BoochMakers

I don't think it's weird at all, I can't tell the difference in mine either! I always have to get others to try out my batches to tell me if they are sweet or vinegary or what ever they taste, otherwise I just don't know! So my advice is to just ask others to taste it, if anyone is brave enough to try it.

Nope, you will still get carbonation, but it depends how much the bottles are leaking. I recently bought bottle caps for old kombucha bottles I have, their original caps were thrown away so I ordered what I thought were good ones. I filled almost 30 of them up and found out they were also leaking like yours, but they still carbonated really well.

If anything, it prevented the overly excess fizz that would turn my bottles into a nuke, my kitchen is much cleaner now.

Rose petals and pomegranate are my top choices, they work well every time and are not too sweet. I don't even have to add any sugar to it to get carbonation either.

I recently read that it doesn't even matter if you flip the bottles upside down and the air pocket at the bottom of the bottles instead of the top. At least for carbonation leaking, since CO2 apparently is smaller than water particles, it can still leak even if flipped upside down. So, since that can happen, I feel like it might not make much difference if the bottles are upside down, right side up, on their sides, or slanted.

Disclaimer:
It was a quick read and this very well might not be the right answer to this question!

Rose flowers! It's probably the most loved of all the flavors i make here at home. It doesn't really take that many to add a lot of flavor also.

I'm not sure what is common, but with my hibiscus brew I tend to just add what ever is read, so I would add roses, red berries, and anything else that randomly comes my way that is red and I can save until my F2.

Do you have anyone else who can taste them? I think that would be your safest bet. Can you compare the kombucha to store bought kombucha? Maybe having some and tasting both one after another can give you a sort of base line on where the flavors should be. It's probably best to buy unflavored kombucha for this as you are unsure about your first fermentation, but don't try and compare it too closely since store bought kombucha almost always tastes different from our homemade kombucha, but use it as a way to differentiate flavors better.

I had the same happen to me with a few of my bottles. I would say that based on how much carbonation the bottles are leaking, it might not be a lost cause! I have had a few bottles that did leak too much, and the final kombucha was not carbonated at all and even had a bit of an odd taste to it, but that might not be relevant. On the other hand, I had a few bottles that leaked as well, but, they still carbonated pretty well, some even very well.

Test it out! See what happens with them, a slight leak is not the most ideal maybe, but it can still carbonate, so don't give it up!

Yep! You know the old saying!