Love is actually NOT the secret ingredient - GT's Pure Love Kombucha - Winter Edition

Another blog post, another seasonal kombucha. Let's jump right into it! 

Visions of Sugar Plums danced down my drain...

Continuing the trend of  knocking out seasonal stuff before it gets too late, I have this wintery kombucha I picked up at Lidl. 

I used to grab kombucha at Aldi, they had an in-house line with three main flavors and the Cherry Cassis was my favorite, but they've been MIA for a few years now. Thankfully Lidl keeps the kombucha coming. They have in-house brands, name brands, and rotating seasonal flavors. I could have sworn I had already tried this one, but it is no where to be found on the blog, so, here we go! 

Cookie-bucha - Health-ade Holiday Cheers

Happy Almost New Year! I'm back! 

After my last post, I tested positive for COVID, and the symptoms hit me hard and fast. Much worse than when I had it before. Luckily, I had bought my cats a heating pad on Black Friday, because it came in clutch for the body aches. By day three, I lost my sense of smell and taste. (Which took all the fun out of my scented candle advent calendar.) 

It took five days for my sense of smell to return, but it was pretty weak, and my taste was definitely off. Garlic, something I cook with and eat all the time, tasted unnaturally sweet, almost like a caramel. And in every form! I tried powdered seasoning, fresh garlic, and some garlic infused olive oil just to make sure something didn't expire on me, but it was me. ("I'm the problem, it's me.") It took two and a half weeks for my body to bounce back.

So, I'm here to celebrate with some seasonal kombucha! 

When I spotted this, the gold and white made me think this was a New Years' item. So, I assumed this was like, champagne-themed or something. But, if I had bothered to read the label, this is vanilla, allspice, and cacao flavored? So, cookies? Cookie-bucha? I don't know about that...

Fall-bucha - Apple, Cinnamon, Vanilla and Clove flavored Kombucha

The blog has accidently turned into mostly-Lidl reviews. It makes sense, since I've been shopping there a lot lately, and they really went all-in with interesting fall themed products, but for the sake of variety, I promise my next review will be non-Lidl. 

Today we are still Lidl-ing it up, this time with a a seasonal kombucha: apple, cinnamon, vanilla and clove.

I love kombucha, and have tried a lot of flavors over the years, but my preferences typically lean into berry based flavors like cherry, raspberry, or cranberry. So this apple, cinnamon, vanilla, and clove option is pretty different for me. 

Will it be a good-different? I guess we'll see. 

What does Hibiscus Taste Like?

Hibiscus Lemonade Kombucha - Lidl

Another day, Another 'bucha. 

I'm very familiar with lemonade, not so much hibiscus. I know what the flower looks like, they're pretty, and tropical. The flower of choice amongst surfers, Hawaiian shirt lovers and various resort wear companies. I know they tends to turn food and drinks they're in pink. But that's it. 

Is it perfume-y? Fruity? Will this kombucha taste like grandma's perfume? Pairing anything with lemon is usually a safe bet, so I'm not nervous. More-so curious to see what hibiscus will bring to the table. 

When opened, the kombucha has it's classic fermented tea tanginess, but it's extra sour. Like lemon juice. It smells tart, tangy and juicy, but right off the bat this makes me think of lemons more than it does lemonade, and I don't detect anything floral. Is hibiscus sour? 

I'll google hibiscus flavoring after I try it. I don't want it to influence me. 

The Blue Chill - Blueberry Lavender Kombucha

Blue Chill Blueberry Lavender Kombucha 

Aldi dropped the 'bucha-ball. I think it's safe to say they've discontinued their trio of standard flavors, so now, other than Blood Orange, they don't offer any unique flavors. Not even rotating seasonal ones. (At least not consistently.) 

Lidl on the other hand is always offering something new. I really loved their last flavor, so I went back to stock up, but it's switched over to summer. Which apparently means blueberry lavender.

You Bet'cha 'Bucha! - Lidl Seasonal Kombucha

Cranberry Cherry Kombucha 

Aldi used to have this house brand kombucha line that I loved, and my favorite flavor was the cherry cassis, but I haven't seen it in ages. In fact, a lot of my old Aldi staples have been MIA for a while now. No more balsamic glaze, no more pizza pockets, no more 3-packs of onions (one white, one red, one yellow), and now no more kombucha? Aldi, my love, where did things go wrong? 

