Water Kefir

Water kefir is made with a SCOBY (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) and you cannot make kefir without this starter, called kefir ‘grains’. These grains are colonies of wild bacteria and yeast living in crystal cribs made of sugar. The microbes inside all have different jobs – some of them fix and build structure for the community, others exist to defend against enemies, and, as the colony takes in sugar, some of the microbes use the sugar to reproduce. As these communities of microbes get bigger and more complex, they become visible to the naked eye. SO COOL, right?

Follow the instructions using coconut water instead of filtered water. You will not need any sugar or molasses. Add the grains right in. The fermentation is MUCH faster. Check it in 6 hours and don’t let it go for much longer than 12–15. Some may like the taste, but you might not. It is dry (unsweet) and pretty yeasty. But try it, maybe you’ll love it.

With ‘spare’ or extra grains, make your favourite herbal tea and let it cool before following the basic recipe. Rosehip and hibiscus is delightful. I recommend doing this with spare grains as they will take on the flavour and colour of whatever you put them in, and it’s best to keep your everyday grains flavour-free.

I like milk and juice bottles, not a skinny-necked wine-shaped bottle. There seems to be too much gas build-up in the neck. The only kefir explosion I’ve ever seen was in a strawberry second-ferment in a long-necked swing-top bottle. THAT was spectacular.