The holidays bring with them so many food and drink traditions, from gingersnaps to mulled wine. But what if you’re feeling ready to branch out from the tried and true? Maybe even start a new tradition?
Kombucha makes a great cocktail mixer—its flavors can be subtle or bold, pairing well with a variety of liquors. And it’s healthier than the super-sweet juices and sodas called for in lots of cocktail recipes.
Here are two delicious cocktail recipes featuring Blue Ridge Bucha—perfect for holidays or any day.
Spicy Rum & Ginger
1 oz. Vitae Spirits Golden Rum
2.5 oz. Blue Ridge Bucha KombuChai
.5 oz. Blue Ridge Bucha Ginger
We’re lucky in our home region of Central Virginia to have a rich selection of locally-produced alcohols. These days, that includes more and more distilled beverages. Vitae Spirits, headquartered in Charlottesville, is a great choice to put the oomph in kombucha cocktails. Like us, they focus on both the art and the science of their craft, using real ingredients in each handmade batch—so it’s no accident that our beverages go so well together.
In this cocktail, the robust flavors of Vitae Spirits’s delicious, creamy rum merge perfectly with the sparkle of ginger and bubbly kombucha. The rich spiciness of our KombuChai, paying homage to the classic spiced tea of India, adds a note of holiday warmth, spot-on for this season.
Double Sparkling Wine
2 oz. Pares Balta Organic Cava (Spanish sparkling wine)
2 oz. Blue Ridge Bucha Jasmine Grape
Sparkling wine is always festive and, of course, it’s a classic on New Year’s Eve. This superlative cava from Peres Balta is a conscious choice on our part—an organic offering from a woman-owned company, you can find it at Market Street Wine in Charlottesville. If you want to dress it up a little, using kombucha as a mixer is a no-fuss, fun way to go.
Our tasting team loved the combo of this organic sparkling wine from Spain with our own Jasmine Grape kombucha. Displaying a lovely rosé color in the glass, this fizzy cava cocktail gives you a full round flavor and a surprisingly light finish. At a one-to-one ratio, it plays on an easy synergy between the notes of grape and jasmine. But there are no hard and fast rules on the ratio; by all means, improvise!
These are just two cocktail ideas to get you started. Go ahead and experiment with your favorite Bucha flavors, and let us know if you come up with a new tradition. Look for more seasonal kombucha cocktails here in the future—and have a happy and healthy 2020!