Kombucha

Kombucha, a tea that has undergone fermentation

Kombucha is fermented tea, prepared with sugar and aged for days by a culture of yeasts and bacteria. The end result is fresh, tart, and lightly sparkling in the glass. At Nur Gutes, it comes from a workshop in Copenhagen, double-fermented to 0.0 percent alcohol, with lavender, rugosa rose, or bee pollen. It comes in a sparkling wine bottle with a cork and wire cage and is neither lemonade nor dealcoholized wine.

Kombucha is created when sweetened tea lives for several days with a symbiotic community of yeasts and bacteria. This culture converts the sugar first into alcohol and then into mild acid. On this shelf, you will find kombucha from København Kombucha, started in 2019 by Louise Benkjær Limbach in Copenhagen and fermented down to a true zero. It is available as Hidcote Blue with lavender, as Rosa Rugosa with rose petals, and as Bee Pollen with bee pollen.

From the tea fungus on the windowsill to the sparkling wine bottle

Long before kombucha was bottled, it grew in mason jars on windowsills as a rubbery patty known as a tea fungus.

It is not actually a fungus. The mat consists of cellulose spun by the bacteria themselves, and it is inhabited by yeasts and acetic acid bacteria. The yeasts break down the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, while the bacteria take the alcohol and turn it into acetic acid, gluconic acid, and lactic acid. After eight days, the mixture still tastes sweet; after twenty to thirty days, it has turned into vinegar, and somewhere in between lies the moment when it is just right.

The brew reached Central Europe via Russia, where fermented drinks like bread kvass are part of everyday life. It appeared in a document in 1852, and by the beginning of the twentieth century, it was a staple in German kitchens. It owes its name to a confusion, as konbucha in Japanese is an infusion of seaweed.

The fermented tea is called kōcha kinoko there and sparked a trend starting in 1975, while the word "kombucha" was already appearing in a British chemistry journal in 1928. It first came onto the market bottled in the late nineties, and today it is found in sparkling wine bottles.

Lavender, rugosa rose, and bee pollen from Copenhagen

On this shelf are the varieties from København Kombucha, all with 0.0 percent alcohol, all in 750-milliliter bottles with cork and wire cage.

The golden-yellow Hidcote Blue with lavender and ginger is the firstborn, named after a lavender variety with particularly dark blossoms. It smells of lavender, ginger, and crushed yellow apple, and Jyllands-Posten gave it 91 points. The dusty-pink Rosa Rugosa with rose petals and hibiscus bears the name of the rugosa rose, which grows in the sand on Danish coasts. It tastes like strawberry and raspberry, even though there isn't a single berry in the bottle.

The Bee Pollen with bee pollen goes in a different direction—earthy and mineral, with a honey note that only emerges at the end and remains dry. All three are made from oolong tea, sugar, water, and the respective flower or pollen, plus kombucha cultures and carbon dioxide—nothing else. The 5.5 grams of sugar per 100 milliliters are what remained from the cultures, at 28 kilocalories. Each variety is also available in a box of six bottles.

Raw or pasteurized, half a percent or true zero

In front of this shelf, the decision is less about the variety and more about whether the drink remains raw or is heated, as the alcohol content in the bottle depends on this.

Raw kombucha is not heated after fermentation, and its cultures continue to work in the bottle. That is why it belongs in the refrigerator and should be consumed quickly. The longer it sits, the drier it becomes and the more alcohol can accumulate. Usually, it stays below 0.5 percent alcohol, and up to this level, a drink is still considered non-alcoholic in retail.

In Copenhagen, they wanted a true zero and let the bacteria work until the alcohol was broken down. Afterward, it is gently heated twice—after fermentation and after bottling—so the 0.0 percent alcohol content remains stable for months. Carbon dioxide is added for the effervescence and is listed as an ingredient on the label. The cork pops when opened, and that was exactly the intention.

Louise, Nicolas, and bacteria in high-altitude training

Behind every bottle on this shelf is Louise Benkjær Limbach, who began fermenting in 2019 in Copenhagen in a borrowed kitchen.

The kitchen belonged to Francis Cardenau, the first chef in Scandinavia to earn two Michelin stars at Copenhagen’s Le Kommandant. Still in 2019, Louise sent her lavender kombucha to the Danish product competition Sol over Gudhjem and won, even before the company existed. Nicolas Limbach has led the company since 2023, and that was the year the entire line was converted to 0.0 percent alcohol and long shelf life.

“We had to train our bacteria, make them stronger—like athletes in high-altitude training,” says Nicolas about the path to zero. The company headquarters is located on Slagtehusgade in Kødbyen, Copenhagen’s old meatpacking district, and production initially took place in Nordhavn. Today, specialized partners in Germany handle the bottling, hence the German organic control number on the label.

In Michelin-starred Danish establishments like Jordnær and Kadeau, the kombucha is served in the glass where wine would otherwise be, and around two-thirds of the bottles are exported. For 2026, the workshop has introduced a sommelier line in which kombucha and tea are created separately and only come together at the end. You can find the full portrait of the workshop at København Kombucha.

In a white wine glass, with oysters, hard cheese, and dessert

Kombucha from a sparkling wine bottle belongs well-chilled in a white wine glass, because in a narrow flute, lavender and rose get no air.

Seven to nine degrees Celsius is correct for Hidcote Blue and Rosa Rugosa, while the Bee Pollen can be a little colder at six to eight degrees. One bottle yields four to six glasses, and once opened, it stays fresh in the refrigerator for two days because the cork and wire cage hold the pressure. Open the bottle calmly while upright; the pressure is significant.

At the table, the bottle takes the place of wine, and its acidity clears the palate for the next bite. Hidcote Blue likes cured salmon, roasted asparagus, and a bowl of miso. Bee Pollen stands alongside oysters, sushi, and sardines on toasted bread. Rosa Rugosa holds its own against aged hard cheese before really coming into its own with dessert accompanied by dark chocolate.

A toast for the whole group

If someone at the table isn't drinking alcohol, there is a bottle ready here that gives a satisfying pop when opened.

For New Year’s Eve, weddings, and Dry January, these guests get the same beautiful bottle as everyone else, with a cork, wire cage, and 0.0 percent alcohol. If you want to buy kombucha for guests, pick up a box of six bottles and chill them in good time.

Next door are the relatives, and each of them answers the question of a non-alcoholic drink in its own way. Sparkling Tea is infused tea with added carbon dioxide and no fermentation at all; Fruchtsecco is never fermented from the start, and non-alcoholic wine has the alcohol removed afterward. If you want to keep browsing, you can find everything without alcohol in the non-alcoholic drinks section and the bubbly versions under Sparkling non-alcoholic.

From the windowsill to the wire cage, a tea fungus can hardly come any further.