The Standard
How we decide what real kombucha looks like — and how every Singapore brand is measured against it
Every brand reviewed on KombuchaSG is assessed using the same scorecard. No exceptions. No adjustments for brand size, price point, or marketing claims.
The scorecard is published here — in full, before any brand reviews go live — so that every verdict we deliver is defensible, transparent, and grounded in criteria you can evaluate yourself.
This is The Standard. It exists so that readers can apply it independently, without needing to rely on our reviews.
🤖 AI-Assisted Scoring
All brand scores on KombuchaSG are produced using AI-assisted analysis applied consistently against the criteria on this page. The AI evaluates publicly available ingredient lists, nutrition panels, and front-of-pack claims — the same information any informed consumer can access at the chiller. The criteria are fixed, transparent, and applied identically to every brand. If you believe a score contains an error, please use the Contact page to submit a correction request.
📝 Editor’s Tasting Note
Where a product has been physically purchased and tasted, the review includes an Editor’s Tasting Note covering aroma, carbonation, flavour, and overall drinking experience. This section is entirely separate from the scorecard and has no influence on the numerical score.
Taste is inherently subjective. What one person finds pleasantly tart, another may find too vinegary. What reads as complex to one drinker may taste unfamiliar to another. The tasting note is one person’s experience of one bottle on one occasion — a reference point, not a definitive verdict. Authentic kombucha also varies naturally between batches, so a tasting note reflects the specific bottle assessed.
Why a Scorecard?
Kombucha is one of the most misrepresented categories in the Singapore beverage market.
The word kombucha is unregulated. Any brand can print it on a label regardless of how the drink was actually made. Claims like natural, probiotic, and live cultures are commonplace on shelves — and in Singapore, none of them is governed by a legal definition or a required standard of proof.
This creates a problem for consumers who genuinely care about what they are drinking.
A scorecard solves this by replacing vague impressions with measurable criteria. Instead of asking does this feel like real kombucha, we ask seven specific questions — and the answers are drawn entirely from what is, or is not, on the label.
The 7-Criteria Authenticity Scorecard
Each brand reviewed on KombuchaSG receives a score out of 100. The criteria and their weightings are fixed. They are applied identically to every brand.
1 — SCOBY Origin and Integrity
15 pointsThe SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast) is the biological engine of kombucha. A live, healthy, well-maintained SCOBY — cultivated over time, passed down, or sourced from a documented culture — is the foundation of authentic fermentation.
Some commercially produced drinks labelled as kombucha are made using shortcuts: concentrated acidulants, added vinegar, or starter cultures that produce a kombucha-like flavour without genuine SCOBY-driven fermentation. These approaches can produce a drink that looks and tastes similar but is not the product of true live fermentation.
2 — Carbonation Source
15 pointsAuthentic kombucha gets its fizz from a second fermentation — the process of sealing the kombucha in bottles with natural flavouring ingredients and allowing the live cultures to continue producing CO₂. This produces a fine, natural carbonation that is integrated into the drink.
Adding carbonated water or sparkling water to a kombucha base is a shortcut that bypasses second fermentation entirely. The carbonation is artificial in origin — a separate industrial process — and the result is a different product.
3 — Flavouring Method
15 pointsAuthentic kombucha is flavoured using whole fruits, botanicals, herbs, flowers, roots, or spices — real ingredients that interact with the live culture during second fermentation, contributing depth, complexity, and natural variation.
Artificial flavours or vague declarations such as flavouring or natural flavouring (without specifying the ingredient) are shortcuts that replace real ingredients with manufactured compounds. They contribute nothing to the fermentation process.
4 — Live Cultures at Point of Sale
15 pointsKombucha is a living product. Its health value — and its authenticity — depends on live cultures surviving from the point of production through to the moment of consumption. Pasteurisation kills these cultures. A pasteurised kombucha is not a living product.
Lab-verified CFU (Colony Forming Unit) counts, visible culture activity in the bottle, or confirmed unpasteurised status are all indicators of genuine live culture kombucha.
5 — Sugar Content After Fermentation
15 pointsSugar is an essential input — the SCOBY consumes it during fermentation. The longer and more complete the fermentation, the less residual sugar remains in the final drink. Well-fermented, authentic kombucha typically contains 2–4g of sugar per 100ml.
High residual sugar (above 6g per 100ml) may indicate a shortened fermentation, additional sugar added post-fermentation, or a production process that prioritises sweetness over authenticity.
