This brew's got soul and it's super bad

Having finished sampling NessAlla's regular flavors, i.e. - non-mocktail kombuchas, I wasn't sure where to turn next. While I suspect that there is at least one other brand of the tasty tea fermented here in Madison, I did not see it at Woodman's. However, on a stop at the Willy Street Co-op, I noticed Soul Brew in their cooler and remembered seeing their stand at the South Shore Farmers' Market back in 2022. I had some back then and I recalled finding it tasty.

I am not sure if it was Soul Brew's founder, Alesia Miller, was at the stand that morning or not. Miller is the first black woman in Wisconsin to found a kombuchaery and likely one of the first in the country. She founded Soul Brew in 2019 about a year after making her first batch at home. In an interview from 2022 in Milwaukee's alt-weekly(?), Shepherd Express, Miller said "My initial target was Black and brown people, to help them understand how kombucha can help with issues like diabetes and gut health." Miller's targeting of minority communities was a common theme in the articles I found.

In a profile by a local Milwaukee TV station:

She admits kombucha is sometimes a hard sell in the black community.

"With Soul Brew, I am like how can I mix the worlds, make it delicious, make it approachable and try and educate individuals that would never do it... I think I represent the community in a way that they are able to see somebody that looks like them," Miller says.

Hopefully she had made inroads with black and brown communities but I haven't found any articles where this is addressed. Best of luck to her.

The first Soul Brew flavor I sampled, to review, that is, was BLM - Blackberry Lemon Mango.

I think this is also my first review to feature a photo taken with my new phone. Just look at all those extra megapixels!

The tea was light red and a tad hazy. There were plenty of bubbles inside. A sniff caught a strong tanginess with a nebulous fruitiness just behind. I think my nose also sniffed a bit of tea too.

My first sip revealed some hefty fizz followed by a lovely dose of tanginess. The fruit flavor was rather mild initially but grew as the brew warmed. I tasted mostly blackberry and lemon. This stuff had a real zip to it and my tongue was left with tangy bite marks on it. The lemon really came through on the finish.

This was excellent kombucha! If I had a gripe, it would be that it was just a bit overly fizzy. Still, I appreciated that the sweetness was kept in check even as it warmed to cellar temperature. It occurs to me that Miller takes a different approach from NessAlla. Most of the NessAlla brews I sampled had a sweet taste to them even if they didn't have a lot of added sugars. I think this is because they temper the tang and forego a lot of fizz.

Soul Brew, on the other hand, lets the acetic acid flow and offers bubbles aplenty. This kombucha leaned more towards the tangy and so had a better balance of tea and fruit.

Great tea but I've only seen it at the Co-op and they have only three flavors. Maybe these are all that Soul Brew offers in the bowels of winter.

At Last, Blush

This marks my final review of a NessAlla Kombucha kombucha that comes in a bottle.

I don't know how they determine which flavors are bottled and which ones go into cans. Perhaps ones that have ingredients that degrade more quickly when exposed to light are canned...? Looking at the list of canned kombuchas, most of them incorporate the name of a cocktail or some other blended drink that isn't normally associated with tea, e.g. - "mimosa" and "sangria". Maybe these canned kombuchas are aimed at folks with a more refined palate. Or some such thing.

Onto Peach Blush!

It was a hazy yellow with a slight orange tint that had more than a passing resemblance to my archnemesis in the libation space, the American Hazy IPA. The aroma had a strong vinegar tang to it along with the expected peach and a little somthing floral which, after looking at the ingredients list, I figured was the hibiscus. I surmised that it was these flowers that gave the liquid its orange tint.

Ooh! This stuff was heavier on the fizz than the last few kombuchas I've sampled. It had a nice tang too. A tea-peach combo was at the fore with a hint of hibiscus and just a touch of citrus which proved to be tangerine. A peachy sweetness lasted on the swallow.

I really loved the combination of the tanginess and the fizz. It kept the sweetness in check. There didn't seem to be much in the way of tannins so the sugary taste could have easily gotten out of control.

One thing I've encountered making my way through NessAlla's offerings is that I get a gently cloying sweet tea taste even though there's really not a lot of sugar in these kombuchas. I suspect it's just a bit of gustatory conditioning from having visited in-laws in Alabama and being surrounded by sweet tea and it is weird. Some of these kombuchas taste rather sweet but don't have that thick, syrupy mouthfeel. I don't know if my tongue is especially sensitive to sweetness or who. What would my tongue register if there had been more tannins? Only The Shadow knows.

In the end, this was tasty stuff, although I believe there was natural peach flavoring added. Not sure why that would be necessary or what that is exactly. Still, I eagerly lapped this stuff up.

You got ginger in my lemongrass! You got lemongrass in my ginger!

Next in my drink-thru of the NessAlla menu is a kombucha that has a Southeast Asian tinge to it: Lemongrass Ginger. As someone with a severe addiction to tom yum soup, I wondered how it was that I didn't taste this one first.

The tea was a hazy yellow and the first thing I smelled was that acetic acid tang. There was also sweetness and a lovely citrus-floral mix of lemongrass and ginger.

I think this stuff had a heavier mouthfeel than its appearance betrayed and this mismatch did something to the kombucha tasting part of my brain which made the sweetness came across as being stronger than it likely was in reality. It just had a sweet tea thing going on for me with some tang and that wonderful lemongrass-ginger duo tasting good. These flavors just complement one another so well. They both have citrus and floral elements but the lemongrass leans floral while ginger adds a pepper-like spiciness.

