- We're all about that 'buch.
- Let's talk about that.
(slow groovy music)
Good Mythical Morning.
- We're touring just one more short stretch this year,
so come on out and see us live on stage
in Phoenix, Albuquerque, Sacramento,
and the Los Angeles area.
Check out RhettandLinkLive.com for tickets.
- Yes!
Kombucha, - Bless you.
- is a fermented and effervescent tea that is produced
through the creation of a symbiotic culture
made up of bacteria and yeast.
Yes, I know all.
Now chances are, if you commonly brunch, hike,
or use the hashtag fitspo, you're already a Kombucha fan,
possibly because of its many purported health benefits.
- Okay, but, if you're new to this probiotic phenomenon
and you're not sure if you wanna smooch the 'buch,
we're here to help you pick the best one.
It's time for we're about to taste more bacteria
than the bottom of a seat in a high school cafeteria.
AKA, it's a kombucha taste test.
Behold, the new and improved helmet flavor taster.
AKA, the HFT 3.0.
- Hello.
For the uninitiated, kombucha is produced by fermenting
sugared tea with a SCOBY, which is an acronym,
short for symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.
People often call the SCOBY the mother or the mushroom.
- We actually grew one using Paisley's shoe.
- Ew!
There are little bugs.
- Now, we've gathered the top selling brands
and picked the most popular flavor of each brand.
We're gonna be tasting and ranking these
to determine the best overall and that winning kombucha
will receive the honor of being chugged by the luchador
who adores kombucha for sure.
- Let's start the yeast beast.
- [Both] Round one.
- [Rhett] Okay, Chase, release the 'buch.
- All right.
- [Link] It's loading up.
- [Rhett] Oh, it's so fizzy.
- All right.
The tubes are loaded for Health-Ade Kombucha,
pink lady apple.
Pink lady apple, is pink lady apple a thing?
Pink lady apple. - I hope so.
- That's just what they're calling it.
- I know what pink lady is.
- Is there a pink lady apple
or is this just something they came up with?
Who cares, let's just see if it tastes good.
So, ready?
- Already went, man.
(crew laughing)
Tastes like a lady.
- First time you taste kombucha, you might think
you're just drinking vinegar.
Once you start to expect it, you start to desire it.
And that's what happened to me,
because I moved to Los Angeles.
- We've changed in so many ways.
You taste the pink lady apple?
- Oh yeah, it definitely tastes like fizzy apple juice.
It tastes like the apple juice my kids drink
when they pretend to get blitzed.
- I feel like I don't have much, I can't really decipher
the differences in kombucha, but that's the whole point
of what we're doing and now I'm panicking a little bit.
'Cause I would just be like "oh, it's just kombucha."
- No, no, no, it's very apple-y.
I think once you taste the next one, you'll see,
and we'll be able to move these in the ranking
but for now, I mean, if you like apple juice,
I think you'd really like this and I love apple juice.
- And this one, incidentally, was started by a husband,
a wife, and a best friend.
Kinky.
(crew laughing)
- We'll leave it at number two for now.
- [Both] Round two.
- Let 'er rip, Chase.
This is GT's Synergy, trilogy flavor.
- Oh yeah.
- One of their best sellers.
The trilogy is raspberry, ginger, and lemon.
In my mind, this is the one I see
in every single grocery store.
- Yeah, very common.
- Very popular.
See if it lives up to its popularity.
- We're gonna douse the mouth.
- Woo!
That ginger's got a kick, I like it!
- But if you drink just the ginger one,
it's almost too much.
'Cause I don't love ginger, but this is nice
'cause you get the bite of the ginger
but you get the berries to kind of make your mouth
a little happier.
- I feel like if you're gonna make the decision
to drink kombucha, you should really know
that you're drinking kombucha.
And I know that I'm drinking kombucha
when I'm drinking this kombucha.
- And it's more quintessentially kombucha tasting
than the apple juice-ness of the Health-Ade kombucha.
So I agree with you.
I want to embrace the kombucha experience,
not mask it as a kid's boxed drink.
- [Both] Round three.
- [Link] All right Chase, release the hounds.
This is the KeVita Master Brew Kombucha,
straight up ginger flavor.
- Oh, we're going for it.
- This is also the most economical kombucha
that we'll be tasting today.
50 cents cheaper than GT's.
- It was founded in 2009 when organic winemaker
Bill Moses and holistic nutritionist Chakra Earthsong
joined forces in Ojai.
You think Chakra Earthsong is the given name of that person?
- Absolutely.
- Or do you think they gave themselves that name?