With prices on the rise, and not being able to find my favorite products, I have been gravitating towards their competitor, Lidl, more and more. Not only does Lidl offer coupons, and mark products down as they near their expiration date meaning you can scoop up items for 30-50% off their already low prices, but they have a very healthy kombucha section with seasonal rotating flavors. Like this one.

KÖE Fruit Forward Kombucha

KÖE Organic Kombucha - Gift 

If you're new here, I have a reaction to sucralose, which is a very commonly used artificial sweetener. A sip is fine, but a normal 12-16oz beverage containing the stuff can trigger vertigo that will not go away without medical intervention. Vertigo, for those lucky people who've never experienced it, causes a feeling of dizziness. This can range from mild annoyance to debilitating. For me, I was bedridden for over 24 hours while I attempted to "sleep it off," but I ended up in the ER where they finally gave me medicine that made it stop. 

Sucralose is in a LOT of products (Sparkling ICE beverages were the cause of my ER visit), so I avoid them like the plague. That said, A PR rep for this kombucha brand reached out and sent me a pack of all five flavors to try. So while I got these products for free, this is not a paid promotion, and I always say exactly what I think, so this is, like always, a honest review. These contain less than 2% of erythritol, and I am not a foodie scientist (I'll leave that to CandyHunting), but after reading this 2005 article about sucralose vs erythritol, I felt safe enough to give these a try. 

We have 5 flavors in total, Strawberry Lemonade, Tropical, Lemon Lime, Raspeberyr Dragonfruit and Blueberry Ginger.  

A Taste of Summer in the Dead of Winter - Peach Hibiscus Kombucha

Lidl Peach Hibiscus Summer Tropics Kombucha

For the record, this isn't one of my "oops, I meant to review this," products. I'm not sure if this is a super early release, or leftover stock from summer, but there was tons of it on the shelves at Lidl and it's not expired. Why not give it a shot? It can be a little taste of summer as I prepare for more snow on Sunday. 

2 Watermelon Kombuchas - Battle of the "Booch"

GT Watermelon Wonder and Lidl's Organic Spring Fling Kombucha  - from Lidl

I live for the summer, but I also adore Halloween, so I find myself feeling very conflicted when the season starts to change, and it's hitting me harder this year than ever before. On one hand, the days get shorter, and the temperature drops, so no more sun and tank tops, but there's Halloween candy and spooky decor to look forward to, which warms my black little heart. 

Why can't there be a real Summerween, like in Gravity Falls? It's like it was custom made for me!

Anyway, I spotted these watermelon themed kombucha flavors at Lidl and thought they would be a fun foodie send off for the dumpster-fire that was summer 2020.

Asian Pear & Ginger Kombucha - Aldi

Asian Pear & Ginger Kombucha - Aldi

Has it really been a few weeks since I've reviewed an Aldi item? Time to fix that! 

A year ago Aldi sold these Kombucha Wonder Drinks and I reviewed the black cherry version. It was pretty good, not great, but much better than I was expecting a fermented tea to taste and I easily finished off the bottle. Since then, kombucha's popularity has grown and it's become pretty mainstream. You can now buy several flavors of kombucha at one-stop convenience stores like Walmart and Target! Since I didn't quite fall in love with my first bottle I decided to grab another to see if a different flavor could win me over. (And see if I can better understand the overall appeal of this fermented food and beverage trend.)  

Kombucha Wonder Drink (Cherry Cassis) - Aldi: Cherry Hill, NJ

Kombucha Wonder Drink (Cherry Cassis) - Aldi: Cherry Hill, NJ

I learned about Kombucha a few years ago in one of EmmymadeinJapan's videos. Since then, I've noticed several brands being sold at the Asian Markets I frequent, but I never felt compelled to pick a bottle up for myself. From what I understand it's a fermented tea, and that doesn't sound like something I'd enjoy. (I hate beer and other fermented stuff so I figured I'd pass on it.)  Recently, I've noticed that Kombucha has been making it's way into Americanized grocery stores like Target and Wegman's, but now it's even made it's way to Aldi! Since I am a sucker for anything Aldi sells ever, I thought I might as well give this a try. (Plus it was fairly cheap.)