment your kombucha with frozen fruits! And, you’ll get lots of fizz and bubbles!

Kombucha was my first ferment…

Ohhhhh so many years ago!

Thanks to my very good friend Kari, who gave me my very first SCOBY, I’ve been brewing kombucha off and on for nearly a decade! {SCOBY = symbiotic colony of bacteria yeast}

Unfortunately, the SCOBY Kari gave me so long ago didn’t survive our move to Minnesota, so I had to start all over. Thankfully, there are some crunchy, kombucha-lovin’ folks less than five minutes from me who have the Ritz-Carlton of scoby hotels going on.

So once I got my kombucha up and running again, I couldn’t wait to experiment with some new flavors.

Enter: Frozen Fruit

I live in Minnesota, y’all.

{Translation: there’s not a whole lotta fresh fruit going on where I live that doesn’t come from Mexico and/or Chile, especially in the winter time.}

I’d much rather buy fresh fruit that’s grown at least somewhere in the continental U.S., but since that’s not always possible, frozen fruit comes in handy. Frozen fruit is always picked at the peak of the season, when the fruits are fresh, ripe, juicy, and flavorful. They can be stored frozen for months!

Another bonus of frozen fruit is that it’s already been washed and, where applicable (mangoes & pineapple, for example), already peeled and cut to the perfect size!

Having flavored my kombucha with both fresh and frozen fruits, I’m a fan of using frozen fruit! Whatever flavor I’m going for is more distinct with frozen fruit.

Best Places To Buy Frozen Fruit

I prefer to buy organic frozen fruit whenever possible. However, I also recognize that many organic fruits are really expensive sometimes — like frozen berries, for instance.

Often, I will save money by purchasing non-organic frozen fruits. Even non-organic fruits are still whole, nourishing foods. And I know they’re washed super well before they’re frozen, so I feel way better about using non-organic frozen fruits than non-organic fresh fruits!

The larger the bag of frozen fruit, generally, the cheaper it is. Those little 12- or 16-ounce bags of frozen fruit are so cute… and so expensive… and so worthless. 😛 In my house, one of those little bags lasts long enough for each member of our family to have 1 smoothie.

Therefore, bulk or warehouse buying is my friend. I get more bang for my buck, every. single. time.

Azure Standard is my favorite place to buy frozen vegetables and fruits, hands-down. They sell beautiful frozen blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, cranberries, and more in large, 5-pound bags (or larger). It’s free to join any Azure Standard drop near you! Click here to learn more!

If you don’t have an Azure drop site in your area, warehouse stores like Costco and Sam’s are your next best bet for finding affordable frozen fruits, many organic. You’ll find other more exotic frozen fruits, too, such as mangoes, pomegranate arils, and pineapple.

Flavoring kombucha with frozen fruit is seriously one of the easiest things ever.

First, let’s go over some of the essential supplies so you can successfully second-ferment your kombucha to create any flavor you like or even recreate your favorite store brand flavors!

Essentials For Doing A Second-Ferment & Flavoring Your Kombucha

You don’t need much to do a second-ferment of your kombucha, but these few things will make your process easier, quicker, and successful!

Swing-Top Bottles — Obviously, you need some sort of vessel to do the flavoring in… and it can’t be your main kombucha container because that’s where your SCOBY lives. You also need something airtight, to allow the carbon dioxide to buildup and give you fizz!

Funnel — Unless you have a kombucha vessel with a spigot (like this), you’ll need an easy, mess-free way to transfer finished kombucha from the fermenting vessel into your swing-top bottles. I recommend stainless steel funnels because it’s just not a great idea for kombucha to come into contact with plastic, and there’s no such thing as a wooden funnel! LOL

Frozen Fruit — obs, right? 😉

Knife & Cutting Board — Chances are good that you’ll have to cut the pieces of frozen fruit so they’ll fit inside the narrow neck of your bottles.

Ok, now that you have everything you need, let’s flavor kombucha with frozen fruit!

Here’s how to flavor kombucha with frozen fruit:

1. Transfer finished kombucha from the fermenting vessel to swing-top glass bottles.
2. Add frozen fruit of choice. Cut the fruits in halves or quarters to make them fit inside your bottles. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of one fruit or a combination of fruits is the right amount.
3. Close the swing-top lid and set aside to second ferment. The beneficial bacteria and yeasts present in the kombucha will feed off of the sugars in the fruit, creating carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide built up in an airtight bottle = fizz!
4. After 36-48 hours, transfer the bottles of flavored kombucha to the fridge to stop fermentation. No need to remove the fruit (unless you want to)!

See, how easy was that?!

Or check out this step-by-step video:

Want to learn even more fermenting at home to create gut-healthy foods and drinks your family will love? I highly recommend the Lacto-Fermenation eCourse from Traditional Cooking School!

And don’t forget to check out Azure Standard for money-saving bulk foods that are natural and organic!

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Want more yummy, gut-healthy recipes? Try these!

• Ginger & Turmeric Kombucha (anti-inflammatory & gut-healing!)
• Hydrating Pineapple Mango Switchel
• Fermented Cilantro Lime Jalapeños
• Fermented Cilantro Chimichurri 
• No Starter Culture Fermented Dill Pickles
• Homemade Fermented Sparkling Apple Cider

Do you like your kombucha flavored or plain? Have you ever used frozen fruit to flavor kombucha?