Cove Kombucha

Not the best Cove Kombucha I’ve had but also far from the worst, too. The mango was a little thin but ultimately juicy and fresh with a pleasant balance of sweetness and acidity. At times Cove can come off like drinking straight balsamic vinegar and I was relieved that wasn’t the case here. I thought the turmeric was missing almost entirely, though. I wouldn’t want a strong turmeric earthiness/bitterness but without it this did seem a bit one note/flat. Kind of a middling offering.

I didn’t remember having tried this in the past so I picked up a can when I saw it while grocery shopping earlier this week. Turns out I have had it, but it’s interesting because I feel like my experience last time was SO OPPOSITE this time. I couldn’t get into it this time around because it felt like I was drinking straight up balsamic vinegar but fizzy. Like, just soooo sharp and acidic. Last time, I didn’t feel like there was enough of that vinegar type taste. Which is, in hindsight, wild.

I guess I need a “goldilocks” can that’s somewhere in the middle.

Earlier in the month I went to a holiday market with a friend, and I ended up grabbing this kombucha from a metro for the trip home – I thought I had tried all the Cove flavours carried at this particular convenience store earlier in the summer, but I guess I missed this one!

It was very tasty and refreshing, especially after being packed into a crowded indoor market wearing a winter coat. I was feeling quite overheated. Thing is, it really tasted more like a fizzy pomegranate juice than a kombucha. Just a little too sweet and lacking that vinegar-y tang that makes kombucha. Maybe I’d get it again as a commute drink, but I think Cove has some way better flavours.

Of the three kombucha flavours from Cove Kombucha that I tried, this was the one I was most skeptical about but I actually ended up enjoying it a lot! It was more limeade than it was strawberry, but both were present and actually complimented quite beautifully and made for a very bright, summery and refreshing drink with a lot of high notes. Pretty tangy and tart, but the strawberry brought some sweetness to the mix that was a needed offset. The lime sharpness worked with the natural vinegar funk of the kombucha, though I think this was actually the least vinegar-y tasting of the three flavours anyway.

I’m so used to seeing strawberry and kiwi together or cherry and lime, so this actually felt like a fun twist on those nostalgic fruity pairings as well! I’d probably reach for the Watermelon Smash over this one, but I do recommend it! It was pretty great on a sweltering hot July afternoon.

This was my least favourite of the Cove Kombucha flavours I tried…

It didn’t actually taste much like raspberry to me, and though it definitely had the acidic pucker that I would want from a lemonade it was more leaning heavily into the kombucha vinegar profile than actually tasting “lemon-y” per say. Mostly it reminded me of a muddied and vaguely citrusy apple cider vinegar drink. I actually didn’t finish it, which is pretty rare for me when it comes to kombucha (or tea in general). It just tasted a little off to me, though…

I picked up a bunch of kombucha from Cove this past week, while my mom was visiting, so that I could have something cold to drink in the evenings on the nights I was staying at her Airbnb. This was my favourite of the ones I tried. The watermelon is really apparent in the first half of the sip and it has a taste that’s a bit like a cross of the more mellow and refreshing light “watery” (pun not intended) flavours of actual melon mixed with the more sweet and sour taste of a watermelon Jolly Rancher. Equal parts natural and more ‘manufactured’…

My mom really hated this one because she said all she tasted was pickle juice, and while I think she was definitely exaggerating because of her dislike of vinegar-y flavours I have to admit that even I found the finish of this kombucha especially vinegary for a kombucha and even I tasted a little bit of a pickle-y funk. However, I actually enjoyed that aspect of the kombucha and I thought it made those front notes of watermelon a lot more interesting and dynamic.