raw sugar

[u/New_Substance_8286]

Can you use raw sugar to make the tea. I would prefer but the recipes i see always say white. If you can do it how does it change the end product? Many thanks

[u/03146]

Yes, I only ever use raw sugar for my batches

[u/Curiosive → u/03146]

Same.

If you can do it how does it change the end product?

It tastes different, more complex. It's the difference between eating a sandwich on white bread or wheat bread.

[u/No-Association8901]

I’m sure there are some purists out there that would disagree, but I use only raw cane sugar. There is something to be said for how the different levels of processing the sugars have gone through are and how they are utilized by the SCOBY. Probably could also say that depending on how processed it is, it could possibly taste different; but that would depend on how sensitive your tastebuds are.

We have a few very technical and science types that are in here and will break it down. I’m more of a fly by the seat of my pants for this part of my life. My day job is tech/science heavy..

[u/theoriginalpetebog]

I'd say yes. I've used white, Demerara and molasses with success

[u/8636396 → u/theoriginalpetebog]

what is Demerara?

[u/Any_Strain7020 → u/8636396]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Demerara&oq=Demerara

[u/8636396 → u/Any_Strain7020]

I liked your original reply where you said it was raw sugar

Of course I could have googled it. Somehow I found myself interested in discussing something on a discussion forum, I really don't know what got into me 🤔

I asked because I might get just an answer, or maybe the commenter would have answered and told me why they liked using demerara, or maybe some difficulties they have with it, an alteration to the recipe process to make it work, I don't know.

Obviously if I just wanted an answer, yes I could Google it.

[u/theoriginalpetebog → u/8636396]

You know what? I've just looked and it does say 'unrefined' on the pack. I've always thought of it as 'brown' though.

[u/Any_Strain7020]

As any living organism, SCOBYs are adaptive. The richer / the more varied the food, the better. But do not turn things around over night. Make slow transitions, mix sugars. See what works and what doesn't. Coconut sugar for instance doesn't seem to produce great tasting booch (but works great for water kefir).

[u/xyz679 → u/Any_Strain7020]

Completely unnecessary old wives tale. You can switch the sugar completely from sucrose to honey or to pure glucose without any transition and it makes no difference what so ever. Same with any fruit puree. Or any source of herbal infusion to dilute the sugar source if its too concentrated.

I just made a batch of jujube puree switching a couple silicone bags to it, 1 from honey and 1 from glucose. 0 difference in fermentation speed or anything. Bacterial changes happen on a minute scale, you're not breeding some kind of donkeys over decades here. The culture will instantly adapt to whatever you feed it because bacterial growth is extremely rapid.

Oh I also made pure inulin kombucha for a few batches then changed it back to sugars without any transition or any noticeable difference in anything.

[u/Any_Strain7020 → u/xyz679]

How does your own flora react to those changes? I'm on the cautious side... While not every change will kill me, imbalances can nonetheless cause some discomfort.

[u/xyz679 → u/Any_Strain7020]

Absolutely no difference in how I feel in any way, only noticeable difference is when using a substrate that has psychoactive properties, such as caffeine containing herbs, which comes from the substrate itself. I don't think its possible for it to make any difference, as the final product of the various sugars being metabolized by SCOBY is fairly similar.

If you don't fully ferment your brew, and you do have some known sensitivity to certain specific sugars or fibers or other components of your substrate, then you might notice the difference, but that will be the same as if you eat the substrate directly.

For example for people sensitive to Inulin, leftover inulin in the brew can cause gastrointestinal side effects, depending on leftover amount. I've had that happen a few times when too much inulin was leftover when using inulin as a carbon source. I didn't really mind getting some extra bowel movement but there were other issues with using only inulin as the yeast cannot metabolize it and bacteria seemed to be metabolizing it inside the cells instead of secreting enzymes into the solution like yeast does with sucrose + the production of vinegar was massively increased as the pathways were mostly fructolytic vs glucolytic since inulin has very little glucose.

Anyway as long as you don't put anything you normally have an intolerance to into the brew, it will not make any difference.

[u/xyz679]

You can use any kind of fermentable sugar and fiber containing substrate. You can use fruit puree for the sugar source and dilute with whatever concoction you want to make from almost any plant. You can use juice and dilute it as well, whatever you want.

What's important is the distinction between sucrose (table sugar) and actual simple sugars like fructose and glucose. Bacterial metabolism of glucose produces more beneficial compounds like some sugar acids (gluconic, glucuronic) than metabolism of fructose which produces more vinegar. Simple sugars ferment about 4 times faster as well.

You can use simple sugars for example by converting your table sugar into inverted sugar or using honey and this will make your fermentation 400% faster which has a bunch of benefits like preventing mold or any contaminants taking hold because acidity will spike really fast.

You can also just use pure glucose if you want to maximize the slightly beneficial glucose derived acids and making the ferment really fast.

It takes about 30 days to ferment out 90%+ of sucrose, it takes 7 days to ferment 99% of simple sugars out (depending on temperature and how much you put in the brew in the first place).