My Noma Restaurant guide to fermentation book arrived. They veritably GUSH over the possibilities of kombucha and how it can transform drinks. They use it when putting together their Non-alcoholic pairing choices for their menus and confide that there are clients who order the non-alcoholic selection to drink with their meals alongside the alcoholic choices.

For gfunkdave I’d recommend elderflower cordial to give a little interest to sparkling water. Add it to carbonated water alone, with a little apple juice, with a bit of crushed cucumber or with lemon juice, or any combination of these.

Personally, I’m finding that some of the liquids that emerge from my salt brine lacto-fermentation projects are pretty nice mixed with sparkling water or no-cal lemonade, they taste a bit like isotonic drinks but without all the sugar. Am thinking of getting some fresh lychees to lacto ferment to see if I can recreate my favourite soft drink in Japan (Kirin’s Sekai Kitchen Salty Lychee drink)