chamomile kombucha

[recreate]

I've read a fair amount on the topic, but most of what I've heard says it must be brewed with black tea. Is there some way of substituting some other substance for black tea? Perhaps there is a way to feed a scoby without using black tea or another variety of tea at all. I am just curious because I haven't even seen any attempt at engineering a way around using black tea to make kombucha. I guess then it wouldn't be kombucha and might be something else as-yet-undiscovered! It would be neat if I could just eyedrop the scoby nutrients. Asking for a friend. ipe:

 

[TNGabe]

I'm sure someone will correct me, but I don't think tea feeds the scoby anything. That's what the sugar is for.

 

[saramc]

The kombucha scoby uses camellia sinesis, so this means black, green, oolong, or white tea is recommended as the base for the primary ferment. Many people will add a blend of herbs, flowers, spices, etc in primary or secondary; though there seems to be a short list of what does not impact scoby development. Oils tend to cause mold development. You can read about the analysis of KT here, and there is info about what the tea provides... http://happyherbalist.com/analysis_of_kombucha.htm

Can a KT scoby be adapted to ferment other things? Definitely. I ferment coffee instead of tea, even grows a new scoby which I keep strictly for coffee ferments. The scoby is not as thick and dense as a tea scoby, but it works.