Cranberry Tangerine Dream Kombucha Punch Recipe
Cranberry Tangerine Dream Kombucha Punch Recipe
What is a punch?
Did you know that punches are quite a technical drink and have five main components:
- Sweet — Sugar
- Citrus — Lemon, Lime, Orange
- Bitter — Actual bitters and spices
- Weak — Tea or Soda
- Alcoholic — Alcohol like vodka or rum
For our punch, we are going to skip the alcohol and make a mocktail. However, you can always add in alcohol if you get a wild hair.
We let our ingredients play some double roles in the five components of our punch. Our sweet is provided by simple syrup. Simple syrups can be sourced in just about any grocery store.
Balsamic is a Cocktails Best Friend
Did you know that our gourmet dark balsamic flavors are perfect for souping up any mocktail, cocktail, or for making your own sodas? If you aren’t familiar, don’t worry this recipe is all about using balsamic as a shrub to add flavors and unexpected elements to your beverages.
For this mocktail, our Tangerine Dark Balsamic provides our citrus and part of our bitters. At the same time, another component of our bitters and our weak comes from our cranberry kombucha. However, we add a bit of extra soda water as our weak to help round out the entire mocktail.
What is Kombucha?
Kombucha is made by allowing sweetened tea to ferment using a particular bacterial yeast known as a “Scoby,” which stands for a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeasts. The yeast converts the sugar from the sweetened tea into ethanol and acetic acid. This process doesn’t differ that much from fermenting wine or beer. However, kombucha is a much shorter fermentation process. Similar to champagne, kombucha may continue its fermentation after being bottled which amps up the fizziness of the beverage.
Essential health benefits of kombucha:
- Packed with probiotics that promote a healthy gut biome.
- It is rich in vitamins and minerals.
- A great source of antioxidants. These antioxidants are passed on from the tea that was used to make the kombucha.
History of Fermented Tea
Kombucha may be a trendy health food beverage, but it actually got its start in ancient China and has been brewed for centuries. Kombucha comes from the Manchurian region of China and was a prized beverage for its many medicinal properties. The creation of kombucha even predates the availability and cultivation of sugarcane, and as such alternative sweeteners like fruits were more than likely used to feed the scoby.
Kombucha had a popular following in European countries for decades. Still, the rise of kombucha in the US didn’t really begin until the ‘90s, when GT’s Kombucha brand came about. However, it wasn’t until 2010 when a massive scandal involving the natural alcohol levels of several kombucha brands helped popularize the once health-food-store-only beverage.
Benefits of Cranberry
Cranberry juice is well known for its benefits and assistance when it comes to helping heal a urinary tract infection, but the benefits don’t just stop there. Cranberries are little oxidant powerhouses and contain tons of vitamin C.
Some of the health benefits of cranberry are:
- Help fight off urinary tract infections
- Help fight off free radicals with their rich antioxidants
- Help fight off the common cold with its vitamin C content
- It can assist with keeping your heart healthy due to its anti-inflammatory properties
- It can assist with digestive health by inhibiting bad bacteria from growing in the stomach lining
The numerous benefits of cranberry juice make it a perfect way to sneak in some good for you vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants without feeling like you are imbibing on healthy foods.
The Tangerine Cranberry Kombucha Punch Recipe
Let’s get started creating this kombucha punch nonalcoholic mocktail.
To bring this blend of healthy good for your juices and beverages into the fold of mocktails, we did have to add a little simple syrup. We felt like the added sweetness helped brighten the tangerine flavor of the balsamic while mellowing the sharp acidity of the kombucha and bitterness of the cranberry.
What you get is a perfectly balanced mocktail that is literally packed to the brim with health benefits and flavor. We felt the deep amber red hues of this delicious mocktail were worthy of a bit of a fancier glass. Not to mention the fact that kombucha and Champagne undergo a very similar fermentation process, so we chose to serve this drink in a classic champagne saucer or coupe glass.
This building of this mocktail is simple, requires no extra tools, and can be shaken or simply stirred before enjoying. It is accidentally classy and the perfect sneakily healthy end to any meal,
Prep time: 0 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Yields: 1 serving
Course: Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2.5 ounces of your favorite cranberry kombucha, we chose Synergy as it is readily available
- 0.5 ounces of soda water, we chose Fever-Tree
- 1 teaspoon simple syrup
- 1 teaspoon Estero Bay Tangerine Dark Balsamic
- Optional: garnish of orange twist, orange slice, fresh sage
Tools
Coupe glass or the champagne saucer
Directions
- Pour in one teaspoon of simple syrup into your coupe glass.
- Follow with two and a half ounces of cranberry kombucha.
- Pour in one teaspoon of tangerine dark balsamic.
- Top with one ounce of soda water to help the flavors mingle. Garnish with an orange twist, orange slice, and a piece of fresh sage, a stir straw, and enjoy.
Flavors Beyond Borders
At Estero Bay, we have built a repertoire for bringing you a taste of the flavors of the world through our olive oil and tea varieties. We want nothing more than for you and your families to be able to enjoy all the benefits and flavors of our products from the comfort of your own homes.
With a bit of creativity and an Estero Bay stocked pantry, you’ll be whipping up secretly healthy mocktails and recipes for all diets that bring an incredible variety of flavors from all around the world straight to your kitchen table.
Sources
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/health-benefits-kombucha
https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/cranberry-juice-benefits