I have not done the extensive research and experiments that you have @thelaundrylady, but I am a little confused. I thought kombucha was the symbiotic relationship between the bacteria and yeast (which then makes the scoby or mother). One eats the sugar and the other eats the brewed black tea. It makes me wonder what is happening (what different chemical reactions are occurring) during the herbal brewing process that is different from the traditional kombucha with black tea.
I love all the ideas that you provide plus experiential knowledge....but I just cannot wrap my mind around the fact that you have "kombucha" without black tea.
P.S. Again, I am no expert: I did start making my own home brew back in the early 2000's, when the government wanted to regulate kombucha. They were afraid that young people might want to drink it because of the (minuscule amount of) alcohol. All that potential regulation did was cause folks to make it themselves which is so empowering.
Love to hear how the government's plan backfire on them. That is empowering indeed! People used to think SCOBY needs caffeine to survive, but it's not true. Yeasts do need sugar as food, so substituting sugar is a bad idea, but more information has come out about the caffeine part. The reason kombucha brewing was unsuccessful with some herbal tea was because of the volatile oil. When doing an experiment with herbal tea, if the same SCOBY can survive the kombucha brewing process a minimum of 10 times and form baby SCOBY every time, then the herbal tea is considered a viable option for kombucha brewing.
Good to know! Thank you.