by porcupine73 on Thu Oct 04, 2012 2:35 pm
I don't have a Jun Scoby. I know someone who told me she does have it, I might be able to get one from her. It is talked about briefly in The Art of Fermentation.
I have made kombucha using about 80% honey to 20% sugar. It came out just fine and didn't seem like it hurt the scoby, but I swapped the scoby for a fresh non-honey scoby every few weeks just to be safe. It doesn't taste good right out of the fermenter, but I will say, if you second ferment it in bottles for a couple weeks at room temp, then put it in the refrigerator for nearly a year -- the taste is amazing, very smooth. I discovered only by accident some bottles that were hiding and I was going to dump it, but I tried it first and was very surprised. So I promptly got to brewing with honey again and socking away a few gallon jugs of this honey brew in the fridge.
Herbal teas seem to work fine in kombucha primary ferment PROVIDED they do not contain much oils, and you still keep a good amount of black tea in the mix. I added Roobios to my tea blends, it adds a very nice agreeable flavor.