If you’d like an alcoholic beverage but aren’t craving wine, beer, or liquor, finding an alternative these days is only difficult because there are so many options, from hard cider and hard root beer to hard seltzer and hard kombucha. Santa Barbara is a hotbed for the latter, as the leading San Diego County–based brand Boochcraft reports that our city is its top seller geographically.
The “soft” version of kombucha is a probiotic-rich tea that is fermented with only a trace of alcohol, typically under one percent alcohol by volume (ABV). Once it tops 3 percent ABV, it’s deemed “hard.” Most producers make theirs between 4 and 8 percent ABV, while everything from Chula Vista–made Boochcraft clocks in at precisely 7 percent ABV, including such popular flavors as Ginger Lime Rosehips and Grapefruit Hibiscus Heather.
Though federal laws don’t allow producers to explicitly claim that hard kombucha is good for your health, the perception that it’s better for you is rooted in reality: It has less residual sugar than flavored malt beverages, is naturally gluten-free, and is kombucha at its core, to which many attribute their well-functioning guts.