AMA Brewery Basque

In October 2022, we were finally able to stop in Irun, in the Spanish Basque Country, a few steps from the French border. Here chefs Ramon Perisé and Dani Lasa have teamed up with Sancho Rodriguez to tackle a drink until now relegated to organic bobo stores and yoga rooms: Kombucha. Obviously when you ask 2 chefs working at Mugaritz and an excellent winemaker to “play” with taste, expect something unique! It starts with quality raw material. Thanks to tea specialist Henrietta Lovell, they have sourced the finest teas in the world. Infused in water from the Alzola spring in the Massif d'Izarraitz (a few km from the brewery), the teas are then fermented using the SCOBY (a colony of all-natural and very surprising bacteria). The process does not stop at simple fermentation. After around twenty days, the kombuchas are bottled and left to “age” with part of the SCOBY, for a minimum of six months. A novelty because at AMA, they managed to develop them for three years, and they don't plan to stop there!