I expected it to be drier on the finish but my tongue never got that wave of tannins and, instead, got a low dose.

This stuff is tasty, though I'd prefer a bit less sugar. By no means as cloying as the drink of the South, it leans in that direction, though only just. The lemongrass and ginger were delicious but overshadowed, at times, by the sweetness.

Like the nectars of old: Mango Turmeric by NessAlla Kombucha

Next up in my journey through the drinks of Madison's NessAlla kombuchary (kombuchery?) is their Mango Turmeric.

The stuff was rather hazy and this dulled its light golden hue. It smelled like kombucha - that tangy herbal aroma along with - quelle surprise - mango. There was also some pineapple in there.

It tasted rather thick and heavy - like those Libby nectars that I drank as a kid. However, there was a nice bite to it which I suspect was part fizz, part vinegar. Again, mango and pineapple were prominent with orange and ginger less so. All of the fruitiness obscured most of the tea flavor though the tropical medley wasn't the worst flavor ever. As it warmed some tannins came through, especially on the finish.

Not bad but definitely heavy on the fruit. A busy formula that made me wish there was more tea flavor. For such a viscous feel on my tongue, it is rather low in sugars/carbohydrates.

They say that elderberry is the healer: Elderberry Healer by NessAlla Kombucha

I continue to work my way through NessAlla Kombucha's brews. It's a Madison company where brewers ply their trade just across Starkweather Creek from me so I get to support a local business as I indulge my fancy for kombucha.

With a name like Elderberry Healer, I was expecting my sampling to provide some pukka health benefits.

While I haven’t been ill since I drank this stuff, I am not convinced that I can attribute this wholly or even in-part to it.

Elderberry has a reputation for being a good treatment for colds and probably other ailments. According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, it’s possible that elderberry will make you feel better if you have a cold or the flu, but the jury is still out.

So, with the salutary effects being questionable, I am left to consider the gustatory ones.

In addition to elderberry, this kombucha features hibiscus, ginger, licorice root, and oil of grapefruit. Regardless of whether it’ll help with a cold, it sounded very tasty.

The brew was a lovely red color – hibiscus is good that way – tinged with brown and a bit hazy. On first sniff my nose caught mildly sweetened tea with a great floral element. It also smelt of elderberries with just a hint of anise.

My tongue was quite pleased to be greeted by a healthy fizziness and tasted of elderberry, hibiscus, a hint of ginger zing, and, thankfully, slightly sweetened tea. I say “thankfully” because I’ve had kombuchas that could compete with the sweetest teas of the South for sheer cavity-inducing terror. The ginger became more prominent on the finish and the anise flavor reared its head here too.

This is an excellent brew! I appreciated the restrained sweetness and adored the elderberry-hibiscus combo. I am not a big licorice root person and, luckily, it was not a major player here but did add some nice contrast as did the zip from the ginger.

(Neil Young voice) Juniper rose, you better go and get it

I don't know why I could just not get a decent photograph of this stuff.

After several weeks and a couple strolls by the Nessalla kombucha factory, I finally busted out my bottle of their Juniper Rose kombucha. I like juniper and rose and it seems to have less sugar than most of their kombuchas. It's about the herbs and spices and not fruits so I assume it's not a big seller.

This stuff is very hazy and a light gold. The aroma was sweet-tart. At first, it tasted a bit like apple cider but I think this was mainly because it had a faux sweetness to it from what I presume was the white tea with rose or whatever it was. Then I got some bitterness from tannins and that kombucha bite which made me realize that this was, in fact, tea. A floral taste was fairly prominent while the piney juniper taste was quite mild.

It had a full body which I think was from that illusory sweetness that the floral taste induced, if that makes sense. My tongue was fooled into thinking there was sweetness present even though there isn't much.

In end, this is a great kombucha. Its floral-spice combo is simply delicious.

Don't mess with my Ness(alla)

Another Madison brand. It's hard to believe that Nessalla has been around for something like 15 years, mainly because I thought they had gone out of business as I recall their fermentorium in the Garver Feed Mill closing during the pandemic.

Well, I have discovered that they filed for bankruptcy and found new owners. This explains the "Manufactured by Upside Func. Beverage Co." on the label. It seems that the Garver location has reopened and things are much like they were pre-pandemic. Can't keep a good kombucha maker down, I always say.

I was a bit ambivalent about buying this bottle. It wasn't the mix of black and green teas nor the organic raspberries. Hibiscus flowers? Yes, please. It was the "organic raspberry flavor". After my experience with that strawberry flavoring essence stuff, I was feeling a bit gun shy. It's organic so it fits in with their ad copy that says they use "only organic and fair trade ingredients". But that banner photo on their webpage shows fresh fruit and loose leaves - no gallon jugs of flavoring from the food chemist. Seems a bit misleading, if you ask me.

Just a peep of fizz upon opening. The liquid was a cloudy, dull gold. It smelled very nice with raspberry up front along with a sour smell like yogurt, and a hint of something floral. As expected, I couldn't taste much fizz. There was, however, a fair amount of sweetness that made it taste smooth. The raspberry was there but not very strong. I like the fruity tartness a lot.

A fruity sweetness lingered on the finish but I could actually taste tea! Weird. The kombuchas I'd sampled up to this point have done a fine job of making you forget you're drinking tea.

Except for some excess sweetness, I really like this brew. The fruit and flower weren't overwhelming and the tartness was great. Tasting tea was a new and exciting thing for me. And no Jolly Rancher flavor!