Using Rooibos

[Jackieabz]

I made my first brew with 4 organic black tea bags.
After that I used 2 black tea and 2 rooibos
Can I use rooibos only or do I need to continue to include the black tea.
I ask because I am usually caffeine free.

Many thanks for any help

 

[Boer]

Hi, I am a Commercial Kombucha Brewer from South Africa. I use these 2 teas as ingredients. You don't have to use Black tea for your primary ferment BUT the rooibos will take about twice as long to reach the need taste as the Ceylon tea has much more caffeine as rooibos and the organisms need the caffeine, tannins and sugar of the tea to ferment.

 

[Jackieabz]

Thank you again Boer, maybe I'll stick to 50:50 It seems to be working at the moment and try a little experiment later on. Thank you for the information.

 

[Blackbear78]

Since Rooibos is not a tea and it is to be thought of more like herb-- so just like with actual tea brewing the good thing about herbal is that you can brew it for long periods of time and not get the bitter taste like you do from actual teas

. If you are looking for less caffeine try a lighter tea like green or white, though they are more fragile.

Since the organisms need caffeine and tannis to ferment maybe look at caffeine additives and other ways to get tannis or maybe you could sweeten it all up to give the organisms something to munch on into the mixture so that you could use 100% rooibos,

Kombucha is generally considered to have about ⅓ the amount of caffeine as the tea it is made with, so for example black tea, which might have 30-80mg of caffeine per cup may yield a glass of Kombucha with 10-25mg of caffeine. Green tea Kombucha might have just 2-3mg of caffeine.

 

[Jackieabz]

Kombucha is generally considered to have about ⅓ the amount of caffeine as the tea it is made with, so for example black tea, which might have 30-80mg of caffeine per cup may yield a glass of Kombucha with 10-25mg of caffeine. Green tea Kombucha might have just 2-3mg of caffeine.

Thank you for the all the information. I have also read that loose leaf probably has lower caffeine levels that teabags. I think i will try loose leaf rooibos and loose leaf green tea for my next brew. Every little reduction helps!

 

[Jackieabz]

Thanks for all the advice on getting a low caffeine brew. I am now using two rooibos teabags and 4gms of loose leaf Jasmine green tea for my 3l brew.
It ferments beautifully and had a very pleasant flavour on its own. I've been adding flavour during the 2nd ferment with either fresh mine (spearmint) or lemon zest and ginger. All working really well. I can't measure the caffeine but I know it doesn't cause me any sleeplessness!

 

[Hank Hill]

...this is great info...I just myself started a 100% Rooibos ferment the other day, I'll monitor closely and possibly leave a little longer?

 

[Patrick_G]

Thank you guys for the info. I've also recently started making Kombucha and I currently have 2 batches, 1 with black tea and one with Rooibos. I will see how they go and try to blend the two in the future. I've used blueberry flavour in the bottling stage and it came out amazing.