Which fermented tea drink is often sweet and slightly fizzy?

The fermented tea drink that is often sweet and slightly fizzy is kombucha. It is made by fermenting sweetened tea with a SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast.

During fermentation, yeast consumes some of the sugar and produces alcohol and carbon dioxide. Bacteria then convert much of the alcohol into acids, including acetic acid, which gives kombucha its tangy taste. The trapped carbon dioxide creates its characteristic light effervescence, especially after bottling.

Kombucha is commonly made with black tea, though green tea and added fruit, spices, or herbs are also used. The drink is believed to have originated in China and spread to Russia, Eastern Europe, and Germany by the early 20th century. Commercial kombucha became widely available in the late 1990s.

Kombucha is sometimes called “mushroom tea,” but its SCOBY is not a mushroom. It is a living community of microorganisms forming a rubbery cellulose mat. Tepache is a fermented pineapple drink, kvass is usually made from bread or grains, and kefir is generally a cultured milk drink or a water-based ferment rather than tea.