Next time you find yourself on the breezy patio at Café Passé surrounded by mesquite and other desert plants, take a deep breath and skip the coffee.
You’re gonna want to try this ... In addition to its regular espressos and mochas, the North Fourth Avenue coffee shop pours a fermented kombucha that’s brewed in the commercial kitchen at the Mercado San Agustin, and brought over on a bicycle.
Weird, you say, “I don’t like kombucha.”
Well, until I tried this drink, neither did I! But watching the sunset, drinking this fruity fermented tea that’s been laced with a shot of gin and sweetened with berries ... it was really wonderful.
Café Passé usually carries two varieties of the Black Mountain Spring Fermentery kombucha: an apple ginger oolong and a second rotating variety, often a mixed berry. (You can order it in a cocktail, or drink it by itself.)
To create many of his kombuchas, brewer Brenden Shultz starts with oolong tea from a young farmer in China, brought in by local teahouse Seven Cups. He uses a variety of cultures in his fermentations, including those also used in Mexican tepache liqueur and saison farmhouse ale.
Shultz — a musician and performance artist who grew up on a small farm in New Hampshire and came to Tucson after touring through Europe — is very into his water. For the best quality, he brings in spring water from the San Francisco Peaks watershed outside of Flagstaff. When the water comes up from the ground, it’s “a moment of levitation,” he says.
Spritzy sweet and herbaceous from the gin, the drink is a true springtime treat. It doesn’t have an official name, but Café Passé barista Kate Roberts calls it the Healthy Helga. As far as its nutritional properties, the jury’s out. But I do know one thing: It definitely made me feel good.