(Link laughing)
- Oh, I have no clue, Rhett.
So let's taste this.
(crew laughing)
- Havin' trouble, Chakra?
- It went on my face.
- You need to get into rhythm with your inner earth song.
- Now, I kinda already showed my cards
in terms of what I think
of just the straight up ginger flavor.
It's very accurate, it really packs a punch.
It makes it feel like it's getting those probiotics
working, but that's all just a flavor illusion.
- But I think I have to agree with you
that I think that when the ginger edge is taken off
by the raspberry and the lemon, it's a more full flavor.
You might even call it a trilogy of flavors.
- Right.
- And that's better than the straight up ginger.
- [Link] But is the ginger better than the apple juice?
You couldn't even taste the apple.
- I thought it was good, but I thought it tasted
too much like apple juice.
If the Rhettster's gonna have apple juice,
he's just gonna have apple juice.
- But I'm voting for, I like the apple better
than I like ginger.
We're split on this one.
- I'm not as concerned about that.
To me, it's really what's the best one
and at this point, I feel like GT's is in the lead.
- [Both] Round four.
- [Rhett] Open 'er up, Chase.
Okay, now we Brew Dr., Clear Mind flavor.
- Now all kombucha, including Brew Dr., contains some level
of alcohol but it's--
- Right, 'cause of the fermentation process.
- Like, .5% or something like that.
- Sometimes they let it go a little further
and they let it brew longer or they let it ferment longer
and they add more sugar and it can get, you know,
into like two, 3% or whatever, but most of them
are around half a percent.
Now this one in particular is a beginner kombucha
for those acquiring the taste.
- Beginner?
- Oh, subtle.
- [Link] Wow.
- Did I even just have kombucha or did I have water?
You know, that's the question I'm asking.
- Yeah, I mean especially after tasting the other kombuchas.
- It could be water that you left out.
Like water you left in the basement.
It's like "oh, I forgot when we were moving stuff down here,
"I put this water bottle down here seven years ago.
"Let me taste the water."
- I think that might how you're describing how tea is made.
- Yeah, it's like basement tea.
- What you're tasting, I think,
is actually you're tasting tea.
To me, I taste tea just as equal to kombucha.
- But kombucha is tea.
Let that clear your mind.
- Didn't help, actually.
It has a tea taste, unlike any other kombucha.
- It has the best bottle.
I mean this guy's a short, stout bottle.
I mean, that's not what we're doing now.
I like it.
It makes me feel like I'm doing something good for myself.
- I'm not a big tea drinker, so the more tea forward,
the more I'm gonna rank it down.
- I don't disagree with that.
So we can put it down there.
What I will say for those, I don't disagree
that if you're trying to acquire the taste of kombucha,
there's a little bit of kombucha-ness to it,
so it's not gonna be like oh, I gotta spit it out
which some of these other ones might do
if you were trying for the first time.
- You might love it, but it's not working for us.
- [Both] Round five.
- [Link] Load the liquid tunnel.
Boy, that's a promising sound Rhett.
We're about to drink some Humm mango passionfruit kombucha.
It's got a nice prosumer label,
they're really marketing this--
- [Rhett] Prosumer?
- For mass consumption.
- Usually that's for like cameras.
- Well, compared to the others, which are like medical
and like highty tighty, hoity toity.
- You think looks a little more approachable?
- A more prosumer, yeah.
- Kinda makes you go "humm."
Okay, Humm has a proprietary process of fermentation
that actually prevents the kombucha from reaching
alcoholic volume of over .5%.
- Gotta backtrack my statement.
- On the back, it says verified non-alcoholic.
If that's something, if you're trying to avoid
all alcohol at all costs, you can do it with this one.
- Hit it.
- Oh, yes baby.
- That is a fun, fun flavor time.
- It almost is too good.
I feel like kombucha should be a little bad.
You know what I'm saying? - Yes.
- The fact that it's tasting so good,
I'm like, I don't think it's kombucha.
I'm having too much fun.
- Let me put that another way.
It tastes like Kool-Aid.
- Yeah, it does.
(crew laughing)
Hold on, no, here's the thing.
If you had Kool-Aid right along side this,
you'd be like Kool-Aid is sickeningly sweet.
This is not sickeningly sweet.
It's really sweet compared to the other ones.
I really like this, Link.
- It doesn't have a punch, man.
- I agree with you.
- Where's the punch of kombucha?
- Sometimes I want to be caressed.
- I want to get punched in the face by my kombucha.
- Can I have both?
- If I want to be caressed, I'll drink a nice milky thing.
- Listen, I want to go into the fight.
