Kombucha substitutes

The simplest way to replace kombucha's acidity, which is mostly acetic acid, the same acid vinegar is built on. Use raw unfiltered cider vinegar if you have it.

Best for

marinades for chicken, pork and tofu, salad dressings and slaws, braises and pan sauces, tenderising and brightening

Sharper and flatter than kombucha, without the fruity tea sweetness or the fizz, so a marinade made with it tastes cleanly sour rather than round and cidery. Half a teaspoon of honey or a splash of apple juice per cup closes most of that gap. Taste as you go: undiluted vinegar is much stronger than kombucha and will overwhelm a dressing.

A rebuild of the drink itself, sometimes called a switchel or a homemade shrub. Add ginger, mint or lemon to taste.

Best for

drinking in place of kombucha, mocktails and spritzers, cutting through a rich meal, when you want no alcohol and no caffeine

Genuinely close on flavour and fizz, and it takes thirty seconds. What it does not have is the live culture, the slight yeasty funk or the faint tea bitterness. It is also caffeine-free and alcohol-free, which kombucha is not quite, so it suits anyone avoiding either. Adjust the vinegar down to a teaspoon if it tastes too sharp.

Sugar water fermented with kefir grains, producing a light, fizzy, mildly tart drink. The nearest thing to kombucha among live fermented drinks.

Best for

a live fermented drink, flavoured fizzy drinks with fruit or ginger, smoothies and dressings, replacing kombucha one for one

Lighter, less sour and much less tea-like, so it tastes like a delicate fizzy lemonade rather than a vinegary cider. In cooking it brings less acidity than kombucha, so add a squeeze of lemon if the recipe was relying on kombucha for tang. Do not boil it if the live culture is the point, since heat kills it.

Cultured dairy, tart and live, which covers kombucha's acidity and fermented character in anything where dairy makes sense.

Best for

marinades for chicken and lamb, quick breads, pancakes and soda bread, dressings and cold soups, smoothies

Creamy, thick and dairy-tangy rather than clear, fizzy and vinegary, which changes the texture as much as the flavour, so a batter made with kefir is richer and softer-crumbed. It is a good acid for reacting with baking soda, arguably more reliable than kombucha, whose acidity varies from bottle to bottle. Not an option in a clear drink or a vinaigrette.

Other fermented, lightly fizzy drinks. Beet or bread kvass is savoury and earthy; a naturally fermented ginger beer is sweet and hot.

Best for

drinking, cocktails and mocktails, savoury applications, in the case of kvass, glazes and braises

All are fermented and fizzy but flavoured quite differently. Ginger beer is far sweeter and spicier, so cut the recipe's sugar and expect a distinctly gingery result. Kvass is earthy and bready and works well in a braise or a savoury dressing but tastes strange in a fruity spritzer. Check the label: many commercial ginger beers are simply carbonated and sweetened, with no fermentation at all.

The liquid from live sauerkraut or fermented pickles: sour, salty and full of the same lactic tang.

Best for

savoury marinades and braises, dressings for hearty salads, bloody-mary style drinks and shots, adding acidity to soups and beans

Very sour and, importantly, very salty, which is the part people forget, so cut the salt elsewhere in the recipe and start with half the volume of kombucha called for. The flavour is cabbagey and lactic rather than fruity and tea-like, which is excellent in a pork braise or a bean soup and wrong in anything sweet.