6 — Ingredient Transparency
15 pointsA brand confident in what it puts in the bottle names every ingredient specifically. Black tea, fresh mango, ginger root, filtered water — these are transparent declarations. Natural flavouring, flavour, colour (150d) — these are not.
Ingredient transparency is the clearest single indicator of whether a brand considers its consumers worth informing. It also determines whether any of the other scorecard criteria can be assessed with confidence.
7 — Production Integrity
10 pointsAuthentic kombucha is inherently a craft product. SCOBY-driven fermentation requires consistent monitoring, controlled conditions, and time — factors that do not scale easily to industrial volumes. Small-batch production, founder-led or craft operations, and traceable sourcing are meaningful indicators of a brand that takes the process seriously.
This criterion carries the lowest weighting because it is the hardest to verify independently. We assess it based on available information: brand transparency about their process, batch sizes, and sourcing.
Score Badges
Every brand reviewed on KombuchaSG receives one of three badges based on their total score.
| Score | Badge | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 80 – 100 | ✅ Authentic | Meets all or most genuine kombucha criteria |
| 50 – 79 | 🟡 Partially Authentic | Some authentic attributes — but notable compromises |
| 0 – 49 | 🔴 Commercial Grade | Significant shortcuts that compromise authenticity |
Multi-Flavour Scoring Rule
Many Singapore kombucha brands offer multiple flavours, each with its own ingredient list. Where flavours in a brand’s range differ in their ingredients, KombuchaSG scores the brand on its lowest-performing flavour.
A brand’s authenticity is only as strong as its weakest product. A brand that uses whole botanicals in nine flavours but declares “natural flavouring” in one is still a brand that uses vague flavouring declarations — and the scorecard reflects that. This rule is stated explicitly at the top of every multi-flavour brand review on this site.
The scoring rule applies to the Flavouring Method and Ingredient Transparency criteria, where flavour-specific ingredient differences have the most direct impact. SCOBY, carbonation, live cultures, sugar content, and production integrity are typically assessed at brand level unless a specific flavour provides evidence that changes the finding.
The Editor’s Tasting Score
Every brand review on KombuchaSG includes an Editor’s Tasting Note alongside the scorecard. The tasting note is personal and subjective — it reflects the experience of the KombuchaSG editor, not the scorecard criteria. It is clearly labelled as such and carries no weight in the scorecard total.
To make the tasting note comparable across brands, it uses a simple 4-criterion scoring system with a maximum of 20 points. The four criteria measure things the scorecard cannot — what it actually feels and tastes like to drink the product.
| Criterion | What it measures | Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fermentation Character | Does it taste like real, live kombucha? Tartness, depth, vinegar complexity. | 5 |
| Carbonation Feel | Is the effervescence soft and integrated, or sharp and aggressive? | 5 |
| Flavour Honesty | Does it taste like the declared ingredients? | 5 |
| Overall Impression | Would you drink this again? Would you recommend it? | 5 |
| Editor’s Total | / 20 | |
Scoring guide: 5 — Outstanding · 4 — Good · 3 — Acceptable · 2 — Weak · 1 — Poor. The Editor’s Tasting Score is entirely separate from the authenticity scorecard. A brand can score high on the scorecard and low on the tasting note — or vice versa. Both are published transparently so readers can weigh them as they choose.
Taste is subjective — and that is the point
The Editor’s Tasting Score reflects one person’s experience on one occasion. Kombucha flavour is inherently personal — sensitivity to acidity, familiarity with fermented foods, and individual palate all shape how a product is experienced. What scores 4 on Overall Impression for the editor may be a 5 for you, or a 2. The score is a calibration point, not an instruction.
Authentic kombucha also varies naturally between batches. A tasting note captures one bottle — not every bottle of that product, and not the product as it may taste in a different batch or season.
The Red Flags Checklist
These are the shortcuts most commonly found in commercial kombucha products. Each one corresponds to a scorecard criterion. Each one reduces the score — not because of editorial opinion, but because of what it signals about how the drink was made.
The Ingredients Glossary
A quick reference for common kombucha label ingredients — what they are and what they signal.
- SCOBY
- The live culture. Its presence — and survival to point of sale — is what makes kombucha kombucha. Should be implied by an unpasteurised product with visible live culture activity.