I want to be ripped apart.
And then I want to be cradled like a big baby.
I want both things to happen.
Can you mix kombuchas?
Is that on the table?
- I mean, I'm not saying, it can't be
the second best kombucha.
It's not enough kombucha.
- Here's what I'll say.
I think it's the best kombucha I've ever had.
But I don't think we can make it number one
because it's too good and kombucha is supposed
to taste a little crappy.
- Here for now.
- [Both] Round six.
- Turn it and burn it, Chase.
Okay, we have Wild Tonic kombucha, blueberry basil flavor.
Now this is actually known as something as jun-kombucha
because it is made, instead of sugar, it's made with honey,
with real honey, honey.
- Now this is freaking expensive.
The most expensive we're gonna be tasting.
$8.50 for a 16 ounce bottle.
I mean, they kinda, they make it look like,
like a bottle of wine.
- Almost.
It is known as the champagne of kombuchas,
according to themselves.
So let's see if they live up to their own hype, Link.
Don't know if I like it.
- Hold on, we gotta deal with our expectations before we--
- Basil, it's the basil.
- But hold on, the first thing that hits is the honey.
I mean, immediately it's the sweetness of honey,
the effervescence, if I were to rank these
in like how effervescent-y--
- That's not what we're doing, mind you.
- I mean, I'm just trying to prove the point
that it's like, it's half as effervescent as the GT's.
- You can't call yourself the champagne of kombucha
and be this non-effervescent.
- All that being said, I was surprised by the taste.
It's unlike anything I've ever experienced in my mouth, man.
- Well, okay, I will say that on all of these,
even one that tasted like basement water,
I would continue drinking it until it was gone.
I'm not having a bad experience with anything, again,
and I feel like almost like when you drink like a,
a whisky, there's a part of you that's like kind of hating
yourself as you're doing it.
You're like, but you're like, it's so good, come try this.
- Depends on how much you're drinking.
- I feel like kombucha is doing the same thing.
So I agree with you that this one can't be the best
because you gotta have a little bit of something
you're trying to overcome.
For me, this is too much to overcome.
- But it's such an interesting experience occasionally.
I feel like special occasions.
- We're on the same page that we're moving GT's,
the one that's already in our minds the most popular
to the top, maybe it's popular for a reason.
- I think so, for now.
- And again, the best tasting one is number two.
(Rhett laughing)
Keep in mind, this does taste the best.
- But we're gonna have to duke this out because,
but let's go ahead and say the lowest two spots
in this particular episode are more about the fact
that these are outliers, not necessarily horrible.
- So to me, it's about whether or not you like,
you wanna go the ginger-y route or the apple route
and it's personal preference at this point.
- Let's leave them both here.
- Okay, I don't have strong feelings about that.
- They tie for third place.
And then there is no second place and that goes to third--
- Oh, no, this is the best tasting kombucha!
It's gotta be second place, you know how it works.
- I don't disagree.
But I think, you know how this works.
I mean.
- How does it work?
Three-way tie?
Hey, three-way tie, that's the only compromise.
- You know how it works.
- Okay, well that doesn't do, you can move them
all down to you, that's fine.
- This is .75, .5, .25.
- What we're saying though is if you're gonna try
a kombucha, get GT's.
Let's bring in the luchador who adores kombucha for sure.
- I am the luchador who adores kombucha for sure.
Thank you for this luchador, por favor,
now I will drink more.
- He's going to drink the entire thing,
ladies and gentlemen.
Which is not advised.
- I mean, my belly's hurting with what I drank.
(Rhett laughing)
Don't quit.
- He's turning away. - Don't turn away.
- He's turning away in shame. - Come on.
(Luchador coughing)
- Give me more, por favor.
I am a luchador who adores kombucha for sure.
- Oh gosh, he's still going for it.
- Yeah, yeah, probiotics.
Probiotics, probiotics.
- Yes, half of that was backwash.
Oh. (crew applauding)
That get on my back?
- Wow, he adores it, for sure.
He's fine, he's gonna be fine.
- Give him more, por favor.
- Thanks for liking, commenting, and subscribing.
- You know what time it is.
- Hey Rhett and Link, it's Brittany,
AKA kombucha girl and this is me trying to decide
if it's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
It's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
- Hey, hey! - Yes!
- Kombucha girl!
Thank you for that.
Click the top link to watch Mythical crew members
try kombucha for first time ever in Good Mythical More.
- And to find out where
the Wheel of Mythicality's gonna land.
These mugs won't be around forever.
Hurry up and grab the set at Mythical.com.