- Kombucha culture / starter culture
- A liquid starter used to initiate fermentation. Acceptable if the brew is genuinely fermented. Not acceptable as a substitute for a live, maintained SCOBY.
- Carbonated water / sparkling water
- Added carbonation. Signals no second fermentation took place. Scores zero on the carbonation criterion.
- Natural flavouring
- A legal declaration that could mean many things. Without a named source ingredient, it cannot be verified. Reduces the ingredient transparency score.
- Artificial flavouring / flavour
- Manufactured flavour compounds. Not a real ingredient in any meaningful sense. Reduces both the flavouring method score and the ingredient transparency score.
- Citric acid
- A common acidulant. May appear in a genuinely fermented kombucha as a processing aid, but should not be the primary source of acidity. If acidity appears to come from citric acid rather than fermentation, that is a signal worth noting.
- Colour (150d) / caramel colour
- A colouring additive. No role in authentic kombucha. Signals that the product’s appearance is being engineered rather than naturally produced.
- Preservatives (e.g. sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate)
- Inhibit microbial growth — the very organisms that authentic kombucha depends on. Their presence raises questions about whether live cultures are genuinely present.
- Stevia / sucralose / non-sugar sweeteners
- The SCOBY cannot ferment these compounds the way it ferments sucrose. Their presence suggests a modified production process.
- Brewed tea / fermented tea
- The base of authentic kombucha. Should be the first or second ingredient by weight.
- Nutri-Grade A
- Nutri-Grade A does not mean zero sugar. Under Singapore’s HPB Nutri-Grade system, Grade A requires sugar content of 1g or less per 100ml — not zero. A product can declare Nutri-Grade A while still containing measurable residual sugar. Nutri-Grade B covers 1g to 5g per 100ml. The KombuchaSG sugar threshold of under 4g per 100ml falls within the Nutri-Grade B band — meaning a Nutri-Grade B product may or may not meet the scorecard criterion, depending on where within that range its sugar actually falls.
- Live cultures / probiotics
- A front-of-pack claim. Verifiable only if the product is unpasteurised and the claim is supported by specific CFU data or visible culture activity.
How to use this standard yourself
You do not need us to tell you how a brand scores. Take any kombucha from a Singapore shelf, turn it to the back label, and ask these seven questions:
Is there any evidence of a genuine SCOBY-based brew — or does the ingredient list suggest shortcuts?
Is carbonated water or sparkling water in the ingredient list?
Are the flavouring ingredients real and specifically named?
Is this product unpasteurised? Are live cultures genuinely present?
What is the sugar content per 100ml on the nutrition panel?
Is every ingredient specifically identified — or are there vague declarations?
What do you know about how and where this was made?
You now have the framework. Every brand review on this site uses it.
What KombuchaSG Does Not Review
KombuchaSG reviews brewed, fermented kombucha only. Powder sachets, instant kombucha mixes, and supplement tablets marketed as “kombucha” are excluded from this directory.
Authentic kombucha is a living product — the result of a SCOBY fermenting sweetened tea over days or weeks. The fermentation process produces organic acids, live cultures, natural carbonation, and the flavour complexity that defines real kombucha. These properties depend entirely on the fermentation process remaining intact from production through to consumption.
Powder kombucha products are dehydrated or spray-dried derivatives, mixed with water at the point of consumption. The fermentation process that creates genuine kombucha cannot survive dehydration — live cultures, organic acids, and natural carbonation are not present in the finished sachet. In most powder products, carbonation comes from sodium bicarbonate reacting with citric acid, not from fermentation. Sweetness typically comes from artificial sweeteners such as sucralose or erythritol. Probiotics, where present, are added separately rather than produced through fermentation.
These are functional powder drinks. They may have merit as a supplement product — that is not the question. The question is whether they are kombucha. They are not. Reviewing them on the same scorecard as brewed kombucha would be misleading to readers and unfair to brands that actually brew.
Brands excluded on this basis in the KombuchaSG directory include powder and supplement products stocked at Singapore retailers. They appear in our full brand listing with a clear Not Reviewed — Powder/Supplement Product notation.
The Standard was published before the first brand review on this site went live. That sequence was deliberate. The framework should exist before the verdict — so that every score we publish is grounded in criteria you can evaluate independently.
KombuchaSG is an independent educational platform. We are not affiliated with any kombucha brand. All brand reviews apply the same scorecard criteria without exception.